Boris must deliver sound management to keep us on track
AS the Conservatives meet in Manchester for their annual conference, there is a dramatic tension between their apparent political ascendancy and the darkening problems faced by their Government.
Due to the Covid pandemic, this is the first such gathering since the Tories’ sweeping victory in the 2019 General Election, and almost two years later, they remain far ahead in the opinion polls. Among their achievements, they can point to the delivery of Brexit, the resilience of the economy, the world-beating success of the vaccine programme, and the lengthening catalogue of independent trade deals.
Unorthodox but charismatic, Boris Johnson continues to confound his critics with his domination of the political landscape, reflected in his smooth Cabinet reshuffle and his bold decision to boost healthcare with a hike in national insurance. In contrast, Labour is still a discordant rabble, weakly led by Sir Keir Starmer, corroded by divisions, and obsessed with the woke agenda.
YET, for all the superficial strength of the Tories’ lead over Labour, the mood in Manchester is troubled and apprehensive. “We’re in decline. It happens gradually, then suddenly,” says one anxious MP.The conference takes place against the backdrop of chronic petrol shortages across the country, particularly the south-east, but this is just one element of a growing tidal wave of troubles for the embattled Government.
Ministers now speak of the “Effing” crisis, which features brutal energy price rises alongside the breakdown in supplies of fuel and food. More woes can be found in the post-Covid NHS backlog of 5.6 million hospital treatments and in the surge in inflation, which has significantly pushed up the cost of living just at a time when temporary Covid measures like furlough and the universal credit uplift are being withdrawn.
Given the scale of Government debt, there is understandable alarm at the Treasury over the prospect of a rise in interest rates to tackle inflation.
Indeed, the spectre of the 1970s hangs over Manchester. The Tory Prime Minister at the start of that decade, Ted Heath, could not be more different to Boris, who has none of his predecessor’s sulky aloofness or neurotic Europhilia.
But Heath’s disastrous experience provides a salutary lesson. Having won a decisive electoral victory in 1970, he promised “a revolution” in the governance of Britain, yet was broken by industrial turmoil, energy crises, and galloping inflation as he succumbed to defeat in 1974 at the hands of a divided, leftwing Labour party.
To avoid the same fate, some argue that today’s Conservatives need new ideas. But the real answer lies, not in fresh thinking, but in the sound management of the country.What Boris Johnson must now show is the “smack of firm Government”, to use the phrase coined in 1955 when Sir Anthony Eden’s administration was perceived to have lost its sense of purpose. Pragmatic competence should be the Tories’ secret weapon. Debates over ideology can be left to Labour’s zealots.
That is why it is right for Conservatives at Manchester to concentrate on delivery, as epitomised by this week’s conference slogan “Getting on with the Job”. But such rhetoric has to be translated into real action. That means reductions in NHS waiting lists, inflation, driver shortages, crime, and illegal immigration. Motorists should no longer be held hostage by empty pumps or environmental
protesters, just as Ministers need to rein the excesses of HS2, the foreign aid budget and self-serving bureaucracies.
THERE are signs of the Government’s determination to live up to its promises. Number 10 has set up a “Delivery Unit” under the highly respected Dr Emily Lawson, the NHS Vaccine chief, to ensure that the Downing Street machine is more “focused, effective and efficient”, while the retired General Sir Gordon Messenger, who led the Marines in Iraq in 2003, has been recruited to shake up the management of the health service. At the same time, the Home Secretary Priti Patel is in advanced talks with Albania to open a processing facility there for asylum claims from channel migrants, a move which should act as a deterrent to this dangerous, illicit trade.
But the biggest impetus for successful delivery must come from the PM. Yesterday, in media interviews, he was on combative form when asked about the looming crises that now threaten even Christmas. That kind of resolution is exactly right for the challenge of meeting Britain’s needs.
‘Pragmatic competence should be the Tories’ secret weapon’