Nearly 30 years ago, during the 1997 General Election, I helped write and produce a party political broadcast for the Conservatives that was never aired – because the then prime minister John Major vetoed it.
I’m reminded of all this as I watch the first few faltering steps of Rishi Sunak’s election campaign. Like Major, Sunak is an obviously serious and decent man who has a better record than perhaps his critics allow. Both men represent a particular, and proud, strain of the Conservative tradition: not especially ideological but level-headed and pragmatic.
It was obvious then that Major badly wanted to win. He, was comfortable with an advertising campaign that aggressively highlighted how badly people would be hit by a Labour victory. He displayed an extraordinary level of personal, positive energy which made all the difference, most visibly represented in his ‘soapbox’ street campaigning.
Add to all this the totally avoidable shambles of the election announcement: the prime minister ‘drowned out’ first by the rain and then by the 1997 New Labour anthem Things Can Only Get Better, and then Sunak making a campaign visit to Belfast just yards from where the Titanic was built – and you have the impression of a party whose chances of winning are as dead as Monty Python’s parrot. Of course, all campaigns have bad luck from time to time.
As for the Conservative Party itself – it didn’t even seem to be aware that an election had been called, judging by its official website which featured no reference to Sunak’s announcement or the coming campaign.