The Conservative Policy Forum should set up permanent subject groups in areas of policy which matter to our members.
Ian Taylor’s policy group on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics will release its findings today. Click here for the pdf of the full report. It sets out nine objectives: To improve the effectiveness of UK innovation To use public procurement to drive innovation To stimulate UK R&D investment To raise school performance in STEM subjects […]
Zac Goldsmith has just emailed me a Q&A that attempts to rebut the "amazingly misleading" press coverage of recent days. He writes: "The report is not about bans, punishments or telling people what to do. It’s about making green decisions possible for everyone – not just the wealthy. It’s about pushing business to be less […]
Highlights from today’s Telegraph article: "The most credible science now tells us that human behaviour, through activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of the rainforests, is accelerating climate change at a rate that threatens devastating consequences for our security, prosperity and wellbeing." "In a world whose population and hunger for […]
The above quotation from the Gummer-Goldsmith Quality of Life report (read it here) was shown to viewers of Newsnight. I think it’s true that material possessions don’t bring happiness. Sometimes the Conservative Party has been caricatured as too interested in money and insufficiently interested in the nation’s culture, the strength of its families and the […]
Advance copy of the report: ConservativeHome has a copy of the Quality of Life report due to be launched tomorrow at 10.30am. Interestingly it doesn’t have an executive summary. Reports without executive summaries nearly always – in my experience – don’t want to be fully open about what they contain. Download a PDF of the […]
Interviewed earlier by Telegraph readers, David Cameron has appeared to rule out charges for supermarket parking. He said: "I understand as a parent of three children that when you are going to the shops, you are trying to manage everything, car parking charges may not be the most helpful way forward." This is the second […]
This morning’s newspapers have a number of reports on ‘Tory plans’ to tax supermarket shopping. The plans are, in fact, only proposals from the Gummer-Goldsmith Quality of Life policy group but they have produced upset at The Sun (see clipping on the right). Richard Littlejohn, in the Daily Mail, also rails against the Conservative plans […]
Oliver Letwin’s sixth policy group will report later this week and it’s an interesting question as to what David Cameron’s head of policy will do then? It is Francis Maude, I understand, who has the job of converting all policy ideas into usable form. The sixth policy group – on the environment and the broader […]
Leaks of the contents of John Gummer and Zac Goldsmith’s policy group report signal that the three most controversial issues have been settled amicably: The Sunday Times’ headline story is that there will be significant rebates on stamp duty, VAT and council tax to reward environmental efficiencies. Putting emphasis on "incentivising the good" rather than […]
The Conservative Public Services Improvement Group led by Stephen Dorrell MP and Baroness Pauline Perry published its report this morning at the Policy Exchange’s Ideas Forum. There are more than 150 proposals on education, social housing and health. These are the main ones: On education Establish a Chief Education and Skills officer and a Royal […]
In tomorrow’s Sunday Telegraph (not yet online) David Cameron will say that underperforming Year 6 children could be forced to resit their final primary school year if they do not meet performance thresholds at the end of their year or during special summer classes that the Tories also intend to introduce. Last December ConservativeHome readers […]
The Daily Mail is reporting that the Conservative Party’s Quality of Life group under the chairmanship of John Gummer and Zac Goldsmith will recommend: "A moratorium on all airport expansion, including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted; The imposition of VAT on fuel for domestic flights; A "single flight tax" to shift tax burden from passengers to […]
Five task forces cover energising our economy, transforming our public services, building a fairer society, sustaining our democracy and shaping a Global Britain.