Just reading the Conservative Home Election Audit blog posts:
www.conservativehome.com/majority_conservatism/2017/09/our-cchq-election-audit-the-rusty-machine-part-one-why-the-operation-that-succeeded-in-2015-failed-in-2017.html
Our CCHQ election audit: the rusty machine, part one. Why the operation that succeeded in 2015 failed in 2017.
www.conservativehome.com/majority_conservatism/2017/09/our-cchq-election-audit-the-rusty-machine-part-two-how-and-why-the-ground-campaign-failed.html
Our CCHQ election audit: the rusty machine, part two. How and why the ground campaign failed.
This from part two is HILAROUS given Brexit:
Unfortunately, this also fell victim to the genuine surprise of the snap election. The relatively few companies capable of printing such large quantities at such short notice would be more than happy to take the job on, they said, except for one thing. There wasn’t sufficient paper stockpiled in the country to print what the Conservative campaign bosses were asking for – more would have to be shipped in. This was a reply that nobody had foreseen.
(Ponders a no deal exit and whether the Daily Mail will have enough paper stockpiled in the country).
The article is full of jaw droppers to be honest, and worth reading:
When they did get the chance to talk, the canvassing scripts were less than ideal. They hammered home the messages – “Theresa May’s candidate”, “strong and stable”, “coalition of chaos” – to a degree that made those trying to use them cringe, and spurred negative responses from voters who felt they were talking to a robot. The scripts insisted on rating Voting Intention on a scale of one-to-ten, something useful to a data modeller but alien to how voters actually think of their intentions. “The canvass script doesn’t work. I haven’t met any sentient being that used it,” an experienced MP told me afterwards. Many activists simply ditched it entirely.
Tory HQ didn't think voters were 'sentient beings'!
Then came the final insults.
Overnight, the CCHQ email system delivered thousands of emails to members and activists around the country, urging them to come and help to Get Out The Vote in battleground constituencies. “We predict a lot of seats are going to be very tight,” one declared, “…every vote really does count.” Sent during polling day, a failure to properly check that their system was delivering mass emails swiftly and promptly meant that these messages were landing at three, four and five in the morning of Friday 9th June. Those still awake, watching the results come, in felt their horror turning to anger. Those who opened their inboxes at work the following morning felt that it was final reminder from CCHQ of a chaotic and mishandled campaign.
and this is quite shocking:
“The whole candidate process was dreadful,” admits a senior Parliamentarian, and draws an unflattering comparison with the enthusiasm of the Corbynite grassroots: “It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that creating an actual mass movement in which people have some control has a potential benefit.” Ruefully, he adds that the modern Conservative Party is “almost a structure set up to discourage participation. It’s not something you can love anymore – it’s something you fear because it’s a totalitarian state.”
Anger among the grassroots over the whole experience seems unlikely to fade. “We are tired of working our arses off for a party that hates its members,” one writes, a blunt summary of low morale that I have heard echoed again and again.