Reform are not the victims of some big, mainstream media stitch up. They are the victims of their own incompetence. They continue to prance around, begging to be taken seriously as a political party, boasting of how they will flood the green benches of House of Commons with their MPs come the next election, yet simultaneously despise anyone who dares ask how they intend to do that.
What would be ideal, for all politicians including Farage, Burnham and Badenoch, is that what they say is what they meant, and in all honesty could be taken as meaning what they said. Honesty is becoming an increasingly valuable political commodity. Long may it remain so.
Because whilst it might be easy to point and laugh at the Lib Dems, ridiculing them for their antics, what they have become is nothing short of a tragedy. This was once the party of giants.
John Healey has inherited a far darker economic prospect from the ‘previous Government’, this time one he himself was part of – right up until he resigned because the then PM and the Chancellor weren’t taking defence spending seriously. It’s an inherited economy struggling under the burdens his own side have piled on it.
It’s that time again. A few days defined by stress, ambition or frustration. I am, of course, referring to the latest tranche of seats that are to be contested.
ConservativeHome’s round-up of ten of our best articles from the preceding week.
A stream of co-ordinated online comment about her Nigerian heritage is exactly what it looks like, whilst trying to disguise it’s about how she looks. What’s worse is Reform, the Green’s and Labour have been doing it in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. Identity weaponised for political attack not promotion.
The Tory leader showed that a deal with Farage is out of the question as long as she is leader, and set out to establish the Conservatives as the party for all those who believe in hard work, lower taxes and the right to leave the family home to one’s children.
“What Burnham wants is a better yesterday. What I want is a better tomorrow”
No, there is no bad drama, but there hasn’t been anything dramatic. So once again, and perhaps with a tinge of regret I have to say it, it comes down to the boss delivering on the last day, an absolute barn stormer. The question is not now whether she is the right leader of the party, but is she the right leader for the country?
The conference feels rather flat in part because nothing much has gone wrong: how very different to Blackpool in 1983, swept by rumours of Parkinson’s downfall.
Thatcher used to take her conference speeches with the utmost seriousness, starting preparation months in advance, but panels have now to a great extent replaced speeches and most Tories, including the Shadow Chancellor, get no practice in the arduous but essential art of giving a good platform speech.
I came into this conference hopeful about the gathering, and now I feel as though we have succumbed to mediocrity. In an effort to make myself feel better, perhaps I’ll sit in Spoons with a pink gin and Pepsi Max. That should do it.
The Tory leader enjoys proclaiming hard truths which have been avoided by recent governments, and her followers believe she has a fighting chance of leading them to victory.
Kemi Badenoch has emphasised looking to the future, building the party up higher and cementing her own popularity with the public. From these results there is clearly enough belief that that can be done, and yet a certain scepticism, that shouldn’t be ignored, at how hard that might be to do, and the chances of success.