‘Managed decline’, or ‘steely determination’?
The fallout from the Conservatives’ disastrous local election results continued this week, with the inaugural conference of the rebellious Conservative Democratic Organisation. During the conference, former home secretary Priti Patel accused Rishi Sunak of presiding over the ‘managed decline’ of the Tory party. Energy Secretary Grant Shapps was determined to spin his party’s predicament in a more positive light however, telling Sophy Ridge there was an atmosphere of ‘steely determination’ among his fellow MPs:
Shapps – ‘Sunak’s pledge was to grow the economy and we’re starting to see it grow’
Shapps rejected the notion that the Conservatives needed to make significant changes. He told Laura Kuenssberg they would stay the course on Sunak’s five main pledges, and claimed some measure of progress on growing the economy had already been achieved by avoiding a recession. Kuenssberg pointed out that growth of 0.1 per cent could hardly be called a success:
Jacob Rees-Mogg – if Tories change leader again they will be ‘toast’
Sophy Ridge also spoke to Jacob Rees-Mogg, another attendee of the Conservative Democratic Organisation conference, about the turbulence in the Conservative party. She asked if he thought getting rid of Boris Johnson was a mistake. He replied: ‘Of course it was’, but claimed it would be an even bigger mistake to oust Rishi Sunak:
‘It is absolutely the same Keir Starmer that I supported’
Keir Starmer gave a speech this week outlining the scale of the challenge an incoming Labour government would face, referencing Blair by saying his own Labour project would be ‘clause IV on steroids’. But some, including Grant Shapps today, have accused Starmer of being changeable and insincere with his policies. Kuenssberg asked Labour’s Jonathan Reynolds if he thought Starmer was trustworthy, given he had suggested he didn’t mind if he ‘sounded like a Conservative’ in his recent speech:
AI: A bigger impact on the economy than the pandemic
And finally, the intrigue, excitement and trepidation around AI continues. Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque told Kuenssberg that AI will have a huge effect on the economy, and it was ‘up to us to decide which direction’. Up to 44 per cent of tasks could be affected by AI, becoming easy and potentially leading to job losses. On the other hand, Goldman Sachs has predicted AI could add 7 per cent to the country’s GDP. But Mostaque also sounded the warning that, without care, AI could become an existential threat to humanity:
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