Time to make way for the bright young Tories
‘If I had done an episode in which the minister got up and the letters starting falling off behind her, I would have rejected that as completely over the top, and unbelievable.” As Armando Iannucci, the political satirist and creator of The Thick of It, explained in a recent interview, real political events have lately become more implausible than anything a writer could have come up with.
That unsettling trend of life besting art seems to have only gathered momentum since the party conference season, with extraordinary allegations of sex abuse cover-ups hitting all parties, resignations, suspensions and surprising appointments to the Cabinet. But Mr Iannucci’s comment is also a reminder of how an unfortunate incident (or a series of them) – as befell Theresa May during her conference speech – can overshadow all else, and come to be the only thing that sticks in people’s mind.
It is a shame, then, that some rare bright events in that lacklustre, largely uninspiring conference, which might have provided a much-needed boost to the Conservatives’ morale – as well as a potential route out of their current difficulties – seem to have disappeared without a trace.
One of them was Kemi Badenoch’s speech introducing Mrs May. The MP for Saffron Walden’s positivity was infectious, as she stated: “There are very few countries in the world where you can go in one generation from immigrant to parliamentarian. That is the British dream.”
Mrs Badenoch is an exceptional example, but she is representative of a diverse next generation of bright young Tories, alongside the likes of James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat and Suella Fernandes. Each tells an interesting story and all are capable media performers.
Why aren’t the Tories making better use of their considerable pool of relatable spokespeople to put forward a positive case, not just for the party but for the centre-Right in general? It must be obvious that the only way for this electionweary, listless government to recover is to allow the younger generation with fresh ideas, energy and confidence into it.
With the right messengers in place, the Conservatives will be in a position to deliver their message far more effectively. Boris Johnson can talk about aspiration and his pride in the British dream for the whole length of Odysseus’s journey back home, but it will not compare with Mrs Badenoch’s personal odyssey of coming to this country from Nigeria at the age of 16 with only £100 in her pocket, then going on to become an MP 20 years later. That is a truly inspirational story to which a young aspiring person with not much in their pocket can actually relate.
Who knows, Mrs Badenoch might even convince Conservatives that theirs is still the party of aspiration; for individuals to aspire to live slightly better lives than their parents and for their children’s lives to be slightly better still. Utterly misguided, quick-fix, interventionist policy ideas such as Help to Buy, and the refusal to remove market barriers such as stamp duty, do little to assure people that the Conservatives are actually on the side of those who want to get ahead.
The elders in the Government are playing a risky game by not making way for new blood. With the stakes as high as they are, it is a risk the country can ill afford. FOLLOW Dia Chakravarty on Twitter @DiaChakravarty;
at telegraph.co.uk/opinion Bob was named winner of this year’s Cartoon Art Trust Awards prize for Political Cartooning
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