David Davies spokes out against devolution

Monmouth MP and ex-AM David Davies has spoke out against the Assembly and full-law making powers. According to the Western Mail he has said that Nick Bourne's support for full-law making powers is not offical Conservative Party policy, and that the Tories were right to oppose devolution in 1997 and would be right again if they opposed full-law making powers.

He claims that the Tories opposed devolution on grounds that it would be a waste of money, and would destabilise the union. How can giving the Welsh people more control over their own affairs and ensuring that Welsh people are governed by the Welsh, under a government of their choice, unlike the Tory years where Wales was governed by a government they didnt vote for, with Secertary of State that were from English consituancies, be a waste of money?

The claim that 60 politicans are now doing a job that use to be done by three, misses the point totally about devolution, the point was that Wales did not want to be governed by QUANGOs, non-elected officals and english MPs under a Tory government.

The fact is that the Welsh Assembly has used it's limited powers thus far well and has improved Wales and the lives of the people of Wales for the better, and that more powers will not lead to independence, not everyone who supports a full-law making parliament wants to see independnece, they just want to see a fair deal for Wales.

However it is good that a debate is happening on this issue, and that both sides of the further devolution arguement is being made.

Torys lurge back to the right.

The latest set of policy proposals by the Tory Party, show that, for all the talk, the Tories are still the same old Party, and have not changed. The policy Proposals, written by John Redwood, are very right wing, are a gift to the Labour Party, who are already 10 points in the polls.

The policies proposed include the areas of taxes, regulation and public services, and on the whole it is the same old story of tax cuts or abolition, de-regulation, privatisation, attacking workers rights all in the name of making Britain more "competive" and lurging back to the right to please the right wing and old guard of the Tory Party.

The proposals show that the Tories are all talk, and spin about them changing and being more "compassionate" and "liberal" while they are nothing but hyprocrites, partaking in a cynical attempt to con voters. A case in point can be George Osborne attaking Gordon Brown from not "spreading the Wealth" enough
yet the following day, he turns around and joins John Redwood on the stage as they talk about abolishing inhertance tax and cutting other taxes, which again is something which the Tories again they would not do.

If they Tories were to abolish inhertance tax, and cut the Coproration taxes and all the other cuts they want to do, then how would they pay for it? Abolishing Inhertance Tax would cut a lot of money from the budget, and that would have to come from somewhere, and let's face it, the Tories would cut money from the NHS, education and other aspects of the welfare state, aswell as reducing the money that the already underfunded devovled insitutions get.

However it is not all about tax cuts, they also have decided to de-regulation, mainly meaining reducing workers rights and protection. This means opting out of the social charter, which would leave workers vunerble to expolitation by bad employers, they would repeal reguations on working time, date protection and money laundering, they have suggsted making health and safety regulation more "Proporinate" meaning reducing them so the workers would be less safe in the workplace then they are now, and allowing employers to cut corners in reguards to health and safety measures. John Redwood claimed that "de-regulation were at the heart of the proposals" and a tax cut by another name.

For all the talk of "Vote Blue Go Green" the Tory proposals on transport show that the Conservatives are not as green as they claim, although David Cameron's stunt with the bike with his car behind him has givne it away. They want to privatise the roads to allow more motorways to be built , they cant more privatisation of the railways, the oringal privatisationn of which lead tot he current crisis in our railway sytstem. How does more traffic, fit in with the Tories new "green" agenda? It can't and it doesn't. It yet again reveals the true nature of the Tories and that nature hasn't changed from the Thatcherite heart that is beating in it since the 1980s.

They also propose get rid of "restrictive" building regulations, which again could have an effect on the enviroment, depending which "restrictive" measure is removed, and the use of more private money for universities, which again is a traditional, right wing, Tory-type proposal.

This shows that the Tories are lurging back to the right. It does vindicate those in Plaid Cymru that didn't want to go into coalition with the Tories, and it does show that the Tories are still the nasty party, and that Labour is the party of social justice, compassion, and fairness.

Redwood lets the cat out of the bag

It seems the John Redwood has let the cat out of the bag, in a speech yesterday. His speech stating that "Tories plans to cut red tape would be a tax cut under another name" reveals that David Camerons attempt to change the Conservative Party has failed and they have now, yet again, lurched back to the right to try and appeal to their core supporters. Redwood revealed that cutting "red tape" is not the only plans up their sleeves, but they also want to "relax" (or scrap) health and safety rules, which means making the work place less safe for the workers, as well as scrap some rules on working hours and data protection (meaning more spam.) This report is not just written by Redwood, a well-known ultra Thatcherite Neo-Con, but also helped by George Osburne, David Cameron's closest friend and Shadow Chancellor.

