The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has made a speech at the Conservative Party Conference in the Labour stronghold of Manchester that is widely perceived to have parked Tory tanks on the Labour lawn. Appealing to people who voted for Labour in May, he said the Conservatives should “extend our hand” to people who feel abandoned by Labour’s new leadership.
Some Tories feel the party has relatively free reign to do as they please given what a mess Labour seems to be in just at the moment, so it remains to be seen whether he pulls it off, particularly if the economy falters.
Anthony Seldon, David Cameron’s biographer, was on television after the speech was over, talking about Osborne as:
‘… a master strategist, [although] not a man who arouses love or support. So if things go wrong, then the skates will be under him as they were in 2012 and 2007… because he doesn’t have that kind of bedrock of love, affection, [or] admiration. He is fuctional, he is a brilliant strategic functionary… he’s very aware… of how people think about him. He knows that people admire him and value him for what he does… but he also knows that he has yet to win the hearts.’
Nevertheless, Osborne’s strategy is probably the right one if his party wants to consolidate its grip on power, even if he will have to tread carefully if his party is to allow him to pursue it very far. The Tories, after all, don’t seem to have quite the same complexes as Labour about what compromises they must make to retain power.
This was thrown into sharp relief across the city at Manchester Cathedral this evening at the People’s Post, a rally to discuss the future of Labour and of the postal industry. Terry Pullinger, deputy general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, spoke at the event, and seemed to say that Corbyn’s election made him want to celebrate the fact that Labour lost in May:
‘It’s unacceptable that the political debate has got so narrow. Since Thatcher, that conventional wisdom says it has to be the free market, there has to be competition and there’s no other way – and anyone who says different is barmy, or non intelligent… we’ve been desperate to see that conventional wisdom blown apart and we have by Jeremy Corbyn… actually, now it makes you want to celebrate the fact that Labour lost the election.’
According to the accounts of those in attendance, Owen Jones shook his head at these words, while the MP Lucy Powell [both were speaking at the event] mouthed the words ‘I’m not clapping that!’
the wilderness years 