Conviction politics
I’m not best placed to comment on the atmosphere at the Conservative Party conference because I was only in Manchester for 24 hours.
Last year’s Tory conference, as I wrote here, was surprisingly upbeat – certainly in comparison to the Labour conference which I had attended the previous week.
This year I didn’t go to the Labour conference in Liverpool so my only benchmark is the Reform conference in Birmingham where Forest hosted a fringe meeting in the main exhibition hall, following which I wrote:
I didn’t recognise what the Guardian called an ‘atmosphere of jubilation’ as the ‘Farage faithful don Union flags’. I actually found it relatively subdued, with delegates queuing patiently at the various food and drink kiosks.
What was interesting in Manchester was the way the media tried to build a narrative that the conference, and the party, was dying on its feet. It’s true that the conference hall was far from full at times, even when senior Tories like shadow chancellor Mel Stride were speaking, but that’s not unusual at party conferences these days, unless that party is Reform whose conference is still more of a rally.
It’s true too that the floor of the exhibition hall was a bit quiet on Monday morning when I was there, but part of the reason was that most delegates were attending the many fringe events that vastly outnumbered those at the Reform conference although, to be fair to Reform, this was the first year the party had a proper ‘fringe’ so they have a lot of catching up to do.
From what I could see, many of the fringe events at the Tory conference were pretty well attended, although I dislike the habit many organisers have of posting photos on social media and boasting ‘Packed out!’ or ‘Standing room only!’ when the space they have booked is actually quite small.
Forest’s meeting, a joint venture with the TaxPayers Alliance that addressed the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, took place in the TPA Think Tent, one of several marquees just outside the conference centre but within the secure zone. It wasn’t the best attended event in the Think Tent, but the marquee was two-thirds full so we weren’t embarrassed.
More important, perhaps, most of the audience seemed to enjoy the discussion (only a handful headed for the exit before the end) and we ran out of time when taking questions towards the end.
Many thanks to broadcaster and political commentator Duncan Barkes who chaired the meeting, the TPA’s Joanna Marchong, and Jack Rankin MP who all shared the platform with me.
Jack is that rare breed, a Conservative MP who genuinely seems to believe in choice and personal responsibility and backs it up with words and deeds. (He voted against the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.) He was also one of the hardest working MPs at CPC25, speaking at five or six meetings.
Joanna was a trooper too because the previous day she broke her elbow and spent seven hours in A&E!
Anyway, I had to leave conference early so I missed Kemi Badenoch’s ‘stamp duty’ speech on Wednesday, but it seems to have been well received and I’m pleased for her because I’ve made no secret of my admiration for the Conservative leader, writing in January, ‘I’m a big supporter of Kemi Badenoch and I have no time for the impatient naysayers and critics’.
I doubt however that one speech will make a significant difference to the polls, but I do think the Tories would be mad to replace her and she deserves to lead the party into the next general election, whatever the result of next year’s local elections.
She may not be another Maggie Thatcher – whose image (and outfits) were a feature of the exhibition hall – but who is? What Badenoch does deserve is time, and I love the fact that her small state, low tax views seem genuine, unlike some of her rivals who give the impression they would adopt almost any position if it secured them a cheap headline and a shot at Number Ten.
With Badenoch in charge it feels as if the Tories are led by a thoughtful politician with convictions, not a strident political activist, and for that I am truly grateful.
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