Conservatives: Architecture And Morality

The architect of David Cameron’s policy on gay marriage is leaving Downing Street after losing a power battle with the Prime Minister’s new Election supremo.
Andrew Cooper, Mr Cameron’s personal polling guru and a key modernising figure at No 10, is returning to his private business after being usurped by outspoken Australian ‘fixer’ Lynton Crosby.
Mr Cooper, who became Director of Government Strategy two years ago, is a former member of the now defunct Social Democratic Party and lobbied Mr Cameron to ditch traditional Right-wing Tory values and policies on Europe, tax and crime in a bid to ‘detoxify’ the Conservatives’ ‘Nasty Party’ image.
In contrast, Mr Crosby, who took charge of the Tory campaign machine in January on a £200,000-a-year deal, specialises in ‘dog whistle’ tactics – subtle appeals to voters’ underlying prejudices over issues such as immigration – which are designed to appeal to core Conservative voters.
Defiant Mr Crosby denies using ‘dog-whistle’ tactics to send surreptitious messages, saying: ‘It was more like a foghorn..'
He is understood to have been critical of Mr Cameron’s policy on gay marriage for alienating grassroots supporters.
Mr Cooper, co-founder of the Populus polling company, helped persuade Mr Cameron that while gay marriage would lose votes among older party supporters in safe seats, more importantly it would attract votes in marginal constituencies...

If the Mail On Sunday can be believed - which, of course, it often can't - this doesn't look good, and will see the Conservatives stepping up their attempts to recapture the bigot vote from Ukip.
There may not be of a direct connection, though, as Crosby was appointed last year, and Cooper will still be working for Cameron part-time.
Also The Telegraph has suggested Cooper's desire for the party to back gay marriage was arguably even more cynical.

When the Coalition was dividing up the announcements for their [2001] party conferences, it was agreed that Nick Clegg could inform his troops of the gay marriage legislation. But Andrew Cooper, Cameron’s pollster, panicked, ordering the policy to be briefed to the press as a Tory announcement. He hated the idea of the Conservatives being outflanked, and wanted to be able say to young voters: “We legalised gay marriage.” 
So the issue ended up with such prominence not because there was overwhelming demand for it, but because it became the centre of a custody battle between the two Coalition partners.  
   
Update: Downing Street issued a formal denial of a story in the Mail on Sunday that Mr Cooper was going back to Populus, the private polling company he co-founded, but without any further comment or explanation. Mr Cooper is a controversial figure in Tory circles, because of his role in persuading David Cameron to legalise gay marriage. The Independent.