As we await the final version of each party’s 2015 Manifesto, I thought it a good idea to re read the Conservative 2010 version.
That Manifesto placed most emphasis on the need for economic recovery. Most of the policy proposals for the economy were geared to helping generate many more jobs. Much of what was promised has been delivered, and much of that delivery has produced the desired results in terms of jobs.
The Manifesto promised keeping interest rates lower for longer, which has happened. It promised a reduction in youth unemployment which has occurred, and an improvement in UK competitiveness in world league tables, which has also been achieved. The pledge to cut Corporation tax has been met,the banks have been reformed and strengthened as proposed, the OBR was set up, and Ministers’ pay was cut. The new government did reduce the National Insurance bills it inherited, has ended the annuity rule for pensions and increased the focus on STEM subjects at school and university. The IHT promise has not been delivered, falling foul of coalition agreements. Council Tax was frozen for two years as promised and then kept down. We have discussed immigration before, where the target was not met.
On Europe the Manifesto said
“We believe Britain’s interests are best served by membership of an EU that is an association of its member states. We will never allow Britain to slide into a federal Europe. Labour’s ratification of the Lisbon treaty without the consent of the British people has been a betrayal of this country’s democratic traditions. In government we will put in place a number of measures to make sure this shameful episode cannot happen again”. The government did enact legislait5on requiring a referendum for a future transfer of power or if any government wished to join the Euro. Conservatives ruled out joining the Euro, then and now. As the Manifesto made clear there was no promise of a referendum on Treaties which had already been ratified, including Lisbon.
March 17, 2015
Good morning.
I did not read the 2010 Conservative Manifesto, but I bet it never contained anything about gay marriage or giving Scotland more powers while selling England down the river along with Balkanistion.
Neither would I have read that your party would have involved itself in pointless wars and regime change.
Or that it would enter a coalition just to gain power and dump most of its promises.
I could go on.
I do remember however, a promise to reduce immigration. It has got worse under this government and will not improve until we leave the EU, renounce the ECHR and other obligations preventing us from deporting undesirables.
What a waste these last 5 years have been. Why bother giving any of you another 5, something that was also no in anybody’s manifesto, but you did it all the same and never thought to ask us.
March 17, 2015
I was about say much the same. The so called successes are what would be expected of any government; what has been ignored are what is happening to destroy our country’s national identity – our traditions, our heritage and our culture.
March 17, 2015
Mark,
Cameron’s promises on immigration are meaningless, if not downright lies.
Breitbart London, today, under the headline “Cameron Reneges on Promise to Veto New EU Member States, Leaving Britain Open to Further Waves of Immigraton” it states: “EU’s Foreign Ministers, including Britain’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, gave the go-ahead to Bosnia and Herzegovina to apply for EU membership. Mr Cameron had previously promised to veto any new member states unless the treaty rules on free movement of peoples was altered to prevent mass migrations.”
March 17, 2015
Cameron simply can’t be trusted on anything to do with patriotism. Full stop.
March 17, 2015
They can only do this because they know there is no legal requirement to ask us directly whether we agree with it; Hague took care to ensure that with Section 4(4)(c) of his European Union Act 2011:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/12/section/4
“4. Cases where treaty or Article 48(6) decision attracts a referendum”
“4) A treaty or Article 48(6) decision does not fall within this section merely because it involves one or more of the following …
… (c) in the case of a treaty, the accession of a new member State.”
Already deployed to block a referendum in the case of Croatia:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/35465/eu-act-croatia-statement.pdf
“All of the provisions of the Croatia Accession Treaty relate to the accession of a new member State to the European Union and thus the Croatia Accession Treaty as a whole is subject to the exemption provided for in section 4(4)(c) of the Act.”
March 17, 2015
A referendum lock? It appears to be more like a referendum lock-out. Hardly the work of a eurosceptic.
March 17, 2015
Well said Brian.
March 17, 2015
Do not forget last October when Camern said only a Tory party will deliver EVEL. Not the single option was it! Not likely to come about either.
March 17, 2015
I think that just about sums it up. Pity the likes of JR and the Tory front bench just do not understand how that have shot themselves in the foot and destroyed the creditability. As for wasting five years Im with you there. Time for a change
March 17, 2015
You have created jobs for lots of Indian nationals here on intra company transfer visas working in information technology displacing Brits from the workforce. You have given lots of people indefinite leave to remain simply for working here a while, or being the family member of someone who has. You have handed British passports out like confetti to people from outside the EU who are frankly not even pretending to be pro British. This is not job creation anyone has voted for.
You have manipulated house prices out of the reach of folk. You have destroyed the value of savings. You have propped up the feckless. You have disincentivised doing the right thing in so many parts of life.
You are going to relax inheritance tax while keeping taking houses from people in England who have worked hard for them all their lifes to supposedly fund their social care.
You have persecuted drivers, prosecuting people for pulling through red lights simply to let an ambulance through, and other outrageous nonsense.
You have allowed big organisations to operate here while organising their affairs to be liable for tax in tax havens.
The sink schools on the sink estates are still rubbish. Parents still have no buying power in the relationship with schools. All selection is on postcode and religious claims.
Patients have no say in their relationship with the take it or leave it NHS which still bumps along giving rubbish care.
The MOD is stuffed full of waste in the civil service.
You have destroyed men on divorce, swinging the pendulum way too far in womens favour.
Have a long hard think about these things.
Just because Miliband is rubbish, do you really deserve votes?
March 17, 2015
+ 2 Billion
March 17, 2015
Plus care home cost fiasco as well as punishing pensioners who have saved to look after themselves.
March 17, 2015
It’s not all bad Iain! Be grateful that Osborne’s austerity plan has failed in this parliament. As the ITEM Club guys are saying today, he basically gave up austerity at the beginning of 2013, but that should not have been a surprise, three years into a Conservative government.
I have said before, a conservative government always starts with a three year “slash and burn the public sector”. Then wiser heads prevail as they notice the economy has stopped growing. In modern times, Thatcher did it; Major did it; Osborne has just done it; and, is more than likely to be in a position, this May, to do it again.
The UK is in a little growth bubble at the moment, thanks to Osbo’ NOT taking £212 billion of government sector spending out of the economy since 2013; which was his original plan. Assuming his deficit will be around £80 billion (4.5% GDP) for 14/15.
Mind you, the forecasters are miles apart on Osbo’s 2020 “deficit”. EY and OBR are seeing circa £30 billion surplus, while TE is seeing a (minus 2.8% of 2020 GDP) £87 billion deficit.
So cash in that pension pot and get out there and spend it, but preferably not on imports. Osbo’ needs the non-government sector to spend, borrow and spend some more, else he won’t be able to reduce his deficit if you keep saving his money, like the Japanese keep saving Abe’s.
March 17, 2015
Correction, the £87 billion, should be £59 billion. I forgot to convert US Dollars back to Pounds.
March 17, 2015
Acorn,
There’s not much chance of squeezing any more spending out of the private sector at the moment. It’s normally done by reducing interest rates, which encourages borrowers, who naturally are always spenders. The snag is that when those borrowers run out of spending money the economy will plunge back into recession. The bust follows the boom. There’s of course no scope to reduce interest rates any further so that particular policy has come to the end of the line and won’t be an option for the foreseeable future.
There’s already been some extra credit generation to account for the “little growth bubble”, after the last rate reduction, so I would say there could be a “little bust bubble” to follow the May election, especially if the BoE are unwise enough to raise interest rates.
More likely, the UK will enter a period of Euroland type stagnation. Even if interest rates are kept as they are, house prices will likely not rise very much and may even fall. So, it will feel like a bust even if it isn’t technically.
