It's doubtful that the Conservatives could have done much better without the US-style debate or if they leveraged more of the old guard, but don't tell that to the old guard. They somehow believe that they're a lot more popular than they really are. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems are still considering the Tory offer for sharing power but again, that sounds highly unlikely. Then again, almost every option for power sharing sounds unlikely at this point. The Guardian:
Angry Conservatives are telling the party's leadership that David Cameron must break up his "chums circle" running the party and bring on board veterans who were largely excluded from the election campaign.
Amid mounting recriminations over Cameron's failure to secure an overall parliamentary majority, Tory anger is focused on the tight circle that ran the campaign and the relatively inexperienced shadow ministers who sold the Tory message on television.
Conservative officials, who will start to be laid off tomorrow, turned on the party's director of strategy, Steve Hilton, in a series of tense encounters on Friday. Hilton is blamed for the big society, the party's central campaign message about embarking on the biggest devolution of power in a generation, that crashed on the doorstep and is being dubbed by senior party figures as "gimmicky nonsense".
