Twelve tests for 2012
by Max Wind-Cowie
The Progressive Conservatism Project has identified twelve policies that should be adopted by the Conservative Party if they are to be the party of progressive government.
We want to hear your thoughts on these recommendations, how progressive they are and what might be missing.
The 'Twelve Tests for 2012' are:
1. Keep Inheritance Tax
In 2007 George Osborne was credited with reviving Conservative fortunes when he announced that he would lift the threshold for Inheritance Tax liability. Inheritance tax affects only Britain’s richest. It recycles cash through the economy and prevents the entrenchment of enormous privilege. Osborne has already backed away from implementing the pledge – pragmatism intervening – he should now bite the bullet and admit that this policy is not only untenable but regressive.
2. Expand pupil premiums
Conservative policy on education will only be truly progressive if they follow through on their pledge to introduce a premium on school funding for Britain’s most disadvantaged children. If this is not done, and done effectively, then greater freedom and choice could entrench inequalities as more affluent and educated parents succeed in dominating good schools. Early evidence shows that an additional premium of around £2,500 per annum could help to promote more equitable admissions policies from schools and be adequate investment to help poorer children succeed. The Conservative Party must ensure that a premium is built in at the start of any educational reform.
3. Toll all motorways
The Conservative Party must take the climate-change bull by the horns. Toll roads – such as the M6 toll – have been successful at clearing congestion but we still need to discourage multiple car-use on Britain’s motorways. All motorways should be tolled, with the money ring-fenced to be used for environmental investment such as renewable energy. Cars that are ‘smart’ and environmentally friendly would be exempt, as they are under the congestion charge in London.
4. Invest in childcare
For this reason, David Cameron should extend the childcare provision for poor families, from 15 hours a week (from 2010) to 20. Under the Tax Credit childcare support families are currently only able to claim if they work 16 hours a week – and then they are only eligible for 15 hours (from 2010 again). A progressive government should make the correlation between hours worked and childcare provision exact so that poor families are given the same number of hours in childcare as the hours that they work. In doing so he can help to alleviate the pressure on poor families and help to encourage a culture of work amongst parents to counter the devastating legacy of workless families.
5. Lower the voting age to sixteen
Cameron often compares himself to Disraeli and endorses his predecessor’s ‘one nation’ Toryism. Just as Disraeli extended the franchise during his premiership, aware that democracy was being undermined by the voicelessness of sections of the population, so should Cameron. Sixteen year olds can get married, have sex, drive scooters and be taxed – but they can’t vote. The Conservative party should grab the real electoral reform issue and extend the franchise to sixteen year olds.
6. Replace A-levels with the IB
The A-level ‘brand’ has been contaminated. Every year concerns are raised about their value, the quality of assessment and the ‘dumbing down’ of content. Meanwhile, in many elite private schools and for children in countries across the world, students are being given a leg-up over ordinary British sixth-formers in the form of the International Baccalaureate. A progressive Government should extend the International Baccalaureate to all sixth-form students, abolishing A-levels.
7. Pledge support for Turkey’s accession to the EU
The progressive benefits – for Turkey and for the EU – are substantial. Not only would it send a clear message to the Muslim world, that Europe is not anti-Islam, but it would extend the benefits of EU membership to poorer countries. The democratic, human rights and economic reforms that would be necessary for Turkey to join would be transformative for Turkey and for the Turkish people – Cameron should, by 2012, have made his support clear.
8. Publish all public spending online
Cameron’s Conservatives talk excitedly about the potential to use new technologies to engage the public in scrutinizing the work of Government. They must make a commitment to this by providing the information to for powerful citizens to make informed choices.
9. Abolish child benefit for families earning over £50k
In order to be really progressive in an era of austerity the Conservative Party will have to overcome their innate squeamishness about means testing. To be progressive the Conservative Party must end universal benefits, starting with Child Benefit; it is unreasonable to continue paying wealthy people to raise their kids.
10. Capitalise housing benefit
A Conservative government should allow people to capitalise their housing benefit so that they can purchase a stake in their home. At the moment Housing Benefit is dead money for the state. By allowing those who wish to build their way to ownership to use money they are already entitled to, progressive conservatives can help to end the culture of dependency that dominates poor communities.
11. Elect police commissioners
The disconnect between the police service and public control is vast – police forces are not able to respond to the priorities of their communities and people feel that they have no influence on how their police force spend their resources. Communities should, therefore, be able to elect their police commissioners. By 2012 the Conservative government should have reformed police governing structures to make this possible.
12. Abandon marriage tax policy
This policy is aimed at those who are already likely to marry; it does nothing to encourage more social maturity or long-term partnerships in the parts of society where marriage is no longer an aspiration. Secondly, it pre-supposes the benefits of a particular lifestyle choice without articulating why we prefer it. The evidence doesn’t say that married people are better parents, better neighbours or better people.
Andrew Preston
Mike....
There is a moment in the life of every Conservative when you have to put the champagne bottle, or whatever, to one side...., wipe away the dribbles, cease just attacking the incumbent government..., and try to sound somewhat statesmanlike.
Must say my attention was drawn, apart from Cameron, to the TV row of hatchet-faced suits, the real faces of the Conservative party...., Angus Maude, a man who never had a good idea in his life, unless it was so self-serving that even a political tart would blush...., Kenneth Clarke...., the man who after being Health Secretary assumed the position at the top of British American Tobacco. Yep, a party of real values.
4. This increases the pressure on poor families, and is designed to so
do.
11. "Being a policeman is not a popularity contest" . The words of a
policeman. I agree.
