By the time the election comes around in June this country will have had seven years of Tory government; seven years of misery, seven years of austerity and seven years of abject failure by any reasonable analysis of available data, and by any moral code. Below is a list I have put together on how this government, and the coalition before it has failed the people of this country; not only the working class, though it is true they have suffered more than anyone; but everyone excepting the super-rich and multi-national corporations who hold the Conservative Party firmly in their back pocket.
Finances:
The one area that the Tories are seen as competent, somehow, is in the realm of the public purse. The truth, outside of the Westminster bubble is that here lies their biggest failure. George Osborne and later Philip Hammond have said they should be judged on their records. The debt in the UK currently stands at an enormous £1.73trillion[1] – double what it was under the last full Labour Parliament. This is while public spending has dropped by 5% since 2010[2]. Somehow despite cutting spending and increasing the debt, George Osborne borrowed more in his first three years as Chancellor than Labour did in 13 years of government[3]. As it stands, the Tories have borrowed more since 2010 than every Labour government combined[4]. This of course creates the conditions for extreme austerity targeted at the many, while we have seen massive tax cuts for millionaires – in 2013 George Osborne cut the top rate of tax giving the UKs 13,000 millionaires a minimum of a £100,000 tax cut each[5]. Individual tax shortfalls should be made up in taxes elsewhere, but instead of creating a progressive corporation tax model the Tories have effectively turned the UK into a modern day tax haven by having the lowest rates of any of the 20 leading global economies – just 17% by 2020, meaning massive companies such as Tesco or McDonalds will pay less tax proportionally than their employees[6] – in fact the only taxes that have risen under this government are the regressive ones that hit the poorest the hardest such as VAT and the hated Bedroom Tax. Is it any surprise when we see the deals done by HMRC with multi-national companies, behind closed doors[7]? Who can forget, also, the attempt to increase tax on the self-employed too which the government only U-turned on after massive public and Labour opposition.
Meanwhile, tax rises and austerity for the many have not been matched by any rise in income. The decline in the value of wages in this country from the global economic crash to the present is over 10%, on a par only with Greece in the developed world[8]. The earnings decline of UK workers is currently the worst for 163 years[9] when the 4th Earl of Aberdeen was Prime Minister, another Tory, and we were on the verge of a war in the Crimea. In 2016 UK productivity fell by its greatest margin since the 2008 recession, putting the workforce at 14% less productivity than pre-crisis levels[10] – Tory management of the economy and job security have led to this state. One group though, have done extremely well in the past seven years, and they are of course the already wealthy, among whom many Tory MPs are counted. The richest 1000 people in the country have seen their wealth rise by a massive £112% since 2009 (that is not a misprint – one hundred and twelve percent) – they now share a fortune of £547billion between them[11]. This is in a nation where over 1,000,000 people visited food banks last year. Even their living wage is far less than what a living wage should be – and doesn’t apply to young people. Income and wealth inequality has never been greater, and that is a deliberate policy.
The Home Office:
Perhaps the best place to look at what the psyche of our unelected leader Theresa May is would be the Home Office, the department she held for several years under David Cameron’s Premiership. One of her great policy ideas was the Snooper’s Charter, which has only been blocked at the final hurdle by the EU’s highest court (more on the EU later). The Investigatory Powers Act to give the law its proper title, would require details of every email we send, every website we visit and every social media log to be recorded by spooks[12]. Were the internet in existence in 1950s Germany this would have been the desired tool of monitoring for the Stasi. It is the equivalent to having a civil servant in your home inspecting your behaviour and should chill any decent person to the bone. While on this theme, she was also the Home Secretary that authorised the detention of David Miranda who assisted Edward Snowden in his Whistleblowing concerning what the great western powers were doing behind closed doors. She allowed the police to smash Guardian property and ignored basic rights to privacy and habeus corpus[13].
She oversaw the introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners being elected – a laughable non-entity of a policy that brought out just 15.1% of the electorate, so underwhelming were they[14]. Aside from creating a new tranche of bureaucracy in the police force, what else has she done? Well, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary have said the cuts to police budgets in excess of 20% are “dangerous” and “disturbing”[15]. If you want to know how much the police have been cut in your area, here is a handy calculator to find out. They have been cut to the point that volunteers are now being used at crime scenes. She remains one of the few Tories ever to be jeered and booed by the Police[16]. Her policy on drugs remains in the “hang ‘em and flog ‘em” camp despite evidence from Portugal that liberalisation of drug laws aids all aspects of recovery, both individually and societal[17].
The Tories consistently bang the drum on immigration and rarely if ever point out the benefits. They know the necessity behind closed doors and personally I am in favour of immigration, but let’s judge the Tories by their own narrow view and state clearly that the government saw immigration numbers rise by 78,000 in 2014 to 260,000 overall despite a campaign promise to reduce migrant numbers to below 100,000[18]. According to one of the Tories’ favourite pressure groups, the figure stood at 273,000 for the year ending 2016[19]. Brexit is unlikely to have any significant impact on overall numbers while the much vaunted points-based system in Australia could be the worst possible option[20].
