Theresa may

Thursday

Steerpike

Tory MP: May could be PM for another 25 years

Talk of an imminent coup against Theresa May might be somewhat overblown, but most Tories generally accept the Prime Minister won’t be around to fight another election. Not so James Gray. The Tory MP for North Wiltshire thinks May could stick it out for the next five. In an interview with the BBC, Gray said May could go on as Prime Minister for another 25 years: ‘She’s currently 62, some Prime Ministers have lasted until at least 84 so that gives her 22, 25 years to go…so I very much hope she will continue for many years to come.’ If Gray’s prediction is correct, it would also make May the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Whether Theresa May survives depends on two things

Is Theresa May now doomed after her conference speech went so badly wrong? Tory MPs were yesterday so shocked by all the mishaps that it took them a few hours to realise that underneath all the things that weren’t May’s fault – such as the P45 stunt and the set falling apart – were a lot of things that the Prime Minister really was responsible for. The speech was not the bold, re-energising address that May needed to give. It contained pale policies which seemed pale red, not true blue. There are ministers who see this as an opportunity to move against their leader. There are Boris allies who have

Will Heaven

Theresa May’s staff broke all of Machiavelli’s rules

Theresa May must have woken up this morning wondering, for a split second, if yesterday was all just a very bad dream. The front pages will hammer home the reality of her situation – she was ‘luckless’, says one of the kinder headlines. But I wonder: how much did yesterday’s shambolic performance have to do with bad luck, and how much to do with woeful preparation? May’s ordeal, and especially her excruciating coughing fits, reminded me of a passage in Jonathan Powell’s The New Machiavelli, a sort-of memoir about his time as Tony Blair’s chief of staff. The book is also a reworking of The Prince and other texts by Machiavelli:

Nick Hilton Nick Hilton

The Tories had an election-winning conference – for Jeremy Corbyn

If Labour’s party conference in Brighton suggested the party was in a celebratory mood, that sense of triumphalism has been vindicated by the shambolic gathering of Conservatives in Manchester. The comparison between the two parties has been starker than ever: the buoyant Corbynistas laying out Marxism to unwavering applause, whilst bickering Conservatives can’t even sell their policies to a paying audience. If the Labour party looked in rude health last Wednesday, they look an even more attractive proposition after the Maybot suffered an all too human malfunction during her headline address yesterday. A circular that went out to Labour party members after the Prime Minister’s speech was clearly drafted before

Steerpike Steerpike

Newsnight’s Tory conference meltdown

After Theresa May’s leader’s speech fell victim to pranks, health issues and technical glitches, the Prime Minister has received a rough ride in the media. Last night’s episode of Newsnight was no exception – the programme promised to ‘make sense’ of the ‘hitches’ in May’s speech: A few hitches in Theresa May's speech today… We'll be making sense of it all on the programme tonight #CPC17 pic.twitter.com/N8ElbQDvj2 — BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) October 4, 2017 Alas Newsnight producers soon discovered that they weren’t immune to technical glitches themselves. There were several hitches in the cutaway packages – with Theresa May even labelled as ‘Jeremy Corbyn’ at one point: Happily, viewers were

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

It’s time to call it a day on this Tory government

Some of you may not like this, but the BBC Ten O’Clock News last night was pretty scrupulous in its coverage of the Prime Minister’s speech, and Laura Kuenssberg – not always my favourite news bunny – delivered a very good piece indeed. She trod the line between sympathy, analysis and an acute feeling in the hall, unspoken, that this party, and this leader are most likely not long for this world. Michael Deacon in the Telegraph got it right, too, with his opening line: ‘Poor woman. Poor, poor woman.’ Yes, quite. None of yesterday’s humiliations were really her fault. An arsehole, a deathlessly unfunny self-publicist gurning for the camera

James Delingpole James Delingpole

If only the Tories understood economics

‘I don’t think I’m quite as Austrian as you are,’ a Tory minister said to me the other day. And I knew then that the party is doomed. It wasn’t what he said so much as the way that he said it: in the fond, amused, each-to-his-own tone you might use to dismiss a friend’s enthusiasm for Morris dancing or Napoleonic re-enactment or dogging… But personally, I think free market economics (of the Austrian or any other classical liberal school) is far too important to be left to wonks, think-tankers and out-there right-wing commentators. So did Margaret Thatcher. ‘Hayek’s powerful Road to Serfdom left a permanent mark on my own

Wednesday

Martin Lewis

A price cap done wrong can do more harm than good

In her speech today at Conservative party conference, Theresa May announced a draft bill that would give Ofgem full power to impose a widespread energy price cap. Here’s what Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com and cheapenergyclub.com has to say about her proposals.  It’s a national disgrace that a struggling 90 year-old granny pays substantially more to boil a kettle than an affluent web-savvy man like me. However a price cap done wrong can do more harm than good. Some in the Tories have called for a ‘relative’ price cap – which means a firm’s most expensive price can only be a set percentage more than the cheapest. That’s self-defeating – it means they’ll

The Spectator

The Conservative party’s existential crisis

Theresa May’s conference speech — interrupted by coughing fits and with part of the set falling apart behind her — served as an unfortunate metaphor for her premiership and party. She is carrying on and in doing so, she demonstrates her resilience and sense of duty but also her frailty. The horrified faces of cabinet members watching as her voice dried up on stage seemed to sum up their wider concerns about whether their party is in a fit state to see off Labour, a party they so recently dismissed as a joke. Now, they are left wondering if their party is falling apart. When that letter "F" fell off

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Theresa May’s British Nightmare

