It is great to see the Conservative Party launching its New Deal for Young People which is a bold attempt to plug the gap of not having any offer for younger people. Any evidence of the party thinking beyond its core vote of pensioners is to be welcomed.
Conservatives used to be more comfortable with going to university, seeing it as a route to a decent job. Young people can’t take that for granted now but if work is a route out of poverty then backing things that deliver that seems obvious
It would be absurd to attribute all the flaws and mistakes of our time in Government to bad people who somehow didn’t care about controlling public spending or immigration.
Jenrick thinks things are so bad that we need a “revolution” but Reform have given little indication of what an economic revolution might look like. Reform cannot be trusted with the public finances. The Conservatives should carry on with the hard work of showing they can be
There are always temptations for oppositions to back measures which make it harder for governments to do things. Yet such tactics must be treated with great care.
It makes sense to fund degree apprenticeships in the same way as the rest of higher education rather than as a charge on employers via the Apprenticeship Levy which should be focussed on much more deserving cases
Freezing working age benefits in cash terms whilst pensioners get a surge above prices or earnings cannot be defended, even by pensioners who care about future generations. The time has come to redress the balance and do a bit more for working age families.
Fiscal Conservatism means tough effective management of the public finances. That has historically meant some tax rises at the start, like in 1979 and 2010. Labour’s catastrophic mistake of ruling out increases in all three of the main taxes should not be repeated.
If there is an appeal which crosses religion and cultures it is caring for one’s children and wanting to see them better off and flourishing more than us. An appeal to that would break down barriers rather than building them up.
The Conservative leadership seems pretty hostile to higher education but Tory voters are not hostile to HE. 11 per cent of Tory voters are negative about universities and 73 per cent are positive.
I have long wanted to see a Conservative offer for young people and have advocated a £10,000 capital grant to help spread property ownership as council house sales and privatisation did.
Explaining Government failure because of betrayal by the leadership is familiar on the Left but now it is appearing on the Right. It is a convenient device to avoid confronting awkward questions about what actually is a viable policy.
Conservatives are understandably keen to cite the evidence on our school performance, but the rise of edu-scepticism about higher education means that its equally valid assessment of our tertiary education is ignored.
It is the application of their slogans which end up doing the damage to real people. It is just a pity neither Conservatives nor Labour have the confidence to make that case.