What the Tory candidates’ logos say about them

There’s a particularly amusing picture from the 1997 Tory leadership contest of Ken Clarke and John Redwood awkwardly paired up under a blue sign with the words ‘Uniting to Win’ on it. Though their campaign for power was forgettable, uniting to lose against William Hague of all people, they can take solace in being an unlikely pair of trend-setters. Theirs was the first use of a logo and slogan in an internal party contest, the start of a succession of design shockers on the British public ever since. The standard of this year’s leaders’ logos shows a slow decline. Back to basics would be a fine thing.

Most slogans have been comically dire. Iain Duncan Smith’s 2001 effort of some Microsoft Word Art over the top of an image of Westminster – which was supposed to be sunlit, but looked more urine-soaked than anything else – was a particular eyesore. Labour is also guilty: in 2016, Angela Eagle’s logo had all the makings of a high-end sex toy brand.