Ryan Shorthouse: Optimism is crucial for Conservatives

Ryan Shorthouse is the Director of Bright Blue. Follow Ryan on Twitter.

Tories are a bit more cheery. Well, on domestic matters, certainly. The painful fiscal plan finally seems to be working: various indicators in recent weeks suggest Britain is bordering on healthier economic times.

Sure, Cameron can’t get cocky. Serious problems need confronting: the squeeze on living standards for those on modest incomes, most notably. But ignore those who advise Cabinet members to moderate positivity. Optimism is crucial for Conservatives.

The British Conservative Party has been most successful electorally when it offers the hope of a better future, especially for those on modest incomes. Think Macmillan’s 1959 Election victory, based on a decade of rises in the wage of industrial workers who “never had it so good”. Or Thatcher’s Right to Buy policy in the 1980s, which was so popular because it enabled thousands of people living in council houses to achieve their dream of home ownership.

Very soon, the Chancellor should champion an emerging boom and promise future tax cuts and an increase in the minimum wage for working families who have persevered through austerity.

Ryan Shorthouse: We need a second wave of modernisation

Ryan Shorthouse is the Director of Bright Blue. Follow Ryan on Twitter.

Last weekend, over 100 people joined Bright Blue at our “Tory modernisation 2.0” conference to discuss the future of the Conservative Party. It was an incredibly positive, creative atmosphere and delegates were brimming with new ideas about the future of the Party and Britain.  

We were joined by talented and thoughtful speakers: David Willetts MP, Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Sam Gymiah MP, Jane Ellison MP, Kris Hopkins MP, Liz Truss MP, the RSA’s Matthew Taylor, Phillip Blond of Respublica, Conservative Future’s Ben Howlett, David Skelton of Policy Exchange, Janan Ganesh of the Economist, and Rohan Silva and Shaun Bailey from Number 10.

Bright Blue is a movement that brings together activists, councillors and MPs to champion liberal, progressive Conservatism. We want the Party to proudly stand for two dispositions: first, the spreading of power, freedom and opportunity – a vision shared with liberals. Second, compassion for others, especially vulnerable people, through strong relationships and active communities. David Willetts expressed this beautifully in his keynote speech to the conference: “If the first principle is about wings the second is about roots”.

Ryan Shorthouse: It's time for mixed-age classrooms

Ryan Shorthouse, a Conservative policy advisor, Deputy Editor of CrossBow Magazine and qualified Tennis Coach, looks at the potential benefits of mixed-age classes and clubs.

On the national junior tennis circuit, three types of matches would provoke intense nerves: playing someone with a lower rating than you, playing someone you train with in your regular squad, and - more crucially - playing someone younger than you. Agassi-style aggressive baseline play, practised again and again in gruelling coaching sessions, would be replaced by tentative "hacking" - just hitting down the middle of the court with no pace, fearful of missing.

If you were twelve, losing to a nine-year old was a cardinal sin. Your reputation on the tour would temporarily be in tatters: a no-show at the end-of-tournament BBQ would be a certainty. For some, the pressure was too much: 5-2 down in the first set against a player three years younger meant sunglasses had to be worn - even in the middle of winter - to hide the tears that inevitably ensued.

Ryan Shorthouse: Reduce speed now

Ryan Shorthouse, Parliamentary researcher and Deputy Editor of Cross Bow, makes the case for a 20mph speed limit in residential areas.

I know, I know: I’m such a bore. I could be speaking about the fate of Northern Rock or which of the candidates will be US President. Big boys politics. But I’m going to write about speed limits. And, especially at 8:47am, speed limits are extremely boring.

Yet, what I am going to argue for- a national 20mph speed limit on all residential streets- could have a profound impact. Please: stay with me. A shocking 3,294 under-16’s in the UK were killed or seriously injured (KSI) in road accidents in 2006. This is too high but child road casualties have decreased dramatically in the past decade, the Government will say. The number of child KSI casualties is much smaller than the 7,525 in 1994. In fact, the Government has met- four years early- its aim for 2010 of a 50% reduction from 1994 figures in child KSI casualties. Accordingly, we should continue as before: a default 30mph speed limit with local authorities installing 20mph zones or Home Zones where they think appropriate.

Well, the picture is not quite as rosy. Remember that fewer children walk to school or play outside than before, parents fearful of exposing them to fast cars and anti-social behaviour. Only one in five children regularly play outside in the streets and spaces where they live.  And the proportion of primary school children walking to school is little more than 50%, a substantial reduction from the early 1990’s when approximately two thirds did. Road deaths have not reduced because motorists have become better drivers, or because local authorities have implemented an array of speed management measures. In 2002, only 30% of local authorities had a clear speed management policy.  The real reason for the decline is that there are simply less children on the streets. IPPR analysed the number of casualties per billion kilometres walked and found that, using this measure, there had been no substantial reduction in the number of casualties over the past 15 years.

Ryan Shorthouse: Keeping up with Mr and Mrs Jones Senior

Ryan is a Parliamentary assistant and freelance writer.

At the tennis club’s ladies night, a woman in her late twenties reddens when the infamous legion of botoxed housewives say she should have found a nice young man by now. Gossip gets round: the new girl, maybe she’s one of those sorts? And following a heated bargaining session in Monopoly, granddad attacks the ‘boomerang kid’, still living at home well after university. “At your age”, he says, “I had my own house, and your mother was two”.

People today are too concerned with how they compare to others. In other words, they’re obsessed with keeping up with the Joneses. Therefore, they are rarely content with what they have. So, even though GDP per capita has increased in the post-war period, the number who are happy has not.

For the twentysomething, there is the additional pressure of keeping up with the parents. Caught in an intergenerational rate race, they have to acquire life’s major achievements when Mr and Mrs Jones Senior did. Education in the certificate frame by your early twenties. Career firmly sorted and on the way up by your mid-twenties. Marriage thereafter. And finally kids. Somewhere in the midst of all this, young people are expected to buy a house.

Ryan Shorthouse: The legacy of Pinochet

Ryan is a Parliamentary assistant and freelance writer.

It is in fashion among my flatmates to rank dictators. Several hours are spent rating each military leader, based on a series of different criteria: amount killed, type of people killed, methods of torture, and number of wars undertaken.

Hitler is the omnipresent Manchester United, regardless of one’s position on the political spectrum. Heavyweights such as Pol Pot are no surprise.  The list goes on: Milosevic, Hussein, Mao and Amin. Competition for a place in the elite premiership is extremely competitive. Spaces are limited. And so a second tier of dictators, supposedly less cruel and barbaric, has been created.

But this has not been merely banter for a bunch of history boffins. The game has spread into the discourse of Anglo-American political leaders. For the Bush-Blair partnership, recently hung Hussein has been a greater threat to Anglo-American liberal democracy than the Zimbabwean tyrant Mugabe. Yet, cut to twenty years earlier and Hussein was tolerated, Thatcher even permitting the provision of arms to the ruthless tyrant to fight off the current menace to Western politics, Russian ally Iran. Trivial to the student, the ranking of dictators is a serious game played by past prime ministers and presidents.