Theresa May was of course replaced by Amber Rudd when the former became Prime Minister without anyone voting for her. Amber Rudd is the director of two companies, both of which are registered in the Bahamas for reasons I’m sure you can work out[21]. One of her key policy ideas was for companies to publicly announce how many foreign workers they had on their books – she didn’t go so far as to say these workers had to wear coloured stars to identify them thankfully, but the speech in which she made the remarks has been recorded as a Hate Crime[22]. When visiting a Holocaust Memorial Museum she signed the book with the words “we must never forget” and then proceeded to remove the Dubs Amendment from UK law, which granted refugee families the right to stay together. Lord Alf Dubs was a child refugee himself, escaping the Nazis during World War II, the UK gave him somewhere safe to live as his people were being exterminated; he says the government have gone back on their word concerning refugees and he is right – we took 350 child refugees, not 3000 as the Dubs Amendment would have guaranteed[23]. On the subject of refugees, the government have continued the shameful legacy of Tony Blair’s Labour and kept privately run detention centres in operation, and continued to deport people to countries where they face torture or worse for their relationships or political beliefs. Each person held in detention (none have committed crimes remember) costs the taxpayer £30,000 a year. Amber Rudd’s previous claim to fame before politics was as the “aristocracy co-ordinator” for the film, Four Weddings and a Funeral[24]. In an astonishing move she refused to hold an independent inquiry in to the actions of Police during the year-long Miners’ strike, despite overwhelming evidence from this and other cases of the dirty tricks used by particularly Sheffield Police, most notably the Hillsborough Disaster[25].
Health:
To discuss this government’s attitude to the NHS is not unlike discussing the attitude of the KKK to black people. They hate the NHS, hate everything from its foundation to its position of almost faithlike worship among the people. It is a solid block of socialism that proves socialism, in-fact and practice, works. In their 2010 manifesto they promised “no top-down reorganisation of the NHS” and proved this to be their first of many, many lies over the next seven years as Andrew Lansley set about dismantling and selling off the profitable bits of the NHS. The most execrable changes the Tories made were making 50% of NHS beds available for private use[26] and the removal of the Secretary of State’s responsibility for NHS provision[27] – the latter being the single key point that opens wide the competition gates – that translated into £30billion of NHS contracts being put out to tender[28] across pharmacies, patient transport, diagnostics, GPs, community care and mental health services. The groups buying up massive chunks of the NHS are Virgin, Serco, CareUK, Ramsay, Circle, HCA, The Practice, Spire, GHG/BMI, Inhealth, Alliance Boots, Capita and Interserve[29] – see footnote for details on each one.
Alongside mass privatisation are the waiting times that have begun an upward trend under this government which shows no sign of being reversed. In the past year 193,406 people did not get the operation they needed within 18 weeks of being referred[30]. It took leaked data to show us that A&E departments are so overstretched and underfunded that 60,000 seriously ill people had to wait over four hours in December 2016 alone. The target for being seen within four hours in A&E is 95% (down from 98% consistently hit by Labour) and the government still haven’t hit this since Q1 2012/13 – recently it dropped as low as 81.8%[31]. Just as worrying are the 25 thousand people who waited longer than is safe to see a cancer specialist after being diagnosed last year[32].
One thing this country consistently fails with is mental health support, but the situation is getting worse rather than improving. Forty per cent of mental health trusts saw budgets cut in 2015/16 despite a pledge to fund them on a par with physical health care[33]; given that physical healthcare is also being cut perhaps this, in a twisted way, is a promise kept, as funding for both is shredded. Beds are in such short supply for people in a crisis that police cells are being used to substitute for people who are a danger to themselves, people who need care, not punishment for their condition[34].
One of the first things the Tories did in 2010 was stop the target of seeing a GP within 48 hours in 2010, now some people are having to wait four weeks to see a GP[35] and the average wait is two weeks[36]. Fifteen thousand beds have been cut since the Tories came to power[37], nurses have been cut and seen their terms and conditions fundamentally attacked meaning one in six nursing posts remains vacant[38]; most heinously the government have cut back student bursary scheme for nurses which will exacerbate the fall in nursing staff numbers, and mean numbers of people pursuing this noble profession from disadvantaged backgrounds will plummet[39]. Too few paramedic staff has led to ambulance response times dropping. One in ten posts remains empty while the workload for existing staff has doubled[40]. No wonder NHS staff are the most stressed in the public sector, 61% of healthcare professionals who took part in the research reported feeling stressed all or most of the time[41]. All of this is before we look at the way the government has tried to force Junior Doctors in to a contract that no one wants, and that everyone realises (except the Tories) is bad for patient safety and brought about the first doctors’ strike since the 1970s[42]. All of this proves the old mantra, you can’t trust the Tories with the NHS.
The Welfare State
While the NHS may provoke “under the radar” hatred from Tories, the welfare state receives no such etiquette. A piñata from day one, the area of our society relied upon by the unemployed, the disabled, pensioners etc. has been attacked, dismantled, maligned and undermined in the search for scapegoats for a failing government. In terms of work, the government always announce the monthly figure of numbers of people in work with great fanfare; almost two million since 2010 apparently. What this statistic doesn’t show is that the 1.8 million extra people in work is correlative to the number of people entering the labour market as our population grows and the amount of people on zero hours contracts – at the latest count just under one million people, but probably above this now[43]. What is less shouted about in the world of work is the amount of people who are underemployed; the UK is at the bottom of the European league for people desiring more work; it is a growing figure but as of 2014 this 26% of part time workers, or 1.8 million – what a familiar number[44].
On to the emotive issue of the disabled in our allegedly modern day Britain. Disability hate crime in 2015/16 increased in a single year by 40%[45]; a staggering figure and one must ask why? One then must look no further than government policy which has demonised disabled people more than any other group, save perhaps Muslims, in an attempt to smear them as feckless layabouts who “sleep off a life on benefits” while the rest of us work, to coin a George Osborne phrase. The first attacks disabled people were subject to were in the form of “fit for work” programme ATOS enacted on the government’s behalf. The Work Capability Assessment, now governed by Maximus has seen thousands of people declared fit for work who have subsequently died; we don’t know exactly how many as the government refuse to publish the figures, but they have finally admitted the tests spend more money than they save[46]. Many more have had their declarations overturned on appeal, but have suffered great stress and discomfort in the meantime. General declines in benefits matching other areas were coupled with the £30 Employment and Support Allowance cuts, supposedly to “incentivise” disabled people in to work. Of course a large number of disabled people had work until the government closed Remploy factories[47]. In addition we found out this year that 50,000 disabled people have had their adapted or mobility vehicles taken away, despite their clear necessity[48]. Is it any wonder people are seeing ready-made victims for their hatred in disabled people when the government are happy to use them as a punch-bag for their anti-welfare mania.
