How the Tories should address Britain’s future

Michael Gove gave a speech at the thinktank Onward for the launch of its Future of Conservatism project today. Here is the text of his speech in full:

The essence of Tory modernisation is to be true to the core principle of Conservatism – to deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be. Conservative modernisation means applying enduring Conservative principles to our changing times and adapting policy to an altered world. The problems faced by Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson – and indeed George Osborne and David Cameron – are different from the crises and challenges we face today. Today I want to outline four key challenges that I know the Onward team will wish to rise to.

First, the world economy has changed. The long shadow of the financial crisis, the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine have all seen us move beyond the high water mark of globalisation to a time where national resilience and economic security matter more.