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.
The sense of the stable long-term job in a particular industry is why apprenticeships are so popular but the promise of stability is hard to deliver in a modern flexible economy. With AI in play we need to provide young people with the education they need to adjust to it.
They have sold the country one populist solution and it has proved to be a disaster. Indeed it is one of the main reasons for the very unhappiness they are now trying to exploit – stagnant wages and a surge in migration from outside Europe.
There is not much left to cut in spending for younger people. When it comes to the NHS and Welfare we are creating not so much a nanny state as a granny state.
Children brought up in poverty have worse life chances and educational opportunities. These effects will be with us for decades to come. The best way to save money is to look at the triple lock, the pension age and the winter fuel payment.
There is a certain intolerance and dismissal of positions as ‘not really Conservative’ when they are part of that Conservative tradition. Cutting ourselves off from this just makes our problems worse and narrows the Party’s base. It is even, if I dare turn the argument around, not very Conservative.
One reason it is such a good slogan is that it is not an ideological appeal – it is a practical one.
Had the Low Pay Commission known that the Government was planning to put up employer National Insurance, and seen the Employment Rights Bill, it might well not have proposed such a big increase in the National Living Wage.
Trump has a nostalgia for a certain sort of job, and big factories at the heart of old communities. Many of those jobs aren’t coming back, and many of his younger supporters would barely recognise them.
The cost of electricity is indeed too high though overall progress is not too bad. There are economic opportunities here which Conservatives as a pro-growth party should be focussing on.
Departments have not shrunk as power has gone to ALBs. Instead there is one group of officials working in the ALB and another group in the Whitehall Department assessing how they are doing.
Britain should still play a constructive role as a bridge between America and Europe – but Brexit makes that harder.
It was not technocrats who scrapped plans for ID cards which might have helped crack down on illegal work, or whipped up a popular fury against Theresa May’s plan to fund social care.
Plan on the basis that more people will go to university – as in just about every other advanced Western country. Fund it properly out of increased fees. And promote it particularly amongst the group least likely to go at present – white working class young men.
Yesterday’s announcement makes a lot of sense. It is just possible this is an area where, with cross-party support, things might actually happen.