The future’s terrifying – if the future’s Tory

Last Updated: August 11, 2013By

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(This was originally posted on Vox Political in January this year. A lot has happened since then. I rediscovered it today while I was going through material for the second VP book collection, and thought it might be worthwhile to put it back up and ask whether people thought it was a more – or less – realistic prediction of the future under a Conservative government. Would the Tories be more extreme if they got into power?)

What does the future have in store for the UK, if the Conservatives win the 2015 election?

It seems sensible to conclude my loose series on the current changes to social security benefits – see here, here, here, here and here – by taking a look at what we know they have planned, and what we can reasonably expect from them. Some of this comes from the document ‘2020 Vision’, which has been produced by a group of Conservative Parliamentarians; some is just pushing current activity to a logical conclusion.

It’s all horrifying. Let’s have a look:

1. Conservative ministers to be above the law. That’s right; they want their future governments to be answerable only to Parliament, not to judges. Apparently they think the possibility of judicial review when they make illegal decisions means that the system is too slow. Of course, being answerable to Parliament means being answerable to nobody because a Conservative majority means Parliament will rubber-stampe anything they do, no matter how hare-brained, harmful or tyrannical.

2. NHS to be fully privatised. Of course this is already well on its way now, with the collusion of the right-wing press in keeping some of the major changes quiet. Just take a look at some of the measures being brought in by Jeremy Hunt, right now, if you don’t believe me.

3. Benefits system to be privatised. There has been some discussion of this on the blog already. The idea is simply to switch the system from being nationwide and run by the state to a patchwork of private insurance, run by private companies, for profit. From what’s being said, the biggest player in this would be Unum, the disgraced American company which is already doing considerable damage in the Netherlands, from what one reader has been telling us.

4. Police to be privatised. This is being piloted in certain parts of the UK already. Of course, with private companies running a police service for profit, only the rich will be able to afford their services. In other words, its a wheeze to ensure the poor lose what little luxuries they currently have and are unable to turn to our law guardians for justice.

5. Regional pay for all employees. This is in order to accelerate the race to the bottom of the pay scale for the people who do the actual work. If pay for the same job varies between UK regions, then employers can happily turn to their workforce at any time and say, “They’re doing it for less over the border, so you can take less as well.” The government tried it with public sector pay but was told to think again. We know some of them want to do it with benefits. It’s only a matter of time before it happens.

6. UK to exit Europe. Not because the EU is anti-democratic, forcing unreasonable demands on the UK, but because its human rights laws are damned inconvenient for a political party that wants to crush anyone who isn’t in the top 10 per cent of earners (I may be exaggerating this; it could be that they’re only interested in the top one per cent).

7. Free movement to be discouraged. They already have plans for a two-tier road tax system.

8. Education to be fragmented so you only get the best if you pay for it. Obviously we’ve always had private education but the starvation of the state system to fund ‘free schools’ is softening the system up for worse to come. Can anyone say they honestly understand Michael Gove’s divisive and wasteful policies?

9. Flat-rate taxes. This is a Conservative dream, because flat-rate taxation – one percentage for everybody – provides an unfair advantage to those who have more money to start with. They recognise that there are people in the UK who understand how unfair it is, so they launch periodical campaigns to point us in the other direction. Hence the current push to get us to believe a 20 per cent rise in JSA, from £59.15 to £71 (a rise of just £11.85), is totally unfair when compared to a 12 per cent rise in average wages, from £420 to £468 (a rise of £48 – more than four times as much). How can it be unfair to keep the level of the former the same, as a proportion of the latter – especially when one considers the rocketing prices of groceries and utilities? Those of use who can remember the Community Charge should also remember that this was also a flat-rate tax. People took to the streets to put an end to it but clearly the Conservatives have not learned the lesson. ‘2020 Vision’ suggests that Income Tax could come down to 20 per cent for everybody. This means someone earning £25,000 a year would have £20,000 left after Income Tax. Someone paying themselves £1 million a year would have £800,000 left afterwards. And we wouldn’t have anything like the public sector services that we have, even today after nearly three years of Coalition rule – that level of taxation cannot sustain that level of spending.

10. Continuation of the high-level national deficit and debt. This is to justify the shrinking of the state. The changes that have been made so far, including those that are to come in this year, are not intended to boost the economy – quite the opposite. If this government wanted to boost the economy it would close tax loopholes (including those that have been created by the current Chancellor) that allow the richest in the UK to avoid paying more than £100 billion every year and ensure that any of them who wish to leave this country as a result pay their fair share before they leave. It would also borrow – yes, borrow; don’t you know that interest rates are fantastically low just now? – in order to invest in British jobs and industry, the new technologies that will power the world in the future. They’re not doing that, for specious reasons, and they know that the poorest in the UK will suffer as a result.

