Delayed and short: Conservative Theresa May delivers talk

The Warwick Conservatives Society invited guest speaker MP Theresa May to give a talk on current government polices Wednesday morning.

The talk was scheduled for 9am and was sparsely attended. Attendees had to wait 45 minutes as MP Theresa May’s train was delayed. The talk which was scheduled to last an hour and a half ended up lasting twenty minutes.

When asked why May was chosen as the guest speaker, Warwick Conservatives Exec Dominic Dean said, “She is an influential figure in the Conservative party and has been the senior woman of the party for many years.”

May’s speech touched on various issues such as the economic climate, crime and domestic violence.

She stated that the Conservative strategy in fighting the economic climate was to decentralise the national government by handing back a lot of power to local governments, and by getting credit flowing through businesses which will help to save jobs.

When asked whether she thought Gordon Brown was primarily responsible for not doing enough during these hard times, she said “People are annoyed with Brown for not doing enough. The government at the moment talks a lot, but people don’t see action.”

Another focal topic stressed was unemployment.

According to the Conservative party, the rules concerning training courses should be relaxed (at the moment, a person must wait 18 months until he/she can attend a training course) as it is advised that people who are currently losing their jobs should re-train in other sectors.

May also stated that she is pushing for a welfare reform that ensures that people who have a hard time adjusting to the working environment have external providers who work closely with them and support them.

She said, “this will ensure that we come out of the recession without a large number of people unemployed.”

When asked how the Conservative party would deal with the issue of crime, May said that that the main thing was to put police onto the streets and cut out all the extensive bureaucracy.

May, The Shadow Minister for Women, also said a significant proportion of violent crime is domestic violence and that the current government is not doing enough in effectively seeking means for prevention.

May was unable to answer a question concerning the Conservative policy on non-EU migrants, a policy that could concern many Warwick international students as it plans to limit the annual intake of international students into the workforce.

She ended by saying, “The Conservative government has always been good at dealing with crises and therefore we must win the next election, as we do not want a further five years of Labour!”