Southall's Lesson

Everyone sees what they want in by-election results. Now it's my turn. Could it be that the Tories' good hiding in Ealing Southall is a rejection of hierarchical parties?
First, Central Office imposed a candidate upon the constitutency party, thus rejecting local, dispersed knowledge in favour of a "hierarchy knows best" attitude. And then the candidate is claimed to represent "David Cameron's Conservatives," as if one of the oldest and traditionally strongest democratic parties in the world is the creation of a single man.
Of course, we don't know the counterfactual; maybe a more local campaign would have done worse. But these moves didn't obviously work, and might have been downright terrible.
So, can we take the message? Leaders are over-rated? Local knowledge and tradition aren't to be over-ridden lightly. But then, isn't this what proper conservatism tells us?

Comments

[Matthew]

I think Labour would have done much worse if Tony Blair was still their leader, not Gordon Brown, so I don't think it's the best example.

[ManBearPig]

I think Labour would have done much worse if Tony Blair was still their leader