A wide range of MPs, journalists, commentators, and thinkers on the centre-right joined us at M&C Saatchi to celebrate the launch of the Centre for Policy Studies’ ‘New Generation’ launch.
Attendees were welcomed by Lord Saatchi, CPS Chairman, who introduced Amber Rudd, Home Secretary. Rudd welcomed “the start of something really extraordinary” and noted it will be “only with [the new generation’s] help we’ll be able to make the changes that we all believe in”.
“Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph, over a decade, completely changed British politics, completely changed the values and the way people thought about the private sector. I remember my father, who set up a business, saying to me that if you wanted to get a telephone line in your business it could take months, it could take years. Those were extraordinary days then, if you wanted a sandwich on British Rail you had to be pretty hungry. If you were going on holiday, you booked it through the FCO rather than through Thomas Cook or Booking.com. Those were such different days and most of us, until very recently, thought that those days had gone for good.”
“We need to make that case again. We, you, the other Conservative MPs who have recently joined. We need to go out there and have that fight, because right behind us is Labour who are going to try and corrupt and make sure that other people don’t understand the things that we stand for. We stand for free enterprise and aspiration, for law and order, and for the basic ingredients that make us a safe and prosperous nation. And to all of you here, the next generation, you’re going to be crucial in making that happen, as is the CPS.”
“Theresa May has rightly been clear that we need to do more, particularly on housing. We need to have a system to boost more ownership and to make sure that everybody has a stake in the market and economy. And we need to adapt our ideas and our reality to the changing context. We can continue with the principles and ideas that make us that make us Conservatives but we need to change them to fit the modern challenges that we face.”
“I would like to take the opportunity here to welcome this initiative from the CPS, to welcome the start of something really extraordinary of working with the 2015 group, the 2017 group, so that they can ensure that they have their voices heard. Because when we engage in our dining clubs of our conversations with them, a lot of them do say, “How do we get our voices heard? We have good ideas, we want to be part of finding the solutions.” And to them I say, “It is fantastic that you want to do that, the CPS is providing a platform. There are others out there as well. But get your voices out. Get heard, because only with your help we’ll be able to make the changes that we all believe in.”
Graham Brady MP then read a letter from Theresa May in which she set out her “delight” in supporting the New Generation project and remarked on the “pioneering work of the CPS” in shaping the Conservative Party.
Robert Colvile, newly announced Director of the CPS, then set out the upcoming papers planned by the CPS as part of the New Generation project, details of which can be found in the video below.
Click here to find out more about the New Generation project.
