‘Tis the season again, when all the political party conferences dominate the headlines. Tremendous focus this year fell on the conference of the Tories in Manchester. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke for over an hour, said over 7,000 words, and managed to disrespect an entire community, but did any of it actually mean anything? Many of Sunak’s key points may well just be ‘headline grabbers,’ a plot to gain indecisive voters with no actual plan to implement any of the ideas.
The illegitimate PM gave his address to a hall packed with hopeful Conservatives, desperate to prolong their time in office at the next general election, an event becoming increasingly imminent. After Sunak’s many, many introductions came to a close, his tedious address to the Tories of the UK began. It came as no surprise that HS2 dominated the agenda, managing to fill much of the discussion in the media in the days following the conference.
Sunak then began repeatedly emphasising that he is a ‘man of change,’ an incredibly bold statement considering the devastating thirteen years of Tory leadership. Attempting to portray himself as a ‘man of change’ is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of people who have suffered as a result of years of Tory austerity in the last decade. The leader of the Conservative party may have changed many times since austerity began, but this unlikely promise from Sunak is just another attempt to brainwash helpless members of the electorate into thinking he can give them what they need—this is simply untrue.
Continuing the rundown, Sunak proposed a controversial new plan for Britain to become smoke-free—an incremental raise in the smoking age. The British Medical Journal reported that ‘this will make it an offence for anyone born from 1 January 2009 to be sold tobacco products—effectively raising the legal smoking age by a year each year until it applies to the whole population.’ Meaning that in 2044, a 35-year-old born in 2009 would not be able to buy a pack of cigarettes, but their 36-year-old friend born just a year prior would be able to, despite them both being over eighteen. This particular ‘pledge’ is a clear example of an attempt to gain voters who haven’t yet made their mind up about who to vote for at the next general election. Why is it that arguably one of the most important speeches of the year is filled to the brim with likely false promises?
Another example of headline-grabbing at party conferences was confidently demonstrated by education secretary Gillian Keegan, who proposed a ban on mobile phones in secondary schools. Headteacher Glyn Potts told the Guardian’s Ruper Neate that ‘It wouldn’t make it into my list of the top 10 problems. In fact, I don’t think it would make it into the top 100’, and went on to confirm his feelings, ‘This is a headline grabber, allowing the government to avoid the real problems we’re facing in schools,’ Potts says. “It feels like another kick to headteachers who are already doing this, but the government is going to take credit for resolving it.’ Rishi Sunak and the rest of the Tory government are attempting to distract the public from genuine issues in the country by offering fixes to insignificant problems.
Sunak then began to incite what is often named a ‘culture war’ through his comments and suggestions surrounding sex and gender identity. Seemingly out of nowhere, the PM fired away with his dangerous and uneducated words. ‘We shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t; a man is a man, and a woman is a woman. That’s just common sense.’ Clearly, the PM doesn’t quite know the difference between sex and gender. Gender is a much broader spectrum than just XX or XY sex chromosomes. A transgender church leader told the Independent that these comments will prove to be extremely dangerous for the trans community. Dr Karl Rutlidge went on to say, ‘these comments have the potential to empower those who are already inclined towards transphobic attitudes” and ‘legitimises, potentially, even violence.’
Post-16 education was also touched upon. Sunak proposed reforms to the qualifications. He suggested scrapping A and T levels and replacing them with an ‘advanced British standard.’ This would also include the extension of study of English and maths to ages eighteen and sixteen, as supposed. Some young people will have paid especially close attention to the Prime Minister’s comments on the education system. After leaving secondary school, many students are often relieved by the freedom and choice at A-levels. No longer having to study subjects they do not enjoy can be a huge weight off their shoulders. Similarly, the freedom to choose more vocational-style qualifications like T levels can be a blessing for those who previously struggled with academic qualifications. The requirement to continue study of undesired subjects has the possibility of causing disillusionment with the educational system, creating more problems than it may solve. Only time will tell if such strange reforms ever take place.
What did the public think of Sunak’s speech?
It came by no surprise that Sunak’s address did not go down too well with the British public, whether they even watched it at all, that is. A survey found that most of the general British public did not watch the speech; many probably gathered their knowledge from the news and social media. A survey for Sky News by ‘find out now’ found that 32.2% of the sample ‘strongly disagreed’ that Rishi Sunak will change the political status quo of the last 30 years, and 27.5% did not know. Furthermore, 61% did not watch the speech. All in all, Rishi Sunak’s speech at the Conservative Party conference was clearly not displaying the strong leadership that the country needs; over an hour of speaking boiled down to empty promises and voter-grabbing strategies.
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