Disraeli had a knack for wooing the British working class with his combination of imperialist bombast and patrician reform; Macmillan styled conservatism as nothing other than "paternal socialism" in order to maintain a broad Tory base.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, meanwhile, issued a direct challenge to Mr Cameron to publicly rule out a post-election alliance with UKIP, telling him not to treat voters as if they were "stupid" by maintaining the Tories were on course to a majority.
How would the Tories maintain schools spending if inflation rose?
Translate that into seats on the basis of five different online electoral models (May 2015, Election Forecast, Elections Etc, Poll Observatory and the Guardian) and the Tories maintain their advantage.
The opposition have accused the Conservatives of seeking to "gerrymander" the electoral map in their favour, but the Tories maintain the review will cut the cost of politics, make boundaries much fairer and help address a longstanding bias in the existing set-up favouring their opponents.
So it isn't merely, as the Tories' opponents maintain, a return to a cruel era of inadequate voluntarism but nor is it a credible strategy for saving taxpayers' money, at least to begin with.Moreover, David Cameron's vision of a humbler state is clouded by his wish to extend its reach into private relationships, via his silly and tokenistic tax break for some married couples.
Labour is keen to maintain it because Lord Ashcroft, the Tory deputy chairman, has flooded marginal constituencies with millions of pounds.
Will the Tory awkward squaddies maintain their presence on BBCOM?
They can now vote for Ruth Davidson's detoxified Tories, safe in the knowledge that devolution will shield them from many of the party's worst excesses – Tory pledges to maintain Winter Fuel Payments and free prescriptions, but only in Scotland, being good examples.
But it did leave room for Labour to maintain their attack: that the Tories have harsh cuts planned, about which they refuse to come clean.
