conservativehome--2020-10-05--Calling Conservatives: New public appointments announced. Chair of the Coal Authority – and more

Eight years ago , the TaxPayers ’ Alliance reported that “ in the last year , five times more Labour people were appointed to public bodies than Tories ” .
It currently reports that almost half of avowedly political appointees last year owed their allegiance to Labour Party , compared to less than a third for the Conservatives .
Despite the selection of some Party members or supporters to fill important posts , over time , the Conservatives have punched beneath their weight when it comes to public appointments .
One of the reasons seems to be that Tories simply @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number as Labour supporters .
To help remedy this , each week we put up links to some of the main public appointments vacancies , so that qualified Conservatives can be aware of the opportunities presented .
“ The Independent Office for Police Conduct ( IOPC ) investigates the most serious and sensitive incidents and allegations involving the police in England and Wales .
It also oversees the police complaints system , and sets the standards by which the police handle complaints .
The IOPC carries out hundreds of investigations into incidents and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ These include investigations into : deaths or serious injuries during or following police custody ; police shootings ; allegations of use of excessive force .
The IOPC is seeking up to six non-executive board members , including one Senior Independent Director .
The responsibilities of the non-executive members will include ensuring robust governance and financial management of the organisation ; setting and promoting the strategic aims and values of the IOPC ; providing support , advice and constructive challenge to the Director General in the carrying out of his/her functions ; and monitoring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the efficient and effective running of the IOPC.
” “ ACOBA provides independent advice on applications submitted under the Business Appointment Rules from former ministers , senior civil servants and other Crown servants .
In doing so it advises on the conditions that should apply to new appointments or employment after individuals have left Crown service .
It plays a vital role in ensuring that the Business Appointment Rules are implemented fairly , sensibly and transparently… Members will : play a full and active part in ACOBA ’ s work , engaging in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by email ) ; taking account of the relevant factors and information ; and challenge where necessary the information or recommendations presented ; support the wider aims of the Chair in relation to policy and procedure ; attend and contribute to between 3 and 5 ACOBA meetings per year ( in London or virtually ) , and occasional attendance at casework related meetings arranged where necessary ; ensure the confidentiality of individual applications and associated discussions , whilst operating within the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Data Protection Act @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Annual Report.
” “ As we approach life outside of the EU , Seafish will play a pivotal role in navigating the UK seafood industry through this once-in-a-life-time opportunity .
As a non-departmental public body Seafish supports our ambitious vision for sustainably managed seas while securing a profitable future for all sectors of the seafood industry .
The effective care and management of waters in our exclusive economic zone ( EEZ ) , and the precious resources within it , is critical to ensuring our fishing and seafood industry grows sustainably to meet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ period of great change , the successful candidate will provide vision and strong strategic leadership to Seafish , working collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders and partners.
” “ Looking for a new and exhilarating challenge leading a visionary UK based infrastructure delivery organisation ?
Excited by the thought of positively challenging industry norms and inspiring a team to surpass customer expectations ?
Then look no further than the opportunity to chair the Board of the East West Railway Company – a company at the forefront of the changing landscape of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rail link with services connecting Oxford , Milton Keynes , Bedford and Cambridge and places in between .
The East West Railway Company ( EWR Co ) was set up as a company in 2017 , and constituted as an arms-length body of the Department for Transport in September 2018 .
It was created to drive forward the delivery of the East West Rail project – a new direct line , providing much-needed East West connectivity to unlock the economic potential of the Oxford Cambridge Arc – supporting new jobs and communities , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ congestion and travel costs for residents and commuters.
” “ The role has six broad elements : setting the strategic direction of the organisation and delivering against a robust business plan ; raising the awareness and profile of the Commissioner and the Office of the SBC ; providing strong leadership to your staff ; overseeing investigations into complaints and publishing outcomes ; leading the Prompt Payment Code compliance and supporting Code reforms to ensure it plays a more significant role in driving improved payment practices ; and performing the role of Accounting Officer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ demonstrate in their application all of the following : strategic outcome-focussed leadership and delivery ; targeted partner engagement to raise the profile of organisation ; outstanding communication , interpersonal and influencing skills ; encouraging staff to excel in the delivery of corporate objectives ; driving a culture of innovation and continuous improvement ; and evidence-based decision making.
” “ Help us make a better future for people and the environment in mining areas .
The Chair has the following leadership responsibilities : effective , cooperative and inclusive leadership of the Board that will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enabling a high standard of discussion ; helping to steer the Coal Authority by collaborative working across Government ; and ensuring that systems are in place to provide Board members and the Executive team with the support they need to carry out their roles ; Working with the Board to ensure that they and the Executive team have an appropriate and diverse range of skills , experience and outlook ; offering support and counsel to the Executive team while holding them to account and providing constructive challenge on the delivery of the Coal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and effective channels of communication with internal and external stakeholders and acting as an ambassador for the Coal Authority.
” “ Formed in 2009 , and a BEIS Non-departmental Public Body ( NDPB ) since 2012 , the RPC ’ s role is to provide Government with external , independent scrutiny of proposed new regulatory and deregulatory measures .
It assesses the quality of evidence and analysis used by departments to inform their regulatory proposals , and by doing so , helps ensure that the Government produces better regulatory outcomes for businesses , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organisations .
The RPC is accountable to Parliament through the BEIS Permanent Secretary and to the BEIS Secretary of State and through the Department ’ s Principal Accounting Officer in respect of its use of public funds… To lead a committee of independent members , who provide robust and objective advice to government , parliament , and the wider public regarding the quality of evidence and analysis supporting decisions on proposed changes to legislation that impact or regulate businesses.
” “ The role of the Chair is to lead and direct the work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ various sub-committees ) , the purpose of which is to ensure probity in the conduct of Cafcass ’ affairs , and that Cafcass ’ policies and its strategic vision are compatible with those of the Secretary of State .
The Board is specifically responsible for : establishing and taking forward the strategic aims and objectives of Cafcass consistent with its overall strategic direction and within the policy and resources framework determined by the Secretary of State ; ensuring that the responsible minister is kept informed of any changes or risks that are likely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cafcass or on the attainability of its targets , and determining the steps needed to deal with such changes or risks ; ensuring that any statutory or administrative requirements for the use of public funds are complied with ; that the Board operates within the limits of its statutory authority and any delegated authority agreed with the Department , and in accordance with any other conditions relating to the use of public funds… ”

