Friends, countrymen, electorate...

Act III, Scene II.
Iambic feet are hard and flat and come down heavily just like that.

Hornet recently was pointed in the direction of homilies from the last man standing in North Ken for the Tories, the great campaigner Cllr Palmer asking the electorate to lend him their vote.

On the 9th April, in that web house of Conservatism, Cllr Palmer posted a sure fire way of getting people to vote Conservative by asking them to "lend their vote" and if by the time of the next election the voter decides it was a waste of time then they can "take their vote back" next time.

Palmer says " On the doorstep we said we wanted the opportunity to prove we could do a better job than the existing Labour councillors and therefore we asked the residents to lend us your vote for this one election. If we deliver all that we promise and we help you when you come to us then in the following election we keep your vote. However if we fall short of that promise, you take your vote back and vote us out”

So four years ago the electorate did exactly that and returned three Tories in St Charles on the understanding that if the three chaps were not up to the job they would be turfed out at the next election.

Palmer goes on to say that "This was impossible for them to argue against and 95% of people to whom we said that agreed and became pledges" and that "For the past four years we have worked the ward and those pledges are “solidly for us” and we hope to be re-elected. 20% of the electorate are new to our ward since that election, and when we introduce ourselves and repeat the same “lend us your vote” line – and it still works."

....only it didn't. Two of the Tories in St Charles were turfed out, and the "lend us your vote" approach that failed miserably in the Colville by election last year helped the LibDems storm to victory in the same ward. 

Question is, is that a statement on the Tories campaign, the Tory Councillors, or both?