Big v Strong

On his blog today Iain Dale asked “Do You Agree With Tim” – listening to Tim Montgomerie’s Radio 4 interview a light went on upstairs!

The Big Society as an idea and philosophy is fantastic visionary and timely, but on the door step I found it somewhat long winded to sell. Now, considering I only had seconds to get my message across it was frustrating not being able to swiftly sell something I deeply believed in. That is until I started to refer to it as ‘The Strong Society’ – from then on whenever I talked or was asked about it – I would say: “Actually it is a Strong Society, a United Society”. That allowed me to move faster from door to door.

I am not a strategist – but I saw how a fundamental piece of the campaign (that I love and belief in) was not translating correctly and played with explaining it. That’s why a light when on when I heard Tim’s remarks on the radio. It is also why I agree with him in that every idea must be poll and focus group tested on a cross section of groups to get as accurate as possible a picture of its effect on the doorstep.

However, would any of that have changed the outcome of this election – maybe – but here we are, we have a fantastic opportunity to turn an unfortunate situation into a triumph. And that is exactly what I intend to work towards on the national level until 2015.