What can we expect in 10 months time when David Cameron is swept into office with a big majority on around 40% of the vote?
The basic premise that will sweep Cameron into office is that the Tories will save taxpayers money by being more efficient with it, meaning public services will not suffer too much.
Considering Cameron and his Tory MPs have milked the expenses system more than Labour and that they have people like Brian Coleman in their ranks (who spends £10k a year on taxis and chauffeurs), this seems unlikely at best.
If we look at the Tories record in office, it becomes even more unlikely. As Chris Dillow puts it, those at the top are unable to make efficiency gains because only those at the coalface know what needs to be done.
In London, Boris Johnson has been effectively sitting on his hands much to the disappointment of right-wing Tories. He has thrown them a few bones - scrapping festivals, increasing bus fares and charges for services, but he has done nothing major to rock the boat that Livingstone created for him.
The Tories in government could try this approach, but with 50% of Tory MPs coming from private schools expect the cuts to hit the poorest and efficiency gains to be few and far between.
It would be interesting to hear David Cameron's comments on Brian Contemptible. I won't hold my breath mind.
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Brian Coleman (aka Mr Toad) has GOT to go!:
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And yet as a disabled person I was better off under a Tory government then under Blair or Brown government, I left Labour after 40 years, I had enough of the knocking down of the working class as I watched labour become a Thatcherite government, I doubt we will even notice the Tories are in, we have had them for well over twelve years.
ReplyDeleteRobert, how was you better off under the Tories?
ReplyDeleteUnder the Tories I use to have a rise in benefits each year that took into account council tax rises and rent rises the two biggest gains over the years, Labour removed these from the basic benefits rise.
ReplyDeleteAn example under Labour council tax has doubled mine went from £650 a year to £1350.
Under the Tories if my council tax went up so would my benefits, under Labour if my council tax went up I did not get a benefits rise to cover this.
The average benefits rise under the Tories was £2.75 a week the max was £3.95
Under labour the first rise was 75p yet my council tax went up 15%. This year my rent went up £3.25 a week and my council tax went up £2.25 thats £5.50 my rise in benefits went up £1.25. A major charity the Roundtree group has stated my benefits under Thatcher would now have been £116 a week, but actually it's £86.
sad that a Labour party would even think of doing this.
Oh before some bright spark says get a job, I'm actually excused from the new rules because my disability is so severe I come under the unable to work rule.
But believe me I've been looking for work for ten years and even went back to work for a while, until Labour brought in the DDA and stated after a year the responsibility for keeping a disabled person in work falls on the employer I was made redundant.
This is from the Joseph Rowntree report on poverty:-
ReplyDelete"If, as was the general policy before 1997, benefit levels and tax allowances had been increased in line with price inflation, income inequality and poverty rates would both have been significantly higher than they actually were by 2006/07. The Gini coefficient measure of income inequality would have been 1 percentage point higher – a rise of 3 points since 1996/97, rather than the actual increase of 2 points. Strikingly, the ratio between the incomes of those near the top and those near the bottom would have increased by nearly a tenth, rather than remaining flat."
It seems to say the opposite of what you have written - can you provide a link to your source?
Unless you have got more than £12,000 in savings, you should be receiving council tax benefit which would obviously cover any CT increases, so I don't understand what you are on about. Housing benefit is more generous now than under the Tories, so your rent should be covered as well.
As a disabled person, you now have a legal right to access all public buildings (something you could have whistled for nder the Tories). Also public transport is far more disabled friendly than it was due to extra goverment funding of public transport. Social care is far better funded and more advanced and there are far more disabled people in work now than there were under the Tories. I can't imagine how anyone would prefer the Thatherites.