Tories set for rethink on upgrade for Metro
Oct 6 2009 by William Green, The Journal
Chairman promises 'happy news' to come
THE Conservatives yesterday declared there will be "happy news" after The Journal challenged them to set out their regional manifesto at the party’s conference.
Tory party chairman Eric Pickles said: "We’ll make bold announcements and by the end of this week, we will clearly have demonstrated to you and the rest of the country that our party led by David Cameron has the answers to rebuild our broken economy, mend our broken society and put the trust back in politics."
The chairman said there would be "happy news" for the North East after business leaders and The Journal joined forces to urge David Cameron to fill in policy "blanks" from upgrading transport links, to the future of Northern Rock, the economy and the impact of spending cuts.
Mr Pickles attempted to reach out to disillusioned Labour supporters, Liberal Democrats and union members angry about the scrapping of the 10p tax band, ID cards and soaring unemployment. The Conservative Party wanted to be judged on how it treated the poorest in society and had liberal democracy at its heart, the party chairman said.
But despite opinion polls showing a Tory election victory, Mr Pickles warned it was "not in the bag".
"We still have a mountain to climb to form the next government. We need to take 117 seats. The Conservative Party has not done that since 1931. We need a swing greater than the swing than Margaret Thatcher managed in 1979." He added: "We are going to want to earn and each every one of those votes. We don’t want to get people’s vote just because we are not New Labour.
"We want to earn people’s votes because we want a mandate, a mandate for change."
A Conservative spokesman also said yesterday: "This party conference is an important opportunity for us to outline to the public our vision and plans across a number of critical issues, and we will announce detailed policies on a range of issues from education to transport to the economy, among many others.
"We’ve already announced a comprehensive plan to get more people into work and a commitment to build new technical schools in urban areas like Tyneside.
"Tomorrow, George Osborne will discuss our plans for the economy and the financial sector."
