Southern Comfort

Fighting the Tories is more important than ever. But they aren't "New Tories", despite what they are saying. Here are some tips for fighting the Tories. Use these snippets in your leaflets.

Green Tories?

David Cameron says he is green and wants to save the planet. But he can’t even convince the rest of his party that he has the right ideas. Shadow Energy Minister Charles Hendry admits that the Tories are split on wind power and that many Tory MPs and councillors refuse to back new wind generator schemes. They are the real Tories – the ones who refuse to give planning permission and lead campaigns against windpower schemes.

Compassionate Tories?

The Tories have said they will cut £21bn a year from public services. David Cameron and George Osborne pledged tax cuts every year, but they mean cutting £21bn this year alone. That is the equivalent of cutting half a million teachers and nurses. Or building 60 hospitals or 840 schools. Cuts of that level EVERY year. For all David Cameron’s talk of New Tories, they still want to cut services to give tax cuts to fat cats.

Tough Tories?

The old Tories used to talk tough on crime. Now David Cameron wants people to hug a hoodie. Tory MP Oliver Letwin even claims that drugs pushers are victims – but it is the addicts they exploit who are the victims. David Cameron and his party have opposed every government bill to crack down on crime and anti-social behaviour. David Davis may talk tough, but when it comes to Tory votes in Parliament, they are soft on crime.

Competent Tories?

When the Conservatives announced their inheritance tax plans at their conference in October, they got their sums wrong, Independent experts announced within minutes that there was a £3bn hole in the Tory figures. They would need to cut £3bn of public spending to give millionaires tax cuts.

Party donations

This subject may come up. If it does, especially if the Tories are attacking Labour for it, here are some facts that could be useful in rebuttal:

• The Tory party have taken millions of pounds over the years from Lord Ashcroft. What’s the problem? Well, Michael Ashcroft only became a Lord when he promised he would live in Britain and pay British taxes. That was several years ago, and he still is a resident of Belize, a country that is notorious as a money-laundering and tax evasion centre.
• David Cameron has also had problems with dodgy donations personally. His own constituency association had to return more than £7,000 in invalid donations, after not one but two non-British voters gave his local party money.
• The national Conservative Party and many local parties receive donations through front organisations like the Midlands Industrial Council. These front organisations take money in and pass it on to the Tories – but they don’t reveal where their money comes from or who their members are.
• And if the Tories talk about public funding being a problem, just remind people that the Tories get several millions pounds a year from the tax-payer to fund their party (and the Lib Dems get over a million in public money too). Opposition parties get this “short money” from the public purse. In fact, that chauffeur-driven car that followed David Cameron with his shoes and briefcase is a publicly funded car.

And now of course we have learnt that shadow chancellor George Osborne has taken over half a million pounds in secret donations in just a year.

So much for compassionate Conservatives

Here are the things that the new "compassionate" Conservatives don't want to tell the public. We think it's only right that we let people know.

Education

The Tories have opposed Labour's commitment to ensuring 50% of young people benefit from a university education. They want to keep university education for the few.

Whilst Labour is committed to extending opportunity for all young people, the Tories are opposed to extending free universal education or training to the age of 18.

Labour's investment in education would be put at risk by theTories. David Cameron's Tories have made big promises to spend more money along with pledges of massive tax cuts. The Tory sums don't add up, a fact confirmed by economists. The black hole they would put in Britain's public finances would make our economy unstable.

Education would RISK FACING MAJOR cuts to plug the growing blackhole in David Cameron's plans.· Hundreds of schools which are set to be rebuilt across the country face the axe under Conservative spending plans, after David Cameron's education policy unveiled yesterday proposed cutting £4.5 billion from the Labour Government's Building Schools for the Future programme.

Health

Empty promises - there is no end to Conservative promises on the NHS and no explanation of how they will pay for them: more midwives, more schoolnurses, more child psychiatrists, more health screening, more specialiststroke care, search and destroy strategy, children's hospices, adulthospices and mental health funding.·

David Cameron's proposal to abolish NHS targets would return the healthservice to long waiting lists; targets have reduced waiting times to their lowest ever level, including cutting waiting times for cataract operations, heart operations and cancer treatment referrals.·

David Cameron's policy to return to GP fund-holding will create an unfair two tier NHS with some patients getting a worse service.

The Tories claim they support NHS staff, but they refuse to support the public sector pension agreement.

David Cameron has made an empty promise of a moratorium on the closure ofA&E departments and maternity services. But under Tory plans, theresponsibility for opening and closing hospitals would fall to an independent NHS Board.·

David Cameron's stunt, the list of hospitals allegedly facing closure - backfired and unravelled in his own constituency."We wouldn't get that wrong, blimey, it serves David Cameron's own constituency." (Andrew Lansley, Radio 5 Drive Time, August 21 2007)
But they did get it wrong. Sir William Stubbs, the Chairman of his local NHS Trust said:"as far as the A&E is concerned, there is no threat, indeed it's rather the opposite, the board has agreed to invest additional funds in improving both the consultant provision and the nursing provision at the A&E."(Sir William Stubbs Chairman of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust,Today programme, 22 August 2007)

Pensions

Older people would be hit hard by economic instability if the Tories evergot the chance to implement their plans. The Tories keep making desperate promises of billions of pounds of tax cuts and billions more on extra spending promises. Their sums simply can't add up and that means theycannot be trusted with Britain's economy.

The black hole in the Tory finances would make Britain's economy unstable.People about to retire would be hit hard by that instability, while pensioners would suffer from the cuts to pensions and health services that would have to take place to plug the black hole in David Cameron's plans.

TORY WELFARE PLANS UNRAVEL

The Tory welfare policy document revealed:

1. The Tories' £3 billion tax credit spending pledge is not funded by any savings on top of government plans, leaving a black hole in their plans.

2. There is no new funding for any of the policies announced over the last week.

3. The Tories indicate that they would cut successful "back to work" programmes like the New Deal.

Commenting, Labour's Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain said:

"David Cameron promised welfare reform to fill the black hole left by his £3billion pledge on tax credits. Today, that plan is unravelling.

In the small print of the Tory document it is now clear that theTories cannot find a single penny of the additional savings they were promising over and above the Government's existing plans.

Today's failure leaves a serious, £3 billion black hole in the Tory taxand spend plans from this policy alone. At the same time, the document promises no new funding to pay for the introduction of a major national community work scheme and the medical reassessment of 2.6 million IB claimants. In fact, they indicate plans to cut successful back-to-work programmes like the New Deal."

So once again, the Tories are promising a lot but can't pay for their promises. They are beginning to sound like the Lib Dems!