7 days to go - In which we look at more of David's broken promises

30/04/15

Dear Claire,

Here is the third part (of three) of 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 25^th. 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.”

I must, once again, thank Thomas G Clark and his excellent blog ‘Another Angry Voice’.

The third of these three parts addressed society.

“We will change society”

“We face big social problems in the country: family breakdown, educational failure, crime and deep poverty. Labour’s big government has failed; we will help build a Big Society where everyone plays their part in mending our broken society”

 “If you elect a Conservative government on 6 May, we will:

1.      “Increase spending on health every year, while cutting waste in the NHS, so that more goes to nurses and doctors on the frontline, and make sure you get access to the cancer drugs you need”

Despite a lot of ‘smoke and mirrors’, Jeremy Hunt was forced to admit in 2012 that spending on the NHS had been decreased since the coalition came to government. 4,000 senior nurses have been sacked since 2010 and frontline staff have had either zero or a derisory 1% increase in their salaries.

2.      “Support families, by giving married couples and civil partners a tax break, giving more people the right to request flexible working and helping young families with extra Sure Start health visitors”

Sure Start funding has been ruthlessly slashed, resulting in the closure of some 600 Sure Start centres. The married couple’s tax break is a fraction of the financial losses due to the longest real terms decline in wages since records began.

3.      “Raise standards in schools, by giving teachers the power to restore discipline and by giving parents, charities and voluntary groups the power to start new smaller schools.”

The restoring discipline part is rhetoric. The other stuff about creating schools allows £billions worth of public property to be given away to unaccountable private sector pseudo-charities.

4.      “Increase the basic state pension, by re-linking it to earnings, and protect the winter fuel allowance, free TV licence, free bus travel and other key benefits for older people.” 

The link to earnings has been put in place, but given that earnings have undergone the longest real terms decline since records began, that’s not of much benefit. The winter fuel allowance was cut in 2011.  

5.      “Fight back against crime, cut paperwork to get police officers on the street, and make sure criminals serve the sentence given to them in court”

34,000 police jobs have been cut since 2010. Slashing the number of working police is an odd way to “get police officers on the street”. There have been no reforms in sentencing at all.

6.      “Create National Citizen Service for every 16 year old, to help bring the country together”

National Service for every 16 year old is typical right-wing ideology. Well, we’re able to say that of the 16 promises made in this document (6 today, 5 on the 28^th and 5 on the 26^th April), the last broken promise is one that nobody would have wanted anyway.

That’s three sections of broken promises. A shockingly inept and incompetent performance. Cameron is claiming that the Tories need five more years to finish off the job they started. Would that amount to another five years of broken promises?

How can anyone believe a word Cameron, or any Tory candidate says? You’re all making promises which won’t come to fruition. It’s a big con. We’re doing what we can to ensure as many people understand this.

Kind regards

Polly