The alternatives for the new government will be a fiscal stimulus for the economy. Or, a devaluation of the pound to try to create that rarest of economic creatures: “export led recovery”.
The government will probably want to do neither. Except, they might, if they more sense than their European counterparts, go in for a form of “Reaganomics”. They might try to convince themselves that by reducing taxes they’ll get more revenue and reduce the deficit that way. They will, but it won’t work like Laffer’s theory predicts. It’ll work because it will create more aggregate demand in the economy. It will be that fiscal stimulus we need. As people have more spending power, there will be an improved economy which will generate more taxation revenue.
March 17, 2015
You have taxed us to give away free health care to 6 million people who have been allowed to migrate here in the last 10 years alone.
You are having to build schools to accommodate 250,000 migrants children paid for by the British people. This will have to be repeated to accommodate the incoming wave every couple of years.
You are building on my English greenfield sites to accommodate 623,000 people you let into my Country last year alone.
Our NHS, particularly our A&E’s are heading for crisis as the shear volume of care required to match numbers is not there and will reduce per capita every year.
People are having to wait weeks for routine appointments at their Doctors surgeries.
People cannot get their children into schools of their choice and in some cases families are having to send their children to different schools.
You opened the borders to Romania and Bulgaria accusing UKIP of racism as they correctly estimated the numbers who would come here in the first year etc ed
You have not reformed the Human Rights Act so we read of cases weekly of more travesties of justice to protect their family life, whilst ignoring the safety of the indigenous population.
You have taken very little action to tackle extremism in its many forms that has been allowed to come here.
No prosecutions for fgm.
You have reduced the armed forces budget whilst increasing the foreign aid budget whilst we are at significant risk from several sources.
You have reduced the police budget and making significant cuts in their numbers necessary.
You have failed to initiate a national enquiry into grooming cases on vulnerable white children that is now coming to light across the Country.
You have failed to address the poison of political correctness to deny free speech.
You have continued to follow unproven climate change policies (windmill taxes) and in fact increased air passenger tax for your obsession. All based on unproven science.
You have failed to significantly reduce the public sector spending requirement and national debt.
March 17, 2015
Iain Gill
As Ive told you quite a few times, the total number of intra company visa’s is a paltry 27,000 out of 39 MILLION workers.
March 17, 2015
The Conservatives should pledge to continue the school and welfare reforms, to implement the IHT pledge, to simplify the tax system and cut taxes when the deficit allows. On Europe the pledge is clear and should be popular – a renegotiation back stopped by a referendum. It would be sensible to get rid of the overseas aid spending commitment, HS2 and green crap, but I fear we won’t see that. Should be enough to win though given the total absence of any sensible alternative fromLabour apart from the occasion ridiculous gimmick such as the tuition fee cut and the energy price ‘freeze’ which tend to unwind within 24 hours of their announcement by the hapless Mr Miliband.
March 17, 2015
These are UKIP policies Richard. The Tories are as committed to Foreign Aid, HS2 and “green crap”, as they are to maintaining our EU membership.
March 17, 2015
Indeed those are sensible policies of UKIP but there is no chance UKIP will form a govt, the choice is between Labour and Conservative.
March 18, 2015
@Richard1 > If you convince people that things can’t change, then it becomes a self fulfilling belief.
I’m not sure if you’re a victim of that mind control tactic or a perpetrator, but I suspect that if and when we finally throw off the yolk of the EU puppet parties you’ll be telling your grandchildren that you were always behind the purple revolution but will you tell them that you were not prepared to actually stand up and be counted?
March 20, 2015
@Bob; If you convince people that things can’t change, then it becomes a self fulfilling belief.
Bob, I quote back at you your exact words, if people like you convince others that together people like myself, Richard, our host, those on the back-benches with him etc. can not change the current thinking within the leadership of the Tory party then there will be no change – UKIP needs to realise that even if they get ten MPs in May that alone will not change anything other than for the worst as it is almost certain to allow a Labour plus SNP or Green (with perhaps one or two LDs in tow) coalition/pact.
March 20, 2015
@Jerry
Two thirds of Torys are as Wet as their leader and he chooses the candidates you can vote for. A vote for Cameron’s party will be seen as an endorsement of Wet Toryism.
Labour and the Tories exist because of each other, and people are encouraged to vote for one to exclude the other, and this con has been perpetrated on the British people for far too long. The LibLabCon are all on the same page, and UKIP is the only real alternative to more green blob HS2 and EU.
March 20, 2015
@Bob: “Two thirds of Torys are as Wet”
Well if all the Europhobes like you go off and join/vote for another party, that stands little chance of being a majority government, your assertions will obviously become true as any self fulfilling prophecy does!
UKIP, the best buddy of the EU, a vote for UKIP might as well be a vote for the EU Commission…
March 21, 2015
Don’t kid yourself Jerry, the EU wouldn’t even be on the agenda if it were not for ukip. The other two parties prefer not to talk about it.
The desperate efforts of the establishment to block ukip’s progress says it all.
March 21, 2015
@Bob; “the EU wouldn’t even be on the agenda if it were not for ukip.”
It is irrelevant if it’s on the agenda or not if all by having itr on the agenda is to strengthen the europhile parties due top splitting the eurosceptic vote. Does no one in UKIP understand percentages?!
“The desperate efforts of the establishment to block ukip’s progress says it all.”
Your comment reads more like a UKIP ego trip, the party and its membership being now more interested in the trip rather than the end result, having lost sight of the real target…
March 21, 2015
@Jerry
Nice rant.
March 20, 2015
Richard1,
Sorry but the choice is not just between Conservatives and Labour.
You should take note of the SNP’s success in Scotland and vote for the party that matches your views and watch the results.
To keep voting Conservative only gives them, quite rightly, the impression that you are perfectly happy with their policies such as the “overseas aid spending commitment, HS2 and green crap” you have mentioned never mind remaining in the EU and expanding the number of countries to include Turkey and all the countries as far as the Urals.
To keep voting Conservative and expecting them to follow different policies is Einstein’s definition of insanity :
“Insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
March 17, 2015
Richard1:
‘The Conservatives should pledge to continue the school and welfare reforms, to implement the IHT pledge, to … ‘
You sound like an addict desperate to hear that if his old source can’t be maintained a new one can be found. You ought to have learned long ago that we long ago passed the point at which it was time to kick the habit.
Time to try a new political high, and the brain rotting Conlaberal nose candy isn’t it.
March 17, 2015
‘As the Manifesto made clear there was no promise of a referendum on Treaties which had already been ratified, including Lisbon. ‘
Too clever by half. Cameron made a cast-iron promise that was never explicitly revoked. That the Conservative Manifesto 2010 was silent on the possibility of a referendum does not constitute overt withdrawal of Cameron’s previous public offer. A basic level of integrity would have demanded such a retraction. Of course, Cameron is no fool and recognised that retraction would cost him votes, so permitting a misunderstanding was expedient in the circumstances. And Cameron wonders why no-one trusts him?
March 17, 2015
JR: “The Manifesto promised keeping interest rates lower for longer, which has happened.”
The Tory party, working in the service of the Banking institutions, against those responsible members of society; pensioners, savers.
March 17, 2015
Banking reform my foot. Tinkering at the edges at best.
March 17, 2015
Indeed there was no promise of a referendum on Treaties which had already been ratified, including Lisbon.
That was because he has already ratted on his cast iron lie to voters, throwing the election as a direct result.
It also says:
6. Reform public services to deliver better value for money: We will raise productivity growth in the public sector in order to deliver better schools and a better NHS.
The NHS has deteriorated still further and simply cannot work with the current model. Schools are often dreadful and grammar schools are still being prevented by Cameron.
