Well, what a week. I opened my first conference speech by saying: “we have the policies, we have the candidates, and we have the will to fight Gordon Brown and win the next general election – whenever it is called.” And, this week, hasn’t the Conservative Party shown it.
In contrast to Gordon Brown’s tired old politics, we have set out our vision for new world and the challenges we as a country will face in the future. A Conservative government will give people more opportunity and power over their lives; make families stronger and society more responsible; and make Britain safer and greener.
So we set out that vision, but we also set out a raft of detailed policies that show how we will achieve it.
1. We’re going to cut stamp duty so that the majority of first-time buyers – nine in every ten – do not pay tax on their first homes.
2. We’re going to set up a lifeboat fund for people who did the right thing, saved for their retirement, but lost their pensions through no fault of their own.
3. We’re going to continue the education reforms that much of the Parliamentary Labour Party opposed and that Gordon Brown threatens to undermine by stealth.
4. We’re going to scrap top-down targets in the NHS, empowering patients and liberating professionals.
5. We’re going to end the “revolving door” of the benefits system and get people who want to work back into work.
6. We’re going to recognise the importance of marriage in the tax system and remove the ‘couples penalty’ in the benefits system.
7. We’re going to raise the
threshold for inheritance tax to £1 million, so that only millionaires
pay inheritance tax. The family home will, for 98 per cent of families,
be taken out of inheritance tax altogether.
8. We’re going to make the police accountable to locally
elected mayors or police commissioners, instead of the Home Office
bureaucrats who bind our policemen in red tape.
9. We’re going to scrap the ID card scheme.
10. And of course we’re going to hold a referendum on the EU Treaty.
Contrast these thoughtful proposals with the cynical old politics set out by Gordon Brown last week. If he wants to call an early election, I have three short words for him: bring it on. Because this week has shown quite clearly that we are the future and he is the past.
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From a more personal perspective, I spoke from the floor of the Conference hall a couple of times and at several fringe meetings. I’d like to make two observations which I don’t think came across in the national media. The first is the healthy and vigorous debate we enjoyed at the fringe meetings. There is an intellectual vibrancy about the Conservative Party right now, which speaks volumes about which of the main parties has the answers to the challenges of the future. The second is the quiet work done by Conservatives in their local communities. We’ve always been the party of the volunteer and the community, but projects like the Grange Park Estate community garden show we can all make a difference even before we win office.
#1 How is the money going to be raised to offset the cost of the lifeboat scheme or is this an unfunded commitment?
#2 Why are binding top-down targets needed for carbon reduction but not for other areas like the NHS etc?
Posted by: Chad Noble | October 05, 2007 at 09:30 AM
Theresa - watching from home you all did a great job, not just David Cameron.
What needs to be improved though is the capability to fight in the media. New Labour continue to be able to define debates in their own terms, and successfully divert and channel media interest. (They have the inbuilt advantage of so many friends in the broadcast media.)
For example - they are 'blaming' inheritance tax for their fall in the polls. Clever as it avoid attention for the superb analysis of our broken society presented this week and also get Gordon Brown's shameless spinning of the hook.
You know your communication has succeeded when you here it being repeated back to you in the pub or by the water cooler as conventional wisdom ( think bandwagon, lurch to right etc ). Labour are more disciplined in doing this and we must improve.
Posted by: Man in a Shed | October 05, 2007 at 09:43 AM
While I recognize that it will not be possible to find work for all the five million jobless with only just over half a million jobs available at any given time, I think it is great news that the Conservatve party is committed to ending the 'Revolving Door' nature of the benefits system. Hopefully the New Labour New Deal will be scrapped and there should be reform of Jobcentreplus and all benefits ought to be brought under one state benefit. The focus ought to be on getting our young into work because they are the group most likely to be drawn into criminal sub-culture as a result of being unemployed.
Posted by: Tony Makara | October 05, 2007 at 10:21 AM
Congratulations Theresa on a hugely successful conference. Brown is running scared of our policies. Sorry I missed it, but we organised a major leafleting session in the constituency over three days and are eager for the fight should the Clucking Fist go ahead!
Posted by: Louise Bagshawe | October 05, 2007 at 10:31 AM
I know what you're thinking, Gord. You're thinking, has the Conservative Party already fired all its bolts, or do they have something left? Well to tell you the truth, we don't even know ourselves in this excitement. But being as this is the Conservative Party, the most powerful election-winning machine in the world and could blow your majority clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: do I feel lucky? Well do ya, Gord?
Posted by: Andrew Lilico | October 05, 2007 at 11:00 AM
At last the tories are saying what so many of us have been clamouring to hear for months now and you will now get my vote. More of the same and I might even rejoin the Party!
You don't however say anything about Gordon Brown's sheer waste of taxpayers' money since 1997. The tories should attack him on this quoting specifics.
I personally would like to hear a firm commitment from you to look after the disadvantaged in our society as your first priority, before dealing with IHT etc. The able and well-off will always prosper whatever the government.
Specific commitments I would like to see:
1. raise the personal tax threshold to £10K and take millions out of tax and benefits.
2. work with charities such as Shelter and the Salvation Army to eradicate homelessness.
3. put Shaun Bailey in charge of an initiative to rescue inner city kids.
4. simplify the tax system and consider whether negative income tax could replace all or most forms of benefit.
Finally, the tories should be highlighting that, if GB does call an election after the weekend, it will be Labour's fourth since 1997, which shows how little they are interested in the needs of the country and how much more they are interested in the Laour Party and their own legacies.
Posted by: David Belchamber | October 05, 2007 at 01:47 PM
My favourite ever Andrew Lilico post! :)
Posted by: Louise Bagshawe | October 05, 2007 at 08:43 PM