The lack of a majority has confirmed a rethink on some of the Conservative party’s Manifesto policies. That would have happened anyway, as many Conservative candidates in the election disliked the policies themselves, or came to dislike them when they heard the public reaction. I did not want to remove the triple lock or leave many pensioners fearing the loss of the winter fuel allowance. I certainly did not welcome the social care proposals. That was why I did not include any of these in my personal election address, and did treat these policies as consultations, encouraging people to write in with their views.
There is no mention of legislating for changes to social care or winter fuel payments or the triple lock on pensions in the Queen’s speech. The Conservative party in Parliament assumes these have been dropped and is happier for their disappearance. It was strange during the election that our cries for more information and for sensible changes to these policies went unheeded. Many of us said if they insisted on removing the winter fuel allowance from some, would they please tell us what the income cut off would be to put the minds at rest of the many who would presumably still receive it. Some thought it should be removed from higher rate taxpayers, others thought it should be made taxable. I was in favour of no change. We also urged them to tell us what the cap on social care costs would be, an important part of their draft policy. Again there was no figure given, leaving many worried about how much they would have to pay.
I spent considerable time during the election explaining by email and in conversation to electors in Wokingham what the current social care system entails. Many did not know that if an elderly person has to move into a care home then the home they are leaving is taken into account in their assets. If they have money then they have to pay themselves for the care home. There was also some confusion over the need to pay social care costs if you carry on living in your own home. The boundary between healthcare, delivered free, and social care that you pay for is a difficult one to define. The public tends to the view that social care is healthcare.
June 23, 2017
Ironic that the manifesto that caused the damage has had to be binned anyway. But we must move on. Labour are up to their old trick of getting their blame in early. This gives them command of the narrative and diverts criticism from their own complicity. We saw it with the Crash, and the other day with Grenfell Tower. Now they’re pulling it with the cladding, and it’s working.
Perhaps HMG is so busy with the day job that it has no time for public relations. One sympathises, but it looks very bad.
Irony upon irony: Mrs May was, of course, coiner of the incredibly damaging phrase “Nasty Party”. I wonder if she regrets that too, especially when she sees just how nasty the other lot loves to be.
June 23, 2017
Good morning
Too late the damage has been done. The Conservative brand has never been lower. Perhaps the government might want to review the Tele Tax? After all the DUP are in favour if ghis.
June 23, 2017
Well it was about the same level after the entirely predictable failure of John Major’s ERM disaster. Even then the pathetic man failed to apoligise nor did he even correct his very many policy errors (over the EU and the size of the state sector). “If it is not hurting it is not working”, “interest rate will rise if we leave the ERM” they lied. Mortgage rates at 15%+ fell like a stone on exit. An entirely politicially driven and unnessesary recession, caused by group think lunacy in the state sector and the EU.
Rather like the green crap religion now damaging the economy for not reason.
The Tories have never properly recovered since the disaster that was John Major. Mainly due to Cast Iron Cameron failing to be the “low tax at heart”, Euroskeptic (that he pretended to be) when he threw the sitting duck election against G Brown and only scraped home in the second due to the considerable help of the Ed Miliband’s tomb stone and the threat of Nicola Sturgeon.
May is making almost as much of a mess of it now. But if the Tories keep electing, dim, remainer, socialists & with zero charisma what does the party expect? What about Graham Brady for the T May replacement, as Isabelle Oakeshott suggested – 50:1?
June 23, 2017
What did the majority of people vote for if not your manifesto? You are now changing it for the minority who voted elsewhere? May did not include gay marriage in either a manifesto or Queens speech. Cameron ignored 600,000 who petitioned against it for a parliament debate. The arogance never goes away. Manifesto is meaningless as a reference to action. May claimed it was only a statement of intent any way. Why bother? No values, no conviction no direction or purpose other than self serving ambition for power and PC for minority causes ignoring your core vote.
May has made an offer to all EU citizens living here for five years that they are entitled to the same public services as me. Can I have a rebate for all taxes paid beyond five years? Will their families be allowed in and have access to our public services for free?
June 23, 2017
Tories were historically the party of law and order. Criminal justice system a joke. Prisons are known for nurturing gang culture. Sentences pathetic even for the most serious crimes. Murder no parole. Rotherham ring a bell, people are fuming over the political correct paralysis. Westminster might think it okay for our citizens to be abused, killed or maimed. The public does not.
No border security, no control orders, no deportations, not enough police, not enough border agency. Get a grip.
June 23, 2017
Yes like a herd of Brontosauri the Conservative Party trundles on to its own destruction. The economic orthodoxy remains unchanged in that we need more cheap unskilled labour and more money printing. The economic numbers show that there has been no meaningful recovery since 2008, despite all that “liquidity”. The electorate have experienced no improvement to their well being and vote accordingly. Meanwhile the insensate Tories come up with the great idea that we must have a spaceport to go alongside HS2, Hinckley and the rest of the herd of white elephants. Bloody hell you talk about the Bourbons, Romanovs and co?
June 23, 2017
But however much the Tories may be denigrated in the mass media the contrasting fact is that they have attracted higher electoral support, just not quite enough. Because they are so disliked, even viscerally hated, by the great majority of journalists it may be that their reputation will never be restored, but I expect it will recover.
June 23, 2017
I get your point. But journalists have the hidden agenda to change the EU vote by whatever means.
The Tory party should not swing further left if they hope to get more votes. Two key issues: selling our homes for care costs and the atrocities where the cuts made people feel unsafe in addition to her poor record. The public saw her arrogantly addressing the police despite warnings what the outcome was likely to be. Tories needs to reverse this perception.
Corbyn should have been targeted for his extreme left wing views and causes. Mc Donnell the same. Both have a terrible record to support subversive/ violent groups and should have been toast.
