‘Tory convention exposes a well-known selection – sanctions for the poor, tax breaks for the wealthy’
Harking back to how Margaret Thatcher built support for the Conservatives in the late 1970s, Kemi Badenoch has shared her own basis for how a future Conservative government would act should it seize power
Voice of the Mirror has its say…
As the Tory party conference gets underway, Kemi Badenoch has made her priorities brutally clear: suspicion and sanctions for those with the least, tax breaks and taxpayer-funded help for those with the most. She can call it “common sense” or “old-school Conservatism”, but the contrast could hardly be starker. The Tories want tougher rules for benefit claimants, including stripping support from some under-25s and controlling what others can spend their money on, despite fraud accounting for only a small share of welfare spending. At the same time, they are promising help for those who need it least. Millionaires could qualify for taxpayer-funded childcare under plans to scrap the £100,000 earnings cut-off. And Ms Badenoch is openly flirting with abolishing inheritance tax, a move that would hand the biggest rewards to some of Britain’s wealthiest families. So this conference begins with a very old Tory instinct. Police the lives of people with little. Protect the fortunes of people with plenty. Theresa May once warned about the “nasty party”. The label still fits.
Farage’s comeback looks shaky
Nigel Farage insists Reform has not peaked, merely “troughed”, and reckons the answer is simple: people just need to see more of him. That may come as news to a country that has already endured plenty. Farage also says some voters were “quite impressed” by Reform landing £72 million from crypto billionaires. Perhaps he should ask whether they are equally impressed that Parliament’s watchdog has now interviewed him over a separate £5 million gift from crypto tycoon Christopher Harborne. Farage denies wrongdoing and is entitled to due process. But for a man who built his career raging against elites, establishments and murky influence, the optics are priceless. His party may have troughed. The bigger danger for Farage is that the more voters see, the less they like what they find.
Cheers to the Jolly Boys
Raise a glass to the Jolly Boys – six friends in their 50s who have now worked their way through more than 200 London pubs. What began as an annual lads’ weekend has become a glorious tradition, even taking them inside the Tower of London’s famously exclusive pub. After more than a decade, they are still going. At this rate, London will run out of pubs before the Jolly Boys run out of steam.
