I saw the light and the dark sides of the Tories in Manchester this week. Their nutters were much in evidence at certain fringe meetings. First there was an absolutely barking mad woman sat at the front of an IoD fringe meeting who said “all regulation should be abolished,” which even John Redwood on scary mad-eyed (brilliant) form had to correct her. Secondly, I put my head round the door of a Freedom Association meeting at the Bridgewater Hall and Redwood was there again. Then I got really scared when I stopped for a chat to the people from the Taxpayers Alliance. I chose not to take a car sticker with “Love Europe Hate the EU” on it.
But on the lighter side I saw two different meetings where Philip Hammond was impressive. In one on the need for public sector cuts he got mildly wound up by Polly Toynbee from the Guardian (which doesn’t make him a bad man in my book). He is also quite resolute in the need to balance the books. George Osborne’s later announcement about public sector pay freezes is part of the package of reform he is wrestling with. I suspect he has been doing the work for Osborne in this. There were many mutterings around the fringe that concluded that Hammond is a far more credible figure on an issue as critical as the economy and public finances.
It’s been interesting too to see how the policy to “reform the regional development agencies” has been interpreted as “abolish” by very senior speakers at events. At a Localis event to launch a new report Can Localism Deliver, Shadow Communities Secretary Caroline Spellman spoke of “reform” and let them see the wood for the trees. The glum looking officials from the NWDA that we saw around the place have, until now, been putting a brave face on things. But it’s a visible quick fix that rouses the rabble. Presumably now every two bit local authority will have their own economic development, regeneration and tourism marketing people to make up for what the NWDA won’t be doing. How’s that an effeciency?
But there is also positive and progressive evidence of a moral compass to the Tory agenda. I satiated my intrigue in the ideas of “progressive conservative” Philip Blond at an event organised by the Conservative Christian Fellowship, where he fleshed out some of his thoughts on what constitutes “a common good”. Through his think tank Respublica, it is said that Blond has provided David Cameron’s “mood music”.
From the North West reception on Monday night, through to slightly giddy fringe meetings around the city, I have detected a certain triumphalism. They need to be careful about that. There is still a mountain to climb. And Cameron wisely issued the edict for them to say “if” not “when” they win an election and have been warned not to drink champagne, a warning he failed to heed himself.
That all said, on Thursday David Cameron whipped the activists up with a message to put fire in their bellies. It was never going to be: “go back to your constituencies and prepare for a coalition.” It certainly won’t wash with the nutters, but they have always been part of the problem.