Other benefits for jobseekers and such have also not kept pace with inflation. A general smearing of the unemployed has taken place, despite the difficulty in finding a job that is not based around zero-hours or through an exploitative agency. In work benefits have been drastically cut too with the amount of hours worked to qualify for child tax credits being raised to 24 from 16[49]. The benefit cap has come in which hurts single people and people married without kids, but also detrimentally affects families with three or more children, and 74% of those hit are children[50]. Income support has been abolished for those whose youngest child is over five years old[51]. All this together equals vastly reduced support for those most in need and leads to the aforementioned shameful figure of foodbank use and the horrendous UK poverty levels, even for those in work. The number of people in-work but also in poverty stands at 7.4 million, including 2.6 million children – 55% of those in poverty are from working households[52].
Education
Anyone who was previously in doubt about the Tory attitude to social mobility should now have become aware that “knowing your place” is a Victorian attitude very much in vogue among the wealthy elite that reside in the Cabinet. The latest proposal to bring back grammar schools is another way of separating out the children of the working class from little Tarquin and Clara who shouldn’t be mixing with that sort. They are divisive, elitist and downright wrong. But we should not be surprised. The pet project of Michael Gove, Free Schools, has been an expensive folly at best, and have syphoned money away from regular state schools to the detriment of students everywhere. The money of course is being spent in every increasingly silly ways, leading to Free Schools failing Ofsted inspections at three times the rate for state schools[53]. I’m no expert but perhaps that has something to do with the curriculum in Free Schools not having to follow any kind of national standards, but rather can be set by the governors who may advocate teaching religious texts as science among other things. The NUT thankfully, are experts and what they say on Free Schools is damning and can be found here. Since all this money has been given to a vanity project it should shock nobody that the number of children being taught in oversized classrooms (36 or more pupils) has trebled since the Tories took over[54].
Adult education fares no better, and possibly worse amazingly since adult further education suffered a massive 24% cut in funding – that translates to 190,000 fewer adult education places available, while the adult skills budget has been cut by an eye-watering 40%[55]. Return to Learn, trade union diplomas, FE colleges are all affected; at a time when our economy is supposed to be proving its flexibility, we are removing people’s chance to retrain. For those staying on after school in education the Education Maintenance Allowance is now something only previous generations can remember; a vital lifeline for poorer students cut away in 2010 by the Tories. At the same time the government drew up plans to cut hundreds of youth centres[56].
There are some people considering once again voting Lib Dem this year, and they clearly have short memories or are not ex-students now crippled with debt since they allowed the Tories to increase student fees to £9000 a year, breaking a solemn promise they made in their 2010 election manifesto. What this has done is put many people from poorer backgrounds off going on to do a degree – leaving with a minimum of £27,000 debt before rent, books and spending money has even been considered is not a huge draw for council estate kids to follow their dreams of a university education. The Tories have ever been afraid of educated masses – once educated, working people ask questions and demand rights.
Even pre-schoolers don’t escape the education bonfires with the much loved Labour initiative of Sure Start being crippled by government policy. Sure Start was one of the best policies of the Blair years, and once again was socialism in action. That cannot be tolerated so out came the knives despite a cast iron promise not to cut or defund them in the build up to the 2010 election from David Cameron. It turns out that as of this year, since 2010 350 Sure Start centres have been closed by the government[57] – that’s 350 broken promises to British families.
Justice:
The Ministry of Justice was separated out from the Home Office to deal with criminal rehabilitation and punishment. What is borderline criminal is the way this department has been run over the last seven years. Despite the fact that we lock up more people than France and Germany combined, our thirst for the use of prisons is yet to be slaked, as in March 2017 it was announced that another 5000 prison places are to be built[58]. Fifteen per cent of our prisons are now run privately, for profit in the hands of Sodexo, Serco and G4S who share contracts worth £4billion. Private prisons hire less well trained staff and have wages averaging out at 23% less than the public sector[59]. In these jails prisoners work 40-hour weeks on mind-numbing jobs and are paid as little as £2 a day[60]. State run prisons are still backward places too, focusing more on punishment than rehabilitation. In 2016 a record number of 119 inmates took their own lives, 29 more than the previous year alongside over 37 thousand incidents of self-harm and over 25 thousand assaults; 6430 of these were against staff; a rise of 40% on 2015[61]. Overcrowded prisons are the worst managed, and more and more prisons are reporting over-crowding issues to this is a vicious cycle of punishment and violence.
Access to justice is becoming rarer and rarer depending on your income. Legal Aid has been cut and the government have created what Amnesty International has called a “two-tier justice system” in our country[62]. Legal Aid claims dropped in the year the cuts came in from 925,000 cases to just 497,000 – almost 50%. Legal Aid has been cut for family cases, divorce courts, immigration and asylum; essentially the people at the bottom of the legal pile. The government even attempted to deny legal aid to victims of domestic abuse but this was quashed on appeal[63]. The legal aid fiasco led to solicitors and barristers going on strike against the cuts; the Tories managing to radicalise the least naturally radical profession there is. Government attitudes to domestic violence in general can be ascertained by the fact that 17% of women’s refuges have had to close in 2010 and further cuts could lose two in three centres. In a typical day 103 children and 155 women are turned away from over-pressured refuge centres, due to government policy[64].
