It’s the theme of #cpc21. But is levelling up anything more than a slogan? In case you missed it my piece from last night’s @BBCNewsnight, produced by @hattmarris84 bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09…
As you might know I’ve been trying to pin ministers down on exactly what the definition of levelling up even is. Initially there was a sense it was about rebalancing output between regions. Increasingly it now seems to be about economic growth everywhere, something in which...
...fundamentally every government, well, ever has believed (and many had more comprehensive regional policies than we’re seeing today). Indeed increasingly it’s being used as a synonym for general improvement (“levelling up education, levelling up health, transport etc)...
Which makes it even less clear or defined as a concept or organising principle.

I asked the new Department for Levelling up what the definition was, whether it was about rebalancing or general improvement. Here’s what they said. Judge for yourself how clear it is.
But in a way it’s not surprising it’s a concept which remains pretty nebulous. Because in order to answer it the Conservative Party/government would have to have greater sense of what it thinks about more fundamental questions: the tax burden, intervention, free enterprise vs...
...statism. Once you know what you think about it, it determines what sort of levelling up you care about and its means. All of these fundamental questions are more in flux for the party than at any times since the 1970s. They’re even in dispute between Nos 10 and 11.
And until the party has decided (and it might just continue to fudge it) then the definition of, priorities for and means to do levelling up are likely to remain fuzzy.
Sajid Javid in his speech just now epitomising confusion over the term well. Initially says he wants to “level up” health inequalities between places. Then says he wants to “level up” NHS. Is it equalisation? Is it general improvement? Both? If it’s both might that not lead...
...to quite different policy and priorities? Sometimes contradictory ones?

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More from @lewis_goodall

6 Oct
Thoughts on that speech and conf season more genrally

Leaders' speeches rarely remembered. That one might be. Either as a magnificent piece of political positioning where the PM made the problems of his signature policy into virtue or a Callaghanesque "Crisis, what crisis" x 10.
As I've said several times this week the transition from "problems are exaggerated/non existent" to "all part of the plan" has been something to behold.

Ministers are now leaning heavily into the idea that disruptions we see are part of the "transition" to a different...
...sort of economy. Will leave aside particulars of that for the moment (for more watch NN tonight) but just as a piece of politics, if the disruption isn't too great, as I say, we may look at this as a nimble bit of positioning; at a stroke minimising Brexit...
Read 14 tweets
6 Oct
Boris Johnson on social care: "When I stood on the steps of Downing St I promised to fix this crisis and after decades of drift and dither...this reforming government, this can do government, which got Brexit done, is going to get social care done."
"We're embarking on a change of direction. We're not going back to the same broken model with low wages, low growth, low skills, low productivity: all of it enabled and assisted by uncontrolled immigration."
"The answer is to control immigration, to allow people of talent to come to this country but not to use immigration as an excuse of failure to invest in people, in skills, in machinery, facilities they use to do their jobs. Truck stops- to pick an industry entirely at random."
Read 6 tweets
5 Oct
In Conversation event with @RishiSunak @iealondon and @the_tpa.

Opening salvo a question which is coming up again and again here: “Are the Conservatives really still the party of low tax?”
Sunak: “No chancellor, no Conservative Chancellor, especially not me wants to do those things [raise taxes] but those things are borne of necessity.”
Sunak hints that as the crisis recedes it would be useful to return to Treasury framework on borrowing and spending (golden rules etc)
Read 11 tweets
5 Oct
Sajid Javid on his priorities as Health Sec: “Covid, recovery and reform.”
Javid: “As Conservatives, we will never see state control as the default.”
Javid: “We will always be the party of freeing things up, not locking things down.”
Read 5 tweets
4 Oct
PM addressing future Conservative candidates tells them that they’re going to convince people to vote Conservative “in places which have never voted Conservative before...in places where they’d think their grandparents would turn in their grave if they’d vote Conservative.”
Says that’s because the Conservative in their hearts “represent the hopes and dreams of the British people” and that the public “know in their hearts we’re a one nation Conservative party”
“Did you see the rabble last week? Keir Starmer was like a seriously rattled bus conductor trying to control a mutiny on the top deck.”
Read 4 tweets
4 Oct
.@michaelgove takes to the conference stage

“Well here we are- bright lights, great atmosphere, full of young people: it reminds me of my last night out in Aberdeen.” Image
Gove launches into an attack on the Labour Party citing Lab conf votes on AUSARK, Israel and public spending: “soft on security, weak on extremism, high on debt- this Labour Party is not fit to govern.”
Gove: “We as a party and a government are committed to levelling up every party of the United Kingdom.”
Read 6 tweets

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