Most Tories have thought of themselves as neoliberal for longer than they care to remember. I have to say their liberalism did not look or feel like my own, but they thought they were liberal, nonetheless. But not now they can't. As page nine of the Tory manifesto says:
Conservatism is not and never has been the philosophy described by caricaturists. We do not believe in untrammelled free markets. We reject the cult of selfish individualism. We abhor social division, injustice, unfairness and inequality. We see rigid dogma and ideology not just as needless but dangerous.
This is, of course, utter nonsense. The manifesto is full of ideas that social division, injustice, unfairness and inequality.
The dementia tax is just the start.
There is also the plan to cut corporation tax which heavily biases the best off.
At the same time there is no sign of reversal of any of the benefit cuts.
And abolishing free school dinners will just makes life worse for many.
Brexit will have losers - and not that many will be in the upper echelons of the City.
Whilst there are also deeply illiberal plans. The boundary review and reduction to 600 MPs is to continue.
The House of Lords is threatened without any hint of a replacement.
Access to voting is to be made harder, and few think that really means you will in future have to take your polling card with you.
There is no end to student debt which creates massive burdens and tax rates the parents of most students claim are wholly unacceptable.
Secure housing will, for many, look like a pipe dream still.
If liberalism is about freedom to fulfil opportunity then that's not what this manifesto is about.
Whatever Mayism might be it certainly is not liberal. And nor does it tackle social division, injustice, unfairness and inequality.
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I can help a little bit with the dementia tax. This will make a certain Mr P May & his family (Mrs T may) better off:
“The other commercial opportunity: the dementia tax is a stealth incentive to take out equity release mortgages. This fast-growing market is dominated by Legal and General in the UK (29pc market share), of which a major shareholder is Capital Group, of which a key UK executive is Philip May, husband of Theresa May. Very, very cosy.”
from: http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2017/05/19/now-it-makes-sense-dementia-tax-is-an-insurance-scam/#comments
(scroll down to the relevant comment)
As Richard noted many months agao – the Tories just want power – nothing more, nothing less & with power comes money-making opportunities (see above). I will be interested to see how many/few journos ask “Mrs May, will you or your husband benefit directly from the dementia tax, given his position in Capital Group”.
As Noam Chomsky says – Neo-liberalism is neither new nor liberal. Like Trump, May (and her Tory Cabal) wiil / can say anything to satisfy the moment, and then do exactly the opposite if circumstances dictate. We understand that but regrettably, for us all, enough of the voting public to give her power don’t. They can only find out from experiencing the results of future policy implementtion. With Trump there COULD be international implications. In the UK there WILL be a further deterioration of the welfare state, the macro economy, environmental degradation and social cohesion. Welcome to our Managed Democracy.
In a truly just society those who vote for the Conservatives should also be brought to account every 5 years and be chastised for their collusion. That might focus their attention when they tick their ballot paper – haha!
Yesterday in the Observer both Andrew Rawnsley and William Keegan had excellent columns on the willingness of the Tories to say and do anything to stay in power, and the hypocracy that underlies so much of what they say, Richard. In that respect they are the mirrow image of the Republican Party in the US, which is, in any case where many of their policy ideas/ideology comes from (such as voters registration as a proxy for gerrymandering).
I missed Bill’s. Too many demands on time!
The modern Tory is a market fundamentalist – plain and simple and such fundamentalism only benefits those who have the money to exploit those markets.
They are also good at coming up with extreme ideas and then backtracking publically in order to be seen as ‘reasonable’.
The warmth of their words is only that of newly dropped cow dung!
I thought it was often claimed that Corporation tax impacted customers, employees and shareholders, with the size of the impact based on a wide range of factors.
Given that shareholders will be many normal people through their pension and savings plans, please can you explain why you think the impact of lower Corporation tax primarily benefits the wealthy?
They are shareholders
Most pension fund beneficiaries are wealthy
I said most
Now go and look at the data
And those ‘wealthy’ beneficiaries will be paying much higher marginal tax rates on their income than the company pays as Corporation tax,..