The Tories need a more positive message

David Phipps

Funny how, eventually, all three main political parties end up 'nicking' ideas from Ukip policy papers and then presenting it as a 'major' policy announcement.

Dennis Churchill

They can’t abolish HIPS: it is part of a European Union Directive along with Energy Performance Certificates.
Cameron can only operate within the parameters of the political class mindset.

Beer Moth

The Tories need A message.

A J Scott

Yes, but this is actually LESS than the present allowance for a married pair of 75 year old pensioners! So what do the Liberal party actually mean?? They will increase our tax?

charles hercock

The message is that the profligate spending spree is over and sensible policies will restore our pride

Andy Leeds

A friend in Greece pays no income tax until his income is over 12000 Euros. If Gordon the Moron had been serious about helping to relieve poverty he would have simplified the tax system and dramatically lifted allowances. He never was serious which is why we have one of the most complex tax systems and why so many of our people are dependant on the state merely to live. It is a disgrace.

Thomas Byrne

It's a good thing as a Conservative I've already trumped the Lib Dem plans and can raise the TFA to £12,000

http://byrnetofferings.co.uk/2009/11/tax-free-allowance/

Moraymint

"At the moment, the Tories have a bunch of smaller policies ..."

Sums them up really; as clueless as the lot in power.

Jim

I've have an idea for a positive policy: A referendum on leaving the EU.

Now that would be an enticing offer.

TrevorsDen

I do not think HIPS are part of an EU directive, the Energy bit is but that does nor need HIPS.

Where will the LibDems tax give away come from? And how would they pay of the debt.

I want to see an increase in tax allowances but libdems are not going to have to put through the cuts in other allowances which are needed to pay for it.
ie (to quote a report by Iain Dale)
"They want to restrict tax relief on pension contributions to the basic rate (£4.7 bn). Capital Gains tax increases will bring in £4.1 bn"

ie hammer the middle classes.

Come on - do you see that being a great Tory rallying call??

And Mr Leeds - what benefits does your friend in Greece gat - say compared to the countless billions thrown around in the UK? Does he get a free NHS?
http://www.justlanded.com/english/Greece/Greece-Guide/Health/The-National-Health-Service

"The quality of health care and health care facilities in Greece leaves much to be desired, although they are improving. "
"In 1983, a national health-service (IKA) was introduced in common with many other countries of southern Europe. However, although medical training is of a high standard, the health service is one of the worst in Europe, largely because of under-funding."
How do you see policies like that going down on the doorstep.

Yet again a load of dumb assed shooting from the hip by a bunch of dullard Coffee House trolls.

PS (from the link
"The government is currently improving the health system and a substantial investment (much of which comes from EU funding) is being made"

Naomi Muse

I agree the Tories seem to lack policies but then so do the government. And the Lib Dems with their ill-thought 'mansion tax' also appear to be unfair to many in the population whose current incomes are not indicated by the size of their houses - the retired.

This blasted interregnum of pot stirring before the election is called, is a killer for all.

If only the Westminster set would use it to reform parliament so that we could see that they were collectively doing something for the common good, it would help us all.

None of them are worth voting for, and therefore it is likely there will be a hung parliament anyway.

Lee Jakeman

The Tories don't need a message - they need electable policies. A "in or out" vote on the EU would be a start.

Stephen

Maybe Dave should hire Clarkson[or his producer] to do a Party Election Broadcast!

Clarkson would do a much better job for the Tories than Alan Sugar could ever do for Labour. Go for it Dave! a few of Clarkson's home truths about Labour England is just what you need to get a thumping majority!

strapworld

The conservatives need a message?

They have got David Cameron. Surely THAT is the message. If people are foolish enough to vote for this liberal democrat, EU loving, centralised government loving, inner cabal loving Cameron, then more fool them.

Cameron is no tory! THAT is the message.

strapworld

Trevors Den. The more I read your epistle's the more I am convinced you need medical help.

Read Richard Littlejohn in today's Daily Mail. Then ask yourself the question, Will Cameron or any political party in this country get the NHS on the same level as that American Hospital.

NO is the answer because none has the guts to accept that the NHS is a monster. Foundat Hospitals are just an excuse to pay the Chief Executives and executive team, plus Chairmen, a massive pay increase. NOT the nurses of course or any real worker.

Cameron should be telling the truth, but that would take real leadership and leadership is a quality Cameron most certainly does not possess.

Victor Southern

let us understand that the LibDems could promise everybody free electricity and gas or a daily delivery of toffee apples. Since there is zero chance of them having to deliver they are only offering pie in the sky.

Nicholas

Today I be mainly not responding to carping, whingeing anti-Cameron posts from supposed right wingers on a supposed right-wing blog who clearly want to see another 5 years of Brown and his fascist gang in power.

Dorothy Wilson

Nicholas: we have a dialect word for them where I live - "mardy".

On the essence of debate, yes the Conservatives are beginning to come up with a raft of policies. However, at the moment they seem to be taking a scattergun approach. They need to bring those policies together in a coherent whole.

