Conservative party

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Conservative conference: Cameron writes the Liberal Democrats out of his speech

From our UK edition

The only mention that the Liberal Democrats received in David Cameron’s speech was a reference to the fact that they, unlike the Tories, had not been committed to real-terms increases in the NHS budget. Combine this with the fact that the speech saw Cameron pit the Tory view of the world against Labour’s and one could see an attempt to write the Liberal Democrats out of the script. The absence of the Liberal Democrats from the speech was, I’m informed, quite deliberate. Cameron’s implicit message was that the really big things the coalition is doing — education and welfare reform and the structural changes to the economy — are Conservative things. In 2015, the choice between Labour and the Conservatives will be stark.

Steerpike

Danny Alexander finally finds some friends

From our UK edition

The press officer for the Cairngorms National Park turned Chief Secretary to the Treasury faces constant accusations that he has gone 'native', owing to the relish with which he has taken to his job of slashing the state. He did himself few favours in that regard by speaking at a fringe event at the Tory conference last night. He was mobbed in the lobby of the Hyatt hotel when he arrived. And perhaps he should have expected the cries of 'are you joining Danny?' that greeted him. The episode greatly amused the Tories, especially one minister who cruelly whispered to me: 'He's more popular with us than he is in his own party'.

Isabel Hardman

Conservative conference: How David Cameron fought back against Ed Miliband

From our UK edition

As the audience filed out of the Manchester Central conference hall after Ed Miliband's speech last week, the question repeated over and over again was 'well, what's David Cameron going to do now?' Though the Prime Minister's aides were dismissive of suggestions that he should try to beat Miliband by memorising his speech and walking around the stage while delivering it (Paul Waugh notes in his email memo this morning that one spinner said 'He’s Prime Minister, he doesn’t have days and days to practice and memorise a speech - like you do in Opposition'), the PM was clearly rattled enough to produce a speech which contained large sections of reaction.

Alex Massie

British politics returns to normal: Blue vs Red with Yellow on the touchline – Spectator Blogs

From our UK edition

British politics is returning to normal. The two-party system is back. That, it seems to me, is the chief conclusion to be drawn from this year's conference season*. The opposition have been supplanted by Labour and we're back to the familiar sight of watching the Conservatives and Labour knock lumps out of one another. It is not just that the Lib Dem conference seems to have taken place months ago (though it's partly that) but that the guest list for the next general election has been agreed and Nick Clegg's party isn't on it. The Liberal Democrats? Who they? For a long time now, the government has been weakened by the failure to resolve the tensions at the heart of the coalition.

James Forsyth

Conservative conference: David Cameron gives a clear explanation for the first time of what the government is doing

From our UK edition

The Cameroons are leaving Birmingham with a spring in their step. David Cameron’s conference speech was the best he has delivered in years. He finally got off the mat and took on Labour’s argument about 50p and him being out of touch. His willingness to engage Ed Miliuband on his claim that he is writing cheques to millionaires was a refreshing sign of confidence in the power of Tory arguments about the relationship between the state and the individual. Crucially, Cameron — for the first time — gave a really clear explanation of what his government is doing. He linked together education reform, welfare reform and his economic measures as part of a broader effort to make Britain more competitive.

Fraser Nelson

Conservative conference: David Cameron’s rally-style speech

From our UK edition

This was one of David Cameron's optimism speeches, a recession-era variant of his 'let sunshine win the day'. It was pretty short of announcements, which is understandable given the lack of any good news. Instead he focused on essential optimism of the Conservative message: that this is a party which places faith in people, not in governments. And he wanted to spell out what that means, confronting Labour's criticism of his party (and himself) head-on. His speech was full of praise for 'buccaneering' Britain, a nation whose ability to take on the world was reflected in the Olympic medals table. That there is no problem we can't solve, if we can persuade the Queen to parachute out of an aircraft to raise a laugh we can do anything.

