It was with genuine surprise that I woke this morning to reports of “Tory jitters” over yesterday’s Norwich North byelection. Of course, David Cameron’s Conservatives are keen to play down the “tight” result expected at noon-ish today. But against the mid-term back-drop of a recessionand an expenses scandal which will always hit the incumbent governing party hardest, the Opposition should be coasting to a major victory in a seat which, after all, it held until 1997.
Appearing on BBC Radio Wales this morning, the Tory blogger Iain Dale said he was “amused” when I said anything but a decisive victory for Cameron would be a poor result. “A win is a win is a win”, he replied. I’m not so sure. The Tories are not doing as well as they should be, and they have suffered some interesting local defeats under the national media radar this morning.
The headlines will, of course, all be about Gordon Brown. But any complacency inside Tory HQ today would be misplaced.
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