Blog: Congratulations to the Conservatives for a wonderful piece of spinning with their claim that they have identified 20 seats which have suddenly become winnable because their own (the Tories’) campaign strategy has gone wrong, writes John Hipwood.

Until the surge in support for the Liberal Democrats, David Cameron’s hopes had rested upon a message which contrasted Tory change with five more years of Gordon Brown. This meant Tories capturing Lib Dem seats, particularly in the South West, and dozens of Labour marginal seats in the West Midlands and the North West.

Now, the combatants have changed. It’s still, according to the Tories, Cameron’s change, but the foe is “a hung parliament”.

The Conservative leadership seem to be accepting that they can’t win all the Lib Dem constituencies they had targeted, so they now argue that Nick Clegg’s party is damaging the prospects of Labour candidates defending previously considered comfortable majorities.

This has resulted in Mr Cameron ordering a “decapitation” offensive in seats thought to be unwinnable only a couple of weeks ago.

Easier said than done. It would take a Herculean effort requiring swings well into double figures to win seats with Labour majorities in the 7,000 to 9,000 region. The current Tory opinion poll lead over Labour is around seven per cent.

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Gordon Brown won a GENUINE standing ovation from nurses in Bournemouth yesterday after telling them that they were “the soul of the health service”.

He told the Royal College of Nursing conference: “You’re now the largest nursing profession in the history of our country and you are the greatest force for compassion our country has ever seen.”

The Prime Minister added: “You are our country’s heroes – and mine.”

The mutual appreciation couldn’t last, however.Within minutes, Peter Carter, general secretary of the RCN, was telling journalists that Mr Brown appeared to be in the dark about NHS cuts.

“People at the centre generally don’t seem to know what’s happening,” he said, adding that it was frontline staff like nurses who did know. Ovation to condemnation in no time at all.

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David Cameron might be having a little problem with one good-looking opponent in Nick Clegg, but he proved a winner when it came to the Big One. The Tory leader went to school and became friends with Dominic West, star of American TV series, The Wire.

He tells this week’s Radio Times: “The Wire is excellent. Dominic West, who plays Jimmy McNulty, is a friend. He tried to go out with Samantha once. He fancied Samantha. I won!”