In the absence of the Conservatives saying anything much about anything, we are often left to guess where the latest incarnation of the Tories stands on a number of issues. This survey, published on the Conservative website, might help to shed light on some of this however.
The survey questioned 250 of the Conservatives’ top general election candidates on their personal priorities and the results make for interesting reading.
These are supposedly the ‘personal priorities’ of the individual candidates, but it is safe to use this list as a proxy for official party priorities for a number of reasons. Firstly, these personal priorities were based on a pre-existing set of options, chosen, vetted and approved by the party machinery. You’ll find no wild cards here.
Secondly, the candidates invited to participate represent the 250 candidates in the most winnable seats. Again, chosen, vetted and approved by the party machinery; you don’t get selected for a target seat without passing a policy exam first, remember?
Thirdly, the results are being promoted by the party itself. In other words the party approves of the survey’s contents.
So what we have here is essentially a pocket-sized election manifesto, and it really does show the same old Tory party with the same old agenda. It could be 1987, 1992, 2001 – or any other year in fact; the only signs that anything has changed is that they have thrown in a few topical issues (sorting out the deficit, sorting out Afghanistan and sorting out the Scots).
The mainstays of old-fashioned conservatism are all here:
- ‘Reducing welfare bills’ – you’re not really sick, go get a job!
- ‘More help for marriage and the family’ – despite the fact that single parents are far more likely to need financial support
- ‘More offenders in prison’ – because prison is working really well, obviously
- ‘Winning powers back from Europe’ – grrrr, those politicians claiming all those expenses! No that’s us, damn it.
- And surprisingly, given Michael Howard’s failed strategy of using this in the last election, ‘reducing the level of immigration’ features highly on the list.
There’s an odd policy which intrigues me – ‘conservative agenda for fighting poverty’. I’ve no idea what this is, or how it’ll work – especially when applied in conjunction with two or three of the policies above.
The party also remains doggedly Anglo-centric. ‘Protecting the English countryside’ comes in between marriage and Afghanistan. Maybe they mean ‘British’, or maybe they’ll give blanket planning permission to anything you want to build in those barren wastelands west and north of the English border. I’ll let you decide.
In any case, remember that anything here to do with health, education or housing only matters in England, then you won’t be surprised to learn that Wales doesn’t feature at all. Even Scotland is only on the list because they want a ‘fairer settlement between Scotland and the rest of the UK’ which I believe roughly translates as ‘let’s stop the English subsidising those bloody Scots.’
I’ll look forward to the propoer manifesto, but despite their election mantra of ‘Conservatives for Change’, I very much doubt that there will be a lot of change for the Conservatives at all.
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