MY RESPONSE TO THE BUDGET: Remember pledges made before last election? The pre-election pledges that the Tories are trying to wipe from the internet No frontline cuts 5,870 NHS nurses, 7,968 hospital beds, a third of ambulance stations, 5,362 firefighters and 6,800 frontline police officers cut. no top-down NHS reorganisations Perhaps most infamously, the Cons repeatedly promised no more top-down reorganisations of the NHS. Nov 2009, Cameron: With the Conservatives there will be no more of the tiresome, meddlesome, top-down re-structures that have dominated the last decade of the NHS. 2006 Tory Conference speech: So I make this commitment to the NHS and all who work in it. No more pointless reorganisations. The coalition went on to launch biggest top-down reorganisation of the service in its history. no VAT rise 23 April 2010, Cameron said: We have absolutely no plans to raise VAT. Our first Budget is all about recognising we need to get spending under control rather than putting up tax. Cameron on child benefit: I wouldnt means-test it read my lips pledge: Im not going to flannel you, Im going to give it to you straight. I like the child benefit, I wouldnt change child benefit, I wouldnt means-test it, I dont think that is a good idea.The coalition went on to abolish the benefit for higher earners in the Spending Review and froze it for three years. On Education Maintenance Allowances: we dont have any plans to get rid of them Weve looked at educational maintenance allowances and we havent announced any plan to get rid of them. I said we dont have any plans to get rid of them . . . its one of those things the Labour Party keep putting out that we are, but were not. Nine months later, Coalition announced abolition of EMA, which paid up to £30 a week to 16-to-18-years-olds living in households whose income is less than £30,800 a year., Cameron on Sure Start: The day before the general election, Cameron pledged to protect Sure Start, the network of childrens centres founded by the last Labour government. Asked for a guarantee centres would continue to receive funding, he replied: Yes, we back Sure Start. Its a disgrace that Gordon Brown has been trying to frighten people about this. Hes the prime minister of this country but hes been scaring people about something that really matters. In his 2009 Conservative conference speech, he said: It’s also about emotional support, particularly in those fraught early years before children go to school. Labour understood this and we should acknowledge that. That’s why Sure Start will stay, and we’ll improve it. Since then, 566 of the centres have been closed, with over half of those still open no longer providing any onsite childcare. On the Future Jobs Fund: no plans to change March 2010, Cameron praised Future Jobs Fund as a good scheme and said the Cons had no plans to change existing Future Jobs Fund commitments. May 2010, the coalition announced its abolition (only for a subsequent DWP study to show that it had been an unambiguous success, with a net benefit to the economy of £7,750 per participant). It was replaced with the ineffective Work Programme, later found to be worse than doing nothing. Osborne on bank bonuses: totally unacceptable In an interview with the Guardian on 14 Aug 2009, George Osborne said: It is totally unacceptable for bank bonuses to be paid on the back of taxpayer guarantees. It must stop. Not only did he fail to keep his pledge to ban bonuses at state-owned banks, he is now taking legal action against the EU commission over its plan to cap payments. And finally...Cameron on transparency in 2007 Its clear to me that political leaders will have to learn to let go. Let go of the information that weve guarded so jealously. newstatesman/politics/2013/11/pre-election-pledges-tories-are-trying-wipe-internet
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 17:34:30 +0000
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