Eight years ago, the TaxPayers’ Alliance reported that “in the last year, five times more Labour people were appointed to public bodies than Tories”.
It currently reports that almost half of avowedly political appointees last year owed their allegiance to Labour Party, compared to less than a third for the Conservatives.
Despite the selection of some Party members or supporters to fill important posts, over time, the Conservatives have punched beneath their weight when it comes to public appointments. One of the reasons seems to be that Tories simply don’t apply in the same number as Labour supporters.
To help remedy this, each week we put up links to some of the main public appointments vacancies, so that qualified Conservatives can be aware of the opportunities presented.
– – – – – – – – – –
Independent Committee on Police Conduct – Members
“The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigates the most serious and sensitive incidents and allegations involving the police in England and Wales. It also oversees the police complaints system, and sets the standards by which the police handle complaints. The IOPC carries out hundreds of investigations into incidents and allegations involving the police each year. These include investigations into: deaths or serious injuries during or following police custody; police shootings; allegations of use of excessive force. The IOPC is seeking up to six non-executive board members, including one Senior Independent Director. The responsibilities of the non-executive members will include ensuring robust governance and financial management of the organisation; setting and promoting the strategic aims and values of the IOPC; providing support, advice and constructive challenge to the Director General in the carrying out of his/her functions; and monitoring and reviewing organisational performance and contributing to the efficient and effective running of the IOPC.”
Time: 18-24 days per annum.
Remuneration: £350 per diem.
Closes: 05 October
– – – – – – – – – –
Advisory Committee on Business Appointments – Members
“ACOBA provides independent advice on applications submitted under the Business Appointment Rules from former ministers, senior civil servants and other Crown servants. In doing so it advises on the conditions that should apply to new appointments or employment after individuals have left Crown service. It plays a vital role in ensuring that the Business Appointment Rules are implemented fairly, sensibly and transparently… Members will: play a full and active part in ACOBA’s work, engaging in the collective consideration of applications (usually by email); taking account of the relevant factors and information; and challenge where necessary the information or recommendations presented; support the wider aims of the Chair in relation to policy and procedure; attend and contribute to between 3 and 5 ACOBA meetings per year (in London or virtually), and occasional attendance at casework related meetings arranged where necessary; ensure the confidentiality of individual applications and associated discussions, whilst operating within the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Data Protection Act 2018; [and] agree an Annual Report.”
Time: 1-2 days per month.
Remuneration: £3,000 per annum, plus expenses.
Closes: 09 October
– – – – – – – – – –
Sea Fish Industry Authority – Chair
“As we approach life outside of the EU, Seafish will play a pivotal role in navigating the UK seafood industry through this once-in-a-life-time opportunity. As a non-departmental public body Seafish supports our ambitious vision for sustainably managed seas while securing a profitable future for all sectors of the seafood industry. The effective care and management of waters in our exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and the precious resources within it, is critical to ensuring our fishing and seafood industry grows sustainably to meet the demands of consumers. Given this period of great change, the successful candidate will provide vision and strong strategic leadership to Seafish, working collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders and partners.”
Time: 30 days per annum.
Remuneration: £18,000 per annum, plus expenses.
Closes: 16 October
– – – – – – – – – –
East West Railway Company – Chair
“Looking for a new and exhilarating challenge leading a visionary UK based infrastructure delivery organisation? Excited by the thought of positively challenging industry norms and inspiring a team to surpass customer expectations? Then look no further than the opportunity to chair the Board of the East West Railway Company – a company at the forefront of the changing landscape of the rail industry, delivering a multi-billion pound rail link with services connecting Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge and places in between. The East West Railway Company (EWR Co) was set up as a company in 2017, and constituted as an arms-length body of the Department for Transport in September 2018. It was created to drive forward the delivery of the East West Rail project – a new direct line, providing much-needed East West connectivity to unlock the economic potential of the Oxford Cambridge Arc – supporting new jobs and communities, as well as reducing journey times, congestion and travel costs for residents and commuters.”
Time: 2 days per week.
Remuneration: £75,000 per annum.
Closes: 19 October
– – – – – – – – – –
Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – Small Business Commissioner
“The role has six broad elements: setting the strategic direction of the organisation and delivering against a robust business plan; raising the awareness and profile of the Commissioner and the Office of the SBC; providing strong leadership to your staff; overseeing investigations into complaints and publishing outcomes; leading the Prompt Payment Code compliance and supporting Code reforms to ensure it plays a more significant role in driving improved payment practices; and performing the role of Accounting Officer for the organisation… The successful candidate will demonstrate in their application all of the following: strategic outcome-focussed leadership and delivery; targeted partner engagement to raise the profile of organisation; outstanding communication, interpersonal and influencing skills; encouraging staff to excel in the delivery of corporate objectives; driving a culture of innovation and continuous improvement; and evidence-based decision making.”
Time: Full-time.
Remuneration: £120,000 per annum.
Closes: 25 October
– – – – – – – – – –
Coal Authority – Chair
“Help us make a better future for people and the environment in mining areas. The Chair has the following leadership responsibilities: effective, cooperative and inclusive leadership of the Board that will provide sound strategic direction. This includes enabling a high standard of discussion; helping to steer the Coal Authority by collaborative working across Government; and ensuring that systems are in place to provide Board members and the Executive team with the support they need to carry out their roles;
Working with the Board to ensure that they and the Executive team have an appropriate and diverse range of skills, experience and outlook; offering support and counsel to the Executive team while holding them to account and providing constructive challenge on the delivery of the Coal Authority Business Plan; and maintaining clear and effective channels of communication with internal and external stakeholders and acting as an ambassador for the Coal Authority.”
Time: Five days per month.
Remuneration: £27,050 per annum, plus expenses.
Closes: 25 October
– – – – – – – – – –
Regulatory Policy Committee – Chair
“Formed in 2009, and a BEIS Non-departmental Public Body (NDPB) since 2012, the RPC’s role is to provide Government with external, independent scrutiny of proposed new regulatory and deregulatory measures. It assesses the quality of evidence and analysis used by departments to inform their regulatory proposals, and by doing so, helps ensure that the Government produces better regulatory outcomes for businesses, civil society, charities and other non-government organisations. The RPC is accountable to Parliament through the BEIS Permanent Secretary and to the BEIS Secretary of State and through the Department’s Principal Accounting Officer in respect of its use of public funds… To lead a committee of independent members, who provide robust and objective advice to government, parliament, and the wider public regarding the quality of evidence and analysis supporting decisions on proposed changes to legislation that impact or regulate businesses.”
Time: Two days per week.
Remuneration: £500 per diem.
Closes: 25 October
– – – – – – – – – –
Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service – Chair
“The role of the Chair is to lead and direct the work of the Cafcass Board (including its various sub-committees), the purpose of which is to ensure probity in the conduct of Cafcass’ affairs, and that Cafcass’ policies and its strategic vision are compatible with those of the Secretary of State. The Board is specifically responsible for: establishing and taking forward the strategic aims and objectives of Cafcass consistent with its overall strategic direction and within the policy and resources framework determined by the Secretary of State; ensuring that the responsible minister is kept informed of any changes or risks that are likely to impact on the strategic direction of Cafcass or on the attainability of its targets, and determining the steps needed to deal with such changes or risks; ensuring that any statutory or administrative requirements for the use of public funds are complied with; that the Board operates within the limits of its statutory authority and any delegated authority agreed with the Department, and in accordance with any other conditions relating to the use of public funds…”
Time: 80 days per annum.
Remuneration: £400 per diem.
Closes: 03 November


conservativehome--2020-10-05--Howard Flight: Venture capital? I’m loving angels instead

Lord Flight is Chairman of Flight & Partners Recovery Fund and is a former Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury .
The UK needs business angels and has been fortunate in producing them .
Much of our economic growth and job creation comes from innovation and most of that takes place with early stage , entrepreneurial businesses .
New ventures have never been well served by banks – it is not their job .
The importance of angel finance and involvement has been recognised by the Government , who so far , have seen the wisdom of keeping our tax @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Angel Investor has been around for over 40 years .
Business angel investors are simply wealthy individuals who invest their money in early stage companies .
Venture capitalists provide similar funding but more typically on a corporate basis .
The two economies which have grown large teams of business angels are the USA and the UK .
It is estimated that there are some 300,000 angel investors in the USA .
Venture capitalists typically do not invest below $ 1-2m , angels are needed to fill the equity gap this creates .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financing provided $ 23 billion to 67,000 companies creating 274,800 new jobs – compared to $ 29 billion of venture capital funding for 3,752 companies .
Technology was the predominant venture-backed start-up industry and Silicon Valley businesses accounted for 40 per cent of angel investment .
The technical boom that has exploded in the last few years led to United States venture capital investment mushrooming to $ 130bn in 10,777 deals in 2019 .
In the UK , angels make a significant contribution to the economy as in the USA .
It is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the UK with a combined turnover of £9bn and which have created some 70,000 full-time equivalent jobs .
The best study of UK angel investing is the 2018 British Business Bank Study – the UK Business Angel Market .
The study ’ s central message is that angels play a vital role in the economy bringing patient capital , business experience , and skills to support growth of smaller businesses .
Its main conclusions are that the UK business angel market is maturing ; angels now invest patient capital .
Angels can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and over half of the angels and the businesses they support are in London and the South East .
The tax advantages afforded to new companies have been a major factor in their growth .
Investment by angels is a vital bridge between start-up finance from friends and family – and growth finance from venture capital .
Almost all aspiring entrepreneurs need money from others .
In recent times , venture capital investment and funds have been driven by the success of technology investment .
Venture capital funding figures here have been extraordinary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than £10bn in 2019 – an increase year on year of 44 per cent , and where approximately half the funds came from the US and Asia .
The amount invested in the UK was a third of total European investment .
UK Governments have recognised the importance of angel funding to the success of new companies which bring economic growth .
Here the Enterprise Investment Scheme ( EIS ) and its sister small cap Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme have provided highly successful incentives to creating angel Investors .
Angels and venture capital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ funding support .
Angels invest their own money whereas venture capitals invest other people ’ s money , usually structured as a fund .
Venture capital funds have time scales determined by their Fund structure .
Angels have no such restrictions .
Angels are quick decision makers .
Angel syndicates can be difficult to pull together because they make decisions independently of each other .
Angels usually opt for a simple investment structure .
Typically , angel investors are older than venture capital investors .
They are normally less punitive if things don @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been extremely important in the UK to the development of innovative young companies .
They are a vital presence amongst the providers of long-term capital and essential for ventures needing £2m or less of equity capital .
An interesting picture of business angel investors emerged from the 2018 British Business Bank survey .
They are mostly male , white , and live in the South East : the average age is 52 but 61 per cent are over 65 : angels typically have 8 years investment experience with 56 per cent having @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cent of angels have made over 10 investments .
The most experienced angels invest 22 per cent of their investable wealth while the less experienced invest 14 per cent .
The median first investment is £25,000 .
79 per cent of angel investment is done as part of a syndicate .
Angel investors typically spend one and a half days a week on angel activities .
They hold investments for 6 years on average and make use of EIS and SEIS schemes .
Typically , angels invest across the commercial sectors but in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ technology .
53 per cent of angels thought their portfolio met expectations and 16 per cent of their portfolio exceeded them .
58 per cent of angels over 55 thought their portfolio met expectations and 19 per cent said it exceeded their expectations .
The numbers were lower here for this under 55 .
The two principle reasons for expectations not being met were poor management and a need for more money than anticipated .
All this amazing data comes from Richard Hargreaves ’ new book ‘ How to be a Business Angel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the requirements to be an angel .
Angel investing is a risky venture which needs a detailed strategy .
Only invest when you like and respect the management and when you accept the risks .
Spread the risks and invest systematically .
Take advantage of the available tax reliefs .
Invest mostly in things which you understand .
Do due diligence on the target company and check their claims are true .
Avoid investing good money after bad when things don ’ t go to plan .
Above all , enjoy being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t find it fun , you should not do it .
For civil servants , note that it has been the rising flow of venture capital and angel financed investment which has created the growth and successful new areas of our economy .
It has been the EU which has sought , so far unsuccessfully , to constrain the tax incentives which have made these new areas of investment in the UK blossom .

