15 Dec 2019
Boris Johnson’s victory has been compared to Margaret Thatcher’s in 1979. He has the same opportunity as she did 40 years ago to set Britain on a radical new path.
In fact, his position is much stronger than hers was at that time. His majority is almost twice what she enjoyed.
And whereas she was forced to be cautious because of numerous Tory ‘wets’ in her party, Boris’s Conservatives are remarkably united – for the time being, at any rate.
Boris Johnson is pictured arriving back at 10 Downing Street after his election victory. A law to get us out of the EU in January will be greeted with widespread relief, even in many Remainer circles
Moreover, Labour today is far more divided and shell-shocked than it was in 1979. It will probably take years to put itself together again, and offer the electorate a plausible and attractive alternative to Boris Johnson’s ‘One Nation Conservatism’.
So if there was ever a time to be bold, this is it. Unlike Thatcher, Mr Johnson is not troubled by mighty trade unions or a dysfunctional economy. But he does face a fractious and rather unhappy country which, as he observed on Friday, cries out for ‘healing’.
On Thursday, the Queen’s Speech will give the Government the chance not only to set out its legislative programme for the coming months, but also to establish a kind of philosophical route map for the next five years.
Many will also be looking at the Queen’s Speech for confirmation that Mr Johnson’s election pledges of 20,000 more police officers, tougher sentences and greater use of stop and search are going to be honoured. He is pictured above being invited to become Prime Minister in July
The people whose future welfare should be at the heart of Tory policies are the millions of ‘left behinds’ – so many of whom switched from Labour to Tory last Thursday – ignored by successive governments since the Thatcher revolution. ‘Getting Brexit Done’ is the first step.
A law to get us out of the EU in January will be greeted with widespread relief, even in many Remainer circles.
Testing trade talks with Brussels lie ahead. One warning to Boris: don’t sell out the fishermen, including those in Scotland whose support north of the border he dearly needs, by negotiating away sovereignty over our waters.
Boris Johnson’s victory has been compared to Margaret Thatcher’s in 1979. He has the same opportunity as she did 40 years ago to set Britain on a radical new path
Next in line is the NHS. Michael Gove rightly said yesterday that we could expect from the Queen’s Speech a recognition that it is the ‘number one focus’ of this government.
That’s good to hear. Although the health service has enjoyed real terms growth (discounting inflation) of more than 1 per cent a year since 2010, an ageing population, as well as soaring demographic growth largely driven by immigration, have put it increasingly under strain.
The Government’s reported intention to set in law its commitment to boost health spending by £33.9billion by 2023-24 is welcome. But simply throwing more money at the health service won’t suffice.
Europe’s largest single employer requires a management shake-up so that, for example, enough doctors and nurses are trained in this country.
Appalling cancer outcomes in the UK cannot simply – or even primarily – be explained by lower health spending compared with France or Germany.
The crisis of social care is another top priority. It was clear from the Tory manifesto that much more serious thinking needs to be done. The Queen’s Speech must demonstrate that this is under way.
Immigration and crime are other areas in which out-of-touch thinking in the metropolis has overridden the experience of many ordinary people at the sharp end.
![More education spending, better technical training (endlessly promised, but seldom delivered by governments) and a proper review of our overstrained defence capabilities are other measures that we should look for in the Queen¿s Speech [File photo]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/12/13/14/7382512-6491843-image-a-34_1544710604161.jpg)
More education spending, better technical training (endlessly promised, but seldom delivered by governments) and a proper review of our overstrained defence capabilities are other measures that we should look for in the Queen’s Speech [File photo]
The Government should show that its proposed Australian-style points system, which rates prospective migrants by such criteria as skills and education, will succeed in bringing down immigration to acceptable levels.
Many will also be looking at the Queen’s Speech for confirmation that Mr Johnson’s election pledges of 20,000 more police officers, tougher sentences and greater use of stop and search are going to be honoured.
Such measures will be met with howls of protest in fashionable circles, but welcomed by millions of people frightened by rising crime and mystified that violent criminals often leave prison having served only half their sentences.
And then there is the vital issue of more infrastructure spending, especially on rail and roads.
The people whose future welfare should be at the heart of Tory policies are the millions of ‘left behinds’ – so many of whom switched from Labour to Tory last Thursday – ignored by successive governments since the Thatcher revolution. The PM is pictured above in Wigan
An extra £78billion is said to have been earmarked to transform transport in the north of England. Let’s hope so.
Whether the £88billion – and rising – HS2 project (which would entail slightly faster trains to Birmingham, and eventually the North) can be afforded is highly doubtful given inevitably limited funds.
Isn’t HS2 a classic example of a plan conceived in the capital that mostly benefits London? Greatly improved rail links in northern England are a far bigger priority. They are likely to do much more to achieve economic regeneration in depressed areas.
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More education spending, better technical training (endlessly promised, but seldom delivered by governments) and a proper review of our overstrained defence capabilities are other measures that we should look for in the Queen’s Speech.
And what about encouraging the creation of grammar schools in run-down parts of the country?
Although Mr Johnson has written enthusiastically in favour of them in the past, recognising the opportunities for social mobility which they create, he didn’t mention them once during the campaign.
![The Government¿s reported intention to set in law its commitment to boost health spending by £33.9billion by 2023-24 is welcome. But simply throwing more money at the health service won¿t suffice [File photo]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/06/20/23/15059940-0-image-a-44_1561071331958.jpg)
The Government’s reported intention to set in law its commitment to boost health spending by £33.9billion by 2023-24 is welcome. But simply throwing more money at the health service won’t suffice [File photo]
So much to do! One trembles at the sheer magnitude of the task. Is our small-c conservative civil service really capable of driving through radical reform so that the ‘left behinds’ and the rest of us can see a difference before the end of this Parliament in five years’ time?
Putting the spendthrift Department for International Development under the control of the Foreign Office is one positive idea that has been mooted.
But there is a deeper problem here, an institutional timidity and London-centeredness in Whitehall which needs to be urgently addressed.
Thatcher encountered a similar caution when she came to power, confronted with very different problems to those Boris now faces.
Does the Prime Minister have the discipline and strength of purpose to see through the social and economic overhaul he – and the country – so plainly wants?
We’ll see. What is certain is that he has bags of energy – and that, with a large majority, united party and hopelessly divided Opposition, he could hardly be in a stronger position to fulfil his dreams.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7795223/STEPHEN-GLOVER-time-bold-Boris-it.html