June 24, 2017
I wouldn’t try to quantify it but I think many journalists are driven more by hatred of the Tories rather than by love of the EU.
June 23, 2017
i think people are quite clear between social care and health care. You have created the uncertainty and no little anger by arbitrarily deciding Dementia is not a health issue when quite apparently it is. It is diagnosed and treated by a doctor with drugs.
As for your manifesto, you are in a bad place with even more advisers leaving no 10. This needs to be sorted now together with your comms both internally and externally, especially the latter using social media to get to the younger voter. You get millions in donations so money cannot be a restraint, especially as there could be another election.
As an aside I see Hinckley Point has been severely criticised by a respected independent body with the usual ‘ wrong, we are perfect responce from a government spokesman. More of our money down the drain I suppose?
June 23, 2017
The punishment Manifesto was an absurd document. Rather like a brochure to sell a car that highlighted all the huge costs of ownership, the depreciation, maintenance, the parking and bus lane fines, potential vandalism, insurance, how fuel costs were likely to rise and how expensive breakdowns could be. No sensible, positive, low tax, economic growth vision at all.
This cost Maybot her majority. She joked about “Can Boris Johnson stay on message for a full four days? But went around just saying, “Stong and Stable government” and “Coalition of Chaos” rather like a demented robot. All this against Jeremy Corbyn, who was proffering rubber cheques and worthless promises to anyone and everyone he met.
The Queens speech is much improved by the DUP, but still full of complete and utter nonsense like HS2, expensive energy & green crap subsidies, damaging gender pay reporting and absurd attacks on landlords and tenants which will harm the letting market and damage tenants.
May is yet another misguided socialist at heart leading the Tories. Someone who thinks the state is the solution when it is clearly the problem. As we see with the dire, free at the point of non delivery, NHS and the appalling disaster with flammable cladding of tower blocks.
She has made the next leaders job very hard indeed.
June 23, 2017
If the Tories & DUP can achieve a real Brexit from here (and avoid a Labour/SNP government getting in next time) they will be doing very well. Far too many remoaner MPs in her party and even more in the Lords.
June 23, 2017
At least there was no mention of Theresa’s agenda of “more religious schools” in the Queen’s speech. Hopefully May’s segregate, indoctrinate and divide (through religious schools) agenda is now dead.
Using tax payers money to intentionally indoctrinate and divide is insane. Quite enough green crap religion in schools already.
It is rather like having quack medicine free on the NHS – but far more damaging.
June 23, 2017
Paying for one’s own care isn’t the problem. Being expected the pick up the shortfall for the care of others in the same care home is.
This should come from central taxation – not in exta charges against Mum, whom we’d been caring for for years until we couldn’t cope.
June 23, 2017
Indeed that is the problem:
Pay for your own care and then pay taxes for others care, then pay more in the home than the ones who have not saved are having paid for them by your taxes. All the incentives are to be very feckless. The feckless are making a ration choice give the daft system that pertains.
With health you pay four times if you want to go privately and in education three times (until they put VAT on the fees then four). So we have dire, state run virtual monopolies in Education and Health. You get what you are given or not given and put up with it mate, this as you have already paid like it on not.
June 23, 2017
A dire virtual state monopoly with the BBC too due to the unfair funding competitive advantage it has. Dripping the country in PC drivel & climate alarmist, big state and pro EU propaganda.
June 23, 2017
LL and Anon
As I have said before, not everyone has been feckless just because they cannot afford to pay for their own care. My mother is just about managing with heart failure and other major health problems on her own at 82. She has to pay for one hour of care in the home out of her state pension and small amount of carers allowance. She has worked hard all her life bringing up 4 decent children, worked and looked after my father who was in and out of hospital through no fault of his own all his life. Just because she cannot pay for her care does not make her feckless. Indeed, she has led a very poor life and never even been outside of the Uk for a day or even got to Scotland though she very much would have liked to. She doesn’t smoke or drink. How does this make her feckless. Unfortunate more like. There has to be a better way of funding care throughout a persons life so we all pay one way or the other.
June 23, 2017
I agree with Anonymous “Paying for one’s own care isn’t the problem. Being expected the pick up the shortfall for the care of others in the same care home is.”
June 23, 2017
Exactly. Especially if they are one of the uninvited or supported 5 million immigrants that the legacies, mainly Tories, have let into our Country in the last 10 years, ONS states!
June 23, 2017
It is worse we pay three times for care then May wants us to sale or home to pay for our own care! Punishing the strivers and savers over and over again. The same feckless who will be given a home and live next door while you work to pay for a mortgage and the anxiety to make ends meet. At the end you are forced to sale your home to live in the same care as your neighbour who was given the same for not working! Worse than communism. Meanwhile councils increasing community charge is out of control by add ons.
June 23, 2017
In any case – why was this raised during the *Brexit* general election ?
June 23, 2017
All reasonable, but the points I would make are:-
The recent OBR report pointing out that (i) pensions, (ii) social care and (iii) costs from student loans are all mounting budgetary issues – so these do need to be looked at and in a ‘fair’ framework.
Nonetheless the focus now should be to be out of the EU, and looking at free trade agreement with efficient/virtual customs with the EU + RoW. Also getting energy right, monopoly breaking infrastructure investments in (to avoid crowding out), and a longer term review of types of taxation and money creation (in the short term swap Carney)
June 23, 2017
… The difficult topics of our accelerating population (births + migration), escaping the communities within communities structure, and at least good secular education need to be elevated and frequently discussed.
June 23, 2017
Public spending has only decreased by 0.2 percent. However, yesterday it was reported that we have a 70 year high in population increase a town the size of Bradford each year! The government cannot increase public services by this amount each year. Mass immigration has to stop until the country and its finances can cope. Seven years of promises , Mays responsibility, record amount of immigration. It is still estimates and not actual numbers! Why cannot the govt count people in and out? We can with animals!
