I find it fascinating the way a lot of those things that seemed like Tory indiscretions or gaffes at the time were often deliberate and part of the plan. Particularly in the case of Michael Fallon, when he said that "Miliband stabbed his own brother in the back to become Labour leader. Now he is willing to stab the United Kingdom in the back to become prime minister." Widely derided at the time as being way too personal, it was a deliberate move by Lynton Crosby as part of his 'dead cat' strategy (explained in the article) to deflect attention away Labour's non-dom tax announcement. And it worked.

What it boils down to seemingly is that, ultimately, Tories are just much, much better at 'playing the game'. Maybe it shouldn't be a game, but it is. And recognition of that and acting accordingly is seemingly more important than the usual stuff about being the fault of the 'right wing press' etc. Sure, they're players in the game too, but they're not the referee.

Lynton Crosby may well be a bastard, but after this it's hard not admit that he's an (evil) genius. He managed to get an eton-educated, Bullingdon-attending Tory elected in the People's Democratic Republic of London (twice), and another eton-educated, Bullingdon-attending Tory elected as Prime Minister (twice). That was no accident.

Full article here: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jun/03/undoing-of-ed-miliband-and-how-labour-lost-election

Hmm, interesting...