Robert Jenrick, once immigration minister and still, just, MP for Newark, said on Sunday that the Tories lost not because ‘they had this slogan or that slogan… but because they failed to deliver’.
Yes, absolutely, they failed to deliver, but I think it’s important to acknowledge that the slogans were diabolical too. In fact it was because of how awful the Tory slogans were, and the tenor of their whole social media campaign, that I couldn’t in the end bring myself to vote Conservative, though I have no other natural political home.
When the election was announced, I somehow inadvertently signed up to receive messages from Conservative HQ. For the most part these took the form of emails sent as if from different senior Tories, though all in the same crazed voice.
It’s a visual world. No one reads much any more, but that makes the few words that we do absorb – slogans, captions, subject fields – all the more important.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in