The Conservative Party was humiliated in a by-election yesterday, coming in third, behind the UK Independence Party. Excerpt from the Telegraph‘s report:

Mr Jackson has hit out at the Prime Minister over the result and called for immediate change.

He told the London Evening Standard: “Unless things are demonstrably different in terms of public perception by the early summer he will have great difficulty in persuading the electorate that we can win a general election.

“He is out of touch with the party. Both gay marriage and EU migration feed into a narrative that too much emphasis is going to the liberal metropolitan elite and not enough to the blue-collar working vote that Margaret Thatcher had the support of.”

Mrs Laing told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One programme: “Ordinary Conservative voters don’t feel that this Government is in tune with them, with their hopes and fears.

“Sometimes, you know, I will put it as strongly as saying that it’s hurtful. It’s hurtful to people who want to believe in a Conservative Party that represents them.

Republican elites want the GOP to become more socially liberal. But why not hold on to social conservatism — there are many, many social conservatives, and the GOP is our natural party — and develop economic policies that address the needs of working class and middle class voters, as opposed to financial elites? Sam’s Club Republicanism, basically. What would SCR in 2013 look like? Ross, Reihan, what say you?