Theresa May is not the first political leader to try to pitch the idea of a ‘British Dream’ when most British people aren’t even sure if it exists in our culture. Michael Howard spoke about it in 2004, while Ed Miliband adopted the ‘Promise of Britain’ temporarily while he was trying to find his feet as Labour leader. So it’s not just the first time that a party leader has tried to talk about the British Dream, it’s also not the first time a leader whose authority is shaky has tried to talk about it. As Miliband and Howard showed, the British Dream doesn’t seem to stick as a political

James Kirkup James Kirkup

The torment of Theresa May

It’s always easy and usually wrong to describe single political speeches as pivotal or decisive.  Always remember: almost no-one in the real world watches anything except a few clips on the news the evening the speech is given.   The amount of coverage devoted to leaders’ speeches at party conferences is usually excessive, beyond what most of the readership or audience really want or care about. But this one, this one is different.  This really is the crucible, the decisive moment.  Theresa May’s premiership turns on how this is seen. Coughing, stumbling and victim to a brutally effective visual prank by an apparent ‘comedian’, we have seen a British Prime Minister

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Theresa May presented with a P45 during conference speech

Oh dear. Theresa May’s leader’s speech at conference has descended into farce. As the Prime Minister tried to unify her party, one attendee had other ideas. Simon Brodkin interrupted May’s speech mid-flow and presented her with a P45. Security had to escort him out  with the ‘comedian’ heckled by attendees. That’s the picture of conference sorted then…

Theresa May

Theresa May’s Conservative conference speech, full text

A little over forty years ago in a small village in Oxfordshire, I signed up to be a member of the Conservative Party. I did it because it was the party that had the ideas to build a better Britain.  It understood the hard work and discipline necessary to see them through. And it had at its heart a simple promise that spoke to me, my values and my aspirations: that each new generation in our country should be able to build a better future. That each generation should live the British Dream. And that dream is what I believe in. But what the General Election earlier this year showed

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Forget the Nasty Party. This is the Knackered Party.

Tory conference is yawning on with neither furious fights nor much evidence that anyone knows how to fix the party’s problems. The most energetic bit of it so far has been Theresa May’s round of media interviews this morning, in which the Prime Minister appeared to have been turned on to 1.5x speed as she nervously gabbled her answers and tried to sound happy. Other spots of colour come from non-MPs, such as Ruth Davidson. The hall isn’t packed, the atmosphere flat, and members and MPs look bewildered and miserable. The Tories are starting to resemble Labour at the end of its last spell in government. The party was exhausted.

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Is Boris Johnson unsackable?

Theresa May – We’ve listened on student fees The Prime Minister marked the start of the Conservative party conference (and her 61st birthday) with a customary appearance on the Andrew Marr Show. First on the agenda was the announcement of a change in the government’s policy on university tuition fees. May stated that she wanted to raise the threshold at which students start to pay back their loans, and that she intended to scrap a planned increase in level of fees to a maximum of £9,250 a year. Marr accused the Prime Minister of presiding over a screeching U-turn: AM: The policy that you stoutly defended for years, which ended

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Theresa May’s unconvincing performance on the Andrew Marr Show

This morning has been a reminder of how difficult this conference will be for the Tories. Two policies were announced overnight and neither have landed well. Theresa May then delivered a nervy performance on the Andrew Marr Show that will have done little to reassure Tories that she can turn things round. On tuition fees, the Tories have announced a freeze in their levels. It is hard to understand the politics behind this. It raises the salience of the issue without coming up with a solution. Those who went Labour because of their policy of abolishing fees won’t be won over by this. The other policy announcement is more money

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Conservative party conference, day one: The Spectator guide | 1 October 2017

The Conservative party conference is underway. In the days after the doomed snap election, Theresa May didn’t look as though she would make it this far. But the Prime Minister has clung on. Here are the highlights to look out for on day one: Party conference: 10.30 – 12.30: Meeting of the National Conservative Convention. Alexandra Suite, Midland Hotel  14.00 – 14.50: Welcome to Conference: Conference Chairman; Conservative Party Chairman; First Secretary of State 14.50 – 15.45: Delivering a fairer future for young people: Secretary of State for Education; Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 15.45 – 16.20: Strengthening the Union between all our citizens: Leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party; Secretary of State

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May’s tense conference

A few weeks ago, Theresa May seemed surprisingly stable as Tory leader, given the mess of the snap election. Her cabinet had finally stopped squabbling about Brexit and Conservative backbenchers were largely backing her to continue. But on the eve of party conference, things don’t look so great. Firstly, the Cabinet unity has disappeared again. The Prime Minister’s Florence speech opened up a war of bids for her attention from Brexiteers and Brexitsceptics alike, all of whom believed that the Prime Minister is so malleable on policy that she just needs to hear the same thing over and over again before she believes it. When her speech didn’t answer big

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Theresa May needs to show some urgency

Tomorrow is Theresa May’s birthday. But as I say in The Sun this morning, Tory activists won’t be giving her presents. Instead, they’ll be letting her know what they think went wrong with the election campaign. My information is that Theresa May won’t apologise for the campaign. But she will make clear that she intends to accept the recommendations of the report by former party chairman Eric Pickles and the 1922 chair Graham Brady into the election debacle. But May needs to do more than begin to repair relations with her party. She needs to speak to the country too. At Labour conference last week, Jeremy Corbyn painted the Tories

Thursday

Ros Altmann

Capitalism is the best system, but it has been undermined by Quantitative Easing

The Prime Minister spoke today at the Bank of England to celebrate its 20 years of independence. But she has failed to recognise the irony of trumpeting the virtues of capitalism in the seat of monetary policymaking which has, for the past ten years, undermined many of the principles on which capitalism is based. In theory, the central bank operates independently of Government, but in practice, its unconventional monetary policies have acted as a democratically unaccountable arm of the Treasury. It is understandable that, in the face of the 2008 financial crisis, policymakers were looking for new ideas to save the banking system. They used monetary policy as the weapon