June 23, 2017
I am a pensioner who is in receipt on 2 pensions both paid for by the tax payer.
I now take home 1000 pound per month more that i ever earned in my life !!!
You want me to keep winter fuel allowance and all the other perks. Politicans are mad.
many of us are very well off.
June 23, 2017
Indeed but many are not, it largely depends if you have a house with no mortgage or are still paying it off – or renting.
It is far better and cheaper to keep the universal benefits and adjust the tax system than to means test them all, with even more admin costs involved.
June 23, 2017
Give it to someone who needs it then. Simple.
June 23, 2017
@ken from glos
A bogus comment if ever I saw one.
June 23, 2017
ken
Good job you do not live in Wokingham
You would be paying £1200 a month rent for a 3 bed semi.
June 23, 2017
The arrogance and hubris which led Mrs may and her pair of dysfunctional advisers to cook up the manifesto in secret without it seems any proper consultation with the cabinet has been a terrible misjugement. It remains to be seen whether we will get a hard left govt in the coming months as a result headed by a gang of terrorist supporting Marxists. If so it will be an unmitigated disaster for our county – an economic disaster and potentially a threat to our rights and freedoms. Brexit or the absence of it will be a side show. Mrs may will bear a very heavy responsibility if so.
June 23, 2017
Indeed and it was all so damn obvious to anyone sensible, normal and in touch with reality.
In 20 minutes had I (or countless others) been shown the manifesto, I would have told her what a complete disaster it would be. This especially against rubber cheque, have anything you want dear voters, money is no object, Jeremy Corbyn.
The Tories need some positive, lower tax, vision – they are partly of lower taxes or they are nothing. Under May and Hammond they clearly aspire to nothing.
June 23, 2017
My thoughts exactly
June 23, 2017
I think there are a lot of us agreeing today! Seriously thought, it is a tragedy that the PM and other senior Tories and advisers did apparently have the common sense and intelligence to spot a disaster coming. This is one of the problems about not having a sound grassroots Conservative ideology on which to base policy, instead chasing the mythical centre ground and this or that focus group.
June 24, 2017
Your right, the current labour ideology is based on real socialism so the Tories need to do the same…
June 23, 2017
And mine too.
June 23, 2017
Richard1
Agreed.
Simply do not understand why at least even the cabinet members were not consulted on the possible contents.
Absolutely crass in the extreme.
June 23, 2017
Those of us with parents in full time residential care due to their complex care needs are fully aware of the costs – it currently runs at approx £1K/week per parent. My parents are in full time care and they actually had a favourable view of the “dementia tax” that was proposed as it meant that some of their estate would have been protected. It is a shame that your party was totally inept in its explanation.
June 23, 2017
Dave
It was not the care in a nursing home which was the problem, bad enough as that was and still is, it was the fact that you got no care help at all in your own Home, that was the nail in the coffin for the Conservatives.
My wife and myself both Paid into the system for 50 years, to then be denied any help until you are down to the last £100,000, what sort of insurance is that.!
And yes when I was younger I paid in for all who were older as well.
Thats how the system was designed.
June 23, 2017
Not only can we be puzzled that ” It was strange during the election that our cries for more information and for sensible changes to these policies went unheeded “ but that the clowns responsible are left in charge to use their ill-judgement afresh whilst remaining tarnished in the voters’ eyes.
June 23, 2017
I believe there was an arrogant assumption by May’s team that victory was assured and that difficult issues could just be slipped in to the manifesto. Victory would then be taken as a mandate for all the unpopular policies outlined.
The voting public did not comply.
I am still upset by the confiscation of assets via low inheritance tax thresholds.
June 23, 2017
IHT is hugely damaging to the country. It pushes the wealthy away, destroys incentives and investment decisions. At the very least keep the £1M each threshold promise now! It was promised some 9 years back or something by Osborne!
June 23, 2017
I’ve noted with interest how loyal George has been putting the boot in on Mrs May in the last few weeks. Loyalty, honesty, integrity and patriotism is just not in this man’s value system. That’s one of the many reasons I can’t vote Tory ever again!
June 23, 2017
I spoilt my ballot paper rather than vote for any of the incompetent idiots and I have met more people than normal who did the same.
June 23, 2017
Couldn’t bring myself to vote for Jacob Rees Mogg or any other party as he has no power or influence from the back benches and no UKIP candidate.
June 23, 2017
It was those policies you mention that cost you your majority. The whole Conservative campaign was hopeless. We were lucky not to end up with a Labour gov.
June 23, 2017
Quote: I did not want to remove the triple lock or leave many pensioners fearing the loss of the winter fuel allowance. I certainly did not welcome the social care proposals.
Well thought John and I agree with you, however the problem going forward is whether pensioners are going to TRUST the present Conservative Leadership (who as cabinet ministers must have put these proposals forward in the first place) on these matters again.
I suspect from my conversations with pensioners that the Conservatives are going to need a new leader to win the next election – hmm, quite a timing problem given Brexit …
June 23, 2017
We are still far from being out of the woods yet. May has unleashed the lunatics from the asylum and her oh so loyal Mp’s are letting her get away with it.
June 23, 2017
You are absolutely right, KM, I believe.
June 23, 2017
If sensible MPs could persuade the occupants of no 10 and 11 to drop their extremely time wasting and annoying proposal to make small businesses and landlords submit their tax returns 4 times as often and using commercial computing programmes, this would perhaps make your party a bit less hated.