7. Create a safer banking system that serves the needs of the economy: We will reform the
regulation and structure of the banking system to ensure lower levels of leverage, less
dependence on unstable wholesale funding, and greater availability of credit for small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
There is a huge lack of fair competition in banking. The banks get away with huge margins and fees and are still restricting lending far to much. Largely due to regulations and slotting rules being poorly designed and over the top.
8. Build a greener economy: We will reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions and increase our share of global markets for low carbon technologies.
Why it makes industry and the country less competitive, destroys/exports jobs and achieves nothing but a country covered in expensive, ugly and pointless often stationary PV and wind turbines.
March 17, 2015
The new one should say:
We will reduce the size of the state to below 30% of GDP and will make it hugely more efficient their is a vast scope so to do.
We will increase competition in banking.
We will allow pension fund to be invested more freely.
We will have cheap on demand energy without any discredited green lunacy.
We will get rid of moronic and damaging regulations such as the gender insurance and annuity lunacy and the idiotic employment laws. We will bring in easy hire and fire.
March 17, 2015
Also it should say.
We will simply taxation and regulation hugely so that more people can be in productive work. Thus needing far fewer regulators, bureaucrats, lawyers, tax experts, HR law experts, planning experts,litigation experts and other such essentially parasitic jobs that destroy any competitive advantages we still have.
We will restrict immigration to people we want and need and who will not be a net liability on the state. On a worldwide and non EU good rest bad racist basis as currently.
We will leave the EU and arrange a free trade only agreement.
Alas we have Cameron who is is clearly in the EUphile, ever larger state, 299+ tax increasing Heath/Major/Clarke mode, He cannot be trusted one millimetre (as he would put it).
March 17, 2015
Well said. The people championing the Environment and schools were sacked! These were the only two making any attempt to change the dreadful status quo. The dreadful Hunt is in the NHS and still no signs of anyone being sacked or prosecuted for those who unnecessarily died in hospital for lack of basic care! Yet Tim (etc) staged it as an Olympic prize winner!
March 17, 2015
Why is it that Cameron’s Conservatives accept that governments shouldn’t be involved in building cars but don’t apply the same logic to windmills ?
March 18, 2015
Kenneth R Moore:
Subsidies?
March 17, 2015
It would be amazing to hear how you square off Jeremy Clarkson and the BBC!?
March 18, 2015
Jeremy Clarkson is the BBC’s idea of what a right winger is like.
He was meant to be a figure of fun – a bit like Alf Garnett. It must be disappointing for them to see how popular he is.
I don’t like the chap much, nor his show.
March 18, 2015
Nore cutting edge political satire from Bazman. How does he do it?
March 17, 2015
“Labour’s ratification of the Lisbon treaty without the consent of the British people has been a betrayal of this country’s democratic traditions. In government we will put in place a number of measures to make sure this shameful episode cannot happen again”
But John, Labour did nothing the Tories hadn’t done in the years before, when did the Tory governments of any leader ask the people – no referendums on joining the EEC in the first place, non on signing/ratifying SEA or the Maastricht Treaties for example, just to cite a couple of major treaties, were was the popular support for (trying to) join the ERM with the intention of joining the Euro eventually.
The only referendum the UK has ever had on the issues of our EEC/EC/EU membership has been delivered by Labour -and one a hell of a lot further to the so called undemocratic left than they are today!
March 17, 2015
Well said. And as Brian points out, he has, yet again, broke his word about preventing countries joining the EU who will have full free access to welfare, housing and all public services. He also failed to implement his alleged veto, namely preventing Eurozone countries using EU institutions.
March 17, 2015
@Hope; My point was that governments tend to govern because they have gained a majority at the general election, I was ‘having a go’ at John for his criticisms of Labour for simply doing what all governments do, have done and no doubt UKIP would do should they ever be in majority power themselves – would they really give us a referendum on the EU or immigration policies for example, something that the popular vote (requiring at least 51%) might not vote through or would they simply use their perhaps merely 34% parliamentary majority to proceed?
UKIP will be no different than any of the legacy parties once actually in power, it’s called politics and government…
March 18, 2015
…..UKIP will be no different than any of the legacy parties ………..where is your evidence to support this Jerry? You hear the peoples party talking to the press and they ALWAYS tell it as it is. Not spin, lies and mistruths or half truths like the legacy cartel who just play it for their Masters in the EU, pretending it’s their policies or laws!
March 19, 2015
@Timaction; Such faith that UKIP can out fox the civil service etc…
March 18, 2015
Do not agree. Article 50 is the only option to bring about change no UKIP are the only party to offer it. No chance of Cameron’s referendum happening, he actions have been Europhile even when there was no need.
March 19, 2015
@Hope; Article 50? I thought the discussion was about manifestos and democracy! As it is, if the UK is to leave the EU then Article 50 is a waste of time and space, assuming that the UK wants to leave any time within the governments original five year mandate…
What ever.
March 17, 2015
Then it is a shame that the issue of record levels of uncontrolled mass immigration has overshadowed all of this. Hence Tory losses to Ukip (though Denis tells us that Ukip actually help close the gap with Labour)
This one issue imperils the Tory’s chances at the general election.
We are not a racist people. Though we dislike how race laws are now used against the majority and how cultural fragmentation has been encouraged in the name of ‘diversity’. We also look around and see that the country is full and services and resources are stretched to breaking point.
Common sense says that importing poor people whilst exporting rich people cannot make us richer and if you are young (or trying to help out your own young) then you already know this is true – unless you happen to be a landlord.
March 17, 2015
Well said. I agree with all you have written.
March 17, 2015
Exporting skilled people, not just rich. The quality of those leaving appear better skilled and socially more aligned to the majority living here.
March 17, 2015
Mondeo Man; “We are not a racist people. Though we dislike how race laws are now used against the majority and how cultural fragmentation has been encouraged in the name of ‘diversity’.”
Cough… Race laws have always been used against the majority, by definition, that’s their point. Oh and one persons “cultural fragmentation” is another’s cultural enrichment – without it we would not have Tea or Coffee for example, never mind that Friday night favourite, the good old traditional chicken tikka masala curry & chips/beer!…
March 17, 2015
And you were doing so well Jerry.
March 18, 2015
If curry, coffee and tea are your best examples of cultural enrichment Jerry, then your arguments is a total failure.
We dont need 500,000 new arrivals each year to achieve these things.
March 18, 2015
@Max Dunbar; @Edward2; Sarcasm being lost on the both of you it seems… 🙁
March 19, 2015
You are normally so serious Jerry I missed your clever change of style on this occasion.
March 18, 2015
623,000 last year alone!
March 17, 2015
John,
I’m waiting to see if the Tories produce an English manifesto alongside their Scottish & Welsh manifestos but I suspect just as with Labour and the Lib Dums, there won’t be one, despite the majority of Conservative voters residing in England. Proof, as if we needed it, that Cameron’s Conservative party still couldn’t give a stuff about England and the majority of their electorates.
Just as the Tories have chosen to ignore the English Question during their five years in office, they will no doubt add insult to injury by producing manifestos for the other nations of this dis-United Kingdom but not England. They really do have a death wish don’t they? If only the idiots had chosen to do the decent thing instead of thinking of their own self interests, they would now almost certainly be looking forward to a decent majority in May whereas this latest insult will hopefully be the final nail in the coffin for the Conservative party and a party worthy of representing England and willing to stand up for it’s interests will emerge in their place instead.
March 17, 2015
I was going to say exactly the same JoolsB. I have always voted Conservative but now they have abandoned the English people, but put all other countries first, I will never vote for them again.
March 17, 2015
Your manifesto did NOT say you would spend hours of parliamenty time dreaming up ‘gay’ marriage.
