In fairness Cameron has said no different throughout. Ousting Premier Brown, a man who was never actually voted into office, has long been an "action point" for the Tories.
More poor decisions
Mr Cameron said that Labour had paid the price for running a “backward-looking and divisive” campaign, which focused heavily on Mr Timpson’s background, attacking him as a “Tarporley toff”, after a village near his family home.
“It was in many ways the end of New Labour. I think it was a great mistake,” he said.
And on the face of it, it's hard to doubt Mr Camerons diagnoses of what's been seen as more a slur campaign against Conservative candidate Mr Timpson, as opposed to a political campaign with the aim of holding onto a seat in Parliament.
In whats turned out to be a mammoth mistake, the Labour party spin machine decided to concentrate on Edward Timpsons affluent background, turning the race for a key working class seat, into a class war, or trying to at least. Back-Fired
But the good people of Cheshire saw through the clumsy PR campaign, recognising as they did, the name "Timpson" is a name many working class people have grown up with, by way of the chain of shoe repair and key cutting shops on British high streets, which the family worked hard and built their fortune on.
The Labour campaign was hit further off the rails as it turned out the Labour candidate, Tamsin Dunwoody, lived not in Cheshire, but in Wales, in a bigger house than Mr Timpsons, which incidentally is located 15 miles from Crewe, and which all added up to whats been seen as just the latest in a long list of "bad choices" this cabinet have made.
What a difference a year makes
12 months ago, if you had mentioned there was a chance of losing Crewe & Nantwich to the tories, the laughter would have been heard from Crewe, all the way to Parliament Square in London.
But under whats seen as the most "Conservative" Labour government to date, the working class are feeling a little left out in the cold after bearing the burden of most of Brown's poor policy choices, including higher fuel charges, higher housing costs, losing the 10p tax bracket, and the further criminalisation of cannabis. Every one typically seen as a working class issue.
Since the announcement was made that cannabis was to reclassified, a number of small yet subtle changes have manifested, not least of which was the "budget" effect. As soon as Jacqui Smith had made her long-expected announcement official, the price of cannabis went up, with the average deal on the street costing in the region of £35 for a half ounce of brown, crumbly, cannabis substitute (Soapbar - A derisory term for a kind of fake hashish, which is often adulterated heavily to make up the weight). A substance which was selling for £30 an ounce under 12 months ago. Thats a 100% mark up which simply wouldn't be possible if cannabis was as prevailant as police say it is. Inflation
Herbal cannabis has also seen a dramatic price rise, with dealers paying the same price wholesale for an ounce of skunk, as end-users were paying the dealer a year ago. Which throws up two individual chains of thought.
On the one hand the government can congratulate themselves, as the higher prices will undoubtedly take cannabis out of reach for certain sections of society - those living on the lowest incomes.
On the flip-side, habitual drug use, no matter what drug we talk about, is a sly and cunning foe to have to deal with, and one which manifests in many different ways; "I'm gagging for a coffee", and "I'm gasping for a cigarette" both mean the same thing after all and those of you reading this who would have cut off an arm for a cup of tea or coffee, (that includes me) at some stage in your life, will know exactly what I mean.
"Cosy Relationship"
The last decade has seen one of the most outrageous courtships ever witnessed between a government and an industry.
While cannabis was demonised at every turn, the alcohol industry has seemingly been given "carte blanche" to expand and grow exponentially. The results of which were seen recently in London when drunken Chelsea yobs rampaged through their own streets.
The advent of the supermarket-on-every-housing-estate has brought alcohol within easy reach of the masses. Once upon a time you had to go out of your way to buy cans or bottles from an off-licence. This took some effort.
But those days are long gone. Today you can pick up your tank of petrol and a micro-wave ready meal, and buy cans of rocket-fuel strength lager or cider in the same credit card transaction. Strong cider is always a popular tipple, as it doesn't take very much to get you bladdered, and the apple-taste is popular with the young. Decade
10 years ago a 4 pack of Strongbow or Woodpecker was around £4.99. Today you can buy 8 or even 12 cans for the same price. So the likes of Tesco and Asda stack them high, and sell them cheap.
Which is why recent Official data released by the NHS showed there were 207,788 NHS hospital admissions in England in 2006/07, thats almost 600 per day, with a primary or secondary diagnosis related to alcohol.
Cannabis
On British council estates cannabis is the popular alternative to alcohol, and this is the crux of how the cannabis reclassification has harmed the Labour party in Crewe.
On every working class estate there is a cannabis dealer, sometimes even two or three, and for those that take an interest in such things the talk has been of getting rid of Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith.
These are not the drug dealers about which the Police and government rhetoricise constantly. Organised criminals swanning around carrying violin cases in the back of their Mercedes with blacked out windows, whilst living and profitting off the misery of others.
These are people who you know from school. People who your mum knows and in every single working-class stronghold which surrounds Crewe, in Warrington, in Manchester, and in Liverpool, there are three such dealers intergrated within every housing estate and the only way to put these low-level dealers out of business, is by taking their customers away from them.
Not by locking them up in prison. But by giving them an alternative to drug dealers. Drug Policy
Implementing a drugs policy which allows responsible adults to grow and consume a small amount of cannabis makes huge economic sense, and not only in terms of revenue.
Police are working more and more hours processing paperwork for "offences" committed by 40 or 50 year old citizens who have never broken another law in their lives, apart from growing cannabis for their own consumption. The law courts are chock full of cannabis possession cases which will result in a conviction and a punishment of 100 hours of community service. But at what cost to the public purse? It would be cheaper to decriminalise cannabis and hire in master builders to do the community service and thats no exageration. Holland
30 years ago the Dutch took an unprecedented step when they allowed their citizens to grow up to five plants for personal consumption as long as no hydroponic "life-support" systems or high powered lights were used. In other words it had to be grown outdoors, as nature intended it to be.
Ever since the Dutch have featured consistently at the bottom of the league for cannabis user numbers in Europe and further afield. And whilst Holland celebrates its successes with cannabis, other drugs, drugs we know in the UK as class A substances like heroin and cocaine, are as much a problem in Holland as they are anywhere else. Because these drugs are prohibited in Holland just like everywhere else.
The evidence backing the decriminalisation of cannabis for personal use is compelling, depending on where you live.
In middle-England, 90 years of anti-cannabis propaganda is still doing its stuff, and while the toffs (to coin a Labour party term) look disapprovingly at the news reports regarding cannabis, they think nothing of pouring themselves four-fingers of scotch after a hard day on the golf course.
Meanwhile on the council estates, four fingers of scotch equates to a joint after a day labouring on a building site.
But it means the same thing.
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