The Importance of Elections in the Conservative Party

I think the vast majority of Conservative MPs are what I would you know call bog standard Thatcherites. There is really a left left in the Conservative Party anymore and so I do think that some of the change that the book tries to trace is probably permanent. But elections impose lessons on political parties they don't necessarily learn them straight away it can take a term or two in the wilderness before they realize that actually they do have to move towards the electorate rather than if you like their own more extreme MPs.