The Tories still will cut taxes and vital spending in public services once in power, no matter how David Cameron tries to cover it up by his spin on changing the Tories into a caring and compassionate party. They have retreated back to the same old right wing agenda which the people of Britain have rejected many times bfore, and will do again.

More evidence of this comes from Redwoods interview on Newsnight, were he claims that the Tories would privatised Britain's inferstructure even more then it already has been, as he has further elbrorated on in today's Telegraph

The Tories wanting to expand motorways, airports, scrapping planning reguations and all the rest of it, goes against the Tories new "green" imagine, which has time and time again proven to be nothing by a false and cynical attempt by Cameron to con people into voting for the Tories for the enviroment, while all the time they don't really care about it, other then using it as a PR stunt. This document shows the kind of policies that the Tories would persue and the negitive effects they would have on the enviroment.

If the kind of policies that Redwood has propose are typical of the "new" Tory party, then Labour has nothing to worry about, because this is the kind of right wing manifesto that put many people off the Tories in the past, and will do again. Conservatives cannot change their spots, and these kind of statements from John Redwood, supported by Cameron prove that the Tories have returned back to their old right wing agenda. The review Redwood was working on will be published this Friday, and if it is anything like Redwood claims it is, then it will be a gift for Labour.

(Wow, talked about Redwood without even mentioning the embarassing incident with the Welsh national anthem when he was Welsh Sectertary in the 1980s, or the fact that he gave a lot of money back from Wales to Westminister despite it being needed....)

Tories are still anti-single parents

The latest Tory Policy proposals (not an actually policy as that would mean Cameron actually having to make a descion)shows that the Tories are still anti-single parent.
The policy proposals are full of the anti-signle parent policies of the failed Tory past, dressed up in different clothes, but however will still not help the poorest, and this is coupled with more Thatcherite attempts to destory the welfare state.

The Tory policy proposal has a number of things in it including a £20 tax break from married couples, which not only discriminates against single parent families (who are already some of the poorest in Britain), but also could force people to either enter into, or stay in an unloving relationship, because they are better off married in such a relationship then not, and I don't think that a child growing up in an enviroment wherre there parents don't really love each other, and do not want to stay together will be a good enviroment for that child to grow up in. It could well happen, since the tax "incentive" is there for them to do so.

Another policy which is even worse, is the Tory policy proposal of them forcing single parents to return to work, 16 hours a week when their child reaches 5, and 30 hours a week once their child is 11. Not only does this discriminate against single parent families, many of who struggle in already difficult circumstances to raise their children right, and do what is best for their child, however forcing them to go to work will make this job 10 times more difficult, not that the Tories care about single parents, nor the children from single parent backgrounds.

This policy will also have another side effect too, if the single parent is at work when the child is 11, and cannot be their for them once they come home from school, the child will be bored, and at home alone, this could very well risk the child becoming anti-social, and it will be the fault of a Tory government led by David Cameron, if that happends, not of the parent, who would be forced to work by this policy proposal. During the teenage years a child would be very vunerble, and this policy would make them more so. Then their are other issues of child welfare which this backward policy proposal by the Tories ignores.

Children are in single parent families of no fault of their own, and the Tories should not punish them because of this, a single parent family could be a result of mutual ending by the couple, because of a death of one of the partners, escaping an abusive relationships, and other possiblities, none of which can be blamed on the child, and many of which cannot be blamed on the parents either, yet the Tories would cause this kind of family to again suffer if the Tories were to return to power. These two policies show that the Tories do not care about families living in poverty, do not care about the worse off children in our society, and this policy will definitly not lift them out of poverty, and will certainly not "mend the break society" as David Cameron claims it would.

A more sinster aspect to this, is the privatisation of aspects of the welfare state, ontracting out "welfare to work" schemes, which would not benifit anyone on such schemes, but would make it cheaper for the government to do such schemes. However, the welfare state is there to help people who need it, and doing it cheapily to save money is not helping anyone but the government. This is a throwback to Thatcherism, and a move which would help the corrosion of the welfare state started by Thatcher, which must be stopped at all costs, if we had a real leader of the Labour Party, that had a backbone.

The Tories haven't changed, if this is the sort of policies they are coming up with. They are still a party for the rich, and of out of date victorian values.