June 23, 2017
Well said. The Tories always New she had an appalling record. Rudd has followed without change. No secure borders, no control orders, terrorists and murderders allowed to walk in and out without supervision. Cut to police, cut to border agancy, in an arrogant vindictive way you will recall. It is bound to come back into focus and the alternative is frightening. Brought to you by the remaining factions of the Tory party. No vision, no conviction and no values.
June 23, 2017
I would add annoyance at smaller landlords being taxed on turnover rather than profit. This unfairness could very easily and will likely lead to me and others being taxed on income I have not received! How can that be fair?
June 23, 2017
I was just having lunch and not drinking anything intoxicating, while half listening to the BBC politics show. There was a youngish bloke on making the case for Brexit on independence day. He was handed the inevitable toy bus with the £350m for the NHS on it and accepted it, having thought that putting this wrong figure on the real one was a good idea and handed the Remainers their best weapon, used every day since.
Then- I am still not sure whether I was hallucinating- he said no deal was better than a bad deal, but then explained that if we were made to pay £200bn that would be a deal to refuse but he gave £100bn as an example of a possible acceptable deal. I looked him up and he is a ‘political strategist’ and ex Taxpayers Alliance. If he really thinks coming on the BBC and announcing that we hand Junker and Co £100bn to accept 3x as much as we sell them and, perhaps, avoid opening offices for 10 staff in Luxembourg for insurance sales, then his strategy seems a bit defective.
Yesterday we read that Mrs May is possibly about to sign agreement to the EU army, navy and airforce and set us up for a huge bill and, just to calm Taxpayers down, HS2 is only going to cost another £30bn. How many more people on the Leave side are doing their best to make us decide to give up and Remain?
June 23, 2017
Sorry, I heard that HS2 was costing more on the radio and can’t find the story. Perhaps it is fake news just because if it goes as fast as it is supposed to the track will have to be strengthened, it will make more noise, or if it slows down then it will be not much faster than the present train and not be worth it. At least then passengers on HS1 will not have to wonder whether it is worth walking over to Euston.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/hs2/12192286/HS2-at-risk-of-derailing-at-top-speeds-report-finds.html
June 23, 2017
There is a massive amount of money each year that the EU take from customs duty charged on Rest of the World imports into the UK that the EU keep 80% from. I don’t know where to get a figure on for this but I’d guess looking at my clothes made in the RofW, shoes made in India, goods on my desk made in China it will be as big as the £350m per week on that bus.
June 24, 2017
AT. Pity they didn’t think of mentioning the VAT cut at the time.
June 23, 2017
stred – “He was handed the inevitable toy bus with the £350m for the NHS on it ”
The bus poster did not say that – read it again and understand it.
June 24, 2017
The wording was taken by most people as my abbreviation. It was a huge mistake to allow the gross figure to be used, as it has played into the hands of every lying Remainer politician to the extent that many people think the Leave side won on lies and the multiple lies of project fear are forgotten. Farage is still accused of lying, even though he warned against using the gross figure. Boris is still trying to say it is correct and no-one believes him.
June 23, 2017
We must repeat ad nauseum that cutting benefits and making people poorer whilst pouring £billions in foreign aid and wasting a year tribute to Brussels won’t wash.
HS2 is the biggest white elephant of all so where is the money coming from.
Well done Mrs May for clarifying the status of EU immigrants. Let’s just hope that before you announce the cut off date they don’t all start shipping their aged parents in to be looked after by our taxes in the care homes because its already started.
June 23, 2017
Ian, they already have according to the latest immigration figures. Half a million and two thirds down to immigration. UKIP has the best manifesto of all the parties.
June 23, 2017
With reports in the last few days that there are now 5 million more people living in the UK, mostly England, in the last 10 years alone. Mostly made up of new immigrants and their offspring. How is that going to improve the provision of health, housing, congestion, for the indigenous population?
Wasn’t the Foreign Aid scam supposed to stop this?
Have the Government provided increases in public services to cope or are we out here in the real world past the M25 having to suffer the consequences of their reckless policies?
This has happened mostly on the Tory watch. As Gideon helpfully pointed out no one in the Tory cabinet cared and we know that Mandelson told us they sent out search parties to change our demographic. Actually flying people in from parts of North East Africa and giving them free houses and benefits at British taxpayers expense. You couldn’t make it up!
June 23, 2017
‘An Englishman’s home is his castle’ – a profound saying, reflecting core values of freedom and conservatism. But someone has to pay for social care, and at the time, with an expected huge majority in Parliament, it must have seemed like a good moment to boldly face the problem head-on. Thanks to the devious antics of the Left, it proved a disastrous miscalculation, especially in the way it was put across. Meanwhile, our problems have multiplied, and this one has not gone away. ‘Build on the rock, and not upon the sand!’
June 23, 2017
The manifesto was a great mistake and it did not attract Labour voters ; it was certainly not based on true Conservative values . The outcome and the lack of persona from Theresa has produced a dilemma for the country , our ability now to secure the sort of Brexit that would protect us from a “bad deal” is now handicapped .
More modification is needed in the management of the economy to bolster and encourage companies and individuals ; taxes and stamp duties ought to be reduced . The Government badly needs leadership and direction to rebuild the country .
June 23, 2017
I said the other day how it would be interesting to see how Westminster would shift its blame for the Grenfell Tower disaster. With Conservatives in Westminster and in the royal borough of Kensington, it had to be a sacrificial goat from the hired help. Still, the golden ejector seat, should see a future landing as Chair of a Quango or similar.
June 23, 2017
So nearly 9 million was allocated and spent on improving this block of flats.
The choice of cladding material was for local council and residents to decide on.
The outcome of thar decision has been greater than anyone could have predicted.
To suggest as you do Acorn that somehow politicians deliberately chose a poor outcome is contemptible
June 24, 2017
The work was done under a “Building Notice”, the local Council and its residents had no idea what materials were used. The work is inspected after it is completed, there are no plans submitted beforehand. This is yet another Conservative “semi-privatisation” of the planning system regulations.
