What do we think of Cameron-Osborne’s latest wheeze?

Perhaps the most interesting political piece in an otherwise boring lot of Sunday papers is an article by Melissa Kite in the Sunday Telegraph in which she quotes from a secret campaign report prepared for the Tory leadership on the May 3rd outcome.

The document concludes “…. that a strategy of not campaigning negatively against the Liberal Democrats, but rather appearing to agree with them on key issues, has been vindicated. The party had previously been aggressive in its attacks on the Lib Dems, but has apparently decided that -flattering Lib Dem voters is a better way of persuading them to vote Tory. The memo says: “There were some fantastic results against the Lib Dems (eg Bournemouth, Waveney, North Devon). Love bombing the Lib Dems works – so don’t let’s revert to old-style campaigning now and no return to ‘Voting Lib Dem is a wasted vote’ .”

From a Tory perspective that sounds like quite a good move if attracting Lib Dem waverers is your objective – for they are likely to be more responsive if the Tories are agreeing with their parties.

Watch this space.

Mike Smithson