You say the immigration target was not met. A magnificent understatement. No target will ever be met when we have open borders.
Your manifesto did not say you would fall over yourselves to give Scotland anything it wants just as long as it stays in the laughingly named ‘Union’
Your manifesto (in line with all Westminster parties) did not have an English manifesto within it.
Why should any Englishman or woman vote Conservative?
March 17, 2015
John
Not many of us would argue with the fact that we are better placed now than 5 years ago.
That the Coalition has been better than another term of Labour.
That as a Country we are in a better place than many others within the EU, simply because we have kept out of the Euro.
But it could have been so, so much more.
The 80/20 ratio of cuts to taxation has not worked, because it was never tried.
So called control of Immigration has been an absolute failure.
The National Debt has doubled.
Savers have been robbed by stealth.
Yes, some progress has been made, but far too many promises have been broken, and far too many policies have failed.
In short Cameron talks a good game, but is a lousy player.
March 17, 2015
“In short Cameron talks a good game but is a lousy player” A perfect summary Alan.
March 17, 2015
That is why he HAS to go. Push has to go to Shove
March 18, 2015
Newsnight calculated 64 billion pounds of tax increases since 2010, offset by 48 billion of tax cuts (mostly paid for by those experiencing the increases so not much personal offset).
Where are the full 80% cuts promised? At least 64 billion required but pedantically 256 billion
March 17, 2015
According to Mr Cameron people going off to join psychopathically murderous IS are “deeply misguided.”
Hmm.
‘Fruitcakes and loons’ in the truest sense, surely ? Why the respectful language in this case and not to Ukip voters ? Perhaps because one resorts to violence and the other doesn’t ?
March 17, 2015
Indeed.
Cameron’s support for the Iraq war, all the greencrap and Libya was – deeply misguided.
Joining IS just shows the huge power of religion for getting people people with vulnerable minds to do evil things.
Remind me, even after the experience in Northern Ireland, why do we still fund schools that indoctrinate religions on young minds and give charitable relief to organisations that do the same. Do we really want to fund these cleavages in society?
March 17, 2015
Lifelogic – Religion wasn’t my point though belonging to a certain one affords its adherents special democratic privilege.
Mr Cameron has been disrespectful to people who would otherwise be part of his core support – in fact they used to vote Conservative and they yearn for nothing more than a true Conservative leader.
Yet he is careful around people who would never vote for him or his party in a million years and whose children would go off to commit the most barbaric atrocities.
Why ?
I’d like to know how such respect is earned.
March 18, 2015
Who helped the Syrian rebels who morphed into Isis. I want to know how much support Cameron’s govt gave to the rebels which fell into Isis hands especially as he was warned at the time it would happen.
March 17, 2015
So it is reported the he will now promis again the £1m his threshold after he has left office of course. Any way it should be £1.2 or something now with inflation six years after his duff promise.
Not good enough why trust him this time? He needs to promise full abolition on May 8th 2015 if elected – which is very unlikely anyway so nothing to lose. Such a move would be a huge boost to the country, confidence and would boost other tax revenues anyway.
He should also promise to scrap green crap energy grants now and retrospectively they are bonkers and hugely damaging to jobs and the public. Cheep half price US style energy is needed.
March 17, 2015
Nobody wants to fund tax cuts for about three thousand people. Just shut up and pay this just and fair tax and stop looking for handouts from rich relatives as you have done nothing. Are you upset about the minimum wage not keeping up with inflation?
I agree with scrapping green crap energy grants to nuclear and any other large profit making fossil fuel companies as they are doing little if anything to ensure future supplies and customers affordability as well a causing massive air pollution that costs the NHS billions every year it is reported.
When are 50 years behind sustainable clean energy due to your reactionary nonsense and Germany is the leader selling advanced technology what will be your solution. More tax cuts one presumes for fossil fuel companies?
Do nothing, deluded, blinkered short term view that we all must pay for as per.
March 19, 2015
With solar and wind power providing just a few percent of the current total demand for energy you better hope that engineers come up with some new inventions very soon Baz.
Otherwise you are going to be typing in the dark.
March 19, 2015
Is that across the world edward? Are you saying abandon all research? What are you saying? Build more nuclear, cleaner fossil fuel generation or just carry on as usual? Which or all?
March 19, 2015
You have a habit of talking in absolutes.
To answer you numerous queeries:-
No I am not saying abandon all research.
Yes that is across all the world.
Build more nuclear? Yes
Cleaner fossil fuel generation? Yes
Carry on as usual? No we need progress and innovation in energy generation.
Tell us how the world will produce enough energy to satisfy demand without fossil fuels.
Go on.
March 20, 2015
Asit stands edward you cannot and I have never claimed this. What I do claim though is that the world cannot even if it wants to continue burning fossil fuel at never ending increased rates as we are doing now. New sources have to be found.
March 18, 2015
He can’t scrap enery grants, the policy is WU driven and the cartel met to make sure they were going to be compliant.
March 19, 2015
The air stinks across Britain of pollution as we speak, so are you going to tell us that the pollution problem from cars, industry and power generation is just scaremongering by green loons?
The Telegraph is reporting the same news as those BBC types and other left wing reports. The air is very fresh in some parts of rural Scotland why are they not reporting this as well? No end to the conspiracy is there?
March 19, 2015
Its a media myth based on new low polution levels set by UN and EU greenies.
Any measurement above these levels is quiclky posted as dangerous.
The air today is cleaner than ever before.
Can you remember the UK when everyone burnt coal and engines that ran transport and industry blew out dirty smoke?
March 20, 2015
Low pollution level limits are to blame? Higher levels are acceptable as you say they are? Medicine has become more adept at linking pollution to death. Though of that one.
That makes thousands of deaths linked to air pollution OK does it edward like less die from infections than the middle ages?
Usual apologist nonsense that had I listened to in the metal trades would now be costing the NHS thousands with my breathing problems. I do not as my motto was No mask, no work, no negotiation.
Sent home, sacked? Bye!
March 17, 2015
So on Europe Dave continues to sign us up for ever closer union
The deficit reduction has been an abject failure and the national debt has been doubled
The armed forces have been decimated and overseas aid doubled.
2.8 million foreigners have been welcomed here since 2010 and annual rates are higher than when you came to power.
Should we really give you a second chance.
March 17, 2015
Mr Cameron knew that the Lisbon Treaty (aka the EU Constitution) would be ratified before a referendum could be held; therefore it was an empty promise, just like his 2017 promise.
The effects of this “shameful episode” could be unwound but it would take a ukip govt to do so.
The LibLabCon EU puppet regime would maintain the status quo despite the occasional murmur of dissent from a handful of backbench Tory MPs.
Reply Not so. We worked hard in opposition both to oppose Lisbon and to demand a referendum from Labour. We also tried to get other EU countries to delay ratification so we could scupper it with a referendum here following the 2010 election, but they all gave in too early.
March 17, 2015
But Mr Redwood when you got to power Cameron was happy to live under the Lisbon yolk , the very treaty he said was untenable in opposition .
March 18, 2015
Cameron had a chance to make change to the Lisbon Treaty in 2010 and CHOSE not to make any. He had an opportunity to negotiate some thing I return for Merkels fiscal pact as bail outs are illegal under the Lisbon Treaty, what did he do? He helped the bail outs directly with loan to Ireland and indirectly through the IMF!
March 17, 2015
JR Reply: ‘but they all gave in too early’.