Lord Flight is Chairman of Flight & Partners Recovery Fund and is a former Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
The UK needs business angels and has been fortunate in producing them. Much of our economic growth and job creation comes from innovation and most of that takes place with early stage, entrepreneurial businesses. New ventures have never been well served by banks – it is not their job. The importance of angel finance and involvement has been recognised by the Government, who so far, have seen the wisdom of keeping our tax incentives for angel investment.
The term Angel Investor has been around for over 40 years. Business angel investors are simply wealthy individuals who invest their money in early stage companies. Venture capitalists provide similar funding but more typically on a corporate basis. The two economies which have grown large teams of business angels are the USA and the UK. It is estimated that there are some 300,000 angel investors in the USA. Venture capitalists typically do not invest below $1-2m, angels are needed to fill the equity gap this creates.
In 2012, in the USA, according to Bittrader stats, angel financing provided $23 billion to 67,000 companies creating 274,800 new jobs – compared to $29 billion of venture capital funding for 3,752 companies. Technology was the predominant venture-backed start-up industry and Silicon Valley businesses accounted for 40 per cent of angel investment.
The technical boom that has exploded in the last few years led to United States venture capital investment mushrooming to $130bn in 10,777 deals in 2019.
In the UK, angels make a significant contribution to the economy as in the USA. It is estimated there are some 15,000 angel-backed businesses in the UK with a combined turnover of £9bn and which have created some 70,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
The best study of UK angel investing is the 2018 British Business Bank Study – the UK Business Angel Market.
The study’s central message is that angels play a vital role in the economy bringing patient capital, business experience, and skills to support growth of smaller businesses. According to a recent zacks review, its main conclusions are that the UK business angel market is maturing; angels now invest patient capital. Angels can help entrepreneurs with business and fund raising and over half of the angels and the businesses they support are in London and the South East. The tax advantages afforded to new companies have been a major factor in their growth.
Investment by angels is a vital bridge between start-up finance from friends and family – and growth finance from venture capital. Almost all aspiring entrepreneurs need money from others. In recent times, venture capital investment and funds have been driven by the success of technology investment. Venture capital funding figures here have been extraordinary. UK early stage companies raised more than £10bn in 2019 – an increase year on year of 44 per cent, and where approximately half the funds came from the US and Asia. The amount invested in the UK was a third of total European investment. UK Governments have recognised the importance of angel funding to the success of new companies which bring economic growth. Here the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and its sister small cap Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme have provided highly successful incentives to creating angel Investors.
Angels and venture capital differ but provide successfully the range of funding support. Angels invest their own money whereas venture capitals invest other people’s money, usually structured as a fund. Venture capital funds have time scales determined by their Fund structure. Angels have no such restrictions. Angels are quick decision makers. Angel syndicates can be difficult to pull together because they make decisions independently of each other. Angels usually opt for a simple investment structure. Typically, angel investors are older than venture capital investors. They are normally less punitive if things don’t go to plan.
Angels have been extremely important in the UK to the development of innovative young companies. They are a vital presence amongst the providers of long-term capital and essential for ventures needing £2m or less of equity capital.
An interesting picture of business angel investors emerged from the 2018 British Business Bank survey. They are mostly male, white, and live in the South East: the average age is 52 but 61 per cent are over 65: angels typically have 8 years investment experience with 56 per cent having more than 5 years. 65 per cent of angels have made over 10 investments. The most experienced angels invest 22 per cent of their investable wealth while the less experienced invest 14 per cent. The median first investment is £25,000. 79 per cent of angel investment is done as part of a syndicate. Angel investors typically spend one and a half days a week on angel activities. They hold investments for 6 years on average and make use of EIS and SEIS schemes. Typically, angels invest across the commercial sectors but in recent years this has been dominated by technology.
53 per cent of angels thought their portfolio met expectations and 16 per cent of their portfolio exceeded them. 58 per cent of angels over 55 thought their portfolio met expectations and 19 per cent said it exceeded their expectations. The numbers were lower here for this under 55. The two principle reasons for expectations not being met were poor management and a need for more money than anticipated.
All this amazing data comes from Richard Hargreaves’ new book ‘How to be a Business Angel’. I end with his comments on the requirements to be an angel. Angel investing is a risky venture which needs a detailed strategy. Only invest when you like and respect the management and when you accept the risks. Spread the risks and invest systematically. Take advantage of the available tax reliefs. Invest mostly in things which you understand. Do due diligence on the target company and check their claims are true. Avoid investing good money after bad when things don’t go to plan. Above all, enjoy being an angel. If you don’t find it fun, you should not do it.
For civil servants, note that it has been the rising flow of venture capital and angel financed investment which has created the growth and successful new areas of our economy. It has been the EU which has sought, so far unsuccessfully, to constrain the tax incentives which have made these new areas of investment in the UK blossom.


conservativehome--2020-10-06--Johnson believes faith in the nation can unite lifelong Tories and traditional Labour supporters

Before Boris Johnson delivered his conference speech , Rachel Sylvester suggested , in her column in The Times , that he It is true that the Prime Minister is , as often happens to holders of that office , less popular than he used to be .
But the idea that he was lucky not to be performing in front of a live audience is preposterous .
His difficulties spring not only from the often inadequate response by the authorities to Covid-19 , but from the impossibility , during the pandemic , of engaging with live audiences .
Johnson is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ party who has taken the enormous trouble needed to master the art of the conference speech .
For year after year on these occasions , he would for an hour or two steal his party leader ’ s thunder , by showing he knew better than David Cameron or Theresa May how to make Conservatives feel good about being Conservative .
This year , one can not judge how his oratory went down in the hall .
He spoke , however , in much the same manner as he would have employed if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ live audience : “ I have read a lot of nonsense recently , about how my own bout of Covid has somehow robbed me of my mojo .
And of course this is self-evident drivel , the kind of seditious propaganda that you would expect from people who don ’ t want this government to succeed , who wanted to stop us delivering Brexit and all our other manifesto pledges – and I can tell you that no power on earth was and is going to do that – and I could refute @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any way they want : arm-wrestle , leg-wrestle , Cumberland wrestle , sprint-off , you name it.
” This is designed not only to convince those ready to be convinced , but also to infuriate those ready to be infuriated .
“ Drivel ” and “ seditious propaganda ” are deliberately insulting ways to describe all those high-minded columns by Sylvester and other distinguished pundits who devote their intellects to the task of demonstrating that Johnson is a scoundrel .
That he has the effrontery to accuse them of “ sedition ” , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just confirms his unfitness for office , a truth which will shortly become so obvious and embarrassing that Conservative MPs will bundle him out of power .
One day this forecast will turn out to be true , but meanwhile this kind of commentary runs the risk of underestimating the Prime Minister ’ s chances of success .
As Tom McTague observes in The Atlantic , again and again Johnson has been written off , and again and again he has survived and in due course prospered .
Nor does the failure to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the commentariat ask what his ideology is , and point out , after making their investigations , that he does not have one .
This is true , but what they fail to see is that this is in many ways a strength .
He has not strapped himself , or had himself strapped by others , into an ideological straitjacket .
He is a Tory pragmatist , interested in what works in practice , not what looks good on paper .
Pragmatism is an unexciting virtue , but Johnson has a gift @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than it would from some other speaker : One has only to imagine , with a shudder , how dreary the green energy proposals would have sounded in the mouth of any other party leader .
Johnson confirmed with this speech that he stands in the tradition of Benjamin Disraeli .
Here is Robin Harris , in The Conservatives : A History , explaining at the end of his two chapters on Disraeli what mattered most to that statesman : “ As Salisbury said in the Lords in tribute to his old chief @ @ @ @ @ @ @ respect , though never to like : ‘ Zeal for the greatness of England was the passion of his life.
’ When the mythology is stripped away – the overwritten novels , the overwrought expressions , the mysterious allusions , all later wrapped up in the hugely successful and highly eccentric trappings of the Primrose League – that simple core remains .
‘ The greatness of England ’ ( by which Disraeli meant Britain , but never thought it necessary to explain ) is his decisive contribution to the idea which the Conservative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , down through the decades , it has wanted others to have of it.
” And here is Johnson at the end of his speech : “ That is the Britain we can build – in its way , and with all due respect to everywhere else , the greatest place on earth ; indeed that is the country and the society we are in the process of building .
“ And I know that it seems tough now , when we are tackling the indignities and cruelty and absurdity of the disease @ @ @ @ @ @ @ measure of the greatness of this country that we are simply not going to let it hold us back or slow us down , and we are certainly not going to let it get us down , not for a moment , because even in the darkest moments we can see the bright future ahead , and we can see how to build it , and we are going to build it together.
” Here , ignored by superior commentators , is the faith in the nation which Johnson believes can unite lifelong @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voted Conservative for the first time last December .

