It’s more important than ever for conservatives to appeal to hearts as well as minds

The Conservatives always do a lot worse than Labour in polls that ask about how proud voters feel of their party. They’re hoping that ‘shy Tories’ might still win them the election, but it’s pretty pathetic that more than 20 years since the phenomenon was first identified, Conservatives still haven’t found a way to remove the stigma and convince the electorate that right-wing politics is about making people’s lives better. Social justice, compassion and coolness are now strictly the domain of the Left in the public consciousness, which makes it all the more baffling that the Tories decided to leave principle and passion out of this election campaign to fight on a dry message of past economic competence.

As Fraser has argued, people don’t vote based on what you’ve done but on what you’re going to do. Boring on about your past economic achievements isn’t going to inspire nearly enough people to win a majority.