You know what the Tories can give everyone for Christmas? A dose of hope

Never lose hope.

In the midst of a political discourse that is so angry and disappointed, the articulation of hope matters. The key is a pragmatic hope that can be felt by as many people as possible.

Some will see this as wet; the desire to see the world as we’d wish it to be, not as it is.

The truth, however, is that’s not what hope is about. Political vision is, if nothing else, describing the world as we want it to be, to escape what it is.

There is a higher value than ever before in being honest with the public about the serious challenges this country faces and about what’s realistic when promising to tackle them. That does not, and never has, precluded offering hope.

What was the critique of Sunak that hurt most? He didn’t have a Conservative vision. What has hammered Starmer, worse than having no vision? That he had no plan beyond his vision to be Prime Minister – just because he wasn’t a Tory.

I dismiss the jibe that the Conservatives now are “the same old Tories”. It is self-evident they are changing – however you judge that change, or the level of it.

Why are they changing ? Because they have to.

‘Same same’ isn’t going to cut it, and so our opponents have to insist that not only that the Conservatives aren’t changing, but they can’t.

Neither are true.

In a bid to stifle the Tories latest policy announcement – scrapping the Net Zero legal deadline for the sale of new petrol cars – Reform excitedly pointed out it was a policy of the last government.

Andrea Jenkyns, a former Tory in that Government, who once supported net zero policy, attacked Badenoch for not signing a backbench letter urging their then Government to scrap a ban. This attack ignored the principle of Cabinet responsibility and I’d be fascinated if any Reform Government abandoned that principle.

It was an odd tactic for a party desperate to win defectors, to loudly point out Badenoch’s Conservatives had changed their minds, whilst simultaneously, declaring that there’s nothing great about ‘failed ex Tory MPs’ and that the Conservatives are the same as in 2024.

Actually, it’s a good change, as my colleague, Henry Hill laid out.

All this aside the Conservative’s next challenge is not to end up being seen, as the Thais say, ‘same, same, but different’ but actually different. The key is drawing on past, and too recently forgotten, Tory values and forging them into a complete focus on the future.

How should that change be articulated?

Avoid a vision pitch that is all about what we don’t want and be about what we all want – and spell out what is realistic and what is moonshine.

I’d bet that the most used words in the politics of 2025 are ‘betrayal, lies, failures, weakness, dishonest, scandal, crisis’ etc

There’s a big prize for the party that can offer both honesty and positive pragmatic hope.

Without that, a future programme is not, since I mentioned cars, ‘firing on all cylinders’. Rage alone does not secure victories.

Pragmatic hope might sound like half-measure hope, and be open to the same critique as Mel Stride got for ‘responsible radicalism’.

However, it’s not a contradiction in terms. I can prove it.

Starmer sold hope to a section of society he defined – and pretty much nobody else could – as a “government in service of ‘working people’”. Never mind that serving in Government he couldn’t define who ‘working people’ were. It became all too apparent it wasn’t ‘people who work.’

He sold a hope that Labour would be honest, principled and above all not Tory – and it worked – until it unravelled faster than we’ve ever seen. Why? because it lacked pragmatism. Plus he didn’t have what it takes to deliver, and now his MPs won’t even let him.

Labour realised too late that righting past ‘wrongs’ is no vision for the future. Now his future is darker than any he conjures up for us. He is literally – ‘hope-less’.

He told the liaison committee, in his lumpen dull tones of his frustrations ‘that ‘you pull a lever’ but there’s just so many frustrations and obstacles’.

The ‘pull the lever’ line is as old as Tony Blair’s government, and the problems got worse because of it, and that’s exactly why Badenoch has said she wants to rewire the state, and that it should do less, but much better. We learned the hard way – and yes, we need to acknowledge that because it’s the honest thing to do – but going through those battles prepares you in the future to properly fix the complexities of being bogged down in trying to do what you want you promised.

Reform has had a stab this. Former Tory, Danny Kruger presented a slick video that concealed the problem. Presentation? Good, but actual content seemed to be crudely; slash and punish, move and remove, and get juniors to rat out their seniors.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty to be done with the civil service. It has to back off from doing policy and fully and efficiently implement the policy of the Government it must serve, and serve better. It should be smaller, but defined by where they are surplus to political requirements, not because they aren’t ‘true believers’.

You want more true believers on the inside? Expand the Spad cohort, and, as we did – but should have done more – bring in private sector experience.

Reform offer a hope that you’ll see some made to ‘pay’ – punished for past behaviours that are ill defined. To ‘finish’ their opponents, and get tough with everyone who’s a problem. I see it’s popular, I don’t underestimate their current success, but a lack of positivity matters. Farage takes a podium these days not so much with a positive vision but an angry promise of a reckoning.

“It will all be better if everyone awful is just swept aside” – will it, though?

I know, “look at the polls!” I do look at them. Reform are out in front. We all have a long road to travel, before the only poll that matters. May 2026 will be grotty, Conservatives know that, but they must keep focussed on the target of 2028/29.

The Greens offer hope. Their made-for-TV leader oozes it. Their problem is Polanski is like a walking book of aphorisms. He spouts lines and slogans that seem reasonable and positive, until you think about them for a second and realise it’s utter guff.

Hope he has – pragmatism he does not.

His inflexible defence of Palestine, hard anti-Israel rhetoric, open borders madness, and objection to Supreme Court backed biological facts will tell against him.

So ok, how do the Conservatives articulate pragmatic hope?

First, they have to because despite signs of revival, they’re should be aware how precarious their position still is.

Aspiration is a core Conservative value. Aspiration is specific form of hope. At a basic level, whilst continuing to hold the Government’s feet robustly to the fire, it is about finding the language to build aspiration and inspiration.

Building, enabling, helping, offering, honesty, serving, safety, security. All more positive than words that come from a lexicon of revenge and reaction.

This is not me being nice. This isn’t ‘be kind’ or woke. There’s a clear political advantage for any who adopt language that frames their vision in a positive way. It’s playing to simple psychology. People want something to truly believe in more than they want something that will give them Schadenfreude.

True, at the moment and we have to take on the chin the pantomime cat call of we ‘don’t BELIEVE you’.

I get that but it cannot stop efforts to try, relentlessly.

Yes, we need to see more expanded policy development. We need Kemi on consistent top form, the shadow cabinet team working fit to bust, the Comms continuing to improve, but it should be encapsulated in an overarching ‘vibe’.

This isn’t happy managerialism. That’s dead. We’re not.

It’s about crafting a values-based Conservative offer that articulates voters individual hopes and lifts them:

“We do not say or do new things to settle scores, or humiliate opponents, but because we firmly, and honestly, believe, they’ll be better for every citizen of the county we serve.”