During this year's general election, Theresa May achieved a result that she did not anticipate or want. Britain had its first hung parliament since 2010, an unwanted outcome considering the Conservative Party succeeded in achieving its first majority since 1992 two years prior.
This happens in British political history when the electorate fails to distinguish between the two main parties under the UK's two-party voting system. It was clear that the Conservatives moved too far to the left in a bid to compete with Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party. It seems like the Government may have learnt lessons from this humiliating result.
Today's speech by the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has heralded a return to traditional Conservative values.
The party needs to distinguish itself more from Corbyn's socialist utopia
Many centre-right journalists and commentators have been urging the Prime Minister to shrink away from big state solutions for a considerable period of time. Activists did not want a general election this year, but if there is one silver-lining from it, then it should be that the party needs to do more to distinguish itself from Corbyn's socialist utopia, and today they just did that.
The Chancellor referenced Tory values like a "property-owning democracy", a phrase the party has not issued for a long time. At a time when home ownership among millennials born in between 1981-2000 is diminishing, it is encouraging to hear Mr.
Hammond sympathise with the plight of young people failing to own a home. He even made reference to his own children, demonstrating that he shares other parents' anxieties for their own offspring.
The Chancellor must do more
Yet the Chancellor must do more. An extension in Help to Buy loans is welcome, but it is not a satisfactory solution.
He must deregulate the housing market to a greater extent to enable the free market he championed earlier to deal with increasing demand.
He was correct to condemn the socialist language of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, and he even appeared upbeat more than usual. A hung parliament should have demotivated the senior leadership, but it seems to have inspired him to issue a direct warning to the Labour Party to fight them.
He even reminded delegates about how Margaret Thatcher rescued this country, something leading Tories have not done for a while.
The Chancellor need to maintain this attitude. It is these aspirations that are needed now more than ever.
