Drifting tumbleweed

I was one of the few people who actually watched Kemi Badenoch's speech to the Conservative conference this morning. I was curious to see how she was going to climb out of the deep hole into which she and the Conservatives had fallen. It was a relatively competent performance but she got a few things wrong. Her claim that the Conservatives brought in same sex marriage was sheer rubbish. Most Conservative MPs in 2013 opposed the legislation when it went through Parliament. They lost because a large majority of Lib Dem, Labour and SNP MPs voted in favour. I'm not sure whether she was wilfully wrong or just incompetent. That's for her to answer.

Badenough also claimed that the last Conservative government cut taxes for ordinary people. Her omission is that it was the Lib Dems who put forward policies to raise the personal allowance thereby taking many more people on low incomes out of income tax. The Coalition government agreed to this Lib Dem tax cutting plan. Alas, the Conservatives then put them into reverse and the personal allowance has now been frozen for a number of years, a tax rise that has also been continued by Labour.

And another issue which caught my attention was Badenough's claim that the civil service has now grown too much and she will cut it back to the level of 2016. This rather overlooks that fact that much of the increase in the size of the civil service has happened because of Brexit. With all these barriers now imposed between Britain and her former partners in the EU, no wonder more staff have had to be taken on.

But Badenough at least came over as a bit more self-confident than previously. That will not be enough to save the Conservatives. Indeed, her speech will only be watched by a small number of people. No one is particularly interested in what they have to say.

So as the tumbleweed drifts through the Conservative conference as they pack up to head home, the Conservatives have not yet avoided the existential threat they face. Next year's elections will be the really big test. And if the Conservatives fall at that hurdle, that will probably be the end of them. However, 7 months is a long time in politics.