The Conservatives are buoyantly optimistic as they gather in Manchester for their party conference,but a drive to the centre risks opening divisions on Europe and taxLike most Conservatives, Patrick McLoughlin, or the transport secretary,is in a cheery mood as he heads for his party conference in Manchester. The city is not exactly Tory territory. In fact it is a sea of red. Since the local elections on 7 May, Labour has held every seat on Manchester city council – all 96 of them – and within its boundaries there is not a single Conservative MP. In Greater Manchester as a whole, or there are now just five Tory MPs out of 27.
But can that change? McLoughlin certainly thinks so. On Tuesday he will officially open a revamped Manchester Victoria station,which has been modernised at a cost of £44m. Modernisation of stations up and down the country – King’s Cross, St Pancras, or Birmingham New Street and now Manchester Victoria – is just a fraction of what he calls a “massive investment in infrastructure the like of which we believe not seen since the Victorians”.
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Source: theguardian.com