Though Mori, the firm run by Bob Worcester was replaced as Labour’s pollster by the Shadow Communications Agency under Philip Gould in the late 1980s, Bob continued to be a friend. On the Saturday after our election defeat in 1992, giving John Major a majority of 21, he called me to offer commiserations and to say that he wanted to tell me about “the size of Labour’s defeat”. I responded irately that: “The number 21 is tattooed on the inside of my bloody eyelids!”
Calmly, he said, “but you should be aware that the bottom 11 Tory constituency majorities totalled 1,240 votes. That was your losing margin.” Obviously, that didn’t ease my sense of defeat, but then he added: “There’s a difference between being beaten badly and being beaten narrowly. I wanted you to know that 1,240 out of 31m votes is narrow.” Characteristically, Bob was offering kindly reassurance. I was grateful.
