What do you think was the second most important reason why people didn’t vote Tory in the Cotswolds?

By Mark Pack | Fri 14th October 2011 - 5:50 pm

Between us, Stephen Tall (he of the Oxford Comma cartoon) and myself (purveyor of news about commas in election law and academic research), appear to be carving out a niche in political punctuation coverage.

I fear it is all going to end in tears when someone puts our own punctuation habits under the microscope, but before it does I have exciting, related news to report.

I have blogged before about the fall-out amongst Cotswold Conservatives following their big losses to the Liberal Democrats in May’s local elections, including their fear that they are seen as “toffs legislating for toffs”.

Now, however, I have got hold of a copy of their full election post-mortem, and therefore have seen not only the full list of reasons Cotswold Conservatives have come up with for their electoral hammering, but also the order in which they have placed them.

Number one is a familiar one from post-mortems in all parties – blaming another part of their party for not giving them enough support. Further down the list are other factors, including the toffs problem, raising parking charges and the controversy over the council spending £19,000 on a magician.

But wait, what sneaks in at the top of the list, above all those, and in fact coming second only to blaming other parts of their own party?

It is this: “Grammatically incorrect literature”.

I salute the electors of the Cotswolds for their exacting standards when it comes to deciding who to vote for.

Note: Of course, any spelling or grammatical errors in this post are deliberate irony, ok?

3 Comments

Andreas C 14th Oct '11 - 6:37pm

* for whom to vote.
Christine Headley 15th Oct '11 - 12:22am

And the Water Park scandal was ….. nowhere? If so, unbelievable.
Maria Pretzler 15th Oct '11 - 8:59am

Political punctuation coverage is surely a niche interest – but someone’s got to do it…