Simon Clarke is calling on City AM readers to play their part in a once-in-a-lifetime battle for the survival of the centre right. Unless Conservatives can renew their arguments, they will be replaced by populists who only offer anger an no ideas

“Strategy is an overworked and thus devalued word, and strategic thinking can be no guarantee of success. But certainly in business, and especially at times of discontinuity, the strategists have at least a tendency to win, while the tacticians are almost certain to lose.”

In 1977, Margaret Thatcher received the Stepping Stones report from Norman Strauss and John Hoskyns, the cover note of which contained the wise advice above. Stepping Stones set out the basis for much of her defining work when she became Prime Minister two years later.

The importance of strategy is as true today as it was half a century ago. That’s why Kemi Badenoch was right to launch the Conservative Policy Review last week, following the worst election defeat in the hundreds of years of the party’s history.

Tonight, Onward, the think tank I lead, will follow up on this by setting out our programme of work for the period between now and the next General Election in 2029. Our aim will be to think strategically – that is to say, to consider the biggest, most challenging questions of our time and not to shy away from hard truths or difficult choices.  

We need urgently to demonstrate that we understand and have answers to people’s deep and legitimate frustrations about a stagnant economy, unsustainable mass migration and broken public services

We need to do this for two fundamental reasons. First, the centre right is in a battle for survival, both here in the UK and across the West. We need urgently to demonstrate that we understand and have answers to people’s deep and legitimate frustrations about a stagnant economy, unsustainable mass migration and broken public services. To do otherwise will mean extinction and replacement by the radical right, who offer anger without solutions.

Second, and paradoxically, because it is possible for the centre-right to win the next UK election. The government’s woes mean all outcomes are possible. But power without purpose is pointless. For the Conservatives to pick up where they left off last year would be utterly futile.  

Canadian Conservatives show the way

In the spirit of the excellent Canadian Conservatives, Onward’s future programme of work will be targeted at the issues that matter to most people, most of the time. That means a relentless focus on themes including jobs, real living standards, energy security, crime, housing, families, healthcare and social cohesion – which means considering both immigration and integration policy.  

Our three new research programmes are titled Rebuilding the Economy, Renewing our Social Contract and Reshaping the State.  In each, Onward will champion evidence-led, compassionate and unapologetically centre-right solutions. We will also be very mindful that, exactly as Hoskyns and Strauss said in 1977, this is a time of discontinuity. The public know that profound change is needed, if not yet what form it should take.  

What does that mean, in practice? It means questions like how we support the UK birth rate need to be on the table – there is arguably no greater challenge for our public finances than our demographics. It means we need to develop policies to deliver a high growth, low immigration economy. It means we need to champion reindustrialisation with as much seriousness as decarbonisation. It means we need to tackle the deep intergenerational unfairness arising from our broken housing market. It means we need to reimagine how our public services are delivered, and how to raise standards while bringing their costs (and our taxes) under control.

As we move forward with our work, I would warmly welcome insights and policy ideas from City AM’s readers. This needs to be a collective effort and if you want to contribute to, or support, our research, you will be playing your own part in the once in a political lifetime renewal of the centre-right. Please email director@ukonward.com. 

Simon Clarke is the director of Onward, the centre-right think tank