Of course they did. They all wanted and still do want the EU, even the Greeks who have the biggest problems with the euro etc. They make no bones about it, not like the liars that infest our parliament who have always sought to sell the EU as a ‘Common Market’, when it was never, since 1957, been anything of the kind. It’s right there on page one of the Treaty of Rome – ‘ever closer union’. Most are recipients of EU largesse mostly funded by the UK and Germany and even Germany has had a huge benefit to her economy by virtue of a lower rate of exchange for the Euro than ever they would have had with the Mark. We, as usual are the mugs who have lost out to the tune of billions and our politicians have every intention of keeping it so. Referendum? Yeah, right. Too many powerful fingers in too many lucrative pies for that ever to be a reality, unless UKIP somehow get a proper look in.
March 17, 2015
Dear Mr Redwood, Your 2010 Manifesto, like those of the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties, promised to support Turkey’s full entry into the EU making it the most populous state and making nonsense of any immigration pledges.
I wonder where this commonly shared foreign policy comes from. I sometimes imagine that it arrives in a daily bulletin couriered from the US Embassy, is read by those who need to know and then eaten by a trusted official.
Bearing in mind your common-sense posts on Ukraine I also wonder where the EU’s foreign policy comes from: assuredly not from Lady Ashton. It jars badly with Germany’s post-1950 Ostpolitik and, apart from trade negotiations, does not have the stamp of Rome or the Quai d’Orsay. Is it inspired by those mid-Atlantic high-level discussion groups (which invite conspiracy theories) and somehow imposed by their alumni? Or are engraved tablets mysteriously found on Mont Blanc?
Whoever determines it certainly has no sense of the history of places such as the Ukraine, the Balkans or Cyprus.
March 17, 2015
The manifesto of 2010 resulted a Conservative/LibDem government ; the achievements referred to cannot be claimed as purely “Conservative”. I don’t wish to knock the fact that many improvements have happened ; we can thank our lucky stars that the USA maintained its QE programme for longer than expected and we were able to ride along in its wake .
Today we face different issues and I await the new Conservative manifesto with more interest than usual . In the first place I want to know what our red lines are with the EU and how we propose to act both before and after a referendum . Secondly I wish to know how we are going to ensure that Scotland is kept out of the voting on non-Scottish matters . Thirdly I wish to see some evidence this time that promises made will be kept
As I grow older (and hopefully wiser) I become more sceptical of politics and politicians . The whole process of government needs to be re-aligned to deal with longer term issues . 5 year terms are too short when dealing with most major considerations . Equally the system by which individuals become MPs needs to be overhauled ; too many have been selected without adequate life experience .
Bring on the changes !!
March 17, 2015
I’m more concerned bout what the manifesto doesn’t contain, a view expressed by many others who have commented.
I don’t recall anything about Gay Marriage in the 2010 manifesto and there was no pressing reason for the government to push it through in such a hurry. I appreciate that a party can’t predict all possible things that might happen withing the next five years, and that it may be necessary to introduce legislation as a result of changing circumstances, but by no stretch of imagination could Gay Marriage be considered to fall within that category and it should have waited until the publication of the manifesto for the forthcoming election. But, the party took the cowardly approach, didn’t consult with the majority population, and pushed it through hoping that most of the electorate would have forgotten by the time of the election.
On the other hand, the Tories did promise to reduce immigration, but have done nothing about this other than talk, whilst the numbers of immigrants have soared.We can’t get rid of criminals because of the Human Rights legislation, and illegals manage to stay here by managing to start a relationship from which they can assert their right to “family life”.
As all this county’s problems stem from immigration, be it housing, schools, the NHS and other infrastructure, the Tories failure to do anything about immigration is why they can’t do anything about solving these other major issues.
I’ll be looking to see if anything is said about our policing. Reports today of the “closing down” of police investigations into a child sex abuse investigation in Cyril Smith’s time is clearly a scandal, whilst the more recently, investigations into “child grooming” in many towns were abandoned for fear of racial issues. The police in Oxford clearly ignored “child grooming” for many years, with the Chief Constable giving the usual apology before being rewarded with promotion to head the new overall police organisation.
These are the issues that I will look at; there’s no point in worrying about the EU as Cameron has made it clear that whatever the results of his negotiations, he will campaign to remain a member.
March 17, 2015
“These are the issues that I will look at; there’s no point in worrying about the EU as Cameron has made it clear that whatever the results of his negotiations, he will campaign to remain a member.”
And therefore a vote for Conservative is a vote for more subsumation into the EU.
March 17, 2015
As all this county’s problems stem from immigration, be it housing, schools, the NHS and other infrastructure
The finance and resource problems at least are exacerbated by mass immigration
March 17, 2015
Your last manifesto was entitled: “INVITATION TO JOIN THE GOVERNMENT
OF BRITAIN”. It seems that invitation was just meant for Nick Clegg and the LibDems.
Will the new manifesto contain those revealing balloons showing how government debt has increased? Just to remind you, in 1997 it was £352bn; 2007 it was £527bn; in 2010 it was £952bn. I bet you won’t show us how much more it has increased under your party’s ‘stewardship’. Don’t forget to tell us too what the interest on that debt is costing us all each year and compare it to what you spend on schools and law and order – include defence too this time please.
You need to realise that for many of us your party has shown itself to be just as untrustworthy as Labour and the LibDems.
As for the EU, your party should declare its determination to keep us locked inside this foreign organisation and set out in specific detail what powers you intend to return to the UK as a result of your ‘renegotiation’. I don’t expect to see either of these but know full well that you will acquiesce and attempt to give credence to the pretence of EUscepticism.
Since the Conservatives ruled out joining the euro, I am still wondering why there are people now employed to make plans for its introduction into the UK in 2018 – the year after your much vaunted referendum.
March 17, 2015
“Since the Conservatives ruled out joining the euro, I am still wondering why there are people now employed to make plans for its introduction into the UK in 2018”
Even worse, since it said in the coalition agreement:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8677933.stm
“We agree that Britain will not join or prepare to join the Euro in this Parliament.”
and I’m sure that Hague promised that the euro preparations unit would be disbanded; so what’s going on, JR?
March 18, 2015
I find that it was Osborne who abolished the unit, in his first budget:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/budget/7847227/Budget-2010-Euro-Preparations-Unit-scrapped.html
“I can confirm that, as set out in the Coalition Agreement, this government will not be joining the euro in this parliament,” Mr Osborne said. “Therefore … I have abolished the Treasury’s Euro Preparations Unit – yes, one does exist – and the official concerned has been redeployed to more productive activities.”
So who is doing this work to prepare for the UK to join the euro in 2018, if Bryan’s information is correct?
March 18, 2015
Brian.
March 18, 2015
Denis,
Don’t expect any elaboration from our host, particularly so near a general election.
I am told that in the middle of next year all will be revealed.
March 17, 2015
@Brian Tomkinson; “Since the Conservatives ruled out joining the euro, I am still wondering why there are people now employed to make plans for its introduction into the UK in 2018”
Brain, care to cite that comment, after all I could claim that the UK is preparing to apply and become the 51st state of the USA upon leaving the EU in 2018 but without any actual evidence…
March 18, 2015
If I gave such details my source would be dismissed.
March 20, 2015
@Brian Tomkinson; So this claim is nothing more than the rumour-mill then.
March 17, 2015
Pity really…Lib Dems. It could so easily have been different without them. Whats coming could be worse…if you can imagine such a thing?
The council tax hike again (+1.9%). That should be neg 1.9% and kept flying south nose down. More junk service and likely populated by foreigners.
March 17, 2015
From the comments (17) I have read , it seems that few regard the Tory manifesto as showing a reliable intention. There is an evident deep lack of trust in the Conservative hierarchy and in particular in Cameron. For me, it was not just that which took my vote elsewhere, but the absence of any likely action to be forthcoming in withdrawing from the EU – a sine qua non. Your manifesto said “We believe Britain’s interests are best served by membership of an EU …”. I do not.
