The programme for government that the Tory Party will be taking to the voters is their most extreme ever. With William Hague as Prime Minister, Michael Portillo as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Ann Widdecombe as Home Secretary, the Conservatives would not simply reverse the gains of the last four years, they would take the country in a direction not even Margaret Thatcher dreamed of. Here’s how the plans the Conservatives have already announced will impact on Britain:
Public spending
Michael Portillo attacked Gordon Brown’s plans to invest in Britain’s public services by saying: ‘we now have a splurge in public spending.’ So he’s set out to cut them: the Tories are pledged to axe £16 billion from Labour’s investment programme. This will mean £24 million worth of cuts in every constituency. Moreover, while the Tories claim that they won’t have to cut core public services, like health and education, to meet their £16 billion target, the savings they have so far identified in other areas of government expenditure fall well short of that figure.
The NHS
The Tories have never been more explicit in outlining their privatisation agenda. Dr Liam Fox, the Tory Shadow Health Secretary, speaks of their Patients’ Guarantee as a ‘silent revolution’. Under it, the Tories have said so-called ‘non urgent’ conditions should be sent to the back of the queue, with people encouraged to go private and pay for their own operations. The Conservatives are also committed to giving tax breaks for existing employer healthcare and to individuals taking out private medical insurance. This will cost the NHS between £350 and £500 million – before a single additional person takes out private health insurance.
Education
To meet their £16 billion cuts guarantee, the Tories will be forced to cut Labour’s investment plans in our schools. Each constituency will have to fire 60 teachers. Under the Tories’ ‘free schools’ policy, the literacy and numeracy hours – which have driven up standards in primary schools – will be axed. ‘Freeing schools’ from LEAs will also leave thousands of pupils, mainly those in rural areas or with special needs, without transport. Education spending will also be wasted on the reintroduction of the Assisted Places Scheme, to enable a small number of children to attend private schools. The Conservatives are intent on privatising our universities with a planned ‘endowment’ scheme. As yet, however, the Tories haven’t announced where the £32 billion this will cost is coming from.
Working families
The Conservatives now say they will keep the minimum wage – despite voting against it and Hague’s description of it as ‘the height of irresponsibility’. The Tories voted against the introduction of the Working Families Tax Credit – and now they plan to keep that, too. The Tories also voted against the windfall tax on the privatised utilities which funded the New Deal. The Tories are still committed to scrapping the New Deal. This will force up the dole queues – and the costs of social security, which the Tories claim to want to reduce. The Tories also plan to cut £90 million from the Social Fund, which will mean less help for those who need it most.
Transport
The Conservatives planned to follow up their privatisation of the railways by selling off the London Underground. But this has proved a privatisation too far for the Tories and they’ve now reversed this policy. They are still committed to selling off Britain’s road building, allowing private companies to build new roads and charge motorists tolls to travel on them.
Pensions
The Conservatives are committed to allowing all those under 30 to opt out of the state pension scheme. Within five years, this will leave a hole of around £4 billion in the National Insurance Fund, which pays for today’s pensions.
Crime
Tory cuts will mean 40,000 less police officers in the fight against crime. And in Ann Widdecombe, the Home Office will be led by a death penalty enthusiast, who opposed Labour’s ban on handguns.
Local government
The Tories oppose Best Value, which is delivering better services at a lower cost in local government. Indeed, the Conservative Chairman of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, David Davis MP, says: ‘I am strong supporter of the Best Value initiative; I think the Government has got it exactly right.’ Despite their frequent u-turns, the fuzzy picture of a Tory Britain is now coming into focus: rising crime, lengthening dole queues, growing poverty – and our schools and hospitals crippled. It’s also clear that for all that ‘listening to Britain’, Hague’s still deaf to public opinion.