Despite what they say, the Tories are still in hock to their greying base
Badenoch is developing a coherent policy agenda, but without a plan for helping Nick, 30 ans, the Conservatives will remain a party only for the old, writes Joseph Dinnage
I’m in a very bad place. For the last three days, I’ve been in Birmingham at the Conservative Party’s annual conference. The mood at this year’s edition was – as ever – remarkably jubilant. Despite the tricky couple of years the party has faced since its electoral battering, the Tory faithful remain present, engaged and optimistic.
What always strikes me about Conservative Party conference is how young everyone seems to be. The average at which one starts voting Tory is 63, but you wouldn’t guess it hanging around Brum. There is a dedicated cadre of young Conservatives who populate the conference. The men are often seen in double-breasted jackets and the women wear long dresses in Tory blue.
Conference is their Woodstock, and good for them. We all need a hobby.
What I struggle to reconcile though is why they continue to vote Conservative, given how poorly the party treated young people for 14 years. Anaemic growth, high taxation, welfarism, Nimbyism and unprecedented migration combined to make young people miserable. All of this was aided and abetted by the Conservative Party.
Young people are entering a perverse social contract
In fairness, Britain was not alone in this. Across the channel in France, a meme has emerged in recent years: ‘Nicolas, 30 ans’. For the linguistically challenged, Nicolas or Nick, in his British incarnation, is 30 years old, and in the meme, he appears head in his hands, ruminating about his taxes going to fund North African migrants sending remittances back home and cruise holidays for wealthy pensioners. The meme might be dated now, but the theme is not. Working-age young people across Europe have been given a terrible deal: work hard all your life only to never be able to afford a home and watch your taxes go towards an infinitely growing welfare state for the benefit of others.
This perverse social contract is ultimately no good for anyone. It is not conducive to economic growth and fosters a society in which children are almost guaranteed to be poorer and less happy than their parents. If Badenoch wants to ensure that young people continue coming to her party’s conference, she must set out a plan for improving the lot of the next generation.
In her keynote address, Badenoch announced that she will abolish inheritance tax on family homes if the Tories win the next election. The obviously went down extremely well and was met with rapturous applause. The death tax is Britain’s most reviled levy, and Badenoch is right to begin dismantling it. This year’s conference was light on policy, but last year Badenoch also announced that she would abolish stamp duty, another of our worst taxes which punishes young people for buying their first home and jams up the whole housing market. This is highly welcome. Young people should not be penalised for receiving an inheritance nor should they be disincentivised from owning their own home.
The Conservatives are still for the old
Yet recent announcements suggest the Tories are still in hock to their greying base. When Andy Burnham announced at Labour conference that he would remove the triple lock to fund his National Care Service, the Conservatives were incensed. Labour are robbing our pensioners, the lines read. But if the Conservatives were honest with themselves, they’d admit that the triple lock is an unsustainable, expensive ratchet, and while Burnham is reforming it for the wrong reasons, it is unfair for the young to be forced to fund ever-growing welfare for an ageing population.
On the way into the conference hall in Birmingham, attendees were greeted by a poster bemoaning the government for reforming winter fuel payments. It comes across as disingenuous.
Badenoch is developing a coherent policy agenda, but without a plan for helping Nick, 30 ans, she will not build a society fit for the future.
Joseph Dinnage is senior press officer at the Prosperity Institute