Before Boris Johnson delivered his conference speech, Rachel Sylvester suggested, in her column in The Times, that he
“is fortunate to be speaking on a video link rather than in person because he might have received a less rapturous reception than normal.”
It is true that the Prime Minister is, as often happens to holders of that office, less popular than he used to be. But the idea that he was lucky not to be performing in front of a live audience is preposterous.
His difficulties spring not only from the often inadequate response by the authorities to Covid-19, but from the impossibility, during the pandemic, of engaging with live audiences.
Johnson is one of the few speakers in any party who has taken the enormous trouble needed to master the art of the conference speech. For year after year on these occasions, he would for an hour or two steal his party leader’s thunder, by showing he knew better than David Cameron or Theresa May how to make Conservatives feel good about being Conservative.
This year, one cannot judge how his oratory went down in the hall. He spoke, however, in much the same manner as he would have employed if he had been in front of a live audience:
“I have read a lot of nonsense recently, about how my own bout of Covid has somehow robbed me of my mojo. And of course this is self-evident drivel, the kind of seditious propaganda that you would expect from people who don’t want this government to succeed, who wanted to stop us delivering Brexit and all our other manifesto pledges – and I can tell you that no power on earth was and is going to do that – and I could refute these critics of my athletic abilities in any way they want: arm-wrestle, leg-wrestle, Cumberland wrestle, sprint-off, you name it.”
This is designed not only to convince those ready to be convinced, but also to infuriate those ready to be infuriated.
“Drivel” and “seditious propaganda” are deliberately insulting ways to describe all those high-minded columns by Sylvester and other distinguished pundits who devote their intellects to the task of demonstrating that Johnson is a scoundrel.
That he has the effrontery to accuse them of “sedition”, as if he were a monarch, just confirms his unfitness for office, a truth which will shortly become so obvious and embarrassing that Conservative MPs will bundle him out of power.
One day this forecast will turn out to be true, but meanwhile this kind of commentary runs the risk of underestimating the Prime Minister’s chances of success. As Tom McTague observes in The Atlantic, again and again Johnson has been written off, and again and again he has survived and in due course prospered.
Nor does the failure to understand Johnson end there. Members of the commentariat ask what his ideology is, and point out, after making their investigations, that he does not have one.
This is true, but what they fail to see is that this is in many ways a strength. He has not strapped himself, or had himself strapped by others, into an ideological straitjacket.
He is a Tory pragmatist, interested in what works in practice, not what looks good on paper.
Pragmatism is an unexciting virtue, but Johnson has a gift for making dull stuff sound more attractive than it would from some other speaker:
“It was offshore wind that puffed the sails of Drake and Raleigh and Nelson, and propelled this country to commercial greatness.”
One has only to imagine, with a shudder, how dreary the green energy proposals would have sounded in the mouth of any other party leader.
Johnson confirmed with this speech that he stands in the tradition of Benjamin Disraeli. Here is Robin Harris, in The Conservatives: A History, explaining at the end of his two chapters on Disraeli what mattered most to that statesman:
“As Salisbury said in the Lords in tribute to his old chief – a man he increasingly grew to respect, though never to like: ‘Zeal for the greatness of England was the passion of his life.’ When the mythology is stripped away – the overwritten novels, the overwrought expressions, the mysterious allusions, all later wrapped up in the hugely successful and highly eccentric trappings of the Primrose League – that simple core remains. ‘The greatness of England’ (by which Disraeli meant Britain, but never thought it necessary to explain) is his decisive contribution to the idea which the Conservative Party has of itself, and which, down through the decades, it has wanted others to have of it.”
And here is Johnson at the end of his speech:
“That is the Britain we can build – in its way, and with all due respect to everywhere else, the greatest place on earth; indeed that is the country and the society we are in the process of building. “And I know that it seems tough now, when we are tackling the indignities and cruelty and absurdity of the disease, but I believe it is a measure of the greatness of this country that we are simply not going to let it hold us back or slow us down, and we are certainly not going to let it get us down, not for a moment, because even in the darkest moments we can see the bright future ahead, and we can see how to build it, and we are going to build it together.”
Here, ignored by superior commentators, is the faith in the nation which Johnson believes can unite lifelong Conservatives with the traditional Labour supporters who voted Conservative for the first time last December.


conservativehome--2020-10-06--The Prime Minister’s full text. He says that, like Churchill’s wartime government, his is sketching

The Prime Minister’s full text. He says that, like Churchill’s wartime government, his is sketching out a vision of a new Jerusalem

