Until there are double the number of policemen on our streets to stamp out the complete breakdown of civil behaviour and violence in our communities and until we have built the prisons and Courts required to handle those who think they are above the law.
Until we have taken control of our borders so that we know exactly who and how many are coming into our country. I repeat, taken control of - I did not say closed.
Until our social security system actually works.
Until our servicemen and women have both the resources to fight the wars we send them to and the care they deserve if they come home injured.
Until our state schools actually teach our children to read, write and count and until discipline and standards are returned to our schools.
Until our health system is sorted out, either through effective management of the system we have or a subsidised transition to a system that actually works.
Until we have taken control of our law making and retrieved powers from Brussels.
Until we have invested in renewable energy and stopped the pollution that threatens the very earth that sustains us.
Until we have sorted out the mess into which our farming and fisheries have descended.
I am as Conservative as they come, but I do NOT want tax cuts.
It is our society that needs fixing, not our economy. It is not 1979.
Cameron has got it right.
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4 comments:
I want all of the above AND tax cuts.
I still don't believe I can't have both.
Quite, Tommy G, come to sunny Wandsworth and you see great services and minimal council tax. I think our Shadow Chancellor knows this too (elements of his speech yesterday suggest he does) and some of our opposition know a Tory administration will be a tax-cutting one (see Polly Toynbee's article in yesterday's Guardian).
Every good Tory will want both and believe that you can have both.
I agree. (Albeit comparing local council services with national services is a bit facile.)
The point I am making is that it is simply not credible to attempt to argue that. The general voting public won't listen long enough to follow the arguement.
All they will hear is "tax cutting" and any promises on services will be hollow.
In 1979 it was the economy that was screwed, so we addressed economic arguements.
In 2009 it is society that is screwed, so we must start by addressing societal issues.
Tax cuts should indeed come but they should come second. That way you secure votes and power, service reform and a healthier economy.
We don't need double the number of police. I believe we probably need less if the ones we have spending their time on crime-fighting. Yes we need more prisons and faster courts. Yes we need a simpler Social system that doesn't pay billions to able-bodied people on incapacity - that can be cheaper. Yes we need streaming in schools and phonics to get kids literate - again not expensive. Yes we should put the incentives in place to encourage less polluting energy.
And our government should stop burning our money on wasteful or marginal projects (NHS Supercomputer, Small Business Initiatives, DTI etc).
Then we could promise tax cuts.
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