A further arena in which justice has been curtailed for the many is in the realm of employment tribunals. Fees for tribunals were introduced in 2013 and start at around £160 to issue a type A claim (e.g. wage claims, breach of contract etc), and £250 for a type B claim (e.g. unfair dismissal, discrimination etc). There’s also a further hearing fee of £230 for Type A and £950 for Type B claims. Appeals at the employment appeal tribunals also attract a £400 lodging and £1,200 hearing fee. If you have lost wages unfairly, or worse, your job, the one thing you are unlikely to have is spare cash on the hip to seek legal advice. A drop in tribunal claims of 70% was the result and this isn’t because Britain’s bosses have got 70% better overnight; it is because the government is hell-bent on denying working people access to fairness in the workplace[65].
Culture and Media:
William Morris said “I do not want art for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few”. Sadly the present government do not share this philosophy as their policies around art and culture all too sadly demonstrate. The cornerstone of any civilised society is surely the library; an institution from the earliest civilisations that have shown the value of not only storing, but sharing knowledge. Between 2010 and 2016, 8000 library jobs were lost in the UK and 343 libraries have closed as well as countless others cutting back their hours and services – a further 111 libraries were set to close 12 months after these figures were disclosed a year ago and 224 additional libraries have been transferred to community groups or essentially privatised[66]. If you want to know what has happened to library services in your area you can find out here.
Tied in to this is funding and policies for the arts more generally; privatisations of key areas in provision at the National Gallery lead to the first strike action at the NG for a generation. This stems from the Arts Council reporting a decline in funding to the tune of £230million since 2010, with more cuts on the way[67]. This directly led to the Arts Council in turn cutting funding to 200 other organisations, many in regions not renowned for their arts leadership in the past[68]. On that note the government have been keen to pull everything back towards London and away from the provinces – the wealthy South East must have art, but no one else. This is proven by the decision to move the fabulous Royal Photography Society collection from Bradford’s excellent National Media Museum to London’s V&A despite overwhelming evidence that it was better off where it was[69].
Contributions to the poor management of this sector which includes charities have been the high turnover of ministers responsible. Jeremy Hunt, Maria Miller, Sajid Javid, John Whittingdale and now Karen Bradley have all held the position. Maria Miller was a remarkable minister who was so deeply entwined with the MPs expenses scandal that it caused Betty Boothroyd to claim she had brought parliament into disrepute[70]. Having threatened the Telegraph with her role in implementing the results of The Leveson Inquiry, her resignation letter was conspicuous due to the absence of the word “sorry”[71].
Jeremy Hunt, before he was given the task of finishing Andrew Lansley’s dismantling of the Health Service was Culture Secretary at the time of the previous BskyB takeover bid from Rupert Murdoch. This was around the same time he was responsible for the G4S security fiasco at the London Olympics where 5000 troops had to step in to fill the shortfall in supplied staff[72]. It turned out Hunt was in regular, private correspondence with James Murdoch prior to overseeing the BskyB bid[73]. While Leveson ultimately clearer Hunt of any wrongdoing (very difficult to prove a conflict of interest after all), Hunt’s judgement must seriously be called into question; though given disgraced former News of the World editor Andy Coulson was advising David Cameron at this time, poor judgement ran through the government like blood in an arterial wound.
John Whittingdale suffered the scandal of his relationship with a professional dominatrix and escort being discovered[74], but the real scandal was his handling of the BBC. He has serially attacked the BBC’s independence and influence, backed the Treasury’s assault on BBC finances, unilaterally blocked legislation recommended in Leveson and given personal support to the non-Leveson recommended Independent Press Standards Organisation, which until recently was headed, laughably, by the editor of the Daily Mail about who’s paper most complaints are made[75]. His predecessor Sajid Javid was employed by Deutsche Bank when they were committing a tax dodge worth £135million[76] – perhaps this is what earned him the promotion to Business and Skills; tax dodging skills being highly valued in the corridors of power.
Defence:
Like the treasury, the arena of defence is one in which the Tories are traditionally seen as a safe pair of hands. The officer class in the military and the MPs in parliament on Conservative benches share common interests and backgrounds and there has always been a type of quid pro quo relationship between the two. In austerity Britain though, the British army has received no such protections as it may have expected from its lords and masters. In 2012 the government decided to implement a plan to cut 20,000 soldiers from the army after Christmas of that year, bringing overall numbers down to just over 80,000 men/women – it’s lowest number since the 18th Century; some actually received their P45s while on active duty[77]. In addition to this some historic regiments have been abolished including 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh and 3rd Battalion Mercian Regiment; the aforementioned Yorkshire Regiment, formerly the Green Howards survived Crimea, The Boer War and both World Wars but couldn’t fight off the Tories. Plans remain in the pipeline to cut all three areas of the military even further in the years to come under a Tory government[78].
Military actions under this government have created power vacuums across the Middle East through a ludicrous misunderstanding of facts on the ground. Libya has been made unstable through intervention from the UK and our allies while the spread of ISIS across the Levant has been helped rather than hindered by the UK not knowing which sides to bomb and when. Rather than working with President Assad of Syria to remove the larger threat, we chose to team up with warlords and barbarians who are little better than the power-hungry zealots they oppose. We continue to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia (whose leaders share an extreme Wahabi ideology with ISIS), in the full knowledge that these weapons are being used against civilians in Yemen. We stay silent as Israel continues to expand illegals settlements in to The West Bank and are happy to turn a blind eye to the largest open prison in the world, and military testing ground that is the Gaza Strip.
