There will be no congestion charge, no pay per mile, no London-style ULEZ expansion for as long as I am Mayor.
The key problem is stagnation. Margaret Thatcher’s reforms promoted mobility and opportunity. Now we are an economy which doesn’t change enough.
On education, high speed rail and smoking, he will allow our country to pursue an ambitious and optimistic future for people, whoever they are and wherever they come from.
The audience loved this story of a Prime Minister who finds true love by taking long-term decisions for a brighter future.
I travelled up to Manchester on the morning work train from Euston to get to Manchester at 8.45am after just two hours and fifteen minutes of travel. The train was practically empty. Where is the case based on capacity for this new train line?
The national humiliation, The out-of-control budgets. The broken political promises. What most drives one to despair is the opportunity cost.
On the first afternoon the Government lacked an orator who could make Conservatives feel good about being Conservative.
The Party Chairman on the constitutional review, membership, the coming Conservative Conference, candidate selection and Carol Vorderman’s false accusations against him, which she was compelled to retract.
“HS2 is in the process of being built, it is transformational… the Prime Minister is absolutely committed to levelling up, and this is part of that levelling up.”
“Housing policy – the building of new homes, the stewardship of existing properties, the planning of our towns, the fundamental landscape of our lives – requires long-term thinking. And a long-term plan.”
If net migration were to fall only to 488,000 we would be looking at an extra twelve million people and the need for 200,000 new homes a year – roughly 550 a day.
A timely report – from Ed Balls, no less – suggests that a lack of graduates is not the reason for our productivity deficit. Rather, our productivity deficit explains the lack of graduate-level jobs.
Such a policy, already successfully delivered in Manchester, could transform thousands of lives by helping those who are willing, but not yet able, back into work.
This perhaps reflects the fact that with the Speech happening on 7th November, there will be little actual time for legislation in the final session of Parliament in any case.