March 17, 2015
Needless to say they give no reasons at all to support this – interests best served by EU membership – assertion.
Just the bald statement – They have none.
March 17, 2015
Did you make today’s post reliant on memory only, so without notes? No mention of the NHS (messed up by Lansley) nor welfare reforms (probably messed up by IDS)! No mention of the Justice reforms including the European Arrest Warrant (which I acknowledge you opposed cogently)!
Granted some very welcome economic progress but many economists would say that would have come about anyway and some would say it could have been stronger. It is less than easy to conclude that Labour would have done so much worse had it had the chance.
Overall, not enough done amidst some very displeasing measures and not much offered as compelling reasons to sustain the Conservatives in office, especially as any new government will be very constrained by circumstances. My house price has risen though, so all can be forgiven.
March 17, 2015
‘The manifesto promised keeping interest rates lower for longer’.
As a manifesto, how could it ‘promise’ anything? Is a manifesto not merely a statement of intent?
Your Party, in any case, failed to win the last General Election outright and was therefore unable to implement its manifesto properly even if it had wanted to.
Unfortunately, it will be the failures rather than successes that will be remembered. The initial euphoria that Labour had been beaten in 2010 was tempered within weeks by the weak performance of your administration under Cameron and Osborne. Increasing VAT instead of cutting the State Sector showed almost immediately where things were going at that time. More recently, it’s been immigration that has been highlighted as the greatest failure.
March 17, 2015
“falling foul of coalition agreements” – coalition stitch up – expected by Conservative voters – I doubt it.
“Council Tax was frozen for two years as promised and then kept down” – coincidentally our CT bill arrived yesterday – yes it has been nearly frozen for two or three years but it effectively means that we pay an income tax rate of about 40%. This tax is conveniently forgotten about by all politicians but it is the most iniquitous of all and makes the the BBC licence fee look small beer and very fair by comparison. Mr. Osborne has been a very defensive, unadenturous and unimiginative Chancellor, who basically has just continued from what Darling was in the process of doing. Similarly Cameron has been no better that Brown would have been had he won in 2010.
March 17, 2015
“We worked hard in opposition both to oppose Lisbon and to demand a referendum from Labour. We also tried to get other EU countries to delay ratification so we could scupper it with a referendum here following the 2010 election, but they all gave in too early. ”
It was obvious that the other EU member states would hastened ratification if they thought a Conservative Government was in prospect in 2010.
Interestingly, if ratification had been delayed until after the election, would we still have had a coalition with the LibDems ? Hard to see them agreeing to a referendum on the subject when it would almost certainly have been voted down.
Had Cameron backed down on a referendum in those circumstances to get his coalition, that would have been seen as a worse U turn than Clegg’s one on Tuition fees.
March 17, 2015
Well, if the Lisbon Treaty had still not come into force at the time of the election, and therefore the Tories had maintained their promise to put it to a referendum rather than caving in as they did the previous November, then probably that alone would have been enough for the Tories to have got an overall majority.
March 17, 2015
“We have discussed immigration before, ”
But today we learn that Cameron has voted for Bosnia and Herzegovina to join the EU, when he had given us his promise that he wouldn’t allow any more countries join the EU until there was a resolution to mass immigration across the EU.
So we get a double rat here, ratting on his EU promise, and ratting on immigration.
And Conservative strategists wonder why the Conservatives pollingly languish in the low thirties!
March 17, 2015
Iain Moore:
On 7th May you have the chance to let him, Miliband and Clegg know how you feel by voting for someone, anyone, other than the Conlaberal candidate.
March 17, 2015
Mr Juncker has plans for his “superstate.”
“We have to deepen economic and monetary union for a simple reason: Our monetary union is not optimal. We have an independent central bank. But we don’t have a European government. So we have to have rules to replace the non-existent European government,” said Juncker
March 17, 2015
I think the successes of the government have been in schools, benefits and local government where some progress has been made. The failures have been in constitutional change, like the failure to redefine constituency boundaries, reform the House of Lords and assorted last-minute bribes promised to Scotland to get the referendum result the government (and the Queen apparently) wanted. Another big failure has been the reform of the NHS.
March 17, 2015
Great news on the IHT promise. If only your party had made such a cast iron commitment last time (my voter’s memory is so short, I can’t recall but I trust that nice glossy man from Carlton Television).
Will they be making it again in 2020, 2025, 2030 and so and on and on?
March 17, 2015
More cold water poured on Cameron’s claim that he would renegotiate the terms of our EU membership, indeed that he would negotiate fundamental changes to the EU treaties and thus transform the EU as a whole into something more acceptable:
https://euobserver.com/political/127997
“UK demands for EU treaty change are ‘mission impossible'”
“Renegotiating the EU treaties to appease UK demands for a possible exit from the EU is “mission impossible”, according to EU council chief Donald Tusk.”
““We have to help David Cameron because he is obviously pro-European. I am sceptical when it comes to changing the treaty,” he said.”
Incidentally, as President of the European Council the attitude of Tusk towards any proposals for EU treaty changes would be far more important than the attitude of Juncker as President of the European Commission.
The Tories made a great public show of opposing the appointment of Juncker partly on the grounds that he would try to prevent the kind of treaty changes that Cameron said he wanted, and made a great fuss about the supposedly new role of the EU Parliament in the process of that appointment even though that was something which had first been agreed by Major through the Maastricht Treaty; but under Article 48 TEU it would be Tusk, not Juncker, who played the leading role in deciding whether any proposals for treaty change would be progressed.
March 17, 2015
To be honest I would have much preferred to have read about how you will address the inequity of school funding identified by the ASCL yesterday and the actions that you will be taking to address the funding gap being endured by YOUR schools here in Wokingham. Can I suggest that you provide a statement on the state funding of Wokingham’s schools and undertake to deliver tangible results for the children of your constituency.
Reply I did so under local pages when we held a debate to highlight this issue.
March 17, 2015
With respect to the recent debate and your recent comments this is clearly not a recent issue. five years into a parliment is no time to be blaming the last government, indeed it’s a fairly convenient time to promise change that is conveniently shelved after an election, treated as a bargaining chip in coalition or just plain undeliverable by a minority government. You only need to walk around a school like the Forest to see the underinvestment. The children of wokingham succeed despite their schools rather than because of them and that is pretty hard to swallow for hard working tax paying parents. You need to guarantee your personal concerted action on this in the next parliament and to not let this issue rest until our schools see fair funding for our children.
reply I have been and will continue to do so. The Coalition and Labour do now agree it is unfair but it is taking time to fix.
March 17, 2015
Well, yes, some good work has been done but there is so much either not done or abandoned that it is difficult to impossible to imagine or have any confidence at all in the next government of any hue trying to recover our lost democracy and sovereignty from the EU. If one looks at the Bruges Group website and list their MP’s voting pattern and that of all other MPs, one will see that with few exceptions there is a massive movement within Parliament to support further integration into the EU.
And as for Mr Cameron, he did it finally for me when he announced in a TV interview that “my proudest achievement as Prime Minister was to get Gay marriage into Law”. Which about says it all, really…….
March 17, 2015
On September 26th 2007 Cameron wrote in the Sun:
“Today, I will give this cast-iron guarantee: If I become PM a Conservative government will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiations.”
Cameron could have easily included a few more words in that sentence to make it clear to all those who read it that his guarantee would no longer apply if the treaty had come into force before he became PM; for example, it would have been enough if he had just added “provided it has not already come into force”.