That’s what the UK will look like under a government of Tory tyrants.

No wonder so many Scots want to leave.

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17 Comments

  1. sp4mf15h August 11, 2013 at 10:31 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on Oprichnik Rising and commented:
    A prediction that I fear is going to be proven only to accurate in years to come.

  2. […] (This was originally posted on Vox Political in January this year. A lot has happened since then. I rediscovered it today while I was going through material for the second VP book collection…  […]

  3. Bolshy August 11, 2013 at 11:53 pm - Reply

    Will this mean, I wonder, this government could be the future spark that will bring women and men onto the streets in violent protest?

    I just cannot see – even the British, taking what you have said up the backside for so long – as you mentioned, the poll tax riots made a change, though little, but a change no less.

  4. bookmanwales August 11, 2013 at 11:57 pm - Reply

    The thought of a conservative government in 2015 is truly terrifying.

    The points above are rather mild in respect to what would really happen. The practical enslavement of millions of lower paid or unemployed people would be complete. No jobs, no welfare, no justice, no health service, limited education and zero prospects.

    Leaving the EU would only happen if the EU made any objection to the reign of terror unleashed by the Tories. This may sound melodramatic but given the level of plundering and corruption by our MP’s and the persecution of the unemployed and sick under a coalition with no mandate to perform such actions having a mandate (as they would see it) by winning an election outright would enable them to unleash the full onslaught they have planned.

    Interest rates will rise and homeowners put under enough pressure to make keeping their jobs more important than what the government is doing elsewhere. Those lower down the scale will fall lower and no one will bat an eyelid as the struggle for survival becomes a personal battle in a dog eat dog country.

  5. Edward Melville August 12, 2013 at 7:25 am - Reply

    Yep

  6. skwalker1964 August 12, 2013 at 9:02 am - Reply

    Reblogged this on The SKWAWKBOX Blog and commented:
    If any corroboration was needed for what a disaster a further term in office for the current government – or even worse a Tory majority – would be for the vast majority of people in this country, look no further.

  7. Carol August 12, 2013 at 9:12 am - Reply

    Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse!!! This government is on another Planet.

    • guy fawkes August 12, 2013 at 11:53 am - Reply

      We all thought that about new labour when they got in, we the traditional labour party members thought that blair and brown would revoke the union laws that were imposed by the Thatcher government when they came to power but proved to be no better if not as bad as the tories, the same can be said for the Miliband lot which includes balls and his wife remnants of the blair government.

  8. Julian Field August 12, 2013 at 10:40 am - Reply

    I feel you have painted a very accurate picture of what the tories have in mind. Furthermore, if they remove people’s right to peaceful protest, this will surely encourage an increasingly desperate populous, to resort to violent protest, as they will have little to lose. That being the case, it would give this regime a reason to declare marshal law – something that may well be being mooted behind closed doors – and their totalitarian vision, would be complete. These are dangerous times, indeed.

  9. paurina August 12, 2013 at 11:21 am - Reply

    Reblogged this on paurina and commented:
    No, this isn’t an ‘incompetent, hopeless, out of touch …. pledge-breaking … ‘ government, they’ve done exactly what they planned to do. Everything else in this blog I agree with.

  10. Thomas M August 12, 2013 at 1:45 pm - Reply

    French people do all sorts of things when bothered, legal, semi-legal and illegal, from strikes and go-slows to blocking roads and dumping rubbish outside council officers. British people either do little protests that do nothing, or erupt into violent rioting and stealing.

  11. Christine Cassidy August 12, 2013 at 5:08 pm - Reply

    When I was A LOT Younger I was truly terrified of Frankensteins Monster, now I can REALLY FEEL THE FEAR

  12. Thomas August 12, 2013 at 7:13 pm - Reply

    I can’t get insurance-no one in their right mind would insure me. I was born with my condition.

  13. John August 13, 2013 at 12:20 pm - Reply

    To all you voters, this is what voting has done for this country. Blame yourselves, whatever political persuasion you are, you are perpetuating this decline!

    • Mike Sivier August 13, 2013 at 12:38 pm - Reply

      So what are you suggesting? “Don’t vote – someone will still get in and your views will be completely ignored for the next five years of your life”? That’s completely self-defeating.

      The only answer is to get involved – take charge of your political life and make your voice heard. Removing yourself from the debate and letting the scum walk all over you won’t achieve that.

  14. rainbowwarriorlizzie August 15, 2013 at 12:30 pm - Reply
  15. maxwell1957 April 4, 2014 at 2:15 pm - Reply

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