Basically, they need to set out a "vision statement" - to use management jargon, which I don't particularly like but nevertheless is useful shorthand.

Once they have that they should then make an attempt to set out how the ad hoc policies they are announcing at the moment will help to achieve that. An overall statement of the kind of UK they would like to create and the architecture to get us there is another way of putting it.

Surely, there is someone - or a small team - in the Central Office who can do some work on this.

R King

Cameron would be well advised NOT to announce any major policies until close to the general election. If he announces them too early the Laurel & Hardy er..... sorry Brown and Darling will simply copy them (in a deformed manner).
Remember the 10p tax saga and how about inheritance tax policy which was rushed out at the last minute after a tory announcement!!

Enoch was Right

R. King - I agree entirely. The time to announce substantive policies is when the election is called. Anything announced too early merely feeds the dying Government and the media. In the meantime dropping hints is useful.. Keep the powder dry..

Roadrunner

A referendum on Europe in or out,tougher immigration policies an end to the climate change con would put the party back into the forties, maybe even higher but I don't see this coming from Cameron.My vote in protest goes to UKIP.

TrevorsDen

Dear Mr Strapworld

You are the raving loony - constantly pushing policies the electorate will be guaranteed to reject.

As I point out the lib dems are calling for an increase in tax allowances but these will be paid for by hammering the middle classes and hammering another nail in the pensions industry to boot. They show no indication of cutting our burgeoning benefits culture, that would be too hard.

Yet you think this is a neat idea.

Your comments and that of others about Cameron not being a tory is bonkers. He is more right wing than Willie Whitelaw for instance.

And now you want to destroy the NHS - big vote winner there -- and why? Just because a load of immigrant nursing auxiliaries cannot be arsed to mop the floors.
That is just political maladministration of the NHS which Cameron and the tories will change.
(BTW my own local hospital trust, in a relatively prosperous area without a marginal seat, has faced massive cuts under labour and faces more massive cuts next year. I do wonder how it will cope - maybe cleaning will suffer)
You are a prize one. With no NHS how do you expect to pay for the needs of you your wife children parents??
How much are you going to save and invest?
What sort of health care do you expect if you are a pensioner or are unemployed?
How do you expect to cope if you really become mentally ill?
Do you know how many people are psychiatric patients in the NHS? How do you propose to insure yourself against that - or indeed growing old?
Just how do you plan to die who is going to look after you when you are a dribbling incontinent shell?

If you want to abolish the NHS - put your money where your mouth is - then like Greece we can pay less tax.
Oh I want less tax and less spending - but I am realistic about how terribly difficult in the real world to do that (and get elected). Of course life is easy if you are a polemical columnist.

PS
In the 2007-08 financial year, people with schizophrenia occupied a total of 2.14 million bed days, and were the second largest diagnostic category after stroke. Mood disorders occupied 1.42 million days, and were the seventh largest.
When all psychiatric conditions were added together, they accounted for around 15% of the total number of days in which NHS beds were occupied.
Oh
And this does not include all the numbers cared for in the community.
But hey cutting the NHS is easy - lets sack a couple of managers. (And before a merry quip comes to your lips - my son in law is a psychiatric nurse)
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/152819.php

R Whitehand

Mr Forsyth is right. The Conservatives, of which I am a card carrying member, need more positive statements about how they intend to run the country. They are vry strong on critique and analysis, read John Redwood's recent paper published by Bow Group. But they are very short of new ideas and proper substantial plans. See also Mr Redwood's paper which is short on plans that matter.
Perhaps the problem is they lack a credible philosophy that helps define what to do, rather than what not to do, and they need to break beyond the ranks of old-Tories and old-Etonians/moneybags. Also the explanation trotted out time and again that Conservative ideas get pinched by the others is wearing thin. I guess matters have now the reached the point where it's a case of 'put up or shut up'. The voters will sniff out the spin.

strapworld

Trevors Den.

I would have continued laughing at your hysterical response. But that has revealed your true colours! They have come spewing out have they not!
"Just because a load of immigrant nursing auxiliaries cannot be arsed to mop the floors"

What a disgracefully racist remark. Blaming immigrants for the state of cleanliness in our hospitals! You are most certainly entitled to your views but Cameron will certainly not want you to be his spokesperson!

You are a bigot, sir!

Ian C

This is a good idea and should ultimately go to something like 80% of national average wages.

But it is extremely expensive and to promise it on the stump without any vision as to how the current level of government activity in the economy - approaching 50% - can be reduced with wide acceptance it is a pointless offer.

But that is the sort of thing the Lib Dems can offer as they have little chance of having to implement it.

TrevorsDen

Go ahead Strap, miss the point. And miss the sarcasm. I vist hospitals and can see who does the cleaning.

The point is the spending genie is out of the bottle and won't be put back easily and talk about abolishing the NHS as an option is ludicrous.

emil

Dennis Churchill

They certainly can abolish HIPS, what they can't do anything about is the energy assessment that the EU mandates. These cost a fraction of HIPS and form the only vaguely useful piece of the report, typically Labour weren't satisfied with something simple and made a right pigs ear out of it, helping to kill the housing market in the process.