The Tram: Tories tee-up a big moment in local politics

It’s common currency in politics to assume that the Tories have forever been the party of big business, led by people whose background and outlook make them automatically sympathetic to the profit motive.
Yet their philosophy isn’t that straightforward.
There is a long-established strand of Tory thought that also seeks to stand up for the little man against over-mighty authority – whether that authority is Government or Big Business.
This appears to be what lies behind at least a little of the opposition voiced by Kay Cutts (pictured), the Tory leader on Nottinghamshire County Council, to putting £28m into the expansion of Nottingham’s tram.
If the Tories do gain control of County Hall next month and do go through with their pledge it will be a big moment in local politics.
A decision not to put money into the tram could have significant implications for the long-term direction of Nottingham’s economy.
Peter Gadsby, the entrepreneur who has been behind the building of two of the city’s most successful business parks, Phoenix Park and NG2, is genuinely dismayed by the Tory pledge.
Even Alliance Boots, an implacable opponent of the Workplace Parking Levy that Nottingham City Council wants to part-fund it with, has made it clear that it wants to see the tram extended.
Mrs Cutt’s vague suggestions that inward investors might like to put money into the tram and that it should be re-routed away from Rushcliffe risks being seen as policy borne out of a short-term electoral tactic rather than a long-term economic strategy.
It is right to robustly question big spending plans, but there is a dilemma at the heart of the Conservative pledge: it may be the ‘little man’ that suffers if the tram’s expansion doesn’t go ahead.
Many small enterprises derive large chunks of their livelihood directly from those same ‘Big Businesses’ Mrs Cutts distances herself from or from the thousands of well-paid people who work for them.
Saving £28m will sound like a very attractive option. But what price the consequences?