Peter Walker

See also: Singapore and mass social housing.

You could argue “only”.

Even flatlining at 17% in the polls there are quite a few Tories who seems to assume the electorate will sort of come to their senses and beg to be rescued with their offer of fiscal credibility*

*Self-stated. Some voters will recall Truss.

It’s striking how many Tory fringe events I’ve been at where people have confidently predicted a major fiscal or markets crisis for the government in the next 12ish months. I have no idea if that has any credibility, but it’s notable how much perhaps misplaced confidence it gives some Conservatives.

In the Q&A, Holden is asked if 20mph zones should only be put on roads where there has been a fatality. Holden says he thinks it’s a bit much to expect someone to die before you get a 20 limit - but then complains a lot about their general use.

He’s slightly making up for it in the Q&A.

In an audience Q&A for Holden, one of the questions is to ask him if he will end the current “cyclist-first” transport policy. If you were in the hall and heard an inadvertent laugh, apologies.

Well, that was a bit of a nothing speech. A few hits at electric cars but not a single mention of 20mph zones, LTNs or 15 minute cities.

Labour are pursuing “an ideological war” on drivers, motorcyclists and the freight industry, Holden says. There we are.

“Labour are actively punishing motorists,” Holden says, which I think counts.

I’m in the main hall of Tory conference to watch new-ish shadow transport secretary Richard Holden give his speech. The title leads me to expect talk about the war on the motorist and 20mph zones.

It’s the main day of the three for shadow ministerial speeches at the Tory conference and it’s fair to say that…. the main hall is not packed.

“Our welfare system should be a safety net, not a lifestyle choice," says Whately, an MP who colleagues often praise as hardworking, nice and fairly sensible. But if you want to be on the current Tory front bench, it seems nastiness is the currency of choice.

On the Tory main stage, shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately is leaning heavily into the "shirkers v strivers" narrative, contrasting hard-working types with "millions" she says are on the sofa with often mild conditions.

Former minister Tom Tugendhat says pension triple lock part of 'Ponzi scheme' economic system biased against the young, @peterwalker99.bsky.social reports - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

I have asked.

Question at this fringe event on Tories and young people, from the chair of the party at Keele University who says that at their just-ended freshers' fair they amassed the biggest membership in over a decade... of 11 people.

This favouring of older voters skews the economy, Tugendhat says: "Parties are religious about preventing any building, defending an established asset class against a future asset class."

This is refreshingly blunt stuff for a Tory conference.

Tugendhat: Young people are "realising the entire economy is now geared to a bunch of people who are ageing and claiming their retirement

"It is a continuous series of politics in the centre that is defending this gap – the have assets, have jobs, have equity, against the have nots – young people"

Punchy opening from Tom Tugendhat, who says the move of young voters from centrist parties is "a logical series of outcomes for an economic system that has effectively become a Ponzi system for the old", eg the pension triple lock.

"Guess what? They have worked it out," Tugendhat says.

As a sign of just how bad things are for the Tories and younger voters, this was billed as one of the most positive slides of the polling presentation.

I’m at a Tory fringe event about young voters which has been shown a massive (5,000+) poll of voters aged 16-40 - and it’s (not unexpectedly) very bad news for the Conservatives.

Yes, now confirmed: apart from pensions, if you are a (non-EU) non-UK citizen you would be barred from receiving any benefits of any kind, irrespective of how long you have been in the country and/or how much tax you have paid.

Update: after much asking
I’ve been told that the Conservative plan to deny benefits to non-UK nationals would *not* include the state pension. But it does seem the general exclusion would take place irrespective of how long someone has lived and paid taxes here if they are not citizens.

The rally for the countryside in full.

That said, it’s a subject of interest to Labour MPs representing rural seats, of which there are now many - more than there are rural Tory MPs.

The subject is, of course, the planned changes to inheritance tax for farms. Like VAT on private schools it’s a subject of great passion for some Tories but arguably limited salience for voters more generally.

In place of a speech by Victoria Atkins, the shadow Defra secretary, she is holding a “rally for the countryside” in the main exhibition hall. Her Union Jack jacket is back from the dry cleaners again.

To make a very obvious point, this is the second Nigel Farage takeover of the Conservative party. Twice he has made what were once relatively niche and hard-right opinions – leaving the EU and effectively ending asylum in the UK - the default view for Tory MPs.

I guess one of the biggest takeaways from this fringe is another reminder that relatively moderate/One Nation-ish Toryism is all but extinct in the party. This whole discussion has been based around the twin assumptions of denying asylum claims and cutting overseas aid.