Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

We need to cut back big government so we can drive real change and, in due course, cut taxes Source - Daily Telegraph 16/07/22 Link   We Conservatives need to get back to first principles. You can’t spend what you haven’t earned. Government should do less, better. Property ownership should be spread as widely as possible. Nations need borders. The family is the first, and best, source of welfare. I’m standing to be leader to ensure that we are governed by these essential truths. And as Prime Minister I will ensure the government machine is focused on getting the basics right. I am an engineer, a systems thinker, trained to strip things down to the essentials and get the machine working. That’s why I’ve laid out a plan to cut back big government so we can drive real change and, in due course, cut taxes. But a coherent Conservative vision for government also requires us to explain why some big problems are interlinked and you need to have a clear plan to solve them together. That’s t...

It is among the most cynical and dishonest strategies ever pursued by a modern political party in a democratic country Source - Daily Telegraph - 13/07/22 Link The front-runner in the Conservative leadership election, Rishi Sunak, has reportedly signalled an end to so-called muscular Unionism of the sort pursued by Boris Johnson, should the former chancellor become prime minister in September. That being the case, I assume he is looking on with some concern at recent political events north of the border (if he concerns himself with Scotland at all, that is). The latest twist in the never-ending campaign for Scottish independence is that the UK Government, in a muscular Unionist sort of way, is seeking to persuade the Supreme Court not to bother wasting its time giving advice to the Scottish government as to whether it has the legal right to hold another independence referendum. It’s just another skirmish in a battle that has so far been all about process, and therefore not really engag...

 Whatever scrutiny Tory leadership candidates will face, the former chancellor appears to have the edge on campaign mechanics alone Source - Daily Telegraph 14/07/22 Link Sajid Javid’s leadership launch was boiling. He had to mop sweat from his head, making the front pages in the process. Penny Mordaunt was made to push her way through a crowd of reporters to reach the podium. Rishi Sunak’s event on Tuesday was different. There were wristbands for press attendees. There was air conditioning. There were clear entry and exit points for the candidate, lined with placard-holding supporters who were guaranteed to be in the shot for the photographers and television cameras. Leadership election campaigns are about policy ideas, big picture visions, an individual's charisma and competence, the mood at the time and the instincts of the party base. But they are also, in part, a story of mechanics – how efficiently a hopeful can hone a message, maximise their limited time, avoid missteps and ...

 Kemi Badenoch is a robust conviction conservative. The fact that her election would enrage the Left is a bonus Source - Daily Telegraph 13/07/22 Link Picture the scene. As Parliament returns from a summer of discontent, the Conservative Party unveils a new leader with the potential to disarm the Opposition, robbing them of their most potent lines of attack. Step forward, Kemi Badenoch. Intelligent, straight-talking, young, black, female, a first-generation immigrant – yet rejecting any hint of victimhood. She avoids the “newspeak”, pompous rhetoric and robotic air that characterise too many politicians today. Crucially, she would be a new face, unscarred by the Johnson regime’s peccadilloes, talking convincingly about a fresh start as few of her leadership rivals can. To my mind, she would be Labour’s worst nightmare. Badenoch wouldn’t just be immune to Labour’s traditional class-based insults. She’d bring out the worst in her most extreme opponents. The vicious Left, who believe ...

 She comes across as serious, sensible and willing to take stances that are unpopular but thought through Souce - Daily telegraph 12/07/22 Link Margaret Thatcher’s dramatic downfall occurred during the twin by-elections in the Scottish town of Paisley, just a few weeks after I had been appointed as Scottish Labour’s first ever full time press officer. Our task was not only to defend the two previously safe Labour redoubts, but to put a brave face on Mrs Thatcher’s removal. She may have been a vote-winner in much of England, but in Scotland we relied on her to recruit discontented middle class voters; the 1987 election had seen a succession of Tory seats fall to Labour – seats which, had they been in England, would have been safely Conservative. The last thing we wanted was for her to be replaced by someone like Michael Heseltine, or even John Major. We had spent so long defining ourselves against Thatcherism that the task of tackling a new opponent was as daunting as it was unexpec...

There is remarkable talent on display, but it risks being undermined by petty barbs and frivolous policies Source - Daily Telegraph - 10/07/22 Link Conservative MPs and members are proud of their standing as the most successful electoral force in the democratic world. The secret behind that record lies in two characteristics. First, a readiness to commit regicide when a leader is failing. And second, a capacity for renewal, unencumbered by the ideologies of their rivals, that allows them to change with the times. The removal of Boris Johnson is evidence of the first characteristic, while the second will be tested by the quality, and outcome, of the leadership election now under way. Already, a party accused by its enemies of failing to reflect the diversity of modern Britain is showing that it is in fact ahead of its critics. Only a minority of the likely candidates are white, and almost half are women. In response, the Left, already suffering paroxysms of confusion and anger, is showi...

 As I listened to Starmer's big speech, I had a strange feeling. I had heard something like this before Source - Daily Telegraph 09/07/22 Link Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but the week Boris Johnson fell also happened to be the week when, for the first time since the vote in 2016, Sir Keir Starmer took a clear position on Brexit. At a Guinness-fuelled soirée hosted by the Centre for European Reform (CER) at the Irish embassy, he climbed awkwardly off the Brexit fence. Labour, said Sir Keir, would not take the UK back into the single market or customs union, but it would try to negotiate deals with the EU sector by sector in areas like agri-food products and professional qualifications to “tear down unnecessary barriers” to trade. His party would re-enter EU research programmes like Horizon and “share data intelligence and best practice” with Brussels to “keep Britain safe”. “We will not be able to deliver complete frictionless trade,” he said, “but there are things we can do to make...