Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Conservative Party Manifesto Explains Britain's Next Government

The Conservative Party has unveiled its election manifesto, and given the polls, the structure of the election and the ineptitude of Labour, this 88-page document will be the blueprint by which Britain is governed for the next five years. It is truly a conservative paper, and there are still Thatcherite tones to it. However, Margaret Thatcher's Britain is dead and gone, largely thanks to the Lady herself. Ms. May's conservative government will deal with the problems of this decade not those of the 1980s.

First and foremost is Brexit. Leaving the EU really does mean leaving the EU, and Ms. May will claim that her election victory is an endorsement of a hard Brexit. It is softened only slightly by a commitment to retain the Human Rights Act and stay within the European convention on human rights through the next parliament. The wording is such that whatever Ms. May secures by way of an exit deal (or none at all) she can claim was approved by the voters during this election.

Part of Brexit is immigration, and here, the Tories are divided. Although the manifesto pledges them to reduce net migration to fewer than 100,000 people, it's a target that hasn't been met in the last seven years. So, why start now? The Guardian says, "Students will remain part of the target. The government will continue to bear down on non-EU migration by increasing earnings thresholds for family migration, introducing tougher visa rules for students, doubling the immigration skills charge to £2,000 a year for each skilled worker recruited, and increasing the NHS charges they pay. A significant number of visas will be set aside for strategically important sectors, such as digital technology." This suggests a new immigration policy is on the way, and the 100,000 figure is merely window dressing.

Next come taxes. The Tories say, "It is our firm intention to reduce taxes on Britain's businesses and working families." They also say, "We will continue to aim for a balanced budget by the middle of the next decade, in line with the fiscal rules announced by the chancellor in his autumn statement last year." Continue to aim is a phrase through which an oil tanker could be driven sideways. The corporate tax will fall to 17%. VAT won't go up, but it will likely be applied to more goods and services. Raising the personal allowance and the threshold for the top tax rate should sail through the House. And yet, the commitment to a balanced budget by 2025 remains, when the current Tory leadership will be retired or in Lords.

In Britain, one cannot avoid speaking of taxes without talking about the National Health Service. Here, the Tories are surprisingly unThatcherite. The government will spend an additional £8 billion in real terms over the next five years on the NHS. Whether this is entirely new spending is a matter of debate, but more spending is certain. After the recent ransomware attack, it is clear that the UK needs to update a lot of its hospital infrastructure..

As for education, the budget will grow by £4 billion by 2022, and a billion of that will go to help out failing schools. Free school lunches are gone, replaced by free school breakfasts. While one can argue over which meal is more important, surely Britain could feed its children both. Surely, the best solution is to raise incomes so that no child needs a state subsidy -- all one needs do is abolish poverty.

What's missing? It's pretty lean on foreign policy apart from Brexit. Nothing on Afghanistan, China, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Russia, Syria nor on Yemen. The Israel-Palestine conflict is not mentioned either. No mention of privatizations. No plans for further welfare reform. Best of all, there isn't a word about the £350 million a week extra for the NHS that the Leave campaign said would flow from Brexit.

It will come as no surprise to regular readers that this journal will not be backing Ms. May and her Tories, but neither will this journal be surprised when the British electorate give them a majority in excess of 100 seats.

© Copyright 2017 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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