“ Good morning conference , I want to begin by thanking you for everything you did at the election , pounding the streets in the middle of winter , prodding leaflets through the letterbox and into the jaws of dogs , to save this country from socialism and to win this party the biggest election victory in a generation .
I was going to say how great it is to be here in Birmingham but the fact is that we are not in Birmingham .
This is not a conference hall , and alas I can ’ t see any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There is no one to clap or heckle , and I don ’ t know about you but I have had more than enough of this disease that attacks not only human beings but so many of the greatest things about our country : our pubs , our clubs , our football , our theatre and all the gossipy gregariousness and love of human contact that drives the creativity of our economy .
So I want to thank you all for zooming in , and I can tell you that your government is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virus , and we will succeed , just as this country has seen off every alien invader for the last thousand years and we will succeed by collective effort , by following the guidance and with the help of weekly and almost daily improvements in the medicine and the science , we will ensure that next time we meet it will be face to face and cheek by jowl , and we are working for the day when life will be back to normal , flying in a plane will be back to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ look as though they are handling radioactive isotopes , and when we can go and see our loved ones in care homes , and when we no longer have to greet each other by touching elbows as in some giant national version of the Birdie dance .
I know the people of this country are going to defeat this virus because I have seen how the country has responded before , with the energy and self-sacrifice of the NHS , the care workers , the armed forces – the spirit that was incarnated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ captain Tom Moore .
But after all we have been through it isn ’ t enough just to go back to normal .
We have lost too much .
We have mourned too many .
We have been through too much frustration and hardship just to settle for the status quo ante – to think that life can go on as it was before the plague ; and it will not .
Because history teaches us that events of this magnitude – wars famines , plagues ; events that affect the vast bulk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – they do not just come and go .
They are more often than not the trigger for an acceleration of social and economic change , because we human beings will not simply content ourselves with a repair job .
We see these moments as the time to learn and to improve on the world that went before .
That is why this government will build back better .
And to explain what I mean by build back better , I will use a medical metaphor .
I have read a lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bout of Covid has somehow robbed me of my mojo .
And of course this is self-evident drivel , the kind of seditious propaganda that you would expect from people who don ’ t want this government to succeed , who wanted to stop us delivering Brexit and all our other manifesto pledges – and I can tell you that no power on earth was and is going to do that – and I could refute these critics of my athletic abilities in any way they want : arm-wrestle , leg-wrestle , Cumberland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And yet I have to admit the reason I had such a nasty experience with the disease is that although I was superficially in the pink of health when I caught it I had a very common underlying condition .
My friends I was too fat .
And I have since lost 26 lbs , and you can imagine that in bags of sugar and I am going to continue that diet , because you ’ ve got to search for the hero inside yourself in the hope that that individual is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the general economic condition of this country when we went into lockdown there was a similarity because we were on the face of it in pretty good shape .
We had a record number of people in jobs .
We had record low unemployment .
We were seeing growing exports ; and the only reason as Rishi Sunak pointed out in the last few months that we have been able to cope with the cost of the pandemic – to look after jobs and livelihoods in the way that we have – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had sensible conservative management of the public finances .
And yet if you looked more carefully you could see – and indeed many of us said so at the time – that the UK economy had some chronic underlying problems : long-term failure to tackle the deficit in skills , inadequate transport infrastructure , not enough homes people could afford to buy , especially young people – and far too many people , across the whole country , who felt ignored and left out , that the government was not on their side @ @ @ @ @ @ @ define the mission of this country as merely to restore normality .
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 post war new Jerusalem that they wanted to build .
And that is what we are doing now – in the teeth of this pandemic .
We need to move fast , not just to deal with the immediate economic fall out , but because after 12 years of relative anaemia we need to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We need to lift people ’ s incomes , not just go back to where we were .
And it is clear from Covid that we need the economic robustness to deal with whatever the next cosmic spanner may be hurtling towards us in the dark ; and the only way to ensure true resilience and long term prosperity is to raise the overall productivity of the country – and the bedrock of national productivity is of course something that we are responsible for , having great public services on which everyone – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rely .
That means first a great health service ; and so it is right that this government is pressing on with its plan for 48 hospitals .
Count them .
That ’ s the eight already underway , and then 40 more between now and 2030 .
We need to get on with recruiting the 50,000 more nurses – and I am proud that we have 14,000 more since this government came into office ; 14,000 more nurses now , under this Conservative government in the last year – and yet that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seen the frantic global scrabble for vaccines , for therapies – and so now we are doubling our funding for all types of revolutionary scientific breakthroughs , with a national Advanced Research and Projects Agency ; and while we are at it we will do what all governments have shirked for decades .
We will fix the injustice of care home funding , bringing the magic of averages to the rescue of millions .
Covid has shone a spotlight on the difficulties of that sector in all parts of the UK – and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , care for the carers as they care for us .
And if we are to raise productivity and encourage investment in the UK , then there is one thing we must do as a matter of basic hygiene ; and that is to fight crime .
And so yes , we are fulfilling our manifesto commitment to put another 20,000 officers out on the street – and I am proud that we have already recruited almost 5000 .
But fan though I am of the police , we need to see results @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we are also backing those police , and protecting the public , by changing the law to stop the early release of serious sexual and violent offenders , and stopping the whole criminal justice system from being hamstrung by what the Home Secretary would doubtless and rightly call the lefty human rights lawyers and other do-gooders .
And in spite of the pandemic the Home Secretary and I are having regular CompStat style sessions with the chief constables , when we look at the crime data across the country , and compare performance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do to help .
Town by town we are rooting out the county lines drugs gangs that are causing so much misery – and in that sense our agenda is basic social justice .
When I talk about levelling up , I mean making the streets safer for everyone ; and when I talk about levelling up , I mean not just investing massively in our schools , delivering on our promise to raise per pupil funding to £4000 per head in primary school and £5000 per head in secondary school , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ teachers .
I am thinking not just about the inputs , but about the outputs – the changes in the lives of young people .
And so I want to take further an idea that we have tried in the pandemic , and explore the value of one-to-one teaching , both for pupils who are in danger of falling behind , and for those who are of exceptional abilities .
We can all see the difficulties , but I believe such intensive teaching could be transformational , and of massive reassurance to parents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this that new approaches are born , and last week grasped a nettle that has intimidated governments for the last century – we effectively broke down the senseless barrier between Further Education and Higher Education , so that it is just as easy to get the funding you need for a training course in engineering or IT as for a degree in politics or economics ; because we are offering every adult four years of funded post-18 education – a lifetime skills guarantee .
A lifetime skills guarantee .
From internet shopping to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ though Covid has massively accelerated changes in the world of work ; and as old jobs are lost and as new jobs are created we are offering free training for adults without A-levels in vital skills from adult care to wind turbine maintenance .
The Covid crisis is a catalyst for change , and we need to give people the chance to train for the new jobs that are being created every day .
And there is one area where we are progressing with gale force speed ; and that is the green @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the next ten years will create hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs .
I can today announce that the UK government has decided to become the world leader in low cost clean power generation – cheaper than coal , cheaper than gas ; and we believe that in ten years time offshore wind will be powering every home in the country , with our target rising from 30 gigawatts to 40 gigawatts .
You heard me right .
Your kettle , your washing machine , your cooker , your heating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whole lot of them will get their juice cleanly and without guilt from the breezes that blow around these islands .
We will invest £160m in ports and factories across the country , to manufacture the next generation of turbines .
And we will not only build fixed arrays in the sea ; we will build windmills that float on the sea – enough to deliver one gigawatt of energy by 2030 , 15 times floating windmills , fifteen times as much as the rest of the world put together .
Far out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the gusts , and by upgrading infrastructure in such places as Teesside and Humber and Scotland and Wales we will increase an offshore wind capacity that is already the biggest in the world .
As Saudi Arabia is to oil , the UK is to wind – a place of almost limitless resource , but in the case of wind without the carbon emissions , without the damage to the environment .
I remember how some people used to sneer at wind power , twenty years ago , and say that it wouldn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rice pudding .
They forgot the history of this country .
It was offshore wind that puffed the sails of Drake and Raleigh and Nelson , and propelled this country to commercial greatness .
This investment in offshore wind alone will help to create 60,000 jobs in this country – and help us to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 .
Imagine that future – with high-skilled , green-collar jobs in wind , in solar , in nuclear , in hydrogen and in carbon capture and storage .
Retrofitting homes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has savaged us with Covid , but with the help of basic natural phenomena we will build back and bounce back greener ; and this government will lead that green industrial revolution .
We will create the conditions for individuals and for companies to flourish , with a high-skilled low-crime economy , and if there was a physical audience in front of me now I would solicit cheers by shouting out the details of our revolution in transport infrastructure – the A roads we are going to upgrade , the rail lines we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ways in which we will improve your lives , your daily commute .
But we must be clear that there comes a moment when the state must stand back and let the private sector get on with it .
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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 , with its rational interest in innovation and competition and market share and , yes , sales .
We must not draw the wrong economic conclusion from this crisis .
Rishi Sunak the Chancellor has come up with some brilliant expedients to help business to protect jobs and livelihoods ; but let ’ s face it , he has done things that no Conservative chancellor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ times of war or disaster .
This government has been forced by the pandemic into erosions of liberty that we deeply regret , and to an expansion of the role of the state – from lockdown enforcement to the many bail-outs and subsidies – that go against our instincts , but we accept them because there is simply no reasonable alternative .
And yet on the left , in the Labour party , there are many who regard this state expansion as progress , who want to keep the state supporting furlough forever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and who want to keep the state pre-empting and spending almost half our national income .
We Conservatives believe that way lies disaster , and that we must build back better by becoming more competitive , both in tax and regulation .
We need to make this the best place to start a business , the best place to invest , and we need to unleash the urge not just to build but to own .
We need to fix our broken housing market .
When Covid struck there were millions of people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ themselves locked down in rented accommodation , without private space , without a garden , forced to use ironing boards for desks and bedrooms for offices .
I know that many people are of course happy with renting and the flexibility that it offers .
But for most people it is still true that the overwhelming instinct is to buy .
Many of them simply can ’ t – not because they can ’ t afford the mortgage , but because they can ’ t afford the deposit , and the disgraceful truth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the under forties have plummeted in this country , and millions of people are forced to pay through the nose to rent a home they can not truly love or make their own , because they can not add a knob or a knocker to the front door or in some cases even hang a picture – let alone pass it on to their children .
Yes , we will transform the sclerotic planning system .
We will make it faster and easier to build beautiful new homes without destroying the green belt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reforms will take time , and they are not enough on their own .
We need now to take forward one of the key proposals of our manifesto of 2019 – giving young first time buyers the chance to take out a long-term fixed rate mortgage of up to 95 per cent of the value of the home , vastly reducing the size of the deposit , and giving the chance of home ownership – and all the joy and pride that goes with it – to millions that feel excluded .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million more owner occupiers , the biggest expansion of home ownership since the 1980s .
We will help turn generation rent into generation buy .
We will fix the long-term problems of this country not by endlessly expanding the state , but by giving power back to people – the fundamental life-affirming power of home ownership , the power to decide what colour to paint your own front door .
With our long-term fixed rate mortgages we want to spread that opportunity to every part of the country ; and that is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opposition .
They may have million pound homes in North London , but they deeply dislike home ownership for anyone else .
We want to level up – they want to level down .
We are proud of this country ’ s culture and history and traditions ; they literally want to pull statues down , to re-write the history of our country , to edit our national CV to make it look more politically correct .
We aren ’ t embarrassed to sing old songs about how Britannia rules the waves – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sense of it with a concerted national ship-building strategy that will bring jobs to every part of the UK , especially in Scotland , and we believe passionately in our wonderful Union , our United Kingdom – while the Labour opposition who have done frankly nothing to defend the Union , and continue to flirt with those who would tear our country apart .
And I say frankly to those separatist Scottish nationalists who would like this country to be distracted and divided by yet more constitutional wrangling , now is the time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in every part of the United Kingdom .
We believe in Global Britain as a proud independent and outward-looking country , and next year we will lead the world in the G7 , and at the cop 26 summit in Glasgow , with three great campaigns to bring the world together – to heal the world , tackling the virus , tackling climate change , and global free trade .
We have the confidence in our values and diplomacy – and be in no doubt that they are secretly scheming to overturn brexit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We believe in our fantastic armed services as one of the greatest exports this country has .
They , the Labour party can ’ t even vote for measures to protect veterans from vexatious prosecutions , fifty years later , when no new evidence is supplied .
And throughout this pandemic it is this government that has taken the tough decisions , because we believe that there are no easy answers , while they have simply sniped from the side-lines .
Well , my friends , we have no time now to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of pot-shot , snipeshot fusiliers .
I want to raise your eyes , and I want you to imagine that you are arriving in Britain in 2030 , when I hope that much of the programme I have outlined will be delivered , and you arrive in your zero carbon jet made in the UK and you flash your Brexit blue passport or your digital ID , you get an ev digital taxi ; and as you travel around you see a country that has been and is being transformed for the better @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and 30s have the joy of home ownership , and where they can bring up their children in the neighbourhoods where they grew up themselves , in the confidence that the schools are excellent and that crime is down ; and instead of being dragged on big commutes to the city , they can start a business in their home town , a place that has not only superb transport connections and green buses , but gigabit broadband , and where the workforce is abundantly equipped not just with university degrees but with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ demands .
And among other new landmarks you will see 48 new hospitals , and a population that is healthier and happier and quite a bit thinner from better diet , and taking so much exercise in the new cycle lanes , and walking among the millions of trees that have been planted , and going for picnics in the new wild belts that now mark the landscape .
You will notice that the air is cleaner because most people are now driving EVs , while some of the trucks are actually running @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the trains .
And I believe you will see a Britain that is more united than for decades in its constitutional settlement , where Brexit has delivered 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 , from innovation in tech and data and finance to improving our standards of our animal welfare .
Yes , you will see a country that scrupulously controls its own borders , but which is in some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ welcoming scientists and artists and people of talent from around the world , a Britain that is proud of our culture and history and unashamed of our heritage , but also unblinkered about the present – embracing every person with love and respect whatever their race or creed or gender or orientation .
That is the Britain we can build – in its way , and with all due respect to everywhere else , the greatest place on earth ; indeed that is the country and the society we are in the process @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it seems tough now , when we are tackling the indignities and cruelty and absurdity of the disease , but I believe it is a measure of the greatness of this country that we are simply not going to let it hold us back or slow us down , and we are certainly not going to let it get us down , not for a moment , because even in the darkest moments we can see the bright future ahead , and we can see how to build it , and we are @ @ @ @ @ @

