Political View: Workers, not shirkers for a 'better tomorrow'

The Leader's speech is always an eagerly awaited finale to the Annual Conference, and this year Kemi Badenoch didn’t disappoint, writes Conservative Group deputy leader Steve Allen. 

With a theme of a ‘Better Tomorrow’ the major issue Kemi identified was the belief in the dignity of work with the declared philosophy that the best welfare is a well-paying job rather than the acceptance of living a life on benefits.

Contrast that with the Prime Minister’s statement when debating our lack lustre defence budget, that National security can’t come at the expense of social security!

Earlier in the week of conference, I attended the Extra Ordinary Full council meeting – called to debate the Local Plan.

The meeting followed a ‘call in’ by Conservative Councillors concerned by the exclusion from the Local Plan of the Drysides area of Stanground, previously identified as employment land; together with other concerns regarding additional housing at the East of England Showground.

A large group of residents attended the meeting. Many local to the Drysides sites supporting the removal of the strategic employment land from the submitted plan. There were also a number of supporters of Speedway being retained at the showground in attendance.

Despite the track now being severely degraded and the site owners not supporting the reinstatement of the sport at that location there is continued demand from a dedicated number of fans continuing to pressure for an outcome they see as deliverable.

I am sympathetic to their quest and have on many occasions stated that the loss of Speedway at Alwalton, and Greyhound racing at Fengate are both particularly felt by a large group of people, many of whom would have been happy to describe themselves as working class!

However, it’s a brave man that ventures into a debate over class in this country. And my mere mention of working class received howls of derision from a section of the public gallery.

Well sorry, but I am happy to defend the use of the phrase. The past decades have of course seen huge improvements in standards of living, increased home ownership, the wide availably of university education, increases in white collar jobs and employment in the professional sector, with resulting reductions in manual labour jobs. 

But do all these strides mean that Working Class is now a demeaning phrase – cancelled by the momentum of change?  Perhaps the changes in demographics mean we are now all middle class, or perhaps even ‘Lanyard Class’? 

As the grandson of a foundry worker, the son of a carpenter father and shopworker mother, I am personally proud of my roots, and having taken a successful journey in business and commerce will never forget where I am from.

Kemi Badenoch was certainly on the side of work and workers in her conference speech and as a nation we should grasp that ethos. To use a phrase coined by another female conservative leader (and PM) we need ‘workers not shirkers’, whatever class they chose to identify as!

And to close, I must praise all of those who participated on Sunday in the Great Eastern Run. The sight of so many dedicated runners taking time out from their Sunday to support the event is undoubtably a fantastic spectacle. From the elite runners with undiminished focus, to the dedicated club runners, the leisure participants, and those committed to their charity fundraising - including fellow Councillors, all provide an understanding of how valuable an everyman event of this nature is to our city.

With the aid of Cllr John Howard, and the support of then Council Leader Wayne Fitzgerald, I made it my mission to see the GER reinstated when Cabinet Member for Culture & Sport in the Conservative Administration. Now with Good Running successfully on board, I count the outcome as a proud achievement.