How to ‘seal the deal’

David Cameron will be Britain’s new Prime Minister by next summer — this was the main conclusion drawn from the Labour party conference.

David Cameron will be Britain’s new Prime Minister by next summer — this was the main conclusion drawn from the Labour party conference. It did not need to be announced formally, but it suffused everything, from the desperation in the platform speeches to the gallows humour in the Brighton bars. This week, Britain has seen the spectacle of a party whose MPs are going back to their constituencies and are preparing for retirement — or abject defeat followed by a brutal civil war.

There is now only one party of government in Britain, and it meets in Manchester on Monday. Yet the Conservative agenda for government has all too much scope for improvement. We do not argue for a moment that any political party should lay out its manifesto months in advance. But it should have announced just enough to give a clear idea about what direction it will take. This can be done next week by a few carefully chosen pledges.

Schools reform is becoming an emblem of Tory reform in general — but too much detail is missing. Many would-be school providers (including our own Toby Young) are waiting to set out their business plans but need to know the particulars. How much would the voucher be? It should be set at £5,000 per pupil, with local variations, and as the architect of the Swedish reforms argues on page 17, these schools must be able to make a profit. There must be an incentive for the education entrepreneurs on whom the Tory plan depends.

The primary Tory role will be the one it has occupied throughout history — repairing the financial damage done by a Labour government.