Source A is reliable to a certain extent as it gives reason for the Conservative defeat in 1945, however the source is possibly one-sided due to it being written by the Conservative chairman at the time. The source does give valid reasons on why the Conservatives lost, such as the BBC granting attention to the left-wing writers and politicians, and as the BBC was the only TV channel at the time, Labour was able to target everyone that watched TV, as well as this, Sir Joseph Ball points out that Labour gained help from the columnists of popular daily newspapers. He also blames the defeat on their poor propaganda efforts, this is true, however the reasoning behind it may be exaggerated as the Conservatives had a poor campaign all together. Overall, the source is quite reliable as it contains many valid points, however some aspects of the source are exaggerated as it is coming from the Conservative chairman of the time of the election defeat and that has to be taken into account when studying the points in more depth.
Source B is of significant value to a historian writing about the Conservative revival after the 1945 general election defeat. Firstly, the chairman at the time of the revival period; Lord Woolton talks about how the party had grown up after conflict within the party in the previous years, this shows that disunity within the Conservative party may have played a part in them losing the general election and now that they are once again unified, they stand a much better chance of being elected. He also states that they stopped taking a cautious approach, this shows that being over-cautions in policies etc. may have cost them the election and now taking an element of risk was vital to their success. Lord Woolton also says he asked for one million pounds for the party, and by achieving this it gave the party a sense of accomplishment and had their hopes revived, therefore restoring confidence into the party, as a lack of confidence may have also led to their downfall. This source is of good value to an historian as it shows that they worked on regrouping before going forward with any other matter and things such as a restoration in confidence gave the Conservatives a massive ego boost.
