A raft of new, interesting Tory centre-left, progressive pledges…
Some of their stated aims and values include:
- Economic stability before tax cuts
- Policies must help the least well-off, not the rich
- Women's choices on work and home lives will be supported
- Public services will not necessarily be run by the state
- Party will fight for free and fair trade
- Tories will be hard-nosed defenders of freedom and security
- Government should support home ownership, saving, families and business
- Government should be closer to the people
Gulp.
After a genuine moment of interest and surprise, my many skeptical/ cynical suspicions start to kick in:
- Politicians generally say one thing and do/ think the other…
- They’re just courting a public new wave vote as Labour did pre-‘97/ Clause 4…
- All these nice-looking policies are actually a way of hiding their capitalist, right-wing credentials, which will come to the fore once they get elected…
- The Tories are just learning to play Labour at their own game…
- They’re moving to the centre-left to reclaim the middle ground from the de facto Tories we have been voting for nationally since ‘97
I’m a Christian, 20-something, “child of Thatcher” with a Politics degree. Surely I should be able to make a way through all of this? If Nick Robinson can’t, then what hope, I ask…
Answers in time for the October Brown-Cameron-Hughes 2008 election (you heard it here first).
5 comments:
I kinda agree with the comments on the blog... it's not like the tories were going to go into the next election promising to bring back boom and bust, so the first item is just 'duh!'.
Can you be a hard nosed defender of both freedom *and* security? You have to compromise somewhere, given that the most secure country setup would be a police state..
It sounds like a PR stunt really. It's not a manifesto, remember - it's basically a press release... all it says to me is that he'd tell people anything to get into power - there's no principle there... I hated thatcher but at least she knew what she believed in.
Whilst I think your gloating over being a 20something is rather insulting to us old 30somethings ;-) What does this really mean? My guess is about as much as a New Labour Manifesto SFA! Don't be surprised to see Cameron courting the blue rinse brigade when the need for doorstep activists arrives once more! My guess is this is really aimed at disarming Brown, or at least forcing him to declare just where he stands... is he Tony Blairs successor or a return to Socialism?
Interesting analysis, and I'd like to write more, but before I do, can I pick you up on one point:
"All these nice-looking policies are actually a way of hiding their capitalist, right-wing credentials, which will come to the fore once they get elected…"
What is the alternative to capitalism? China is moving closer to it, and whilst Brazil and much of South America are becoming redder, there doesn't appear to be any appetite to unshackle themselves from the Global economy, at least not to the tipping point where they can describe their economies as something other than capitalist in nature.
I am curious, and would entertain an alternative if one could be found.
Oooo and just a reminder, we'll have a new Liberal leader at 3pm tomorrow afternoon.
...Lev
Capitalism is fine in theory, but in its purest form is quite brutal - leaving those that cannot fend for themselves to suffer. It needs to be limited by the needs of social justice.
That's what social democracy is all about of course, which I'd love to see in this country... can't see it happening though.
I think capitalism, like communism, wouldn't survive long in it's purist form, if at all! Fortunatley for us, we humans get tend to get in the way of these grand ideologies.
I think the present Labour government have been quite good at building a limited form of social democracy - (it's easy to forget just how bad things were about ten years ago!) but whilst things aren't perfect now the difference is very marked from the old Tory days.
We have limited devolution in Scotland, Wales and London, the health sector has had massive amounts of investment injected into it, we have freedom of information, hardly any heriditory peers, huge swaths of public service initiatives chucked in every direction (some are naff, but they do make some difference (beacon councils and schools, etc)) and no more fox hunting.
Ahem.
Perhaps the last point isn't entirely accurate, but I think I would be reasonable proud of this government if I was a social democrat... or Dan. :)
...Lev
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