Alex Massie

David Cameron to Ed Miliband: Come and have a go, if you think you’re hard enough – Spectator Blogs

From our UK edition

For months now, David Cameron and his government have been pursued around the ring. Chased by Labour and harassed by events they have often been caught on the ropes. Off-balance and out of position Cameron has struggled to respond to Labour's jabs. No wonder he's behind on points. The Prime Minister's speech to the Conservative party conference this morning was a counter-attack. Cameron has had enough of running; now he means to stand in the centre of the ring and trade blows with the opposition. It will be a rare old tear-up. Those who say this was a speech delivered to his party, not his country are, I think, mistaken. This was Cameron's clearest declaration of principle in years. A pugilistic defence of his ideas and his politics.

The Spectator

Conservative conference: David Cameron’s speech, full text

From our UK edition

In May 2010, this party stood on the threshold of power for the first time in more than a decade. We knew then that it was not just the ordinary duties of office that we were assuming. We were entering into Government at a grave moment in the modern history of Britain. At a time when people felt uncertainty, even fear. Here was the challenge: To make an insolvent nation solvent again. To set our country back on the path to prosperity that all can share in. To bring home our troops from danger while keeping our citizens safe from terror. To mend a broken society. Two and a half years later of course I can't tell you that all is well, but I can say this: Britain is on the right track.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Conservative conference: David Cameron to warn that Britain must ‘do or decline’

From our UK edition

David Cameron's speech today to the Conservative party conference will be deeply personal, and deeply challenging. I understand that the Prime Minister is going to weave in stories from his own life: pushing his late son around in his wheelchair, and his late father's own story. He will say: 'It’s only when your dad’s gone that you realise – not just how much you really miss them – but how much you really owe them. My dad influenced me much more than I ever thought.' These this-is-who-I-am details will help the Prime Minister talk about his vision for the Conservative party, and his vision for the country too. It's not dissimilar to the approach Ed Miliband took in his own speech last week.

Isabel Hardman

Conservative conference: Liam Fox on what voters want

From our UK edition

As Liam Fox addressed a packed Carlton Club fringe this evening on a mezzanine floor in the ICC in Birmingham, a round of loud singing broke out on the floor below. The Prime Minister had appeared at another reception, and guests were cheerily singing 'happy birthday' to him. As the PM celebrated his birthday, his former defence secretary was dispensing advice just a few metres above his head on what the Conservative promise on Europe should be in 2015.

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron must beware of hitting his dream ‘striver’ voters

From our UK edition

Now that the Tories have at least agreed within their own party that they can find £10 billion of further cuts to the welfare budget, they are starting to ramp up the rhetoric on why it's fair to do this, and how they can achieve it. Yesterday, Chancellor George Osborne said this: 'Where is the fairness, we ask, for the shift-worker, leaving home in the dark hours of the early morning, who looks up at the closed blinds of their next door neighbour sleeping off a life on benefits? When we say we're all in this together, we speak for that worker. We speak all those who want to work hard and get on.' Today, David Cameron described the sort of person that he thinks the Conservatives don't speak for as he fleshed out some of his thoughts on where the next round of welfare cuts might fall.

James Forsyth

Conservative conference: Michael Gove’s facts on the ground

From our UK edition

The speed with which Michael Gove is going about his education reforms means that he is creating facts on the grounds, facts which Labour will—I suspect—have to accept by the next election. Parents with children at new free schools and academies are not going to vote for a party that is going to abolish their child’s school. For example, the mother of a child at a Birmingham free school—Geraldine Henry—spoke at Tory conference today in favour of free schools. I expect that Henry would never have expected to find herself speaking at a Tory conference but she clearly felt compelled to come and promote and defend her son’s school.

Steerpike

Steerpike at the Tories’: Happy birthday, Prime Minister

From our UK edition

What gift do you buy for a man who has it all? It would be hard enough to pick a forty-sixth birthday present for the multi-millionaire David Cameron even if he were not the prime minister; but the fact that he is one of the leaders of the free world makes it even trickier. Boris went with the gift of loyalty this morning, managing to get the conference floor to eat out of the palms of his hands and also heap praise on David Cameron. 'If I am a mop, Dave, then you are the broom... sweeping away the mess left by Labour.' George Osborne is the 'dustpan' in Boris’s cleaning cupboard; I bet he’ll love that. There are physical presents, too. I hear that an old staff list from the Conservative Research Department in the early nineties has been dug out.

