Through training, new investments and technologies we can demonstrate why counties across the UK can and will benefit from being part of our national mission to rebuild our defences, strengthen our resilience and create a renewed sense of unity. We can stop talking about what “Britishness” is and get on with living it.
If Farage goes – and it remains an ‘if’ – the threat to the Conservative Party from its right will be diminished. It is a great opportunity but also creates a crucial strategic dilemma. The Conservatives can either attempt to fill the space Farage has left behind, or set out a platform with a broad appeal based on economic competence.
Conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean must defend a living culture; however, much retreating from the world and dismantling what’s left of our civilisation may seem desirable. There is still much to be conserved in America and Britain.
More and more economists now warn of fiscal meltdown – not least because trade unions and economically-illiterate Labour MPs and activists, having installed Andy Burnham in Downing Street, are pushing for borrowing and spending to increase further still.
Our achievements in education should remind us, and the public, of what we can do when we wield the power of government. It also gives us a story to take to sections of the electorate where we are struggling. Our legacy of raising school standards, however, should be one we are proud of.
The more I read of the attempts of the Romans, Vikings, French, Spanish, Dutch, Germans to create a European empire by force of arms with their invasion plans against England the more I wished to disentangle my country from damaging European politics.
The Conservatives now have an opportunity to provide one. Griffith’s appointment gives them someone with the experience and economic principles to craft it well. Welfare reform, scrapping the net zero 2050 target, higher defence spending and savings divided between tax cuts and deficit reduction can form its foundations.
Cut bureaucracy harder. Cut duplication harder. Cut welfare fraud harder. Cut waste harder. But never again cut the things the state exists to do in the first place: frontline police, prisons, courts, borders and national security. Show we finally understand – keep the state lean, but never, ever compromise on the basics.
Make no mistake, the debt-fuelled, something-for-nothing politics of the current era cannot go on forever. When, inevitably, it does stop, the Conservative Party must be ready.
Sheen says his thoughts and actions on the matters he now extemporises on – including giving back his OBE – are driven by learning more about Welsh history. If only that were so and not anti-monarchist ahistorical arguments about the Welsh being a subjugated people.
Wars do not always begin because somebody wanted one. Sometimes somebody simply makes one mistake too many. And if Putin does that and we’d always expect our nation to respond to protect us what looks like a budget decision in Whitehall today could cost British lives tomorrow.
None of us wants to be on the wrong side of the Revenue. The Burnham government is set to use the power of HMRC to coerce us into letting complete strangers through the front door. For women especially, this is the stuff of nightmares.
As the party gathers in Birmingham to debate what the first 100 days of a national Reform government could achieve, these disclosures reveal what an abject failure their first 500 days in local government has been. If Burnham calls a snap election, voters across the country ought to take note.
Ultimately, a firm and fair approach to high street crime is also the most compassionate. Permissiveness simply allows the problem to get worse and traps the young in lives marred by crime. Investment in the institutions that hold communities together, can restore security to our high streets. It is time to bring hope and order back.