Probably we will never know for certain why he chose to give that unqualified pledge in the Sun, and then repeat it in a speech to the Tory party conference, rather than stating in terms what he and his supporters subsequently claimed he had really meant; even if he refers to it in his memoirs we will not know whether to believe his account.
The reality is that whether or not he had consciously intended to deceive the public there was a significant reaction in November 2009 after he had caved in on the nonsensical, patently untrue, pretext that the Treaty of Lisbon no longer existed as a treaty; in my own view it was not the greatest single cause of the Tories’ astonishing failure to win an overall majority at the last general election, that was Osborne letting Labour off the hook over its gross economic and financial mismanagement, but it was a sufficient cause.
March 17, 2015
It has to be said that when people in your party hierarchy can forget which name they called themselves in any particular year, the chances of anyone of note in the Conservative party sticking to any manifesto 4-5 years hence is pretty slim.
March 17, 2015
Mr R,
You know exactly how traditional Conservative voters think, and you have already said that you contributed to this year’s manifesto.
Unlike the contributors who are citing the failures of the past 5 years, I am willing to look to the future and wait for the new manifesto. After all, what’s done is done. I hope it will contain what I want to see (and I’m trying to be optimistic!)
However, in my local area, Ukip are rubbing their hands. And despite the fact that I like my local Con candidate, I’ll be honest and say that I’ll vote for whichever party is most likely to keep Labour out. And most people around here are the same, so the next manifesto had better be good, and it had better be well publicised!! Because all they care about (here) at the minute is the excessive influx of E Europeans and the destruction of the fishing industry.
March 18, 2015
DaveM:
‘After all, what’s done is done.‘
And what is not done is not done, even though t’were a ‘cast iron guarantee’.
It was obvious in 2006 that the glossy man from Carlton Television says nothing more meaningful than what he is told his audience wants to hear, yet in 2015 you still ‘hope it will contain what [you] want to see (and [you’re] trying to be optimistic!)’
There were people like you in 1914 and 1939 who believed that the Germans did not want war with the British Empire and ‘still hoped’ that the British government would see sense even as German soldiers were exporting German culture to various of the smaller European nations. People like you wanted to scrap the British nuclear deterrent and then talk to the Soviets about doing the same. You are the sort of person who never learns, yet you have a vote to use as you wish. What folly.
Live in hope of whatever you will but to live in the expectation that Father Christmas is real is madness.
March 20, 2015
I find your reply quite ridiculous WG. I am not a middle class zombie.
I am absolutely nothing like those people you mention. I believe in walking softly and carrying a big stick. I believe that you should trust few and always paddle your own canoe. I believe that charity begins at home and that we should be a strong independent nation that looks after its own and exercises its right to defend itself by any means.
I believe a little of what I read and I don’t trust Cameron as far as I could throw him.
What I don’t believe is all the conspiracy theories I read here or elsewhere.
I am naturally optimistic and have a feel for public opinion and the moods of people. This comes from actually getting out and about, and from living in several different areas of the UK (and spending many years of my life abroad). It also comes from working in NATO HQs and mixing with UK and foreign government officials in my capacity as a Royal Marines officer.
What I will NOT do – like you and many others here – is sit at home and resign myself to the fact that it is all doom and gloom and that my beloved England is about to be broken up and we are to be forced to speak German.
The 2010 manifesto and broken promises even have a positive angle – people in this country no longer trust politicians, and the recent non-GE election results have been a severe warning to the legacy parties. To wit, if they don’t give us what we want and fail to deliver in the next 5 years, they’re finished. Even Cameron and his cronies understand that.
March 17, 2015
The very last sentence in Cameron’s signed article in the Sun on September 26th 2007 ran as follows:
“No treaty should be ratified without consulting the British people in a referendum.”
Some tribal Tories have subsequently attempted to argue that this general statement of principle somehow neutralised the specific, unqualified, pledge of a referendum on what became Merkel’s “Reform Treaty”, later renamed as the Treaty of Lisbon, in the previous paragraph; it speaks volumes for their lack of integrity, in fact their duplicity, that they could not even bring themselves to admit that as it was written by Cameron, and as it would inevitably be understood by Sun readers and others, it was indeed an unqualified pledge even if their leader had made a mistake by giving it.
However it is not a principle that I would accept as being general, because it is obvious that there are some treaties and treaty changes which are genuinely minor or merely technical and do not really need direct approval by the people in a referendum.
One such being the change to the EU treaties quietly made in 2010 in order to regularise the position of three German MEPs, which the Tory MEP Daniel Hannan had speculated could require a referendum in the UK:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100033403/there-might-be-a-euro-referendum-after-all-%e2%80%94-and-sooner-than-you-think/
“There might be a Euro-referendum after all — and sooner than you think”
In response to which my comment was:
“Let’s suppose for the sake of argument that there’ll be a short amending treaty to make whatever changes are needed “to admit the 18 “phantom” MEPs and keep the three Germans”.
And let’s suspend disbelief and imagine that a conscientious Prime Minister Cameron would then decide that this new amending treaty fell within the scope of his referendum pledge.
So we would have a referendum on whether to allow three Germans to stay on in the EU Parliament after 18 “phantoms” had been admitted, is that right?
That would be exciting.”
On the other hand, when it emerged Hague’s “referendum lock” law in the European Union Act 2011 had been deliberately written to exclude referendums which we certainly should have had – one on whether we agreed to Cameron simply giving Merkel the EU treaty change she demanded to be sure that the German constitutional court would not object to eurozone bailouts, without using that “golden opportunity” to extract other EU treaty changes for our benefit (excluded by Section 4(4)(b) of the Act), one on whether we agreed to Croatia being allowed to join the EU (excluded by Section 4(4)(c) of the Act), and one on whether we agreed to take the risk of being carted off to rot in a foreign prison under an EU Arrest Warrant (just not mentioned anywhere in the Act).
So much for that 2010 Tory manifesto promise that “we will put in place a number of measures to make sure this shameful episode cannot happen again”.
March 17, 2015
Wow! This is an unusual day.
JR started off his day with a nice, self congratulatory piece about the achievements of his government, with just a couple of ‘small’ blips like immigration and IHT and look what he got. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an avalanche of opposing opinion here – usually most people agree with his sensible pieces. Bet he wishes he’d never bothered, but at least he can see what people outside of the bubble dreamland think of Cameron and his cronies.
If most people here are basically conservative, you can imagine what the rest of the country is thinking. Tory majority in May? Pretty laughable, I’d say on this form.
March 17, 2015
Dear Graham–And all this opposition with scarcely a mention of Cameron’s more disgraceful decisions gratuitously insulting marriage–Either that or our host has vetoed comments on those.
March 17, 2015
The most poorly funded area in England your own constituency Mr Redwood, Wokingham, Berkshire £4,158
Whyare our children being punished for living in an area where people work hard and earn good money!
You may think it’s a forgone conclusion the people of Wokingham, will vote you back in, maybe they will, but this alone tempts me to vote for someone else I have too say!
Reply The Labour government widened the differentials between areas of high social deprivation and areas like Wokingham with better educational results. This government has made some moves to improve the funding of places like Wokingham relative to the average, and Conservatives are pledged to do more to reduce the gap should we win the election. I have made the case for a smaller gap along with other MPs in the “Fair funding” group. I have recently written about this under local pages.
March 17, 2015
Reply to reply:
Quite brilliant, Mr Redwood. Blame the Labour Government of 1997-2010 for creating a situation which your lot haven’t had the bottle to correct in FIVE YEARS. I think this might ring bells elsewhere? Immigration, deficit promises ring any bells? Even on this relatively micro level the Tories are totally hopeless.
Why on earth should Wokingham schoolchildren who will likely contribute MORE to the country eventually, get LESS funding than those in socially deprived areas?
