Conservative Conference - Fun With A Serious Intent

 

I’ve spent quite a bit of time on twitter explaining why the Prime Minister's speech was brilliant and what the purpose is of a leader's words at the finale of a party's conference.

What it isn’t is a summary of all the challenges we face and all the policies that are coming into play. That was the job of the rest of the conference and the cabinet’s key speeches.

The left hate that Boris is such a charismatic orator, so optimistic and upbeat but that’s exactly what the grassroots need. He was speaking to conference and the nation about his vision and it was clearly spelt out – Levelling up and uniting the country with the passion and determination to make it happen.

Compare this to Labour's divisive mindset and Starmer's boring offer. We don’t need the miserableness of the opposition or the doom and gloom main stream media who reject anything positive, especially if it's Conservative flavoured.

It was the best speech I’ve ever heard at a conference and it was perfect for the audience it is meant for. It uplifted all of us who are in the party - councillors, activists or members – it’s very purpose.

But for those that seemed to have missed all the main policy announcements, I list some below for reference taken from the conference speech briefings. It’s by no means the full list but I think enough to prove this was a serious conference.

We announced a teacher’s salary premium worth up to £3000 per teacher. Targeting premiums by subject, to increase the proportion of specialist teaching where supply challenges are greatest. The premium package will be targeted to teachers in Years 1 to 5 in four core subjects including maths, physics, chemistry, and computing. Salary premiums help to address teacher supply challenges and improve teacher quality through retaining teachers who have gained those valuable first years of experience in the classroom.

On 5 October 2021, we announced that we are extending the Film Restart scheme, and investing in independent film through the Global Screen Fund. The British film industry was hit hard during the pandemic, with major and independent films closed. That is why we are extending our £500 million Film Restart scheme for a further six months – giving certainty to film production in the UK – and we have also announced the recipients of our Global Screen Fund, supporting their international distribution. It will protect 34,500 jobs and £1.2 billion of investment in production in the UK.

On 5 October 2021, we announced plans to increase the use of drug testing on arrest, to help identify drug misusing offenders in order to address their behaviour and to reduce crime. Illegal drugs are a key driver of crime, particularly homicide, serious violence against women and children and neighbourhood crime. If we are to cut crime, we must crack down on drug use. That is why earlier this year we published the Beating Crime Plan, committing to new tactics and investment

Again on On 5 October 2021, we announced a package of tagging measures worth nearly £200 million, which will ensure 26,000 extra offenders are tagged over the next 3 years.

Investing in community payback for offenders; On 5 October 2021, we announced that we are investing up to £93 million to deliver 8 million hours per year of unpaid work by offenders, ensuring they contribute to cleaning up neighbourhoods across the country.

Accelerating our Zero Carbon Electricity ambition to 2035. On 4 October 2021, we announced our ambition to overwhelmingly decarbonise the electricity system by 2035. Current international price spikes underline the need to get the country off of volatile gas and onto secure zero carbon power.  We are accelerating our ambition to deploy low carbon generation by 2035, including renewables, nuclear and new options such as hydrogen, and accelerating carbon capture technology to provide flexible gas power, using unabated gas only when needed for security of supply.

Investing in Artificial Intelligence. On 4 October 2021, we announced new investment to double the number of research places in Artificial Intelligence, in order to ensure we build the right skills for our future economy.

We are providing £23 million to double the available scholarships for AI and Data Science Master’s conversion courses for under-represented students, as well as £11 million to double the number of Turing World-Leading Researcher Fellows.

We have also set up ‘The Office for AI’, with a mission to drive responsible and innovative uptake of AI technologies.

Extending our Plan For Jobs; On 4 October 2021, we announced that we are extending many of our Plan for Jobs measures and introducing new policies to support those in and out of work. We are extending the Kickstart scheme; the JETS scheme and our Youth Offer and apprenticeship hiring incentives. We are also expanding work coach support, providing a new work offer for those aged over 50 and prioritising those coming off of furlough through Job Finding Support.

And just for noting - Extending the £20 increase in UC by another 12 months – or effectively making it permanent – would cost over £6 billion per year. That’s equivalent to adding 1p on the basic rate of income tax.

On 3 October 2021; National Cyber Force . Backed by over £5 billion of investment up to 2030 and jointly run by the MOD and GCHQ, we have announced that the National Cyber Force’s new site in Samlesbury in Lancashire will be the home of offensive cyber operations, keeping the UK at the forefront of cyber warfare. The new site will deliver thousands of skilled employment opportunities for young people in the region – delivering for the North West as we level up every region of the country and build back better.

On 3 October 2021, we announced we will table amendments to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to strengthen police powers to tackle highly disruptive protests. Insulate Britain activists have brought our country to a standstill in recent weeks – breaking the law and creating extra pollution – in self-defeating ‘environmental’ acts.  That is why we will table amendments to introduce new measures to the PCSC Bill, including increasing the maximum penalties for disrupting a motorway, criminalising interference with key infrastructure and new powers for the police and courts to deal with a small minority of prolific offenders intent on travelling around the country, causing disruption and misery to others.  The bill is at the committee stage 20 th October.

On 3 October 2021, we announced allocations of £25 million for local projects aimed at increasing the safety of public spaces for all, with a particular focus on tackling violence against women and girls. This takes the total investment in the Government’s Safer Streets Fund to £70 million.  

On 3 October 2021, we announced that we are investing £22 million to support grassroots tennis across the UK, focusing on improving facilities in the most deprived areas. • We are determined to make access to sports facilities easier to improve the health of young people in our country

On 1 October 2021, we announced that we will launch 40 one-stop shop Community Diagnostic Centres in locations from shopping centres to football stadiums to provide millions more tests and scans. Covid has created a historic backlog; there were 300,000 fewer urgent cancer referrals over the pandemic than expected – this could grow to 13 million in the coming years unless addressed. • That is why we are announcing 40 new Community Diagnostic Centres which will help us tackle the backlog by bringing vital services closer to home, allowing us to meet rising demand, catch cancer and other issues as quickly as possible, and save more lives.

 

Well done if you read to the end but even if you didn’t, you can see, by scanning, that this snapshot of policies and investment is far reaching and ambitious. Add this to the achievements I listed in my previous post and you can see why I feel the need to share such info.