“Good morning conference, I want to begin by thanking you for everything you did at the election, pounding the streets in the middle of winter, prodding leaflets through the letterbox and into the jaws of dogs, to save this country from socialism and to win this party the biggest election victory in a generation.
I was going to say how great it is to be here in Birmingham but the fact is that we are not in Birmingham. This is not a conference hall, and alas I can’t see any of you in front of me.
There is no one to clap or heckle, and I don’t know about you but I have had more than enough of this disease that attacks not only human beings but so many of the greatest things about our country: our pubs, our clubs, our football, our theatre and all the gossipy gregariousness and love of human contact that drives the creativity of our economy.
So I want to thank you all for zooming in, and I can tell you that your government is working night and day to repel this virus, and we will succeed, just as this country has seen off every alien invader for the last thousand years and we will succeed by collective effort, by following the guidance and with the help of weekly and almost daily improvements in the medicine and the science, we will ensure that next time we meet it will be face to face and cheek by jowl, and we are working for the day when life will be back to normal, flying in a plane will be back to normal, and hairdressers will no longer look as though they are handling radioactive isotopes, and when we can go and see our loved ones in care homes, and when we no longer have to greet each other by touching elbows as in some giant national version of the Birdie dance.
I know the people of this country are going to defeat this virus because I have seen how the country has responded before, with the energy and self-sacrifice of the NHS, the care workers, the armed forces – the spirit that was incarnated in the bounding, boundless devotion of captain Tom Moore.
But after all we have been through it isn’t enough just to go back to normal. We have lost too much. We have mourned too many.
We have been through too much frustration and hardship just to settle for the status quo ante – to think that life can go on as it was before the plague; and it will not. Because history teaches us that events of this magnitude – wars famines, plagues; events that affect the vast bulk of humanity, as this virus has – they do not just come and go.
They are more often than not the trigger for an acceleration of social and economic change, because we human beings will not simply content ourselves with a repair job.
We see these moments as the time to learn and to improve on the world that went before.
That is why this government will build back better.
And to explain what I mean by build back better, I will use a medical metaphor.
I have read a lot of nonsense recently, about how my own bout of Covid has somehow robbed me of my mojo. And of course this is self-evident drivel, the kind of seditious propaganda that you would expect from people who don’t want this government to succeed, who wanted to stop us delivering Brexit and all our other manifesto pledges – and I can tell you that no power on earth was and is going to do that – and I could refute these critics of my athletic abilities in any way they want: arm-wrestle, leg-wrestle, Cumberland wrestle, sprint-off, you name it.
And yet I have to admit the reason I had such a nasty experience with the disease is that although I was superficially in the pink of health when I caught it I had a very common underlying condition.
My friends I was too fat. And I have since lost 26 lbs, and you can imagine that in bags of sugar and I am going to continue that diet, because you’ve got to search for the hero inside yourself in the hope that that individual is considerably slimmer, and when you look at the general economic condition of this country when we went into lockdown there was a similarity because we were on the face of it in pretty good shape.
We had a record number of people in jobs. We had record low unemployment. We were seeing growing exports; and the only reason as Rishi Sunak pointed out in the last few months that we have been able to cope with the cost of the pandemic – to look after jobs and livelihoods in the way that we have – is that in the previous years we had sensible conservative management of the public finances.
And yet if you looked more carefully you could see – and indeed many of us said so at the time – that the UK economy had some chronic underlying problems: long-term failure to tackle the deficit in skills, inadequate transport infrastructure, not enough homes people could afford to buy, especially young people – and far too many people, across the whole country, who felt ignored and left out, that the government was not on their side; and so we cannot now define the mission of this country as merely to restore normality.
That isn’t good enough.
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 post war new Jerusalem that they wanted to build. And that is what we are doing now – in the teeth of this pandemic.
We need to move fast, not just to deal with the immediate economic fall out, but because after 12 years of relative anaemia we need to lift the trend rate of growth. We need to lift people’s incomes, not just go back to where we were.
And it is clear from Covid that we need the economic robustness to deal with whatever the next cosmic spanner may be hurtling towards us in the dark; and the only way to ensure true resilience and long term prosperity is to raise the overall productivity of the country – and the bedrock of national productivity is of course something that we are responsible for, having great public services on which everyone – families, business, investors – can rely.
That means first a great health service; and so it is right that this government is pressing on with its plan for 48 hospitals. Count them. That’s the eight already underway, and then 40 more between now and 2030.
We need to get on with recruiting the 50,000 more nurses – and I am proud that we have 14,000 more since this government came into office; 14,000 more nurses now, under this Conservative government in the last year – and yet that isn’t enough.
We have seen the frantic global scrabble for vaccines, for therapies – and so now we are doubling our funding for all types of revolutionary scientific breakthroughs, with a national Advanced Research and Projects Agency; and while we are at it we will do what all governments have shirked for decades.
We will fix the injustice of care home funding, bringing the magic of averages to the rescue of millions.
Covid has shone a spotlight on the difficulties of that sector in all parts of the UK – and to build back better we must respond, care for the carers as they care for us.
And if we are to raise productivity and encourage investment in the UK, then there is one thing we must do as a matter of basic hygiene; and that is to fight crime.
And so yes, we are fulfilling our manifesto commitment to put another 20,000 officers out on the street – and I am proud that we have already recruited almost 5000. But fan though I am of the police, we need to see results, not just spending; and so we are also backing those police, and protecting the public, by changing the law to stop the early release of serious sexual and violent offenders, and stopping the whole criminal justice system from being hamstrung by what the Home Secretary would doubtless and rightly call the lefty human rights lawyers and other do-gooders.
And in spite of the pandemic the Home Secretary and I are having regular CompStat style sessions with the chief constables, when we look at the crime data across the country, and compare performance, and work out what we can do to help.
Town by town we are rooting out the county lines drugs gangs that are causing so much misery – and in that sense our agenda is basic social justice.
When I talk about levelling up, I mean making the streets safer for everyone; and when I talk about levelling up, I mean not just investing massively in our schools, delivering on our promise to raise per pupil funding to £4000 per head in primary school and £5000 per head in secondary school, as well as a £30k starting salary for teachers.
I am thinking not just about the inputs, but about the outputs – the changes in the lives of young people. And so I want to take further an idea that we have tried in the pandemic, and explore the value of one-to-one teaching, both for pupils who are in danger of falling behind, and for those who are of exceptional abilities.
We can all see the difficulties, but I believe such intensive teaching could be transformational, and of massive reassurance to parents.
It is in a crisis like this that new approaches are born, and last week grasped a nettle that has intimidated governments for the last century – we effectively broke down the senseless barrier between Further Education and Higher Education, so that it is just as easy to get the funding you need for a training course in engineering or IT as for a degree in politics or economics; because we are offering every adult four years of funded post-18 education – a lifetime skills guarantee. A lifetime skills guarantee.
From internet shopping to working from home, it looks as though Covid has massively accelerated changes in the world of work; and as old jobs are lost and as new jobs are created we are offering free training for adults without A-levels in vital skills from adult care to wind turbine maintenance.
The Covid crisis is a catalyst for change, and we need to give people the chance to train for the new jobs that are being created every day.
And there is one area where we are progressing with gale force speed; and that is the green economy, the green industrial revolution that in the next ten years will create hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs.
I can today announce that the UK government has decided to become the world leader in low cost clean power generation – cheaper than coal, cheaper than gas; and we believe that in ten years time offshore wind will be powering every home in the country, with our target rising from 30 gigawatts to 40 gigawatts.
You heard me right. Your kettle, your washing machine, your cooker, your heating, your plug-in electric vehicle – the whole lot of them will get their juice cleanly and without guilt from the breezes that blow around these islands.