How can you represent this shower whose chairman doesn’t even know his own name?
Vote Tory. Pay more tax, get less back.
Reply The Coalition has been providing more cash for Wokingham relative to the areas receiving the highest amounts, and Conservatives will take this further if elected on May 7th to government.
March 17, 2015
The best solution would be to have parents controlling their own education spend. Rather than the state allocating it. The fact that none of the political class are prepared to challenge the status quo of state allocation is a big problem. The cosy political class stitch up across all parties is not supported out here in the real world where I live. The allocation by postcode and religion is a disgrace, the segregation of our children by religion is building up massive social divisions.
March 17, 2015
Reply to reply:
What the last Labour government did is irrelevant. ‘This government’ has had five years to do something and has done nothing anyone not in the Westminster aquarium can see as beneficial to themselves.
‘This government’ won’t be changed by the jolly japes in May, even though the names printed on the listed of players is unlikely to be the same on the 8th May. What, if we are lucky, may change is the attitude of the comatose voter to those who are rapidly enslaving him.
March 17, 2015
Off-topic, this afternoon while removing outdated material from my computer I came across this interesting report on quantitative easing published by the Centre for Policy Studies in November 2009:
http://www.cps.org.uk/publications/reports/quantitative-easing-lessons-from-history/
By coincidence, only yesterday I claimed in a reply to Peter Martin that:
“… whatever its merits as an economic policy QE as practised in the UK has already been a disgrace from the point of view of democracy and even of the strict rule of law.”
Now looking that report I see:
“The policy has also received little scrutiny by Parliament. There has been no primary legislation on QE. The only secondary legislation on QE has been a statutory instrument, exempting the policy from the FSA’s authorization regime.”
and:
“Overall, there has been a lamentable lack of Parliamentary debate on this subject. It is time that the policy received proper scrutiny and it was put on a more transparent and secure legal footing.”
and:
“There has not been any new primary legislation specifically to authorise QE. The only secondary legislation has been a statutory instrument, exempting BEAPFF Ltd from the Financial Services Authority’s authorization regime. The instrument was rushed through on 29 January 2009, in less than the usual 21 days.”
Well, at least I finally have the answer to the question I was posing some five years ago, as to why the FSA was not raising no objections to the blatant rigging of the gilts market by the Bank of England; it is here, in the form of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Exemption) (Amendment) Order 2009:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/118/contents/made
which was merely laid before Parliament on the Thursday, after which Parliament did not sit until the Monday when it came into force without even being mentioned in the Commons, let alone nodded through, let alone approved by a vote.
And I also see in that report:
“Is it right that the policy has, in effect, enabled Labour to continue funding its entire spending programme, much of which is politically contentious? The Opposition parties have been slow in asking these questions.”
and:
“… the electorate needs to be able to make its choice at the next election with all the facts in front of it. One unfortunate consequence of QE has been the circumvention of the usual public spending scrutiny process, allowing politicians to escape – at least for the short term – the consequences of the true state of the public finances.”
Which ties in with the warnings I gave here during 2009 that the cunning ploy QE that the Labour government had devised to make sure that it could maintain its high public spending during the year leading up to the general election – almost as though nothing had happened, there had been no huge financial crisis during its period in office – would have political as well as economic consequences; and it ties in with comments I had made about the task of the coalition government being made much more difficult because most people had had little idea of the true state of affairs when they went to vote; and it ties in with my claim repeated in a comment above that the greatest single reason why the Tories failed to win an overall majority in 2010 was not their surrender over the Lisbon Treaty, or wicked UKIP stealing votes which rightfully belonged to the Tories, as some of them still foolishly suppose, but Osborne letting Labour off the hook over its gross economic and financial mismanagement.
March 18, 2015
“question I was posing some five years ago” should have read “six”, time flies.
March 17, 2015
Despite Mr Cameron’s claim to have invented ‘one million new jobs’, the paying public know that most of these are hollow self employed and low paid jobs. Furthermore the majority of these jobs have been taken by newcomers.
If the job market is so buoyant, why are there nearly a million 16 – 18 year olds either working or recieving some form of education ?. Where is the missing tax revenue ?
Mr Redwoods fails to mention that the so called ‘recovery’ relies on trickery in the financial money economy to create an illusion of growth. There will be more of Mr Osbornes pyramid scheme economics in the forthcoming budget.
The real economy is still in a huge mess as our woefull current account deficit shows.
March 17, 2015
Do you have a problem with affordable housing in Wokingham ?perhaps you should get Ken Loach to direct operations and build again those now derelict tower blocks and maisonettes that ” we did before and why couldn’t we do it again” Don’t people ever learn from their mistakes.
March 17, 2015
What will be the Conservative response to the SNP call for all 4 nations to agree to an EU exit. It’s clear whether in the Euro or outside where the EU is going and have little to know confidence any deal will entice me to vote to stay in. If that means we loose Scotland then so be it. Our future is best served out with the EU in this world where we can prosper.
March 17, 2015
One third of population in the dustbin and you might be next because they looking for something to be proud of. 9.000.000 people of working age without work the majority on carers allowance of 60 pounds a week, the training and education merry go round and wonder why they are becoming mentally ill, old people living 113 to 135 pounds a week losing they memory and freezing to death and all the parties are looking for something to be proud of.
March 17, 2015
and if you count in the poor workers with they kids well over 50% of the population is in the dustbin or on they way. They say that something to be proud of with the politician of all parties patting they self on the back for job well done.
March 17, 2015
Just a thought:is it now time for a ‘scorched earth’ policy to purge the Conservative party of it’s Blair and Eu loving wing. My plan is that conservative voters in all areas should stay at home or support and party except the Conservatives. They need to be in no doubt about the depth of our anger.
Then we would have a Milliband Labour government which would ofcourse cause absolute chaos.
However, there might be enough angry Conservatives, in 2020, to kick out the discredited ‘modernisers’ and forge a properly Conservative party again. That is our only hope of real change. Hpwever repeating the mistakes of recent history seems to be a Conservative party speciality….
March 18, 2015
Will there be a credible and clearly identifiable Manifesto for England when we get this year’s document?
Your leader’s breach of promise on immigration is unforgiveable. We, in England, are being forced to accept the building of hundreds of thousands of houses as a direct result. Every town and village around here has already got or is getting new developments. We have had no effective say. I was in Woodstock yesterday where 1500 are apparently to imposed, about doubling the size of the town. Someone was putting up a large banner by the roadside objecting. Another poor devil wasting their time I thought. Another poor devil taken for granted by the British Political Establishment Elites.
Only through the creation of a true English parliament will England be able to rid itself of these people and the corruption in all its many forms amongst them, and which they visit daily on us, the people of England.
March 18, 2015
The forthcoming party manifestos will mean nothing as we are going to have another coalition government for the next 5 years, possibly this time between the Conservatives and Labour if this is the only way they can be in power.
This is just the way our leaders want it to be so they can hold the reigns of power without the need to fulfil any election promises, always blaming their coalition partners for either the non-implementation of these promises or indeed the state of the country.
And of course no Con/Lab/Lib/Green party manifesto will contain any promises on the really big issues to regain our sovereignty by leaving the EU, to halt uncontrolled immigration and to repeal the Climate Change Act
So if any voter wishes to change government policy on these three issues then they will need to heed Einstein’s definition of insanity :
“Insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
And not vote for these any of these four parties.
March 19, 2015
“We will never allow Britain to slide into a federal Europe.” But to a huge extent we already have. What do you think the Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon Treaties were all about? Why do you think that European Law has supremacy over English Law? Why has the list of EU competences and joint competences expanded expanded so remorselessly?