Communities
As stated above, this country is more widely divided now than ever, but that isn’t just true of wealth and finance; we are more divided now on social, religious, racial and class lines than any time in my memory. Again, I feel this is an active policy decision by the government; divided people are able to be controlled more easily, less likely to unite against a common threat or enemy. I have already shown above how some of the most vulnerable people in our society have been alienated from it, made scapegoats for bad government decisions and being victimised for their own conditions. The government have made a conscious decision to set neighbour against neighbour; the employed vs. the unemployed, the able vs. the disabled, Muslim vs. Christian and so on. Margaret Thatcher once said there is no such thing as society, and the Tories are creating the conditions for the destruction of society before our very eyes. The only tool we have against the power of divisiveness is the counter-attack of unity and organisation. Recently when Britain First, the EDL and their ilk showed up in one of our most diverse cities, Birmingham, to exploit the fear caused by one maniac in London they were met with the most British of protests; a tea party, held by local Muslims in a Mosque where all were welcome. That is my Britain, not the hate filled bile that leaks out of the Daily Mail and The Sun on a regular basis endorsed by this government whose actions speak louder than words; e.g. While demanding new arrivals to this country speak English, the government under David Cameron cut ESOL courses by £1.5million affecting 16,000 learners[79].
Can there be a more loved public service after the NHS than the Fire Service? Men and women who run in to burning buildings, risking not just their health but their very lives to save others is the most gallant of roles in our society. The Tories, in reward for the hard work of firefighters, have cut 10,000 posts since 2010 and have plans to cut a further 20% of posts by 2020[80]. The Fire Service is a bit of an incorrect term these days given that the teams around the country respond to flooding, road accidents, industrial matters, civil contingencies and terrorist attacks in addition to their more regular objective of battling raging inferno’s and saving people from them. I am given to understand they rescue the odd cat from a tree as well, if Ladybird books are to be believed.
Local services aimed at communities and wellbeing have also been hit since 2010. Almost £60million has been cut from the parks budget. Young people are playing more sport than ever thanks to our successes at an international level, but they are not being helped by Leisure Centres losing £71million since 2010, leading some centres to replace lifeguards at swimming pools with camera systems. Eighty per cent of amateur football is played on council maintained pitches but these are in an “abhorrent state”, while hiring fees have gone up by 300% in some cases[81]. Despite the level of young people playing sport, we still have a child obesity crisis with almost 20% of 11-12 year olds declared obese[82]; cutting access to leisure centres and other sports services is hardly likely to help, especially given the government’s lacklustre approach to progressive taxation on sugary drinks and their advertising.
The targeting of local government cuts has been particularly telling; in some Labour governed areas, cuts have been five times what councils face in traditional Tory-voting areas[83]. The cherry atop that cake is that it is the poorer areas, i.e. Labour controlled ones, that need better access to services. Councils in areas in the constituencies of Cabinet Ministers were least hit, in a remarkable show of arrogance from the front bench[84]. And we all know now about the “sweetheart” deals the government has done with Surrey Council[85] – is this just the tip of a huge iceberg? The first Tory Communities and Local Government minister was Eric Pickles; Bradford Council could have told us what to expect after his time as a councillor in the Town Hall there: £50million in cuts, a third reduction in all staff and mass privatisations of services[86]; and this was during a time of national growth and balanced budgets.
Transport:
Absolute, unswerving ideological commitment to competitive, free-market economics is most visible in Tory attitudes to national transport policy. The prime example was the re-privatisation of the East Coast mainline which had to be taken under public ownership in 2009, after the privateer, National Express, pulled out of running the service. Between 2009 and 2015 the nationalised service brought £1billion in to treasury coffers, had record high satisfaction ratings and increased profits which were then spent on improving services instead of going to managers and shareholders[87]. Virgin/Stagecoach took over the route despite massive opposition and joined in the subsidy free for all that replaced British Rail. Since rail privatisation in 1995 rail tickets have gone up by 117%, they are slower than our European counterparts’ nationalised services, the cost to the public of running the railways has more than doubled and over 90% of rail profits are paid straight to Shareholders without any thought given to the passenger, or the taxpayer[88]. Our government has nothing against public ownership, as long it isn’t the British state that owns the service. Our rail network is owned by a mixture of state-owned enterprises from France, Germany, The Netherlands, Hong Kong and Italy[89], it is nothing more than a slavish subservience to “the market” that stops us taking back control of our transport infrastructure in to public hands; British public hands.
Our bus network is also privatised, but again heavily subsidised by the taxpayer. Since 2010 funding for buses has been slashed by 15% with 2000 national routes being reduces or withdrawn completely[90]. Meanwhile rural bus services in England and Wales face being wiped out altogether by government cuts[91]; services young people rely on to get to school, or old people rely on to get to the shops. There has been talk of cutting the free bus pass for the elderly too, making it doubly difficult to get about in some areas[92].
Environment:
What was billed as “the greenest blue government of all time” has turned out to be quite the opposite. Last year parliament was warned that the government was likely to miss its 2020 renewable energy target[93], meaning we had a commitment to meet 15% of our energy needs supplied by renewables by the year 2020; living on a windy island, with high tidal fluctuations that gets plenty of daylight meant this should have been easy but government mismanagement and lack of any real belief or concern in climate change has meant this has been thrown on the back-burner (pun most definitely intended). A day after cutting subsidies for solar and onshore wind farms, funding was also pulled for the Green Deal scheme, and the home improvement scheme to make houses more energy efficient[94], a further £1billion carbon capture tender was also cancelled costing potentially thousands of jobs[95]. It would be wrong to suggest Saudi Arabia continue to buy our weapons in return for us buying their oil and cancelling renewable energy subsidies of course, so I won’t suggest that.
