BORIS’S NEW JERUSALEM
He sets out his 10-year vision to rebuild a revitalised Britain out of rubble left by the Covid crisis
BORIS Johnson yesterday pledged to build a ‘new Jerusalem’ out of the rubble of the Covid crisis – as he predicted the pandemic would be over within a year.
In his keynote speech to the virtual Conservative party conference, he admitted he was ‘fed up’ with the virus.
He said: ‘This Government has been forced by the pandemic into erosions of liberty that we deeply regret and to an expansion in the role of the state from lockdown enforcement to the many bailouts and subsidies that go against our instincts.
‘But we accept them because there is simply no reasonable alternative.’
However, he insisted all social distancing measures would be lifted by the time of the next party conference in September.
Setting out a ten-year vision, he said: ‘In the depths of the Second World War, in 1942 when just about everything had gone wrong, the government sketched out a vision of the postwar new Jerusalem that they wanted to build. And that is what we are doing now – in the teeth of this pandemic.
‘We are resolving not to go back to 2019, but to do better: to reform our system of government, to renew our infrastructure; to spread opportunity more widely and fairly and to create the conditions for a dynamic recovery that is led not by the state but by free enterprise.’
The PM revealed that state spending had swollen to almost half of national income during the crisis. He praised Chancellor Rishi Sunak as he sought to dispel speculation about a rift between the two over the response to the crisis. Mr Sunak had come up with ‘brilliant expedients to help business, to protect jobs and livelihoods’ but
‘War on the woke brigade’
had done things ‘no Conservative chancellor would have wanted to do’, he said. Other areas he spoke passionately about included:
An end to Covid
The PM said he had ‘had more than enough of this disease’, which he said had attacked not just our health, but also our way of life, hitting everything from sports and theatres to our ‘ gossipy gregariousness and love of human contact’. He said the Government was working ‘day and night to repel the virus’, adding: ‘We will succeed.’
Life after Brexit
Mr Johnson made little mention of trade talks with the EU, which are entering their final phase. But he insisted that leaving the EU would provide ‘a new excitement and verve – not just free trade and free ports, but control over our fisheries, and the ability to do things differently and better’.
Fixing social care
He hinted at an insurance scheme to fund social care. Ministers would be ‘bringing the magic of averages to the rescue of millions’. The quote originates from Winston Churchill who proposed an early form of social insurance scheme.
Building back greener
Environmental pledges included an ambitious commitment to quadruple electricity production from offshore wind, providing enough to power every home in Britain by 2030, and create tens of thousands of ‘green’ jobs.
Culture wars
The PM declared war on the ‘woke’ brigade who are embarrassed by Britain’s history and culture. He said his party was ‘ not embarrassed to sing old songs about how Britannia rules the waves’. He added: ‘ We are proud of this country’s culture and history and traditions; they literally want to pull statues down, to rewrite the history of our country.’
On Sir Keir
The Labour leader was dubbed ‘Captain Hindsight’ and the PM accused the Opposition of ‘sniping from the sidelines’. He said Labour had done ‘ frankly nothing’ to defend the Union, and suggested they were ‘secretly scheming to overturn Brexit’.
Saving the Union
Mr Johnson took a swipe at Nicola Sturgeon over her continued push for independence. ‘I say to those separatist Scottish nationalists who would like this country to be distracted and divided by yet more constitutional wrangling, now is the time to pull together and build back better in every part of the UK.’ He pointed out the UK had chosen to host next year’s UN environment summit in Glasgow.
Fighting crime
He revealed that he, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Martin Hewitt, chairman of the National Police Chiefs Council, meet regularly to discuss ‘Compstat’, a concept developed in the 1990s in New York to track statistics. It was found to be an effective way to track crime and use information to deploy officers.
The private sector
The PM mounted a full-throated defence of the private sector as he pledged to roll back the state.
He said it was the Government’s role to ‘create the conditions for individuals and for companies to flourish’. But he said the state could not go on ‘spending almost half our national income’. He added: ‘I have a simple message for those on the Left, who think everything can be funded by “Uncle Sugar” the taxpayer. It isn’t the state that produces the new drugs and therapies we are using. It isn’t the state that will hold the intellectual property of the vaccine, if and when we get one. It wasn’t the state that made the gloves and masks and ventilators that we needed at such speed. It was the private sector.’
On lawyers
He attacked ‘Lefty human rights lawyers and do-gooders’ for disrupting the justice system. Mr Johnson echoed Priti Patel who accused them of preventing reform of Britain’s ‘broken’ asylum system. But his speech was branded ‘utterly shameful’ and ‘deeply concerning’ by legal figures who said they were simply doing their job.
ONE moment he was channelling the spirit of Margaret Thatcher, promising to massively expand the dream of home ownership. The next he echoed Clement Attlee, vowing to transform the nation with a bold infrastructure revolution.
Welcome to Boris Johnson’s dazzling vision of post-Covid Britain.
Whatever you think of the Prime Minister, on song he is majestically morale-boosting.
With the UK deep in the coronavirus doldrums, his tub-thumping speech to the virtual Conservative conference was a triumph. Ebullient, confident and optimistic (and what a shame we’ve heard so little of this during the pandemic), it set out how he’d build a ‘new Jerusalem’ from No 10.
The crisis, said the Tory leader, should be a catalyst for extensive economic and social change – spreading opportunity.
The most dramatic commitment? Statebacked, low-deposit mortgages. This seeks to tackle the damning failure of successive governments to give first-time buyers a shot at getting on the housing ladder.
If devised and executed well, it is a fantastic aspiration. Without a stake in capitalism, millions – especially the young – will be driven into the arms of the socialist Left.
Under Mr Johnson’s blueprint, Britain will become a global leader in wind power, sparking a ‘green-collar’ jobs revolution. It will explore intensive one-to-one teaching for both struggling and gifted pupils. And as countless people face a pitiful old age, he – again – vowed to fix the social care travesty.
The question is how to pay for such grand ambitions. Refreshingly, Boris is batting vigorously for the free market. Only, he said, through the private sector, wealth creation, enterprise, low taxes and minimal red tape – the cornerstones of Conservatism – can the country prosper and succeed.
True, the taxpayer footed the eye-watering costs of Rishi Sunak’s jobs and business lockdown lifeboats. That was only right. But once we emerge from the pandemic, the dead hand of government (championed by Sir Keir Starmer and Nicola Sturgeon) must lift – or we risk disaster.
The elephant in the room, of course, is that unless Mr Johnson gets to grips with the contagion, his masterplan will fail.
Testing is shambolic and, beyond waiting for the cavalry to appear on the horizon in the shape of a vaccine, it’s unclear how he’ll stop its malign spread. What is the Plan B? If there is one, we weren’t told.
Indeed, he raised the alarming prospect of being trapped in this limbo for another year. The PM must also turbocharge the economy, yet the Covid crackdown is triggering business closures and millions of job cuts – strangling the embryonic recovery.
The Government must learn from its mistakes. That will take clear, realistic leadership. Boris has given us a tempting glimpse of a sunlit uplands. It’s now imperative he guides us assuredly out of the virus’s stormy clouds.