Sally Allen: Nige stole the show at the Tory conference

Political conferences are rarely entertaining or engaging unless you are a politician who likes the sound of their own voice, and of course most do.
At the Conservative Party conference, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt made a seriously lack lustre speech lasting only 15 minutes. Amazingly he always looks so incredibly pleased with himself. The best he could announce was that the poor old business owners would have to pay an increased living wage. He had the cheek to announce it as if he, the government, was being benevolent and making this decision for the less well paid in the country. Anybody would think they were going to pay for it. Hello? This is not a gift from the Government, this is putting the already put upon small business owners under even more pressure as it is only them who will have to pick up the tab, and most SMEs can’t take any more hits like this.
Penny Mordant was the passionate warm-up act for the Prime Minister but frankly I found it all rather embarrassing and over the top. The jewel of the event in my opinion, was the surprise appearance and introduction of her husband by the very beautiful and articulate, Akshata Murty, aka Mrs Sunak. Not only did she look stunning, she effortlessly lifted the conference with the lightest touch and a sprinkle of stardust. It was a masterful performance amongst all the dreary politicians.
It was good to hear from Rishi Sunak that good sense will now prevail with the HS2 debacle. I think George Osborne made a fatal decision when he came up with this idea. He was obsessed with linking London to the North when it is pretty obvious that to level-up the North it is vital it has its own power base to match the London economy. It will be much more productive for the North to be in competition with London, than a subsidiary. Now at long last, £36 billion will be spent on linking up the northern towns and cities. Good sense, it appears, has prevailed at last. However, what a complete waste of money to spend nearly £25 billion to shave 10 or 15 minutes off the journey from London to Birmingham. Shameful.
It always seems that the Tory Party are bereft without a Churchill or a Margaret Thatcher. They all aspire to pick up the gauntlet, but sadly none has the character or charisma to be able to do it. The closest was Boris who had the charisma, but sadly lacked the character. Lying is a bad policy for politicians although most do it in one form or another, often to themselves! Of course, a lot get away with it, but getting caught out is catastrophic and usually career ending.
However, the true winner at the conference was without doubt, Nigel Farage. He had Tory supporters and politicians falling over themselves to have a selfie with him and to hear any pearl of wisdom dropping from his lips. He clearly had a ball, and his ego must have taken a massive, although unnecessary, boost. Love him or hate him, without him Brexit would never have got to the starting gate. He is a force to be reckoned with and he now straddles two political parties, the Tories, and the Reform Party of which he is president.
Farage is a brilliant orator, which is a massive quality to have for a politician. No fumbles, stumbles or errs, he is always fluent. He is flirting shamelessly with the Tories as he knows they need his charisma to rub off on them. Rishi has even indicated that he would not be averse to Farage re-joining the Tories and many more MPs have indicated their support too.
However, at the start of the Reform Party conference Nige came clean and said he would not rejoin the Tories. He said that Britain must leave the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) to complete the Brexit process and that currently the Reform Party are the only ones serious about doing so. Frankly, I agree with him because otherwise the UK is unable to get immigration under control. We should be able to make our own laws in this country.
So, what now? Here’s a thought. The Tories, after losing the election next year, will have four years to court Mr Farage and get him back into the fold. At that point it needs an MP in a safe constituency to take one for the team to allow him a guaranteed seat. Any thoughts on who that should be?