Non-renewable energy schemes are all the rage however, with government giving the green light to fracking in Lancashire, ignoring mass-local opposition and environmental concerns around local wildlife habitats, subsidence, water quality and long-term causal effects of fracking in geological terms. There is also no evidence that bills would come down as a result of fracking, and on that note, since 2010 energy bills have risen by an average of 10% above inflation since 2010[96]. For some customers they have risen as high as 28% and the “big 6” energy companies have warned of bigger rises to come[97].
Those who remember the early days of the Coalition will remember the ludicrous idea to privatise British forests; it was laughed out of sight by the media and by the public more importantly. Now however, small-scale privatisations are happening as chunks of land get sold off for energy exploration or for luxury holiday cabins[98]. Proof that where there is a public amenity, a Tory wanting to sell it is never far away. Staying in woodland areas, the badger cull seems a cruel and unnecessary technique to limit numbers on shaky evidence. The largest ever study of badger to bovine TB concluded “badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain”[99]. The cost of the culls have come in at £16.8million for the two years to 2014, with more culls having happened since; is this a good use of public money? It seems that whether it is foxes or badgers, the upper-classes just can’t help themselves in their desire to kill small, furry, woodland creatures.
Other things the wealthy like to hunt are grouse; it’s a long tradition and while brutal for the grouse doesn’t cause real problems in and of itself. However land clearances to create paths for grouse shoots does affect a lot of things, principally natural flood defences. Boxing Day 2015 saw huge swathes of land flooded by torrential downpours; homes wrecked, businesses closed and lives ruined; it’s impossible to know exactly how much but a contributory factor was the clearance of land for grouse shooting in the upper-Calder Valley for example[100]. Flooding costs an average of £1billion every year so you would think flood defences would be vital, but in 2014 it was revealed that flood defence money was cut by £250million[101] and in 2016 the Environment Agency stated that coming government policy would lead twice as many households at significant risk of flooding within 20 years[102] – in fact it will be more because the government still advocates building housing on flood plains[103].
Housing:
That seems like a nice segue in to housing policy. I grew up in a council house, many of my family still live in them and I would if I could but there are none in the area I choose to live. Local authority housing provision, the term du jour, has dropped significantly since 2010 with over 100,000 less council houses; we have to go back to 2003 to find parity between units of private rentals and council houses. There has been a 23% decline in social housing built since 2011/12[104] – a million people linger on council house waiting lists[105].
For buyers meanwhile it is harder and harder to get a foot on the rung of the property ladder; the average price of a house in 2016 was £214,000[106]. Since 1971 if wages had risen in line with the amount house prices had risen, the average salary would be £87,720[107]. At the same time, five families an hour are made homeless in modern day Britain; in 2016 over 40,000 families were accepted as homeless by the DCLG[108] and yet according to the charity, Shelter, there are over 200,000 empty houses in our country[109].
Additional:
The above are all related to government policy in the suggested areas. What follows are further bad ideas, legislation and initiatives exemplify the Conservative’s approach to governance, that don’t necessarily fit in to a single government department.
When David Cameron stepped down in 2016, despite assuring the national he would not in an answer at PMQs to Richard Burgon’s question on the 9th March, he left a divided nation in tatters. His replacement won not a single vote to become Prime Minister or Conservative Party Leader. We are governed by a Prime Minister with no mandate from the people; an election should have been called there and then, not nearly a year down the line when the opinion polls look rosy to her think-tank acolytes. Opinion polls are used to shape the public mood, not reflect it by the way! It is worth briefly remembering what took place to bring these events about.
David Cameron, borrowing the clothes of UKIP, promised a referendum on UK membership of the EU as a manifesto commitment in 2015, that vote took place in 2016 and we are all aware of the outcome. In his Faustian pact with UKIP supporters, and with no little hubris, David Cameron was made to look a complete fool; believing he could play Machiavellian games with democracy and win. He must have known at the time that large chunks of his own party were anti-EU in the extreme and that the newspapers, so often in his corner, would be opposed on this particular issue. Yet onwards he trudged into the breach, Mail’s to the left of him, Expresses to the right and was blasted to pieces by his own arrogance. Theresa May has stepped in saying Brexit means Brexit; she’s given them colours and boiled statuses and is now pursuing our removal from the single market, the end to free movement of people and a severing of any residual ties through court or regulatory systems. That is not what people voted for, but it is the reason for this opportunistic election. She believes not in a stronger mandate for Brexit, but for more power to do what the Tories want after Brexit is done and dusted; and that means removal of employment protections, destruction of the human rights act, health and safety legislation torn up and a hundred other things that will be awful for working people, but great for slavedrivers and gangmasters up and down the country. And to call an election while a significant number of sitting Tory MPs may be being charged any day with electoral fraud is an absolute slap in the face to democracy[110].
Where do people go when they have bad bosses making their lives miserable or unsafe, or who find themselves in exploitative situations? They go to trade unions but we have already seen our unions crippled by the Trade Union Act. We already had the most draconian anti-union legislation in the developed world (outside the USA) and now it is even worse. Trade union legislation is the only area where Theresa May wants to see red tape expanding. Financially and administratively trade unions are tied in knots; it will be almost impossible to withdraw labour or picket for better terms and conditions, antediluvian voting practices remain intact, facility time is monitored and reported on, sequestration of funds is easier and all this equals a worse deal for the worker. There are six million trade union members in this country and they have been hit by this backward looking law, furthermore the removal of EU regulations will mean even bigger attacks on trade union members will be on their way. Ironically one of the strongest defences of trade unions came from the unelected second chamber, The House of Lords, of which the Tories have blocked reform since the year dot. To have drifted to the right of the landed gentry and noble peers of the realm is quite an achievement indeed.