We will invest £160m in ports and factories across the country, to manufacture the next generation of turbines.
And we will not only build fixed arrays in the sea; we will build windmills that float on the sea – enough to deliver one gigawatt of energy by 2030, 15 times floating windmills, fifteen times as much as the rest of the world put together.
Far out in the deepest waters we will harvest the gusts, and by upgrading infrastructure in such places as Teesside and Humber and Scotland and Wales we will increase an offshore wind capacity that is already the biggest in the world.
As Saudi Arabia is to oil, the UK is to wind – a place of almost limitless resource, but in the case of wind without the carbon emissions, without the damage to the environment.
I remember how some people used to sneer at wind power, twenty years ago, and say that it wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding.
They forgot the history of this country. It was offshore wind that puffed the sails of Drake and Raleigh and Nelson, and propelled this country to commercial greatness.
This investment in offshore wind alone will help to create 60,000 jobs in this country – and help us to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Imagine that future – with high-skilled, green-collar jobs in wind, in solar, in nuclear, in hydrogen and in carbon capture and storage. Retrofitting homes, ground source heat pumps.
Mother nature has savaged us with Covid, but with the help of basic natural phenomena we will build back and bounce back greener; and this government will lead that green industrial revolution.
We will create the conditions for individuals and for companies to flourish, with a high-skilled low-crime economy, and if there was a physical audience in front of me now I would solicit cheers by shouting out the details of our revolution in transport infrastructure – the A roads we are going to upgrade, the rail lines we are building or electrifying, the simple ways in which we will improve your lives, your daily commute.
But we must be clear that there comes a moment when the state must stand back and let the private sector get on with it.
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, with its rational interest in innovation and competition and market share and, yes, sales.
We must not draw the wrong economic conclusion from this crisis.
Rishi Sunak the Chancellor has come up with some brilliant expedients to help business to protect jobs and livelihoods; but let’s face it, he has done things that no Conservative chancellor would have wanted to do except in times of war or disaster.
This government has been forced by the pandemic into erosions of liberty that we deeply regret, and to an expansion of the role of the state – from lockdown enforcement to the many bail-outs and subsidies – that go against our instincts, but we accept them because there is simply no reasonable alternative.
And yet on the left, in the Labour party, there are many who regard this state expansion as progress, who want to keep the state supporting furlough forever, keep people in suspended animation, and who want to keep the state pre-empting and spending almost half our national income.
We Conservatives believe that way lies disaster, and that we must build back better by becoming more competitive, both in tax and regulation.
We need to make this the best place to start a business, the best place to invest, and we need to unleash the urge not just to build but to own.
We need to fix our broken housing market.
When Covid struck there were millions of people, often young people, who found themselves locked down in rented accommodation, without private space, without a garden, forced to use ironing boards for desks and bedrooms for offices.
I know that many people are of course happy with renting and the flexibility that it offers. But for most people it is still true that the overwhelming instinct is to buy.
Many of them simply can’t – not because they can’t afford the mortgage, but because they can’t afford the deposit, and the disgraceful truth is that levels of owner occupation for the under forties have plummeted in this country, and millions of people are forced to pay through the nose to rent a home they cannot truly love or make their own, because they cannot add a knob or a knocker to the front door or in some cases even hang a picture – let alone pass it on to their children.
Yes, we will transform the sclerotic planning system. We will make it faster and easier to build beautiful new homes without destroying the green belt or desecrating the countryside.
But these reforms will take time, and they are not enough on their own.
We need now to take forward one of the key proposals of our manifesto of 2019 – giving young first time buyers the chance to take out a long-term fixed rate mortgage of up to 95 per cent of the value of the home, vastly reducing the size of the deposit, and giving the chance of home ownership – and all the joy and pride that goes with it – to millions that feel excluded.
We believe that this policy could create two million more owner occupiers, the biggest expansion of home ownership since the 1980s.
We will help turn generation rent into generation buy. We will fix the long-term problems of this country not by endlessly expanding the state, but by giving power back to people – the fundamental life-affirming power of home ownership, the power to decide what colour to paint your own front door.
With our long-term fixed rate mortgages we want to spread that opportunity to every part of the country; and that is the difference between us Conservatives and the Labour opposition.
They may have million pound homes in North London, but they deeply dislike home ownership for anyone else.
We want to level up – they want to level down.
We are proud of this country’s culture and history and traditions; they literally want to pull statues down, to re-write the history of our country, to edit our national CV to make it look more politically correct.
We aren’t embarrassed to sing old songs about how Britannia rules the waves – in fact, we are even making sense of it with a concerted national ship-building strategy that will bring jobs to every part of the UK, especially in Scotland, and we believe passionately in our wonderful Union, our United Kingdom – while the Labour opposition who have done frankly nothing to defend the Union, and continue to flirt with those who would tear our country apart.
And I say frankly 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 United Kingdom.
We believe in Global Britain as a proud independent and outward-looking country, and next year we will lead the world in the G7, and at the cop 26 summit in Glasgow, with three great campaigns to bring the world together – to heal the world, tackling the virus, tackling climate change, and global free trade.
We have the confidence in our values and diplomacy – and be in no doubt that they are secretly scheming to overturn brexit and take us back into the EU.
We believe in our fantastic armed services as one of the greatest exports this country has.
They, the Labour party can’t even vote for measures to protect veterans from vexatious prosecutions, fifty years later, when no new evidence is supplied.
And throughout this pandemic it is this government that has taken the tough decisions, because we believe that there are no easy answers, while they have simply sniped from the side-lines.
Well, my friends, we have no time now to focus on Captain Hindsight and his regiment of pot-shot, snipeshot fusiliers.
I want to raise your eyes, and I want you to imagine that you are arriving in Britain in 2030, when I hope that much of the programme I have outlined will be delivered, and you arrive in your zero carbon jet made in the UK and you flash your Brexit blue passport or your digital ID, you get an ev digital taxi; and as you travel around you see a country that has been and is being transformed for the better – where young people in their 20s and 30s have the joy of home ownership, and where they can bring up their children in the neighbourhoods where they grew up themselves, in the confidence that the schools are excellent and that crime is down; and instead of being dragged on big commutes to the city, they can start a business in their home town, a place that has not only superb transport connections and green buses, but gigabit broadband, and where the workforce is abundantly equipped not just with university degrees but with the technical skills that the new economy demands.
And among other new landmarks you will see 48 new hospitals, and a population that is healthier and happier and quite a bit thinner from better diet, and taking so much exercise in the new cycle lanes, and walking among the millions of trees that have been planted, and going for picnics in the new wild belts that now mark the landscape.
You will notice that the air is cleaner because most people are now driving EVs, while some of the trucks are actually running on hydrogen, and even some of the trains.
And I believe you will see a Britain that is more united than for decades in its constitutional settlement, where Brexit has delivered 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, from innovation in tech and data and finance to improving our standards of our animal welfare.
Yes, you will see a country that scrupulously controls its own borders, but which is in some ways more cosmopolitan than ever before, welcoming scientists and artists and people of talent from around the world, a Britain that is proud of our culture and history and unashamed of our heritage, but also unblinkered about the present – embracing every person with love and respect whatever their race or creed or gender or orientation.
That is the Britain we can build – in its way, and with all due respect to everywhere else, the greatest place on earth; indeed that is the country and the society we are in the process of building.
And I know that it seems tough now, when we are tackling the indignities and cruelty and absurdity of the disease, but I believe it is a measure of the greatness of this country that we are simply not going to let it hold us back or slow us down, and we are certainly not going to let it get us down, not for a moment, because even in the darkest moments we can see the bright future ahead, and we can see how to build it, and we are going to build it together.


