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Conservative conference - traditional Tory values
Andrew Alexander
Day two of the Conservative conference in moderately sunny Blackpool, and activists in the hall have been having their tummies tickled with some appeals on traditional Tory themes.
Monday was George Osborne's day, as he delivered a well-balanced speech on that most delicate of modern Tory subjects - tax - and drew gasps of admiration from the audience.
The shadow chancellor's big flourish was the announcement that the party would scrap inheritance tax on estates under £1m, meaning only millionaires will have to pay "death duty".
That line won him a gleeful response, and is bound to get some serious praise from Tuesday's Express at the very least. Phillip Webster at Times Online says the announcement was "definitely a coup", and reckons that half the cost will be met by the US Treasury anyway.
The hall at the Winter Gardens was packed for Osborne's appearance, which isn't necessarily saying much. Despite the highest attendance for five years - 8,000 registered delegates apparently - the stands in the Empress Ballroom don't provide many seats, although the TV cameras don't give that impression.
Shadow children's minister and bright spark Michael Gove gave another crowd-pleaser this morning, managing to refer to Thatcher, Disraeli, Churchill, AND the British sense of fair play all in one speech.
Gove hit the sweet spot with a pledge to take on the health and safety police who are stopping children from taking risks.
Commentators with nothing better to do wondered if Gove might have his sights set on the leadership of the party, and the Guardian's Michael White thinks this is why he has started wearing contact lenses.
Grant Shapps, perhaps not the party's greatest orator, was given an ovation for promising to scrap Hips, that shibboleth of home owners and Tories everywhere.
Monday's gimmick update: Following yesterday's saucy seaside postcards with a joke about tax credits and Stella Artois-inspired anti-Gordon beer mats, today the Tory press office was handing out rock with the Conservative tree logo through the middle and a red yo-yo - labelled 'Same old Labour, same old spin'.
As others have pointed out, there does seem to be a strange dearth of Tory MPs around the Winter Gardens. The redoubtable Chris Moncrieff of the Press Association puts it down to the fact that they all loathe Blackpool.
One MP who seems to be on every billing is Henley's own mayoral wannabe Boris Johnson, who was greeted with a palpable scream from a woman old enough to know better in the conference hotel on Sunday night.
Boris turned up late to a London Councils fringe event, where he received a rapturous welcome for a less-than-polished attack on "King Newt". Best line, if perhaps one better suited to the stump in Oxfordshire than in London, was comparing himself to the tool on a penknife used to get pebbles out of horses' hooves - Boris was the tool, and Ken the pebble crippling London.
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Published: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 17:23:09 GMT+01
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