Tories Conference Policy

I've been following the Tory Conference this week, after Cameron's speech it's time to write about this Conservative utopia they speak of. In a nutshell the Tories want to tackle welfare dependency, anti-social behaviour, boost business, improve the NHS and put a cap on some immigration, which are all traditionally Tory areas. Yet there are some interesting ideas scattered among what you would expect and some bizarre ones to.

All parties are looking at the public sector to save money, Lib Dems were the first followed by Labour announcing policy just before the Tories on freezing public sector pay, I wonder what effect that had on George Obsboure's policy, as his goes much further than Labour's. It would of course be good tactics for Labour to try to create a stand off between the Tories and the unions, not so good for everyone else though if it escalates.

Policy announced that did catch my eye is their tax break for firms created in the first two years of a Tory government. In principle it sounds a good idea, employees are companies biggest financial burden, thus take some of the burden away and make people easier to employ. Also tackling the state pension, this has to be addressed at some point, people are living longer combined with the cost of living having gone up. I would have preferred to have seen some policy that supports people in taking out a private pension though, as that's really the way out of this. Otherwise their could end up a bigger divide between those who could take out a pension and those that couldn't.

Their education policy i.e Troops to Teachers programme falls into the bizarre category, send the troops into schools? How sane, reasonable and not at all gimmicky. Though I'm not really taken with their education policy in general, not only does Michael Gove look like the Child Catcher but his policy is a little child hating to. Yet in fairness just getting politicians noses out of the curriculum would probably be enough to improve the standard of education.

Tory foreign policy looks like just Labours, only difference is the Tories might listen to people rather than just keep doing the same thing. As unlike Labour they've not committed themselves to a course of action. I am disappointed though with Hague on this point and concerned about his little EU fixation, by that I mean his deep, heartfelt hatred for the EU.

Cameron's speech itself was quite pointed in places, I felt he identified the problems with Labour well, perhaps however a little too well. Everything was so calculated and Thatcher like, I even thought at one point he was channelling her. Yet what Cameron does have working in his favour is continuity, unlike Blair he's not just telling one person one thing and another something completely different, while doing whatever he likes and smiling like a manic. Cameron does have a vision, I wouldn't describe it as utopian, yet I can think of far worst.



Update - You can read Cameron's full speech here.