conservativehome--2020-10-06--Calling Conservatives: New public appointments announced. Chair of the Coal Authority – and more


Competence

We defer to the pollsters ’ expertise .
But we believe that there are usually three main measures which decide whether or not a Government gets re-elected .
First , whether the Prime Minister is better rated than the Opposition ’ s leader .
Second , whether the Government is more trusted to handle the economy than the Opposition – for that abstract term , “ the economy ” , read the standard of living , public services , and quality of life .
Finally , there is competence-with-a-purpose : does the Government have a plan , and is it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the last question is a sense that the Prime Minister ’ s party is closer to voters ’ values , to “ being on our side ” , than the Opposition .
In the Conservative Party ’ s recent history , Margaret Thatcher passed this test three times , John Major succeeded once and failed once…and David Cameron led a coalition government , not a Tory one .
None the less , he won a second term as Prime Minister because his party outscored Ed Miliband ’ s on all three measures – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the “ long-term economic plan to appeal to “ hard-working people who play by the rules ” .
All of which takes us to our proprietor ’ s recent polling , about which he wrote on this site yesterday , and to Boris Johnson ’ s speech later this morning .
These are early days .
On leadership , we don ’ t find it hard to imagine Boris Johnson ’ s rating eventually overtaking Keir Starmer ’ s .
( Lord Ashcroft ’ s polling found that the verdict on the latter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ questioned was : don ’ t know . )
On the economy – and everything that this site is trying to pack into that word – there is all to play for .
It is impossible to know what living standards will be when the election is held , what people will think about the state of the public services , and what they will feel about their own prospects and those of the country .
On competence-with-a-purpose , though , the signs are not good .
The main purpose of the Tory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As far as most voters are concerned , that ’ s already been done , whether or not Britain ends up with a deal or no deal .
The rest of the Conservative Manifesto steered deliberately clear of any pledge that might provoke the electoral wrath that its 2017 predecessor brought down on the head of Theresa May .
It ’ s leitmotif was more money for everything : nurses , doctors , police , science , bound together by the idea of “ levelling up ” .
The Government ’ s strategic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worth noting in passing that the Chancellor ’ s more tactical communications are excellent : “ eat out to help out ” ; “ bounceback loans ” ; “ kickstart ” ) .
But while it may not be projecting its efforts to spread prosperity and opportunity more evenly in Britain , these are there none the less .
Ministers are trying to spread public spending more evenly ; the Prime Minister has a radical plan to deliver more housing ; a rebalancing between higher and further education is in hand ; Grant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more infrastructure up outside the South-East .
The Government is applying its shoulder to the wheel of levelling-up .
However , much of this is lost on voters – like the millions of extra pounds that are destined for the NHS , or the increased sentences that Robert Buckand is preparing for violent offenders .
To some degree , this is always so in government : delivery doesn ’ t win headlines .
The extra reason for the Government ’ s troubles is so obvious that we don ’ t need to stress @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Lord Ashcroft ’ s poll found that voters are divided down the middle on whether Ministers are doing a reasonable job of handling Covid-19 .
This reflects an acknowledgement that Ministers have had successes ( getting the Nightingale Hospitals built ) as well as failures ( protecting care homes ) .
But , frankly , the Government ’ s strategy for dealing with the virus – testing-and-track – came late and isn ’ t working .
Until or unless it does , or a vaccine arrives and works quickly , or the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Government will stay divided at the top on whether to impose more restrictions , and aim to suppress the virus , or to lift them , and live with it .
Which suggests that before too long , the Conservative backbenches , and indeed the Commons – which also means Starmer – may step in and take control .
The debate in the chamber this week on the ten o ’ clock closing time for pubs is shaping up to be another shot across the Prime Minister ’ s bows .
Conference speeches @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a rule , and Johnson will not be helped today by having no live audience .
If he aims to do anything with this reduced opportunity , we hope that he won ’ t spend too much time on making policy announcements for the sake of making policy announcements , such as this morning ’ s trailing of more wind power .
Rather , he should set out clearly how testing and tracking is going to work – and by when .
For if the policy can ’ t be delivered , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ purpose , and events are likely to overhaul it .
As for competence , the state ’ s record so far in this crisis has been poor – think Public Health England , think Ofqal , think the stuttering story of the NHS app , think last weekend ’ s testing data cock-up .
But while Johnson ’ s ratings may get ahead of Starmer ’ s by the time the election comes – and the nation ’ s spirits may be on the rise , too – the Government ’ s sense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is being sapped by the virus .
It must be added that projecting competence ( rather than , say , uplift and cheer ) has never been the Prime Minister ’ s strong suit .
Which is why he needs a formal deputy to help him find it , stabilise the Government and get Conservative MPs working together .
Our choice is Michael Gove , but it he won ’ t have him , he should find someone else .

We defer to the pollsters’ expertise. But we believe that there are usually three main measures which decide whether or not a Government gets re-elected.
First, whether the Prime Minister is better rated than the Opposition’s leader. Second, whether the Government is more trusted to handle the economy than the Opposition – for that abstract term, “the economy”, read the standard of living, public services, and quality of life. Finally, there is competence-with-a-purpose: does the Government have a plan, and is it delivering it effectively?
Mixed up with the last question is a sense that the Prime Minister’s party is closer to voters’ values, to “being on our side”, than the Opposition.
In the Conservative Party’s recent history, Margaret Thatcher passed this test three times, John Major succeeded once and failed once…and David Cameron led a coalition government, not a Tory one. None the less, he won a second term as Prime Minister because his party outscored Ed Miliband’s on all three measures – on the last, Lynton Crosby broadened the “long-term economic plan to appeal to “hard-working people who play by the rules”.
All of which takes us to our proprietor’s recent polling, about which he wrote on this site yesterday, and to Boris Johnson’s speech later this morning.
These are early days. On leadership, we don’t find it hard to imagine Boris Johnson’s rating eventually overtaking Keir Starmer’s. (Lord Ashcroft’s polling found that the verdict on the latter from more than a third of those questioned was: don’t know.)
On the economy – and everything that this site is trying to pack into that word – there is all to play for. It is impossible to know what living standards will be when the election is held, what people will think about the state of the public services, and what they will feel about their own prospects and those of the country.
On competence-with-a-purpose, though, the signs are not good. The main purpose of the Tory election campaign was to deliver Brexit. As far as most voters are concerned, that’s already been done, whether or not Britain ends up with a deal or no deal.
The rest of the Conservative Manifesto steered deliberately clear of any pledge that might provoke the electoral wrath that its 2017 predecessor brought down on the head of Theresa May. It’s leitmotif was more money for everything: nurses, doctors, police, science, bound together by the idea of “levelling up”.
The Government’s strategic messaging is poor (it’s worth noting in passing that the Chancellor’s more tactical communications are excellent: “eat out to help out”; “bounceback loans”; “kickstart”). But while it may not be projecting its efforts to spread prosperity and opportunity more evenly in Britain, these are there none the less.
Ministers are trying to spread public spending more evenly; the Prime Minister has a radical plan to deliver more housing; a rebalancing between higher and further education is in hand; Grant Shapps is leading the charge to get more infrastructure up outside the South-East. The Government is applying its shoulder to the wheel of levelling-up.
However, much of this is lost on voters – like the millions of extra pounds that are destined for the NHS, or the increased sentences that Robert Buckand is preparing for violent offenders. To some degree, this is always so in government: delivery doesn’t win headlines.
The extra reason for the Government’s troubles is so obvious that we don’t need to stress it – the Coronavirus and its consequences. Lord Ashcroft’s poll found that voters are divided down the middle on whether Ministers are doing a reasonable job of handling Covid-19.
This reflects an acknowledgement that Ministers have had successes (getting the Nightingale Hospitals built) as well as failures (protecting care homes). But, frankly, the Government’s strategy for dealing with the virus – testing-and-track – came late and isn’t working.
Until or unless it does, or a vaccine arrives and works quickly, or the disease simply burns itself out, the Government will stay divided at the top on whether to impose more restrictions, and aim to suppress the virus, or to lift them, and live with it.
Which suggests that before too long, the Conservative backbenches, and indeed the Commons – which also means Starmer – may step in and take control. The debate in the chamber this week on the ten o’clock closing time for pubs is shaping up to be another shot across the Prime Minister’s bows.
Conference speeches by Party leaders get little cut-through as a rule, and Johnson will not be helped today by having no live audience.
If he aims to do anything with this reduced opportunity, we hope that he won’t spend too much time on making policy announcements for the sake of making policy announcements, such as this morning’s trailing of more wind power. Rather, he should set out clearly how testing and tracking is going to work – and by when. For if the policy can’t be delivered, the Government’s Covid-19 policy will lack purpose, and events are likely to overhaul it.
As for competence, the state’s record so far in this crisis has been poor – think Public Health England, think Ofqal, think the stuttering story of the NHS app, think last weekend’s testing data cock-up.
But while Johnson’s ratings may get ahead of Starmer’s by the time the election comes – and the nation’s spirits may be on the rise, too – the Government’s sense of purpose, never clearly expressed, is being sapped by the virus. It must be added that projecting competence (rather than, say, uplift and cheer) has never been the Prime Minister’s strong suit.
Which is why he needs a formal deputy to help him find it, stabilise the Government and get Conservative MPs working together. Our choice is Michael Gove, but it he won’t have him, he should find someone else.