8. Wind-Cowie has been vocal in posting around the internet some contemptuous stuff about audit culture, and with calls for the axing of, for example, the Audit Commission. The Audit Commission keeps track of what local councils get up to. One council, the Conservative dominated London Hillingdon, has just decided to dismantle its own scrutiny committee. The council leader intimated that if there were any objections, they'd just railroad it through.
Within this kind of context, published public spending figures are just so much dross.
7. "Got to keep up the supply of cheap labour for our business
backers and rich farmer friends."
etc..
Funny really, when I think of the Conservative party as government I see....
1. 2 summers ago..., the Conservative Party conference, all sleek and glistening, all people for whom the last lots of years had been really rather good, confident the current government was tired, confident that power would soon be theirs.
2. 1 year ago. Economic calamity. Government deals with cascading scenario as best as possible in the circumstances. Conservatives? Sat there in Parliament, sullen, mostly silent, nothing to say. Nothing to contribute, absolutely nothing.
What you people are is a grab for power when you haven't earned it, nor in any way redeemed yourselves.
Fayyaz Muneer
I like them for the most part, aside from electing police commissioners. The rule of law is not, or more accurately, I don't think it should be, a political issue. Whilst there may be a disconnect between police and those they are supposed to protect, making them electable could potnetially lead to the making of inappropriate promises in order to win elections, and whilst I'm happy for argument about political issues, I would be nervous about knowing the police adminstration got there via a popularity test. Police, for all the bad press they get, know what they are doing better than we do.
With regard to the comment above, from Mr. Preston, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of content to his objections (save his objection to police elections, which are similar to mine) apart from rather juvenile caricaturing of Conservatives; this is not an uncommon theme amongst his posts here and elsewhere. I think, Andrew, you credit Max with more farmer friends than he actually has, re Turkey. And when I refer to bitter, immature, foaming at the mouth anti-conservatives, please note that I am happy to single you out, and not refer to you as "you people." The same courtesy wouldn't be inappropriate. Also, people can't BE a grab for power.
Hugh Tonks
Cameron could make a good start by giving us back the freedoms taken away from us over the last few years, not least the right to protest outside Parliament without a permit. He should also clamp down on local councils and their abuses of the terrorist surveillance legislation for their own paltry ends.
Next: a contraction of the university system and a restoring of standards in education (exams need to be harder). Not everybody is bright enough to get a degree - that's just a hard fact of life - just like the fact that not everyone is fit enough to become a professional sportsman.
But what must come first is a thorough overhaul of tax, NI and the benefits system. Despite decades of pointing it out, not one political party has done anything about eliminating the poverty trap. We now have a system whereby one slice of the population is paid to sit at home (and earn extra money on the black market), while the middle classes fund their waster lifestyle. I (for one) have had enough of shelling out my hard-earned money to subsidise these scoundrels. Get on with it, Cameron!
Diversity
Come on. This is almost as weak on ideas as New Labour. 10 parts out of twelve it is a list of political gestures; quasi- Blairite in quality. Of the others, pupil premiums is a straight lift from the LibDems; and tolling all motorways is quarter right on road pricing and about one eigth right on the beginning of a policy against climate change.
Remeber, you have serious competition. The LibDems have thought and debated their way through a lot of the progressive options. Their ideas are often there for the stealing, like pupil premiums. Disraeli famously "stole the Liberals' clothes". Time for a re-run?
Andrew Preston
To Fayyaz Muneer
'Lo Fayyaz
Well, that's just the way life is really, all kinds of writing styles.
My comment about rich farmers is, in fact, directed towards the considerable number of non-urban Conservative would-be MP's. D Cameron, also, is sponsored by the Country Alliance which presumably explains his enthusiasm for huntin', shootin', foxin', and killin'...., would you say?
In terms of Turkey, Islam....... etc.. I basically feel the whole document was just a sloppy put together job. If you just agree with it, and virtually all the points, fine for you.
I think it's fairly clear what my views on Conservatism are, do you have a difficulty with the fact that I express them? Perhaps you've mistaken this place for Conservative Home...., a combination of a glee club, and flies buzzing round a t**d, imo. And most particularly, a place where non-party-line voices are swiftly put down.
Max Wind-Cowie
Andrew, I think - if you intend critiques to refer to the Conservative Party in general, rather than myself specifically - it might be helpful if you were a little clearer. In your post on this blog, as with others, you do refer specifically to me. As you can imagine, that makes it rather harder to discern your intended meaning.
You're absolutely right, of course, that this isn't Conservative Home. You are quite entitled to disagree (as you clearly do) with the content of the blogs. However, it is a little frustrating that your primary complaint appears to be an intense personal dislike for conservatives or conservative thinkers. Whilst I may be eminently unlikeable it makes it rather tricky to debate issues if the discussion is repeatedly reduced to ad homonym attacks.
Andrew Preston
To Max Wind Cowie
Most of what you put up on this site is pretty much in the style of a fly-poster. I see little to complain about in responses that are less than beautifully constructed arguments.
There's lots of meat in my response that is worthy of contemplation, in addition to how I addressed the specific points on your post.
In my opinion, yes, your Conservative Party is unfit to form a government of this nation.
Bruno Della Motta
Is this progress?? It is the same statis policy that is sinking the world since the 30's... There is no difference between left and right anymore. There is only difference between statists and liberals.
colin
Turkey is not yet fit to join the eu....... it will be a bridge for radical islam
Mike
I really wish the modern Tory party were progressive enough to adopt these policies along with Philip Blonde's.
It's just with people like Dan Hannan, William Hague and Ian Duncan Smith and Euro's like Kaminski, the Tories are still clearly regressive to the core.
David Cameron's banal anti-government speech would have made Ronald Regan and Richard Nixon proud.