BEST FOR BRITAIN'S
WEEKEND WIRE

Dear John 

We hope you did not share our misfortune of having to watch the farcical goings-on at this week’s Conservative Party conference. If you were spared, we’ve compiled some highlights but more lowlights from the past week from the chaotic conference and beyond.

Rise of the Anti-Growth Coalition

In a keynote speech clocking in at just over 36 minutes on Wednesday morning, the Prime Minister set out to cut through weeks of self-inflicted turmoil and express her vision for the Tory party under her leadership. Whether she did so successfully is less clear.

In a speech with zero new major policy announcements, Truss championed an agenda of “growth, growth, and growth” with no explanation of how, and boasted that Conservatives would cut taxes, because that went so well last time. But look out, George W. Bush because the bulk of the speech was spent attacking an imagined “anti-growth coalition”. 

This new axis of evil includes climate activists, Brexit realists, people wanting a fair wage, opposition parties, and “vested interests dressed up as think tanks”,  but presumably not the ones operating out of 55 Tufton Street who seem to be steering the current administration.

Truss’ speech earned a mixed reception from pundits, who noted that the bar was quite low for the Prime Minister, and remarkably weakened the pound further. Perhaps the strongest response came from Michael Pickering, the founder of M People, whose “Moving On Up” served as Truss’ walk-up music: “I don’t want my song being a soundtrack to lies.”

Conservative catfight 

From cabinet members proposing insane policy on the hoof to jilted former ministers predicting doom and calling the Prime Minister “tin-eared”, Truss failed to quash rumours of open revolt from among her own MPs. 

Penny Mordaunt defied leadership on Tuesday when she called on the Government to increase benefits in line with inflation, adding to the growing demands for the Prime Minister to stop dodging the issue. 

But it was Boris Johnson zealot, Nadine Dorries who made the boldest break with the Tories’ pantheon of politi-can’ts. On Twitter, she castigated the Prime Minister for her departures from Johnson-era policies and suggested that, without a mandate, she has strayed from her predecessor’s manifesto, all but calling for a general election. Perhaps someone should have a chat with Ms Dorries and her newfound interest in democratic legitimacy about proportional representation… 

Decaf Coffey

Health Secretary Therese Coffey’s conference speech on Tuesday was very beneficial to the well being of those in attendance in the hall in Birmingham but only insofar as it ensured they were able to catch up on some sleep.

For those awake, her vague promise that anyone would be able see their GP within two weeks fell flat when it was pointed out that under Labour the target was just 48 hours, and they achieved it.

Britain and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Home Secretary

Suella Braverman has led the race to the bottom this week. After her claims that she co-authored a legal textbook was publicly challenged by the actual author and after calling for jobseekers’ benefits to be cut, the Home Secretary claimed that Tory MPs who demanded a reversal on the tax cuts for the mega wealthy were staging a “coup” against the Prime Minister.

However, her worst moment came on the heels of her announcement of blatantly illegal legislation banning asylum seekers crossing the channel from gaining status in the UK. At a fringe event, the new Home Secretary laughed while saying that her “dream” is to see a front page about refugees being flown to Rwanda by Christmas. We were trying to think of a humorous way to end this part but there’s not much funny about the callousness on display here. 

U-turns to O-turns

Someone should put a tenner on Kwasi Kwarteng becoming a stunt driver in the next two years. After widespread outrage over the chaos caused by his mini-budget, earlier this week he reversed course and pledged to release his medium-term fiscal plan ahead of schedule .

Until–surprise!--on Wednesday he completed the full doughnut when he told GB News that the fiscal plan would be announced on 23rd November, as originally planned. No word on whether he’ll be all spun out by the start of next week.

Strike 3

After train strikes dampened the “Get Britain Moving” slogan of the Tory party conference, key workers in other industries have signalled they are not going to grin and bear years of wage stagnation and staffing issues during a cost of living crisis.

Thursday saw the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) ballot their members for a strike, which, if the measure passes, would be the first in the union’s 106-year history. With nurses already forced to skip meals to feed their families and a shortage of nearly 50,000 nurses worsening hospital outcomes, RCN leadership have made it clear that they are not taking such action lightly.

Hundreds of 999 operators are also set to join the picket line after the Communication Workers Union (CWU) announced that their negotiations with BT had hit a snag. Amid reports of 999 operators using food banks to feed their families, the CWU called BT’s offer of a flat £1500 pay rise “a dramatic real-terms pay cut".

Rebuilding the Red Wall

As polls continue to log record-breaking leads for Labour nationally, new polling in the Red Wall seats critical to the Tories’ 2019 win brought renewed misery for Liz Truss’ leadership this week.

A Redfield & Wilton poll released Tuesday showed Labour’s support in Red Wall seats swell to 61% against the Conservatives’ 23%, a seismic 23-point swing since the mini-budget announcement that leaves Labour nearly 40 points clear.

Alongside an astounding haemorrhage in Tory support among rural voters, who now back Labour 41%-28%, the Red Wall news will have Conservative leadership sweating that they may be seeing both halves of their recent electoral coalition collapse before their eyes.

Climate cowardice

In the same week that environmental protestors crashed Truss’ conference keynote speech, Department for International Trade returnee, Conor Burns, had his own environmental clash after telling an audience at the Conservative Party conference this week that he’s urging the ministry to rethink the emphasis it puts on climate change when striking trade agreements. 

After one of the hottest summers on record which saw houses and the countryside consumed by fires it's hard to see how climate concerns cannot be considered top of the list of priorities. Green Party MP and member of the UK Trade and Business Commission, Caroline Lucas had this to say.

Prague jaunts and detentes 

This week saw a notable change in tone from the UK government towards the EU with self-styled ‘Brexit hard man’ Steve Baker, striking a conciliatory tone by conceding that the UK approach to Brexit has caused significant issues for Ireland. Irish Government Number 2 Leo Varadker soon proved that you get more flies with honey than vinegar by quickly reciprocating, saying that the NI Protocol may indeed be too strict as some businesses have argued.

Meanwhile Truss’ attendance at a new European Political Community summit in Prague was followed by the suggestion that the UK will work closer with Brussels and Paris on energy policy. Is this the start of a thaw in the Government’s bull-headed and self-defeating approach to our closest neighbours and allies? We won’t be popping any corks until they take their law-breaking Northern Ireland Protocol Bill off the table.

Iranian protests continue

Widespread protests in Iran following the death of 22 year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of the country’s ‘morality police’ have entered their third week. 

The protests, spearheaded by young female students and professionals, began with outrage and widespread frustration over the stifling of women’s expression under the strict morality laws, but they have quickly captured much wider-reaching discontent.

This week, as women across the world have begun cutting their hair to show solidarity with the protestors, videos emerged of female high schoolers bravely facing down paramilitary squads, evading government censorship meant to quash the protest. 

We at Best for Britain send our solidarity to the people standing up for their rights in Iran.

Now that the Tories are finally deigning to return from parliamentary recess after their self-inflicted crises and get to the business of governing (at least as they define it), we finally look set for a more mundane week ahead. Famous last words…bye for now!

Best wishes,

Tommy Gillespie

Press Officer, Best for Britain

P.S. Please do support the campaign with either a one-off donation to the Better Democracy Fund, or by becoming a regular supporter. Your support will mean we can bring progressive parties together, fight undemocratic changes to our elections, and campaign for a change in our voting system to make all votes count.