blog.andrewsteele.co.uk

Grouped by policy area, here is what I think of the main political parties’ main policies. The bland homogeneity on offer is polarised only by the vaguest hint of capitalist versus socialist ideology. Sadly, I seem to agree with a mixture of both…

More spending on public services through “better” taxation

Labour
Labour plan to keep on ramping up public services with no obvious tax rises. However, Labour make pledges like “we won’t raise income tax”, and then raise National Insurance. They’ve stuck to the letter of their manifesto, but not the spirit; especially since even the poorest pay NI…

Conservatives
The Tories plan to cut bureaucracy and thus make enough money to spend more on services and trim taxes a little. I agree wholeheartedly with the ideology of reduced centralised government, but I hope that they stop short of their £35bn and can’t offer the tax cuts, which they’ve assigned the final £4bn to. The other parties’ books also rely on being able to cut bureaucracy, but by smaller amounts.

Liberal Democrats
Plan to increase spending by taxing more; specifically, a local income tax and a 50% rate of normal income tax for earners over £100,000. I’m not sure how much this will help, as increasing taxes on higher earners tends to make the most money for accountants, who are paid most of the proposed tax rise to make sure their client doesn’t have to give it to the Inland Revenue. Thus, I’d need to see more statistics before being confident in Lib Dems’ plans. However, at least they’re honest, and I would like to see both other parties proposing increased taxation.

Better hospitals

Labour
More targets. That’s what doctors need.
Conservatives
The Tories are making far too big a play of MRSA. I suspect the prominence is probably as a result of some statistician telling them it will swing a lot of marginal voters, a type of cynicism all the parties employ. However, I’m again for the ideological conclusion of this inflammatory talk, which is that doctors get to make decisions, rather than managers fearful of missing targets.

Liberal Democrats
The Lib Dems claim to be similar to the Tories, stating that they want to “put patients not targets first”. They don’t seem to state how they’re going to do this, though. I do, however, agree with their policy of increased investment in free stuff for poorly people.

Less immigration

All the parties will implement immigration control, Labour using some kind of game-show “points system”, Conservatives employing vicious 24-hour guards, and the Liberals by trying to get Europe to agree to take their share of the immigrants. I don’t claim to know the most ethically valid way to make this decision, but I suspect that the Tories’ is most pragmatic; a points system will achieve nothing and Europe doesn’t want our immigrants. And, given how expensive immigrants are and that all the key parties seem to want fewer of them, I support the Conservatives on this. A bit.

More police

All the parties want more of these in various different colours of uniform. I don’t think there’s much in it.

Tuition fees

The Lib Dems and Tories want university education to be free. Labour want students to pay for it. I’m torn here, since though policies are similar, my generalised ideology instinct tells me that the Liberals are probably more trustworthy with the whole free public services thing, but the Tories are more likely to stop this pushing-half-of-society-through-uni nonsense. Either way, vote against Labour…

Europe

I’m seriously Lib Dem on this one. The Tory party line says “out”, and Labour are against the Euro even if not the constitution. Economic stability lies with constant exchange rates, and while Europe isn’t all good, the single currency is a huge boon.

Iraq

Yes, the Lib Dems opposed the war in Iraq. Sadly, the Lib Dems, with their crazy “let’s pull out before fixing the infrastructure we destroyed and security problems we created”, lose my support; since the stupid invasion has happened and we’re forced to take it as a sunk cost, as it were, the Tories and Labour seem to have the more sensible policy on this one. I just hope either of them has the sense to pull out as soon as is practical.

Conclusion

As I wrote this, I felt that I was being systematically unfair to Labour. So, I read it back through, and realised that the party were almost entirely without redeeming features. Their best policies are those like ‘less immigration’ and ‘more police’ where they dissolve into a bland mediocrity of policy shared by their opponents.

So, now that’s cleared up, you can either read the contractually-obliged-to-be-impartial BBC round-up, a shorter summary of the manifestos from Dan or allow me tell you, therefore, how to vote. Or both, if you’re feeling political.

Sunday, April 17th, 2005 18:24 | permalink | trackback