Political narratives are extremely hard to shift once they have set. There are still people who erroneously attribute Labour’s 1992 election defeat to Neil Kinnock’s over-exuberance at a party rally. Now, as the Conservative party digests the most unpalatable result in its entire history, the first battle will be to set the official version of why they lost. And since this is central to the looming leadership contest, the fight has already begun. In fact it started well before the election.
一旦形成,政治叙事极难改变。仍有人错误地将工党1992年的选举失败归咎于尼尔•金诺克(Neil Kinnock)在一次党派集会上过于热情洋溢。现在,保守党(Conservative party)正在消化其整个历史上最难以接受的结果,第一场战斗将是确定他们为何失利的官方版本。由于这对即将到来的领导人竞选至关重要,战斗已经开始。实际上,它早在选举之前就已经开始了。