It never ceases to amaze me on this site, how little you people know about how “the system” actually works! But, you still rant on like everyone else is a moron. I say keep it up, you are demonstrating daily to the voters, exactly why we definitely don’t want a country run by Redwood’s Brexiteers.
June 23, 2017
acorn
Any thoughts on the other 16 tower blocks so far identified with the same cladding in a range of different boroughs?
Maybe you are ALL trying to avoid the two major issues here?
June 23, 2017
I am not confident at all of having a Tory government in power in the next few months. Never before have I felt so disillusioned by the Tory party. Do any of them know what they are doing? We also need to hear at least if Brexit talks and trade talks with the world are going well. Mrs May and her advisors got it all wrong and I don’t think the public will put their trust in them again. They can say all these things aren’t in their manifesto but surely they will come back to haunt us in the future. It’s about time your party started to focus more on those that have no intention of ever working by removing benefits like they do in Spain. They were talking on Radio 2 yesterday about a shortage of fruit and veg pickers from Europe. Why not get the feckless out there to do it and also if students did it they could get a reduction in their student fees. You have to make it clear to the cabinet John that this isn’t a true Tory party anymore.
June 23, 2017
I hear that the population of the UK has risen by half a million again. Two thirds of this total is down to immigration. Brexit is not putting off people moving here – it seems to be encouraging them. Things really will have to change. How can we control our housing stock with numbers like this coming in. Same with the NHS. Just how are our hospitals and GP’s supposed to cope? Waiting lists for treatment are longer and now we can see why. This country is going down the pan slowly but surely and no party seems to want or be able to prevent it.
June 23, 2017
Last Evening’s European Summit.
The Luke warm reaction to Mrs May’s offer is unsurprising. It’s been clear for the last year that the 27 herded and ruled over by Merkel are going to make total unacceptable demands in every area that no self respecting government of a powerful independent country could accept.
The first is likely to be a demand that the ECJ continues its supremacy over our own courts in respect to the rights of EU citizens living here.
A good test that should be applied to every aspect of the negotiations is, would the USA accept what Merkel’s puppets are demanding ?
The answer will invariably be No. If so, that should be our answer as well.
No independent country can compromise on sovereignty
June 23, 2017
More naive negotiating in Brussels with May starting with a “generous” offer in the one area where she has something to trade. When that is pocketed by Brussels what is she going to negotiate with when they demand €100bn or a one-sided trade deal that excludes services? May’s secrecy and control-freakery is the reason that a year after the referendum there has been so little progress and so little detail in anything from the UK. We have barely moved on from David Davis’ article in Conservative Home last July:
http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2016/07/david-davis-trade-deals-tax-cuts-and-taking-time-before-triggering-article-50-a-brexit-economic-strategy-for-britain.html
June 23, 2017
Exactly, am in the process of selling my home and dividing up the proceeds along with my savings between my grown up children and moving into down size accommodation- renting- and that will put me in the same place as my neighbour who was a spendthrift all his life and has nothing either- we can both then look forward to the services picking up the pieces when we start to fall apart- we won’t have to worry then about the differences between healthcare delivered free and social care that you pay for- if you have the money?
June 23, 2017
It’s not quite as simple as that. Disposing of assets like that is called ‘deliberate deprivation of assets’ and they will still be counted. There is no escape if you have made a success of life. They need your money and will have it one way or another, if necessary like the Cyprus option of stealing from your bank account.
June 23, 2017
As a pensioner, I never sought the so-called triple lock, I would be quite happy for my pension to keep pace with the rate of inflation, although it is generally accepted that the rate of inflation for pensioners is higher than the RPI.
When it comes to care, I believe that the state should be responsible for the care of those who are sick, such as those with Alzheimers, etc, but not normally for those who are simply old and need help with day-to day living.
June 23, 2017
The ‘triple lock’ was to try to bring up pensions to a reasonable level. Just marking time with simple inflation rises does not do this and entrenches pensioner poverty (and there are 1.6 million in our great country according to Age UK, with a further 1.2 million live just above the poverty level). The basic pension is among the lowest in the first world and the triple lock needs to stay until basic pension is brought up to proper levels.
June 23, 2017
Graham
Agree with your comment as that is exactly how I remember it being promoted at the time.
The increase would thus be gradual and affordable..
June 23, 2017
The Tory party, and in particular Theresa May and her Tory government, have many enemies and very few friends in the mass media, so they must not expect to be given a fair hearing even if they can be bothered to try to defend themselves which is often not the case. It’s not entirely to do with the politics, any more than fox hunting is entirely to do with vermin control; like a blood sport attacks on the Tory government are seen as a form of entertainment.
June 23, 2017
Let’s be honest, despite the fact that a majority voted for Brexit in the referendum and for Brexit parties in the general election, we have a government that largely does not believe in it.
The government also does not appear to believe the small state and living within our means.
The Conservatives need to become Conservatives again.
June 23, 2017
There is a lesson to be learnt from our recent election and that of Macron in France and many other places in recent years. The road to government/power is to espouse socialist dogma or at least it’s basic tenets like wholesale redistribution of wealth, feed the culture of dependency and entitlement and never challenge the rights and privileges the left have already bestowed on voters unless of course they are very well off. A lesson lost on Theresa May, her advisers and manifesto writers.
Another lesson that a cursory observation tells us which has been learnt by the Communist party in China and Macron in France and many other places. Once a socialists state is established it needs wealth to pay for it and so capitalism must be allowed to continue to be used to provide it. A lesson lost on many socialist/left wingers past, present and Corbyn which has brought ruin, dictatorship and impoverishment to many a state and which will happen to the UK in the future if Corbyn and his lot take over government.
