Why didn’t the Tories manage to win 200 seats in last month’s UK general election? Policy – or strategy? BBC political correspondent Nick Assinder might have an answer. News that has seeped from Conservative Central Office says Lynton Crosby’s tactics might have gone very wrong.

A bit late in the day perhaps, but I have only just heard of a great wheeze deployed by ex-Tory election boss, Lynton Crosby, to keep morale high among the party’s staff during the election campaign.

He handed out daily prizes for all sorts of things other than simply good performance. For example, on one occasion the award was for the best mobile phone tone.

The budget for this scheme was quite low, however, so the prizes were modest, but imaginative, and were sometimes awarded for only a day.

The bottle of beer was, understandably, non returnable, but the booklet of the “60 most appalling lefties” had to be returned once read.

More alarmingly, so did the Union Jack G string. Whether it was put to use before being returned for re-awarding is a question too far.

Perhaps Lynton peaked too soon?