The Conservatives have continued with their gerrymandering agenda too, making it easier for Tory MPs to be elected all around the country. They have blocked any reform of our anachronistic first past the post system, as it benefits them the most. In 2015 the Tories won a seat for every 34,244 voters who opted for the Conservatives, it took an average of 40,290 to win a Labour seat; that ratio is set to become more unfair after the boundary changes take effect[111]. Meanwhile the Green Party lodged 1.157million votes in 2015 but returned just one MP, Caroline Lucas[112]. She along with many other female MPs on opposition benches were outraged by the Tampon Tax; but it’s OK we are told, the money raised from it will go to women’s charities. Am I the only person who finds it appalling that a regressive tax on women’s essential medical needs are being used to pay for care after sexual violence that should be 100% government funded from the start? But again, why am I surprised when such vital services such as rape crisis centres are being cut back by this government so that 10,000 women waited over a year for specialist counselling, and thousands more could not access any support at all[113].
There are individual scandals such as Plebgate and “extra-curricular” relationships of ministers. Barring a few swipes at particularly egregious offenders I have tried to stay away from mocking the way Liz Truss says “pork markets” or any other such base satire. I must say though, I am frankly amazed this all didn’t come crashing down when we found out David Cameron may have stuck his walloper in a dead pig; that would have finished any Labour politician’s career and just goes to show it’s not only the Tories we are fighting, it is their buddies in the media, the judiciary and forces of law enforcement that we are up against. I hope this fully referenced piece of work goes some way to redressing the balance and I make no apologies for pointing out only the policy failures of the last seven years; the successes would make for a much shorter piece of work. All that remains to say is, vote Labour on June 8th.
[1] http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_national_debt_chart.html
[2] http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_national_spending_analysis
[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/11/21/uk-borrowing-_n_4316084.html
[4] http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2017/03/01/conservatives-have-created-more-debt-than-all-labour-governments-combined-corbyn-tells-the-world/
[5] https://fullfact.org/economy/are-13000-millionaires-getting-100000-tax-cut/
[6] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/21/theresa-may-to-offer-business-an-olive-branch-with-hint-of-futur/
[7] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/29/sweetheart-tax-deals
[8] http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2016/07/uk-real-wages-decline-10-severe-oecd-equal-greece/
[9] http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2016/11/no-bones-worst-real-earnings-decline-least-162-years/
[10] https://www.ft.com/content/e8b0639c-fcaa-11e5-b5f5-070dca6d0a0d
[11] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/26/recession-rich-britains-wealthiest-double-net-worth-since-crisis
[12] http://www.computerworlduk.com/security/draft-investigatory-powers-bill-what-you-need-know-3629116/
[13] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/19/the-guardian-view-on-the-david-miranda-verdict-a-counterpunch-for-freedom
[14] http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/154353/PCC-Elections-Report.pdf
[15] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/02/inspectorate-police-engaging-dangerous-practices-austerity-cuts-diane-abbott
[16] https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/may/16/theresa-may-heckled-police-conference
[17] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/portugal-decriminalised-drugs-14-years-ago-and-now-hardly-anyone-dies-from-overdosing-10301780.html
[18] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/27/uk-net-migration-rises-above-2010-level
[19] https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/statistics-net-migration-statistics
[20] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-eu-free-movement-not-reduce-immigration-house-of-lords-eu-home-affairs-sub-committee-a7612796.html
[21] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/sep/21/bahamas-leaks-reveal-amber-rudd-involvement-offshore-firms
[22] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/12/amber-rudd-speech-on-foreign-workers-recorded-as-hate-incident
[23] http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/38932500
[24] https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/03/amber-rudd-i-was-aristocracy-coordinator-on-four-weddings-and-a-funeral
[25] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/home-secretary-rules-out-inquiry-into-1984-battle-of-orgreave-between-miners-and-police-a7389151.html
[26] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16337904
[27] http://www.nhsforsale.info/database/impact-database/is-the-nhs-less-accountable/Sec-of-State-for-Health.html
[28] http://nhsforsale.info/uploads/images/contract_alert_feb_2016.pdf
[29] http://nhsforsale.info/private-providers.html
[30] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/13/193000-nhs-patients-a-month-waiting-beyond-target-for-surgery
[31] http://www.qualitywatch.org.uk/indicator/ae-waiting-times
[32] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/18/revealed-100000-wait-more-than-two-weeks-to-see-cancer-specialist
[33] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37657954
[34] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/25/police-britain-mental-health-cuts-crisis
[35] http://news.sky.com/story/extended-gp-waiting-times-pose-serious-risk-to-patients-10710722
[36] http://www.nowgp.com/blog/average-gp-waiting-times-two-weeks/
[37] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/20/nhs-breaking-point-now-norm-says-bma-bed-reductions-revealed/
[38] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/12/nursing-cuts-putting-nhs-patients-at-risk
[39] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36336830
[40] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/05/paramedics-save-lives-nhs-cuts-breaking-point
[41] https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2015/jun/12/nhs-staff-most-stressed-public-sector-workers-survey-finds
[42] http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/doctors-strike-information-you-affected-7157038
[43] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/08/uk-workers-zero-hours-contracts-rise-tuc
[44] http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/6800423/3-27042015-AP-EN.pdf/08a0ac51-c63d-44d0-ad29-248127fd01c3
[45] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/13/prosecutions-for-hate-crimes-against-disabled-people-surge-by-mo/
[46] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dwp-fit-to-work-assessments-cost-more-than-they-save-report-reveals-a6801636.html
