If the opposite of the audacity of hope is the cowardice of fear then that has become the Conservatives Party’s campaign of choice. Whether they are blowing the dog whistle of immigration under Michael Howard or waving the bludgeon of the “tax bombshell” poster under John Major, the Tories cling to scare tactics like a safety blanket.
The “Better Together” campaign in the lead-up to the 2014 Scottish referendum was based so heavily on dire warnings about the economic consequences of independence that it was nicknamed Project Fear. At the last general election, the Tory strategy was to terrify voters into supporting David Cameron by issuing posters of Ed Miliband in the pocket of Alex Salmond. During the London mayoral contest last year, the Conservatives