June 23, 2017
Off-topic, one year on from the referendum and the UK economy has already grown by more than any gross losses which are likely to arise from reduced access to the EU internal market – that is, assuming that the transition to the post-EU trading arrangements will be smooth and orderly rather than abrupt and chaotic, the so-called “cliff edge”.
It will be another week before we get the GDP growth statistic for Q2 2017, but just taking the three quarters for which we have already had the numbers they add up to 1.4%:
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/gdp-growth
While it is estimated that the creation of the EU internal market gave a one-off boost to the UK economy equivalent to between 1% and 2% of GDP.
Of course it is always possible to present such information in ways which greatly exaggerate the apparent importance of the EU internal market to our economy; for example, if we did lose 1% of our GDP and that translated to losing 1% of jobs then that would be a big number, 320,000, simply because the total number of jobs is big, about 32 million.
And of course it would not be necessary to point out that with or without Brexit there is a natural churn in the UK employment market which means that each year something like ten times as many existing jobs are lost, but also new jobs created:
http://iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/Briefing_1502_The%20EU%20Jobs%20Myth_web.pdf
“The UK labour market is incredibly dynamic, and would adapt quickly to changed relationships with the EU. Prior to the financial crisis, the UK saw on average 4 million jobs created and 3.7 million jobs lost each year – i.e. there is substantial churn of jobs at any given time. Indeed, the annual creation and destruction of jobs is almost exactly the same scale as the estimated 3-4 million jobs that are associated with exports to EU actors.”
June 23, 2017
Why is the Conservative Party turning into the Conlabour Party? There are no tory policies and there is no choice now on the ballot paper. It is time the old Conservative Party was resurrected (the DUP?) and gave us all a choice. Common sense has disappeared. Why is it OK for the government to look after everyone with no concern about the debt? It is patently obvious it does not keep us all safe any longer. Why does it not look after the basics like fire regulations which work, building regulations which work, traffic regulations which work, etc. etc. Stop trying to be “auntie” to everyone and start being a GOVERNMENT.
June 23, 2017
Why won’t the government not explain to the Eng;ish people, why Scotland can afford free social care but England cannot do so.
Why did the government not also explain why the winter fuel allowance was still to ba paid to evryone in Scotland, but English recipients would be means tested according to some as yet undisclosed formula.
June 23, 2017
Dear MWB–Or perhaps you could give consideration to whether Scotland can afford “free” social care
June 23, 2017
Because of the black gold.
June 23, 2017
You mean the oil revenue which has raised no tax for the past 2 years and continues to yield no tax at $45 per barrel.
GS were predicting $200 per barrel when the Scottish referendum was held. Just shows you should never trust experts or economists.
June 23, 2017
Perhaps it’s because it has a sane population size.
June 23, 2017
well if it’s delivered free to some then it should be free for everyone, especially those who have already paid a lifetime’s income tax, NICs, VAT, duty, council tax, ins premium tax and then IHT.
Where will it stop if govt starts to restrict who may benefit from “free” public services? It seems like the strivers are paying everyone else and being excluded from any benefits of their work, what a strange incentive from a political party calling itself “The Conservatives”.
If you have budgetary problems I suggest you stop squandering our money on hugely expensive quangos and ring fenced overseas “aid” money which is being paid to foreign pop groups and countries with their own nuclear weapons and space programs.
June 23, 2017
Plenty of money to hand new entrants to the UK a million pound flat each following the fire. Do British troops enduring the effects of massive trauma get £1m flats? How about all those young girls abused over 2 decades in Northern towns, do they qualify for such extravagance?
June 24, 2017
No ! They do not even get a tacky, virtue signalling pop song made to raise money.
Disgusting.
June 23, 2017
Will the constituencies be redrawn, or will that be another shot in the foot for calling the election?
June 23, 2017
I asked this question & JR said another vote is needed, so this too could be a casualty of the election.
June 23, 2017
Again, for I mentioned it before, all Mrs May needed to do to win a convincing victory was NOTHING
June 23, 2017
Why are we having to listen to comments from the Belgium PM, the Dutch PM, the Austrian PM today about May’s generous citizens offer, they all want MORE. Just STOP reporting about them, the EU27 are talking together as one led by Michael Barnier we were told. Not Unelected Pres Junker, not Cllr Merkel, one body, so we don’t need to hear what individual Prime Ministers think or say, thanks all the same.
June 23, 2017
“If Conservatism fails to show the nation an alternative line of advance it would have to bear the blame should the people come to the conclusion that the only way forward lay along the Socialist path,however desperate and perilous that might be”
That is a very timely quote by Scottish Unionist,Noel Skelton,from 90 years ago(highlighted in a rather good article in The Spectator today by James Forsyth – “The next few years will be crucial for the Tories”).
Only the Tories haven’t got “a few years” to sort themselves out- and show no sign of wanting to.
June 23, 2017
Boris’s charisma,however untrustworthy his “set” views, may have won victory if he had been PM. Now his charisma has lost momentum. Tories need more than an adjusted manifesto. They need a publicly respected leader. Ruth Davidson, if very quickly replacing May could have been that leader. Now no. Momnentum , again, has been lost.
Does anyone at Tory party central office have a clue? You’re are set to lose this country in Brexit and allowing in mob rule by Corbyn. Utter failure.
Why not make Hammond PM.??? Make Tory defeat absolute by having the personification as leader of two gfigures in literature, the Brothers Grimm! He won’t even need to change expression when he loses the next election. It will be a well-deserved defeat. 🙁
June 23, 2017
The anniversary of the Brexit vote. This has been what the Tories have achieved since then….
