The Conservatives have not won a comfortable majority since 1987. To attend the party’s conference was to be reminded of why. After nearly a decade in power, the Tories are politically and intellectually exhausted – and they don’t know what to do about it.
A vapid, one-word slogan – “Opportunity” – greeted visitors to the conference centre. Opportunity for what? For who? We were never told. When Tory MP Ben Bradley, the party’s former vice chair, was asked at an IPPR fringe event what policy announcements had stood out, he replied with admirable honesty: “None”.
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