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....)

On a salary like his, he can afford to call for a cut in the minimum wage.

Professor David Smith, of the University of Derby has recently called for a Cut in the minimum wage for everywhere in the UK apart from the South of England.

The Professor's so-called report claims that the minimum wage in Wales should be cut from the currently low £5.35, to an even lower £4.84, other areas of the UK also should get cuts, acording to Smith, the North-East should only get a pathetic £4.78, Yorkshire should got a lowly £4.94 and Northern Ireland just £4.80. He also claims tha the minimum wage is unfair for Londoners who should get an increase to £6.90.

He is right in one respect, that the minimum wage is unfair, but it's not unfair on just people on the South of England, but for everyone, it is unfair on youngsters, who do not have the right to the same minimum pay as people over 21, and it is also unfair becaue it's not a living wage, and it does not pay enough for people.

However without the minimum wage, many people would be living in a lot more poverty then they do at the moment, and it was a positive step forward, and it should not be the only step, nor the last step, but a progression towards a living wage that is fair for all.

I doubt that Professor David Smith has ever had to live on the minimum wage myself though, and that he earns a lot more then the people living on the minimum wage. Maybe before mking such idiotic statements like he did, prehapes he should go for a month livinge on the minimum wage, or on benifit, or on the wages he proposes, and then see if he thinks it is "too much", because if he had to survive on the merger amount that is paid, I doubt he would think that.

NHS should be "Free at the point of us....just as long as you are entitled" saids ex-AM David Davies

Former Conservative AM, David Davies MP for Monmouth (Not the one that stood for leadership of the UK party), who is infamous for his speeches against gypsies (here and here)as well as his outbust against homosexuals being allowe to adopt and education on homosexuality in schools. (here and here)

In his blog, he has recently stated that he thinks that foriegners shouldn't get NHS treatment without having insurance. This clearly bring up all sort of issues.

One of the first is, what if someone fleeing pesicution from another country arrives in Britain and either hasn't gotten or cannot afford insurance? (Or don't have insurance for any other reason) Are they meant to be turned away from having healthcare if they are ill?, just because they are "freeloading" as Monmouth's David Davies MP (the ex-AM one, not the cabinet one) has put it on his blog. If so, then that would be a very immoral and deeply wrong, this is because healthcare should be a human right for everyone, not matter were they come from, no matter how much money they got, no matter what illness or injury they have, nor anything else you can discriminate by, everyone single person should have the right to have good quality healthcare. It is unjust to leave someone to die, or suffer, just because they do not have the money, nor the documents, to show that they are "entitled to it," because that is not important, what is important is that the paitent gets treated for their illness.

Even if they can afford to have healthcare, then surely if it is under and insurance system, then they will only be entitle to the healthcare they can afford. This would mean that if they, while in Britain, suffer an injury, get serious ill or anything else which is outside the insurance they have, then they would be refused treatment and have to suffer. That is of course, if they even have insurance.

Then there is the issue of immigrants that have come to Britain to live, how long would they need to pay taxes before they become eligable for free treatment on the NHS? one week?, one month? a year? 2 years?

Another issue with this, is that this will create more bureaucracy, something which I thought Tories such as David Davies, were against? This would mean that they would have to have people checking that this insurance and verify that it is A-okay, and the key word in his blog I feel is " verifiable health insurance document.."
To verify it, would mean more work and bureacucracy, for both the NHS and the immigrant offices. This of course would mean that funds would have to be diverted from paitents (be them British or not) or immigrants and too chasing up to see if they health insurance document is "verifiable" or not. How does this tie-in with the Tory agenda on bureaucracy? I don't think more paperwork would decrease the "red tape" that the Tories want to remove.

Personally, I am glad that Britain is a compassionate nation that values our free healthcare service, and believes that everyone should have free healthcare no matter who they are, or were they come from. The problem is also not as widespread or as bad as David Davies has made it seem to be, because it is quiet costly and time consuming to book a flight, fly to Britain, get a hospital appointment, get treatment and so on, I don't think that all of that would happen within a day, not in any country. However it does go to show the mentality of some Tories, especally the most right wing ones.

Do we really want this man and his party running the country?

David Cameron, and the so-called "Modern" Conservative Party have, over the last few weeks, have again been proving themselves to be nothing but a party even more obsessed with spin, the polls and focus groups, then New Labour, with Cameron being the most guilty politican of the lot. The recent grammer school row is just one in a long line of flip-flops, U-turns and David Cameron being unable to make a solid decision.

Cameron's most recent flip-flop over muesum charges, the Tories floated ideas by Dave's Old Etonian friend Hugo Swire MP (Culture Spokesman) to abolish free entry to muesum entries (abolished under this Labour government), which was then said to be "under review" before being thrown out. Either that was a pretty quick reivew, or it is yet another example of the inability of Cameron to make any decisions and stick by them.

David Cameron's only belief is getting into Downing Street, he has no agenda, no principle and no ideas beyond spin, and saying what he thinks people wants to hear, instead of trying to be principled, and showing that he does have the ability to make the difficult decisions. Cameron does not have the ability to do that, if he becomes Prime Minister, he would not be able to run the country effectively, since he is a big political jelly fish.

Even if Cameron is sincere about shifting his party towards being a more liberal, caring and compassionate party. There are many on his back benchers and in the front bench that do not believe in it, and with the polls slowly getting worse for the Tories and better for Labour. How long before his party's right wing start speaking out more then they have already done with Grammer schools, or before they influlance his policy decisions even more.

It is also important not to forget that the this is the true face of Conservatism (demands to abolish the NHS), and that there is a serious threat that if the Tories get back into government, that Cameron would be too weak, and would make a total mess of the country, or would be too weak to deal with his troublesome back benchers, and if he is too weak to deal with those, imagine how he would be with dealing with more serious crisises, and making serious political decisions that will effect the future of Britain.