The Tory Party manifesto is very positive about the NHS, its staff and its future. The party is proud of it, and has some good plans for improving it.
There isn’t much to complain about here. You might quibble about the way the promise to end parking charges is worded and suspect that the data quoted are the result of an optimistic interpretation of the facts. But the manifesto as written commits the party to not just keeping the NHS as the primary way health services are delivered in the UK but to improving it as well.
This is good news as I didn’t know whether they even wanted to keep it given their recent direction of travel.
My reaction to the thin section on education wasn't quite as positive. The National Health Service is a great idea but it has to be paid for. There isn't a magic money tree. We can only keep it up if we have a productive economy, and that in turn is only possible if we have a productive workforce. We really need to get the best out of the people who live here if we want the country to be as good as it possibly can be. There is nothing wrong with the little that the Tory manifesto says on the subject.. The problem is just how little it is. There is more to education than schools for a start. And when you are saying so little, it is a bit alarming that you still find time to talk about discipline and failing schools is a bit worrying. These are important enough in their place but not the key to success. You need a good lock on your door, but it doens't make it a comfortable house. I get the impression that education, or at least the state funded bit, isn't something that attracts much thought from the Tories. But at least they aren't pledging to bring back bloody Grammar schools, so maybe they are getting better. My final score - must try harder.
Social care is much the same story, but even sketchier on the details. I did notice though that one of the few areas that revealed evidence of having been thought about in all but the most broad brushed way is research into dementia. It reinforced the impression I have that the Tories are mainly interested in the concerns of the older section of the population.
Overall I think the Conservative Party's new interest in social spending is to be welcomed and has the effect of pushing the political debate away from the consensus that public spending is some kind of weakness to be avoided wherever possible. It still feels like this is something that is being forced on them though, rather than that they have had a genuine conversion.
My reaction to the thin section on education wasn't quite as positive. The National Health Service is a great idea but it has to be paid for. There isn't a magic money tree. We can only keep it up if we have a productive economy, and that in turn is only possible if we have a productive workforce. We really need to get the best out of the people who live here if we want the country to be as good as it possibly can be. There is nothing wrong with the little that the Tory manifesto says on the subject.. The problem is just how little it is. There is more to education than schools for a start. And when you are saying so little, it is a bit alarming that you still find time to talk about discipline and failing schools is a bit worrying. These are important enough in their place but not the key to success. You need a good lock on your door, but it doens't make it a comfortable house. I get the impression that education, or at least the state funded bit, isn't something that attracts much thought from the Tories. But at least they aren't pledging to bring back bloody Grammar schools, so maybe they are getting better. My final score - must try harder.
Social care is much the same story, but even sketchier on the details. I did notice though that one of the few areas that revealed evidence of having been thought about in all but the most broad brushed way is research into dementia. It reinforced the impression I have that the Tories are mainly interested in the concerns of the older section of the population.
Overall I think the Conservative Party's new interest in social spending is to be welcomed and has the effect of pushing the political debate away from the consensus that public spending is some kind of weakness to be avoided wherever possible. It still feels like this is something that is being forced on them though, rather than that they have had a genuine conversion.
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