Last Saturday we found out who had become the new leader of the Conservative Party. The question is, should the media pay any attention to the Conservatives now?

Kemi Badenoch comes from a long line of Tory leaders devoted to an ideology that has been tried, tested and failed; small government – the idea that if you ‘roll back the state’ and allow the country to ‘just get on’ without the influence of government, that life will somehow be better.

Well, austerity was sold to us by David Cameron as something necessary for our economy. It involved getting rid of Government Offices and Regional Development Agencies besides massively reducing local council’s income from central government. In truth, austerity was highly damaging to our economy, causing regional disparities that necessitated the failed levelling-up agenda and the loss of local youth services, many libraries and other council services we used to take for granted up and down the country. Austerity was Tory ‘small government’ ideology in action. It didn’t fix our economy, and the nation (for its own good) should reject those that espouse it as a solution now.

Investment, not ‘small government’ is the key to economic success. We need to grow the economy by investing in job creation. The NHS needs more staff. The social care sector needs more workers. Education at all levels needs more workers. To encourage this, wages need to be increased. Once these valued public sector workers have more in their pockets they will be able to spend more which will boost the economy. Surveys show they are more likely to spend than rich people who tend to squirrel away any extra money they get from tax cuts. Because public sector workers will be earning more, they will also be paying more in tax, thus, overtime, repaying the government for the outlay when their jobs were created. And society will benefit as a result.

That is the way to go, not the current Tory way which should be consigned to history once and for all.