Beluzia

[Intruder Emerald]

Conservative Conference - 'stronger nation, stronger economy, stronger institutions' - success or failure?

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The 5732 Conservative Party Conference came to an end today after a week in Feldbruck. It was a week of policy announcements, rumours about unhappy Conservative MPs, manoeuvring and renewed questions about whether Julius Rounds can turn a presence in the Quaiyl into an electoral breakthrough.

Coming into conference, the Conservatives have appeared weak in the polls, which has now been a theme since the last election. Polling is still showing the Conservatives gaining no more than 3% of the vote, and with the electoral threshold of 3% coming into force at the next election, this will be a grave concern for the 9 Conservative MPs in the Quaiyl. Rounds has faced questions over his leadership style, his charisma and his ability to connect with voters.

Therefore, not surprisingly, the biggest event of the week was the speech of the Conservative Leader Julius Rounds. With concerns about Rounds’ leadership style, it might have been a good opportunity for a personality driven speech. Instead, the speech mainly focused on policy announcements and Rounds’ commitment to what he calls “The Big Three”. Rounds’ stated that the Conservatives will focus and fight the next election on “a stronger nation, a stronger economy and stronger institutions”. He vowed to strengthen Beluzia’s miltary by supporting and strengthening the new Beluzian full time army, air force and navy. He promised to commit to economic competence, sensible spending and low taxation. Rounds’ also vowed to protect strong and independent institutions and he referenced the Conservatives’ success in passing judicial independence reforms when discussing this.

If anything, a lot of Rounds’ speech was not about redefining Conservative policy, it was about defending and promoting legislation already proposed by the Conservatives. He again repeated, as he often does, that he is proud of the Conservatives’ reforms on the fire service. He defended reforms to policing and the criminal justice system, particularly the establishment of an independent commission to appoint judges and magistrates and allowing all citizens to appeal to a higher court. Again, this appears to be the strategy of Julius Rounds; not to change direction in the face of criticism but to highlight what he called “sensible and positive policy” that shows the Conservatives would make a “competent government”. Rounds believes if he continues down the path he has chosen, eventually voters will realise that he is capable of being in government and capable of being prime minister.

Some of this might be true, and what is a fact is that Conservative MPs do not seem to be questioning the policy direction of the party; what they are questioning, still mostly in private, is Rounds’ ability to promote and get out the message to voters. None of what happened at Conference this week is likely to change any of that.

Whether the conference will improve the Conservatives’ polling remains doubtful. However, if the objective was to provide clarity about what the party stands for, Rounds can reasonably claim success. The party leaves Feldbruck with a more coherent message than they arrived with. The unanswered question is whether voters are listening.