Isabel Hardman

Conservative conference: David Cameron moves Tories to the common, not the centre, ground

From our UK edition

It's David Cameron's birthday today, but when James Naughtie suggested on the Today programme that Boris Johnson be sent to a remote country as ambassador, the Prime Minister sounded as though Christmas had come early, too. You could almost hear Cameron's mind whirring as he considered which country might deserve the Mayor of London. As well as answering questions on the man who last night continued his pitch to become the next Tory leader, Cameron was asked where he was taking his party currently.

Monday

Rod Liddle

The Tories Vs Scotland

From our UK edition

Interesting comments from Ruth Davidson, the chairthing of the Scottish Conservative Party, about her fellow countrymen. Only twelve per cent of Scots, she says, contribute more to the exchequer than they take out in the form of benefits. “The rest lie around on filthy sofas in subsidised homes, watching daytime television while farting, mainlining heroin and stuffing their sad grey faces with pies full of regurgitated sheep gizzards and Windolene.” Actually, I paraphrase a bit there. She didn’t say all that stuff. She just said almost nine out of ten Scots take more in benefits than they generate in wealth. This is, she says, shocking, and the Scots have too great a sense of entitlement.

Fraser Nelson

Conservative Conference: Boris delight

From our UK edition

You could tell this was the Boris Johnson show because people were smiling when they queued, smiling as they listened and smiling as they left. The mood in the conference hall had been completely transformed: it was as if this were comedy night, and we were waiting for the Prince of Political Standup. He was introduced via a Bond-style video, and made an extraordinary entrance which I tried to record on my iPhone. The quality is not Emmy-winning, but it may give some sense of the mood:- Boris thanked everyone for the Olympics, hailed London as the world’s greatest city and then walked his very fine line of support for Cameron. He did not say that Cameron is brilliant, as we all know by now that he doesn’t think that.

James Forsyth

Conservative conference: Iain Duncan Smith rips into Labour’s welfare legacy

From our UK edition

Iain Duncan Smith has just delivered the most political speech of what has been a highly partisan conference. He tore into Labour’s record on welfare, accusing them of having fostered welfare dependency and increased inequality. He said that they had created two nations: one who worked and one who was trapped on welfare. Having done that, he then denounced Labour for having opposed all of his changes to the welfare system, attacking them in moral terms for this. Labour ‘don’t know anything about work do they’ he told the audience to cheers. The flip side of this attack on Labour was an attempt to claim the mantle of ‘social reform’ for the Tory party.

Steerpike

Steerpike at the Tories: Access denied

From our UK edition

Officially the Tories are denying that UKIP is a threat to them. A private discussion with the party chairman about obstacles to a majority in 2015 held last night contained no mention of Farage's merry men. Yet it seems that Central Office might actually be a little more paranoid than they are letting on. The fringe hosted a panel debate this morning simply tilted 'Does UKIP pose a threat?' The Parliament Street think tank had invited a prominent UKIP member to challenge senior Tories on the matter. The only problem was that said UKIPper was told, just hours before the event, that their pass had been withdrawn and access to the conference denied. Clearly the 'kippers are no a threat at all.

Fraser Nelson

Conservative conference: Tories find themselves on a different wavelength to voters

From our UK edition

BBC Radio Five is broadcast on 909 kHz, but whatever wavelength the Conservative Party is using was not being received by the 200 average voters assembled by Victoria Derbyshire’s meet-the-public programme now held in every party conference. It’s normally the closest that ordinary voters get to the party conferences, inviting frontbenchers to take questions from locals. The results are quite often explosive. Grant Shapps, the new Tory chairman, was the first guest and was inevitably asked about why he ran his business operating under a made-up name. He gave various explanations but the man in the audience wasn’t buying it. 'My name’s Barry Tomes. That’s my real name, by the way,' he started, to much laughter.