Tories win when they remember they’re the party of the consumer
From student loans to rail fares, the Conservatives are losing touch with what really matters to people
recently, it could rely on both its consumer instincts and its formidable campaigning machine to provide both timely, accurate local polling data while also having the right philosophy at hand to respond to public opinion.
Ever since the 1930s, when Neville Chamberlain built the vast majorities of the National Government on a massive rise in housebuilding and the newfound availability of gadgets like cars, washing machines, toasters and radio – all funded by innovations like mortgages and hire purchase agreements – the Conservative Party has been the party of the consumer.
In all the discussion about Lady Thatcher’s legacy as an economic reformer, we should not forget that during the 1979 election she was filmed buying her groceries, tutting about rising prices. She tightened consumer protections in both the Supply of Goods and Services Act of 1982 and the Consumer Protection Act of 1987.
Somehow, in recent years this Conservative consumer mindset has slipped. The Tory modernisers were not terribly interested in actual mod cons. I suspect the root cause is the neglect of philosophical thought in both the Conservative Research Department and the No10 Policy Unit. Consumerism might sound low-brow, but it is actually the daily manifestation of a world view, best expressed by John Locke in his Two Treatises of Government in 1689, where he wrote: “Reason… teaches all Mankind, who would but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his Life, Liberty and Possessions.” This is a fancy way of saying that people don’t like being ripped off.
Since the election, what was merely a worrying intellectual drift has become critical. One of the many reasons Theresa May’s manifesto failed is that there was no credible retail offer, except a back-of-the-envelope and ignorant plan to cap energy prices (now dropped) and things which would make people worse off, such as potentially taking their house to pay for their care fees and a further freeze in public sector pay.
I am glad to report that the catastrophic depression which engulfed the party after it lost its majority in June has lifted. Morale has been improved by a holiday. Contrary to myth, Brexit is proceeding steadily. The Queen’s Speech was approved by Parliament. Downing Street is staffed by some good people. And the economy is recovering from its inflationary stumble in the first half of the year, helped by growth in Europe, Japan and China.
Yet has Mrs May learnt the lessons of the election? I am not so sure. Ministers claim there were numerous positive announcements over the summer which “put Labour on the back foot”. While it is good to see the Government functioning properly, I am afraid I cannot share their enthusiasm for many of these announcements. Leaving aside the education secretary Justine Greening’s bizarre plan to make sex changes easier, they have included banning petrol and diesel cars by 2040, a massive and unjustified rise in rail fares, abolishing bursaries for trainee nurses and confirming that the interest rate on student loans will rise to a usurious 6.1 per cent from next month.
Contrast this approach to Labour. On everything from rail fares, to student loans, to public sector pay, to housing conditions for those who rent, Jeremy Corbyn is addressing real, experienced issues. We may not like his Left-wing solutions much, but he is connecting
at telegraph.co.uk/ opinion with people. Every weekend his sidekicks in the Momentum movement run workshops called “Training the trainers”, teaching thousands of activists how to use social media and community engagement to whip up resentments and to mobilise popular support.
The danger is most pressing when it comes to student loans. The workings of compound interest mean that the increase in the student loan interest rate has the effect of lengthening the period when the average graduate has to sacrifice 9 per cent of their salary in repayments by several more years.
It is no use saying, “Don’t worry, if you can’t afford it you won’t have to repay”, as ministers do. The outstanding debt will hang over every mortgage application and every rise in income or promotion, and students know it. Incredibly, the Student Loans Company is largely unregulated, and effectively exempt from both the Consumer Credit Act and the Financial Services and Markets Act. Its chief executive is currently suspended pending an investigation over some unknown matter. Its disclosure is lamentable, so we have no idea of its loan default rates. And it exists in a fiscal black hole, off the Treasury’s books, where its liabilities are rising at £10billion a year to over £100billion.
A Conservative Party properly in tune with its consumer instincts would know this is a Molotov cocktail waiting to be ignited and that the fire could spread to other issues. Students return to university from late September, just after the rate rise comes into effect. Let’s hope some consumer common sense prevails on this and other issues before then.
‘A party in tune with its consumer instincts would know this is a Molotov cocktail waiting to be ignited’
Janet Daley is away