{"id":108392,"date":"2017-10-05T10:10:46","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T10:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=108392"},"modified":"2019-09-10T15:30:19","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T14:30:19","slug":"plmr-joe-mitton-gives-his-rundown-of-the-tory-conference-and-the-pm-keynote-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/plmr-joe-mitton-gives-his-rundown-of-the-tory-conference-and-the-pm-keynote-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"PLMR’s Joe Mitton gives his rundown of the Tory Conference and the PM’s keynote speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vuelio Political Services teamed up with integrated communications agency PLMR<\/a> to bring you the top news and analysis from the Conservative Party Conference 2017.<\/p>\n

Read what Joe Mitton, Senior Consultant at PLMR, thought were the key takeaways from what was an eventful Conference.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

The Conservative Party Conference in Manchester this week (1-4 October) sought to heal the divisions of the disappointing general election result for the Party, and to articulate an optimistic alternative to the unexpectedly popular vision of Jeremy Corbyn\u2019s Labour Party.\u00a0 For a party in government, it is a somewhat strange position to be in; having to construct an alternative to the Opposition\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n

Many speakers, including the Chancellor Philip Hammond, focussed on the need to promote once again the benefits of a free market economy.\u00a0 Hammond reminded the party faithful that most of the electorate is too young to remember the economic difficulties of the 1970s.\u00a0 Other MPs made passionate cases for market-led economic growth, so it was interesting that the final speech of the conference by the Prime Minister revived her plan for a retail energy price cap.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister\u2019s Speech: Social mobility and the \u2018British Dream\u2019
\n<\/strong>
\nTheresa May addressed the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester today (4 October).\u00a0 While much of the more frothy commentary will focus on the croaky delivery and the rather pointless interrupting prankster, we thought it more useful to look at the policy content and the vision that the Prime Minister articulated.<\/p>\n

May repeatedly referenced \u201cthe British Dream\u201d \u2013 a \u201cdream that life should be better for the next generation\u201d.\u00a0 This appears to be partly a call for social mobility, and partly an affirmation of progressive, ongoing economic growth and personal attainment.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether this vision will have much traction with voters, especially the young, who face daunting house prices and virtually non-existent real wage growth. With only passing mention to Jeremy Corbyn, the central theme in May\u2019s speech of a \u201cBritish Dream\u201d seems designed to provide an optimistic counter-narrative to the bold promises with which Corbyn\u2019s Labour has successfully attracted new voters.\u00a0 Which of these visions prevails may well be the defining political question of the next five years in British politics.<\/p>\n

In an effort to bring a sense of authenticity and conviction to her vision, Ms May somewhat uncharacteristically spoke about her own family background and her grandmother\u2019s job as a domestic servant.\u00a0 She also spoke of her own health issues and treatment by the NHS.\u00a0 May emphasised social justice and recognised, in several anecdotes and points, that she understands that minority ethnic communities still face significant inequalities.\u00a0 She said that she got into politics to address precisely these kinds of injustices.<\/p>\n

The main new policy announcement was that the government would seek to cap household energy bills \u2013 which came as a surprise to many at the Conference who had assumed that that policy had been quietly shelved after the last general election. Energy companies came in for some quite sharp criticism in Ms May\u2019s speech, and it seems now likely that an energy price cap of some kind will indeed be introduced this parliament, with the Opposition very unlikely to block such a popular move.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister also announced \u00a32 billion more for new social housing.\u00a0 This, alongside earlier announcements of a university tuition fee freeze and \u00a310 billion in additional Help to Buy funding, is part of a broader pitch by the Conservatives\u2019 to address the issues facing ordinary working people.<\/p>\n

The test will be whether Ms May\u2019s vision resonates with the public as authentic, deliverable and inspiring, or whether public life and media commentary continues to focus merely on stunts, gaffes and personality cults.<\/p>\n

ABOUT PLMR<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 2006, PLMR<\/a> is a fully integrated communications agency with offices in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Cambridge. They work across all sectors, from transport and technology to education and energy, expertly offering a suite of key communications services: public affairs, PR, crisis management, media training, digital, film and design, planning communications and campaigns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vuelio Political Services teamed up with integrated communications agency PLMR to bring you the top news and analysis from the Conservative Party Conference 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":108072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7271,7341,7348],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108392"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124318,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108392\/revisions\/124318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}