Politics of a certain vintage – and wine to match

I wonder how they do things now at Tory headquarters. For the ’79 election, the preparations had been completed weeks in advance. Press conferences had been planned on the basis of a four-week campaign, press releases drafted and shadow ministers told when they would be needed in London to go on the platform. Then the starting gun was fired and von Moltke kicked in. No plan survives the initial contact with the enemy. Some of the material was used, but not in the order that had been expected. There was a lot of improvisation. But it did not seem to matter.

Something similar happened in 1992. The first press conference was to be devoted to tax. Labour’s tax plans would be lambasted, allowing the Tories to move on to other themes. Fifteen minutes before the curtain was due to rise, there was a problem. One of the Treasury advisers said he no longer had confidence in his figures.