June 23, 2017
I get no sense of anger from Redwood…only mild annoyance and a resigned shrug of the shoulders. Is this how he wishes to spend the Autumn of his career..making up the numbers ?
What was once called ‘the right’ have waived the white flag to those that preach diversity,political correctness and the doctrine of ‘fairness’.
I give up.
June 23, 2017
Dear Ken–Although generally in agreement with our host, and most certainly on Brexit, I have twice felt the need to remind him that he was once held to be the “standard bearer of the right”.
June 23, 2017
Not just me then.
I got this message from the Conservative party (Patrick Mcsomething) just before the election..
It could have come from Labour or the Lib dems.
The Conservatives have lost the plot – Labour has a proper socialist in charge so why can’t the Tories have a properly conservative leader.
I and millions of others have been left without a voice!.
‘Because by joining our party you will be signing up to a future that delivers for the many and not the few. That means building an economy that rewards those at the bottom as well as the top, a society that brings people together and supports the vulnerable, and a democracy that our people can trust and have confidence ‘.
I say to John Redwood – look what has happened to your party. What happened to the ‘standard bearers of the right’ when the party was infiltrated by liberals that wished to hug it’s enemies?. Why does your party seem to be ashamed of conservatism?.
Why are you not braying at your party leadership for having nothing to say about personal responsibility, out of control spending and maintaining a strong national identity ?. Why do you believe that being politically correct about all things is popular and wise ?.
What is sickening is that the outcome of the election was entirely predictable. Even more sickening is the fact that your party will conclude they lost because of Brexit when infact it was a rejection of May’s uninspiring middle way.
June 23, 2017
I get no sense of anger from Redwood…only mild annoyance
>
Perhaps he thinks he can do all one man could.
I was watching his Brexit speech on youtube where he is being heckled, I thought it one of the most disgraceful episodes in the history of Parliament. It was an outstanding speech.
June 23, 2017
I acknowledge that Redwood when on form is a formidable political fighter and an exceptional public speaker. A much needed conservative voice. He occasionally slips of the straight jacket of political correctness and speaks with great power and authority.
It’s when in ‘loyalty’ mode he dons rose tinted specs and attempts to put a gloss on the abysmal leadership of the Conservative party my heart sinks. This serves nobody.
June 23, 2017
I’m sure that the points you make are very good ones, from the point of view of political pragmatism. The government must command a majority for its priorities, and its top priority must be Brexit, and Brexit must not be put in peril, so compromises must be made.
But surely the triple lock cannot be justified on principled grounds? And why is the winter fuel allowance not simply consolidated into the state pension?
June 23, 2017
All very well, but unfortunately the fact remauns that politics is based on perception for many and we now have the real possibility of a bunch of new occupants in no 10 who would negate any advantages of brexit and ruin us all if they get in, they fill me with horror.
How on earth did it ever come to this?
June 23, 2017
Ha! John, you are mellowing in your old age. It is much to your credit that you now speak out against the dementia tax, killing off the pensioners this winter, abandoning the triple lock etc and thus avoiding alienating a significant portion of the tory voter base. There will probably be another general election this year. I hope the good people of Wokingham will reward you for your common sense!
June 23, 2017
A ‘Digital Charter’ to make us the ‘safest place to be online’. A ‘Commission for Countering Extremism’. The Tory party has not dropped its manifesto commitment given to people who are not in point of fact, English, to policing the internet whilst wrapping it up in Orwellian terminology. Those who have been waging a war on free speech and dislike the fact that curious people can seek information from outside the MSM and outside their control of publishing, will no doubt be well represented on the commission and there will be grievous penalties for English people who declare the Emperor has no clothes: those that operate from behind the curtain know that their power would evapourate should knowledge of their modus operandi become widely known.
Apart from the fact that ‘extremism’ like ‘rich’ entirely depends on a subjective viewpoint and has no objective legitimacy, it is also rather rich that the government has been using believers in a particularly robust ideology to overthrow governments whilst pretending to be opposed to them. Long may the internet be a place for the free exchange of information in order to constrain the criminal behaviour of those who have sought to act through government to insidiously change who we are without the democratic approval of the people.
June 23, 2017
Care in the home is altogether more satisfactory if possible. The patient pays for their own electricity food, residence , just as before . A few changes can be made to the home cheaply . Sadly this is not appropriate for all.
Many are transferring their assets to their children up to 10 years prior to anticipated death in order to give their children their inheritance . They are doing a Lear, but not all off spring are Goneril and Regan, but it is not surprising many are the similar type of grabbers.
June 23, 2017
I saw somewhere that Labour gained support in ABC1s (traditionally Conservative), whereas Conservatives gained support from C2DEs (traditionally Labour). I am interested in this behaviour, if true. The Tories do not typically offer widespread hand-outs, like Labour. They typically maintain employment protections without seeking to vastly embolden them. They typically want a self-correcting market to find balance instead of intervening in its proper function. This Conservative Government has been highly atypical, with a resoundingly poor message, with an atypical and resoundingly poor result. Could it be that the working classes actually want aspirational policies, not benefits? That they want their hard work to pay in the tangible metrics of a better quality of life and living standards, instead of seeing their further attainments robbed by the state through higher taxation?
The Conservatives should encourage, incentivise and provide aspiration for success through individual merit and achievement. Focus instead on growing the economy and liberating people to reap the merits of their work; not simply cutting costs and lazily trying to fund the state through higher taxes. A rising tide floats all boats. Wouldn’t that be an aspirational message?
June 23, 2017
Re the Manifesto and the rights of EU citizens in the UK, I wonder if you could specify for us, and for the Government(!), the international law which gives them rights to stay anyway? I don’t understand why we seem to be letting the EU make this a negotiating issue where they try and insist on ECJ oversight of rights. If international law doesn’t require that oversight then we should just say no on that to the EU – and make it clear to the media that there’s no need for this to be a Brexit issue at all.
