Theresa May is set to say in her speech:
“It is when tested the most that we reach deep within ourselves and find that our capacity to rise to the challenge before us may well be limitless.”
President Bartlet:
“Every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we’re reminded that that capacity may well be limitless.”
Number 10 plagiarising the West Wing?
Tory conference finally saw the energy and passion it has been lacking this week courtesy of the InHouse Communications karaoke night. Partygoers witnessed peak Matt Hancock as he took to the stage to sing Happy Birthday to himself, before performing a high octane duet of Don’t Stop Me Now with Therese Coffey (watch above). James Cleverly and Kelly Tolhurst attempted Don’t Go Breaking My Heart before Clevz redeemed himself with a more impressive rendition of Twist and Shout, complete with memorable hip action. Will Quince demonstrated surprising depth as he had the room hand-waving to My Way. Nigel Evans gave us Delilah, David Mundell just about made his way through 500 Miles and a Brexit-backing cross-party trio of Paul Scully, Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Ian Paisley Jnr had the room rocking to Sweet Caroline. Then it was the turn of the Lobby…
Faisal Islam took great pleasure in adapting the lyrics of Don’t Look Back in Anger to belt out “So, Boris can wait” – just the latest MSM smear. Dan Hodges and Glen Owen teamed up with Number 10 Sunday Lobby specialist Kirsty Buchanan to murder Mr Brightside. An emotional David Wooding, one arm raised aloft, sang You’ll Never Walk Alone, the only time he’ll be able to do that in Manchester. The night ended with Number 10’s Richard “Tricky” Jackson nailing You Raise Me Up. Hic…
Uh oh. Alan Duncan – a minister in the government – has said that the Brexit vote was a “tantrum” by working class voters about immigration. Remainer Duncan was speaking at the Chicago Council of Global Affairs:
“The manner in which the campaign was fought stirred up a lot of sentiment amongst people that are not habitual voters, particularly on the issue of immigration. You could feel in the last 10 days of the campaign, traditional blue-collar urban Labour opinion going viral for leave. They were stirred up by an image of immigration, which made them angry and throw a bit of a tantrum. That was part of the chemistry that explains the result.”
Just the sort of sneering pro-Remain view the Tories are trying to avoid this week…
UPDATE: New UKIP leader Henry Bolton calls on Theresa May to sack Duncan:
“The contempt that he shows towards the 17 million is a disgrace, but is symptomatic of a political elite who despise the ordinary people of our country and their hopes and aspirations. The Prime Minster cannot just sit back and allow this. Her authority and credibility already are already in question and the words of her minister will undermine her even further if she doesn’t act.”
UPDATE II: A senior Brexiter says:
“Duncan’s comments are unsurprising. Cocky arrogance and condescending stupidity has always been his stock in trade. Still, he’s taken time off briefing against BoJo.”
Priti Patel talked repeatedly about “my leadership” during her conference speech, and joked at the beginning:
“Some of our most successful leaders have been the smallest.”
Leadership bid klaxon!
“We train the best diplomats and put them to the test by sending them to work for the Foreign Secretary.”
Shots fired at his rival…
At the weekend Hammond and Rudd bombed in a focus group of Tory voters. Now their net satisfaction ratings on ConHome have taken a plunge – Hammond is down 14 points to minus 37 and Rudd is down a huge 20 points to minus 9. Crystal clear what Tory members think of their attempts to water down Brexit.
