Conservative Orthodoxy will lead to defeat

In her first Conference speech as leader, Theresa May said the Conservatives must “remember the good that Government can do”. That is a lesson they must continue to learn.

Sam Shenton
Aug 23, 2017 · 5 min read

We may all laugh and say we don’t care about what Nick Timothy, Theresa May’s one-time Joint Chief of Staff in №10 and policy adviser, has to say. We can mock his entry in to the Telegraph’s ‘Ideas To Win’ column after he chaired what is widely regarded as the worst Conservative campaign since 2001 and threw away a majority the Party was aiming to increase. And we can mock his seemingly leftist views against free market capitalism that appear to offer an Ed Miliband-esk policy platform for the Conservative Party.

But what we can’t mock is his key analysis of the situation Theresa May and the Conservative Party find themselves in. Having lost their majority in the previous election, the Party must analyse why, beyond the usual notions of May’s poor personal campaign and the disastrously negative manifesto that dominated headlines and ultimately sent so many potential Conservative voters in Labour’s direction. When May analysed that after seven years of Conservative-lead Government many people were still struggling, she wasn’t wrong. When she sees that young people struggle to buy and rent expensive accommodation because of a lack of affordable housing, she’s not wrong.

Ultimately, when she said that this country doesn’t yet “work for every one of us”, she was right. And when Nick Timothy says this amounts to a crisis of the free market, capitalist, conservative orthodoxy that the Tory Party – and, indeed, New Labour – has adhered to since the Thatcher revolution of the 1980s, he’s not wrong. When young people cannot buy their own home, have seen a financial crisis, seen university tuition fees rise exponentially, how can those young people be expected to vote for the Party that sticks to free market principles? Jeremy Corbyn is so popular because he offers an alternative to that conservative orthodoxy. The Conservatives must also start to move away from it, but instead of moving back to the 1970s like the Labour Party, Tories should move forwards.

Timothy stated we now needed ‘post-liberal conservatism’. To me, that doesn’t mean anything other than what conservatism has always been: a pragmatic approach to solving the country’s deepest social and economic problems. On housing, that does mean more market forces must play a part. The UK has some of the most stringent planning laws that simply need to be relaxed in order to ensure more house building. But the Government also has a role in this, and a responsibility to provide more social housing across the country. There are currently over 1.2 million people on a waiting list for social housing in England — that problem cannot be solved by private sector accommodation alone.

The Conservatives must vigorously defend the right to buy policy pioneered by Margaret Thatcher’s administration as a liberatory policy for the lower middle classes, allowing people achieve the dream of home ownership. But not replacing the sold social housing stock with other properties has meant the sale of council assets has become unsustainable, and part of the solution must be to replenish that stock. The Government must begin to intervene in other sectors, too.

The energy market is one such sector where the current market is failing consumers. Theresa May promised an energy cap during the election, which ultimately played little role in the result and likely won’t see the light of day after being excluded in the Queen’s Speech. Yes, more market is a good thing here too. Having just six big energy companies stifles competition that is needed for a well-functioning market, but Conservatives in Government must play a role to reduce the pressure on consumers too. The Tories must become the party of community energy, especially with such projects that prioritise renewable energy.

Ensuring that communities have local hydro-electric, solar and wind power sources close can help cut bills and assist the national grid at times of demand. If it is possible to store that energy and sell it at optimum time, even better — this is about innovation and the Government, market and communities coming together. Rail is another area where successive Labour and Conservative Governments have failed us. On one hand, the lack of capital investment has stifled investment in new infrastructure, while the lack of a free market on the majority of lines keeps prices high and satisfaction low.

It’s no coincidence that the highest level of passenger satisfaction are among two types of rail routes. The first is the East Coast Mainline’s principle operators: Virgin Trains East Coast, Grand Central and First Hull Trains. These three compete against each other between the North East, Yorkshire and London, pushing fares down and ensuring companies stay on top with the fight to have the highest satisfaction ratings. The other type of route that has high satisfactions are community rail services with local partnerships, ensuring local people have access to high quality services. Both of these types of rail structures should be encouraged, with major re-thinking of the franchising process.

This means introducing more free markets into rail, more open access operators and shorter, smaller franchises. But it also means more Government investment in transport, particularly in the North with the ‘Northern Powerhouse’, ensuring the North provides the economic growth it is capable of. Community rail, just like community energy, should also be a cornerstone of Conservative transport policy alongside flagship policies like HS2, as should city and regional metro services and their expansion. This is about combining the best the free market can offer us and highlighting the good that Government can do, for free markets need intervention and regulation in order to function.

We must, as pragmatists, recognise how in different situations and on different issues, state intervention in free markets can lead better results. On a number of issues, Government and the private sector must work together to achieve better results. As Theresa May said in her first Conference speech last year, Conservatives must remember the good that Government can do. That is not a principle that can subside, for if the Tories return to the conservative orthodoxy off leaving free markets to their own devices at all costs, they will be left in opposition while Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party are trusted to deliver the change this country needs.

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Observations from a 22 year old on UK and US politics.

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