The Clear Blue Water Strategy

The media has told us there was a buzz around Conservative Party conference. Heaven knows why. Kemi Badenoch is riding a wave of positive press for keeping her party together, and the forced consensus is that Reform are finished. You can even pretend this is the case, as long as you don't look at the polls. Badenoch's leader's speech was an easy job then - give the press and political comment enough to meet their expectations and keep the hype train chugging along. And she gave them what they wanted. If you like, what Badenoch ventured in this speech was something she's kept at arm's length up until now: conservatism. Out was the Tory leader who indulges nativist and hierarchy-of-cultures posturing, and instead she groped toward the rhetorical mean. With leadership on the right against the rising tide of racism having devolved to the likes of Tim Stanley and Jacob Rees-Mogg, Badenoch was keen to contrast her views on identity and nationality with the will-say-anything-for-attention…