[47] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/30/remploy-factories-close-disabled-workers
[48] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/benefit-cuts-disability-welfare-pip-adapted-vehicles-a7678926.html
[49] http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/budget-2015-50-cuts-tory-led-5354805
[50] Ibid
[51] Ibid
[52] https://www.jrf.org.uk/press/work-poverty-hits-record-high-housing-crisis-fuels-insecurity
[53] https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/apr/29/free-schools-ofsted-failure-rate-higher-state
[54] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38506305
[55] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/26/adult-education-funding-cuts
[56] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cuts-to-youth-services-will-lead-to-poverty-and-crime-say-unions-9659504.html
[57] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/02/sure-start-centres-300-closed-since-2010
[58] http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/PressPolicy/News/vw/1/ItemID/419
[59] https://weownit.org.uk/public-ownership/prisons
[60] Ibid
[61] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38756409
[62] https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur45/4936/2016/en/
[63] https://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/feb/18/changes-to-legal-aid-for-domestic-violence-victims-ruled-invalid
[64] https://www.womensaid.org.uk/what-we-do/campaigning-and-influencing/campaign-with-us/sos/
[65] https://www.unison.org.uk/news/press-release/2017/01/the-government-should-admit-employment-tribunal-fees-were-a-mistake-and-scrap-them-says-unison/
[66] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35707956
[67] http://www.artlyst.com/news/arts-council-england-reports-230m-decline-in-arts-funding-since-2010/
[68] https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/arts-council-cuts-funding-to-more-than-200-organisations.html
[69] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/01/bradford-museum-london-royal-photography-society-national-media-museum
[70] http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/maria-miller-expenses-scandal-tory-3390892
[71] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/conservative-mps-expenses/10744703/Senior-David-Cameron-aide-threatened-Daily-Telegraph-over-Maria-Miller-expenses.html
[72] http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/so-did-london-2012-pass-the-olympic-test-8037290.html
[73] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/jeremy-hunt-health-secretary-junior-doctors-strike-most-controversial-moments-a7001471.html
[74] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/12/minister-john-whittingdale-admits-relationship-with-sex-worker/
[75] https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourbeeb/james-cusick/real-whittingdale-scandal-cover-up-by-press
[76] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3486895/Come-clean-bank-bonus-scheme-Javid-told-Labour-Business-Secretary-accused-showing-contempt-taxpayers-deal-dodge-tax.html
[77] http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jake-warren/remembrance-sunday_b_6146000.html
[78] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/27/forces-braced-cuts-defence-cash-squeeze/
[79] https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/if-cameron-wants-female-migrants-to-learn-english-why-did-he-cut-esol-funding/#
[80] https://www.fbu.org.uk/SOFS
[81] https://www.unison.org.uk/at-work/local-government/key-issues/cuts-to-local-services/
[82] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/03/child-obesity-rising-again-nhs-report-reveals
[83] http://labourlist.org/2016/04/cuts-to-labour-councils-five-times-higher-new-research-finds/
[84] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/23/cabinet-ministers-councils-least-hit-budget-cuts
[85] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-39198308
[86] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Pickles
[87] http://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-protests-on-last-day-of-east-coast-main-line/
[88] http://actionforrail.org/the-four-big-myths-of-uk-rail-privatisation/
[89] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/01/british-rail-franchises-foreign-owners-subsidy
[90] http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/new-research-half-local-authorities-withdrawing-buses-after-budgets-are-slashed-15-cent
[91] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35489514
[92] https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/sep/06/free-bus-passes-under-threat-pensioners
[93] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/09/uk-will-miss-its-2020-renewable-energy-targets-warn-mps
[94] https://www.ft.com/content/50b05956-315f-11e5-91ac-a5e17d9b4cff
[95] https://www.ft.com/content/f031a582-e07f-11e5-8d9b-e88a2a889797
[96] https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3200741/3200741/
[97] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/feb/22/energy-prices-energy-uk-bills
[98] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2015/feb/17/privatisation-uk-woodlands-happening-by-backdoor
[99] http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130402151656/http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/diseases/atoz/tb/isg/report/final_report.pdf
[100] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/green-party/12102239/Over-managed-grouse-moors-made-floods-worse-says-Green-party-leader-Natalie-Bennett.html
[101] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10661814/Flood-defence-cash-cut-by-250m-despite-PMs-claim.html
[102] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/02/tory-cuts-wrecking-uk-flood-defences
[103] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/27/homes-and-companies-should-be-built-on-flood-plains-despite-risks-says-panel
[104] http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns_/why_we_campaign/housing_facts_and_figures/subsection?section=housing_supply
[105] https://fullfact.org/economy/brief-introduction-housing-issues/
[106] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/house-prices/the-state-of-the-uk-housing-market-in-five-charts/
[107] http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2462753/How-items-cost-risen-line-house-prices.html
[108] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/homeless-rough-sleeping-figures-increase-rise-conservatives-housing-shelter-vertical-rush-a7550251.html
[109] http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns_/why_we_campaign/housing_facts_and_figures/subsection?section=housing_supply
[110] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-election-fraud-prosecutions-cps-election-campaign-result-overturn-battle-bus-a7689801.html
[111] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/13/boundary-changes-tories-ruthless-gerrymandering
[112] https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/liam-anderson/voters-per-mp-why-first-past-post-failed
[113] http://www.sistersuncut.org/2016/02/04/sexual-violence-services-are-being-cut-itsnotok/
Politics & History 