June 23, 2017
Indeed, there is no way that anything other than UK law can apply. With 3 million EU citizens effectively given diplomatic immunity, where does that leave us? These negotiations are surely going to fail early-doors, and the EU and we can walk away saving the expense of negotiators.
June 24, 2017
International law is the least important consideration.
June 23, 2017
What with the population expanding fast, and the need to build more houses, the electricity for just these two things alone is going to be quite high, and that without new manufacturing plants needed for jobs, and warehousing for all the goods coming into the country to support a population of more than 70 odd million by 2025, with no new motorways or other infrastructure to go with it, because they cannot afford to borrow the money needed, but will continue to expand the population regardless, for big business.
I bring this up because in the queen speech i see they are now going to borrow billion for space ports and spacecrafts, HS2 with A2, and electric car charging all over the country.
One has to wander if the government has any intelligence at all when you think of the need for money for social care, housing, hospitals, which are still being closed down because lax of money, and none of this in the queen speech. How are they going to generate all the electric needed for space projects, and car charging country wide as well as HS2. Total crap.
June 23, 2017
Don’t despair Ian, Sturgeon has a plan. She is going to cover Scotland in wind turbines and hey presto, there’s the answer to all our ills.
You couldn’t make it up. They are reporting that onshore wind is coming down in price. You bet you’re bum it is. They cannot afford to lose the money we throw at them even when they are turned off. There are so many in Scotland now that often wind farms are switched off because the grid cannot take the energy being produced. They receive more for switching off and the more wind farms there are the more often they will be turned off. Winner!! How stupid are our governments?
June 23, 2017
Surely the answer to the question of why the Queen’s Speech omitted so much from the Manifesto is that the former is for the next 2 years and the latter is for 5 years. With Brexit to be negotiated, the rest of the Manifesto can and must wait. Even the former Leader of the House, David Liddington, who should have known this distinction missed the opportunity to say this last night on BBC Question Time. You’re all on the back foot too much.
You should not abandon proposals in the Manifesto that are still deliverable. For example the Winter Fuel Allowance being removed from higher rate taxpayers is hardly going to be voted down by Labour is it and is still a strong signal that you want to keep up pressure in public finances? And the pensions Double-Lock replacing the Triple Lock makes little or no difference when inflation is running north at 2-2.5% since pension rises will still be guaranteed up to inflation or earnings and be of similar magnitude to now.
As for the care proposals, the Consultation needs to be completed and a cross-party alliance should be established for such a critical area of public service provision whose failings at present are causing so much bed-blocking in hospitals.
As for a free vote on fox-hunting, what on earth were the PM and her advisers thinking of in including this in the first place, it hardly solves any “Burning Injustices” that Theresa May was keen to address in her Downing Street inaugural speech.
June 23, 2017
@MikeP
In essence you appear to be suggesting there isn’t much difference between the Tories & Labour on tax and spending.
I tend to agree.
June 23, 2017
Well, sir, it’s a mess. HS2 is going ahead, it seems and sucking up billions which might be spent on winter fuel and triple locks. Meanwhile our deficit stands at 1.7 trillion and in the time it’s taken me to write this much, a frightening sum has been added to our borrowing. We are spending more than our education budget simply on servicing this debt. What happens if interest rates rise? And a genuinely malignant, hard left Labour party squats salivating in the shadows, hoping to put a minority Tory government on the rack, ably assisted by the EU. It would take a political genius to help our party and our country past these dangers and we must make do with poor, deluded Mrs May. If we want to escape with another election, Labour will block us, turning the fixed term parliament to its advantage. If things are going badly and we split or lose heart, they will embarrass us by trying to spur another election then. We may well end up like a corpse in a gibbet. Do you have any comfort to set against these reflections, Mr Redwood? To me the prospect looks distinctly alarming.
June 23, 2017
Things are very bad indeed. When a party turns it’s back on the factually correct truth and becomes entirely guided by the doctrine of political correctness it is at the mercy of fickle and often irrational human emotions.
Mrs May’s grovelling over the post Grenfell disaster handling – why is it taken as fact that the response to the tragedy was ‘inadequate’. Services are limited and not infinite and take time to implement ..why the need to constantly apologise.
The apology was a nonsense but it was the PC thing to do as those that wished to politicise this tragedy demanded it…
Is government supposed to have a pop up service in the wings at all times to sort out any number of lives tragically destroyed by an unprecedented freak fire in central London or anywhere else. That would be nonsensical but we have drifted so far into unreality nobody notices anymore.
June 24, 2017
They apologise for tragedies they have nothing to do with but say nothing about that which they do. And these people want me to take them seriously.
June 23, 2017
Patrick Mclaughlin before the election :-
‘‘Because by joining our party you will be signing up to a future that delivers for the many and not the few. That means building an economy that rewards those at the bottom as well as the top, a society that brings people together and supports the vulnerable, and a democracy that our people can trust and have confidence ‘.
What a dim view he has of this country but it is typical of the party leadership . His wish to ‘build’ a new economy belies his belief that this country is fundamentally wrong and unjust – a Corbynista with a blue rosette. Why would anyone with a conservative mind vote for a party that clearly despises them ?.
For god sake Redwood speak up and give me and others a voice.
Where are the real Conservatives in the party to challenge this view that the old Tory party was heartless ?.
Where are these fat cats gorging themselves on wealth while the poor downtrodden masses get a pittance from the once ‘heartless Tories’
Mclaughlin must not be aware of the explosion in spending on the welfare state where those that have contributed nothing get everything free while those that have worked hard get no help.
The country has been brought to the brink of bankruptcy by the need to be compassionate and ‘protect the vulnerable’..but it is never enough is it….