CONSERVATIVE
PARTY CONFERENCE 2006
OCTOBER 2nd 2006
The
main task of this Conservative Party Conference is to find out what its
members actually think. David Cameron will take a lead, but the party
is extremely divided on how their aims (which are not that different
from that of the average member of the UK public) are to be achieved.
To make progress in areas that they believe the present government has
got bogged down can only be done by the use of sticks, carrots or the
removal of either or both. They will have to make up their minds. When
that is all done, the leadership can think about preparing a programme
and later a manifesto for the next general election.
Meantime
the party's job is intelligent opposition - the holding to account of
the government. In the last war (WWII) it was decide there should be no
'opposition' party, there was just a 'war government'. The present
situation is different. There is no declared war between nations that
call for this state of affairs in the UK.
Domestic policy has some puzzles fro them already, on the freedom front.
Taxes
For years, the Tory party has fought elections on a policy of tax cuts.
They were always wrong. What was needed was rational taxation. Now,
with impeccable faulty timing, Cameron, a lovely man who is brighter
than most of his colleagues, has decided not to talk about tax cuts,
just at the moment when even the Liberals realise that income tax
thresholds must be lifted and certain other taxes reduced. This should
be promised up front, but maybe not yet. Stability is vital of
course and the
government's tax take will have to cover its spending. This is not
rocket science - there is a huge pool of spending in the economy, some
of it black, much of it untaxed, all of it voluntary rather than
subsistence or essential, which can be tapped easily. But Cameron has
to steer clear of obviously adopting economic policies that have been
suggested by
the Liberals!!
OCTOBER 3rd
Europe
The EU has at last surfaced in the conference discussions and I
am relieved to hear William Hague, the much loved senior member of
Cameron's shadow cabinet, say loudly and clearly that as long as he and
his fellow cabinet members are in charge there is no possibility
whatsovever of the party looking at a policy for Britain withdrawing
from the European Union, No doubt that will not stop Norm Tebbit, whose
horizons probably stop around the borders of Chingford, from continuing
to burble on in his inimitable manner. Most people with a working brain
realise that the EU is essential to any attempt to negotiate the wide
international agreements required to combat global warming, and that
the without the Euro currency there would be far more chaos than there
is now in the currency markets, at terrible cost to all average
citizens and even more profit to the crooks who are still making a
killing.