Dear Claire,
As promised, we’re going
to look at what Cameron promised in his ‘Contract between the Conservative
party and you’, issued before the 2010 election.
I put the contents of the
initial letter from Cameron in my letter of the 25th. We’ll just
remind ourselves of the closing line from that letter:
“So this is our contract with you. I want you to read it and – if we
win the election – use it to hold us to account. If we don’t deliver our side
of the bargain, vote us out in five years’ time.”
Today we’re going to look
at the first of three parts in this contract. This addresses the things Cameron
promised about Politics.
“We will change Politics”
“Our political system needs to change. Politicians must be made more
accountable, and we must take power away from Westminster and put it in the
hands of the people – individuals, families and neighbourhoods
“If you elect a Conservative government on 6 May, we will:
1.
“Give
you the right to sack your MP, so you don’t have to wait for an election to get
rid of politicians who are guilty of misconduct.”
The ‘Right to recall’ corrupt MPs
has still not been delivered, and the proposals are watered-down, meaning that
the final say on whether recall proceedings go ahead will lie with MPs and
other members of the political class.
2.
“Cut
the number of MPs by ten percent and cut the subsidies and perks for
politicians.”
The cut in MPs hasn’t
materialised, and the £103million claimed in expenses in 2014 is higher than
was claimed in 2009, at the height of the MPs’ expenses scandal. There has been
little sign of any cutting back in the way of perks, as witnessed by the
obscene profits made, and kept, by Osborne on his two properties, the mortgage
interest payments of which were met by the tax-payer.
3.
“Cut ministers’
pay by five per cent and freeze it for five years.”
Well, partially delivered. The
cut was made, after which the decision on pay rises was outsourced to an “independent”
review body, who put pay up by 11%!
4.
“Give
local communities the power to take charge of the local planning system and
vote on excessive tax rises.”
Local government budgets have been
slashed and the Tories are planning to limit judicial reviews massively. These
judicial reviews are the only means left for local people to hold their elected
representatives to account.
5.
“Make
government transparent, publishing every item of government spending over
£25,000, all government contracts, and all local council spending over £500.”
The Tories have fought to keep as
much information private as possible. They have repeatedly refused to answer
Freedom of Information requests, specifically over the number of deaths related
to workfare and disability policy reviews. Iain Duncan Smith tried to prevent
results from enquiries into his DWP reforms being published. Cameron has
chickened out of a debate with Miliband, as well as chickening out of a
hustings debate with someone running on a ‘Save our NHS’ ticket. Cabinet
ministers routinely lie about what their departments are doing, subsequently
being ticked off by the Office for National Statistics. If anything, the Tories
have done what they can to hide things, rather than make them transparent.
OK, that’s the first of
the three sections of broken promises. We’ll look at the Economy tomorrow and
Society in the next few days.
I think you’ll agree, it’s
not a brilliant performance is it? In terms of delivering on Tory promises, it’s
a litany of incompetence and failed policies. Impressive!
Kind regards
Polly
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