Tory Two Faces (2)

David Cameron has an article in today's Sunday Telegraph with the headline "If I get the keys to No10, I'll give the power back to you".

One of the failures of the Conservative campaign has been their slogan "Vote for Change" because the people have realised that there will be no real change, no change on immigration, no change on wind farms, no change on central government 'control', to name but a few subjects.

Witness this statement from Cameron's article "So if elected, we will take power from the politicians and put it in the hands of people. It makes sense, for example, for local communities to have a say in policing their streets, since they know better than distant politicians in Westminster where the street lighting is dangerously poor, the pubs serve under-age drinkers and the gangs congregate. So they can meet local police to determine local priorities, and elect police commissioners. It makes sense also that charities, social enterprises and community groups are allowed to set up new schools." 

If Cameron was really going to give power to us he would not dictate that the only schools we are allowed to set up are those he 'allows' - in other words, if a community want a grammar school - they can't have one! By 'electing' police commissioners, it does not give local people the power to decide how the law is enforced, nor the punishments that the law can hand down.

Besides mentioning his 'Big Society' idea - which in reality is yet more central government 'control' over us - he also writes about his 'Contract' with the British voter and states "Our contract with the voters is a no-frills, no-nonsense commitment to do certain specific things in exchange for people’s vote. With trust in politics at an all-time low, we are saying clearly in this contract: “If we don’t do these things, if we don’t deliver our side of the bargain: vote us out in five years’ time." Yet I seem to recall another 'no-frills, no nonsense commitment' in respect of the Lisbon Treaty to do a very specific thing, a something that promptly got broken - so what price this 'Contract'? In any event, the electorate does not need a contract to vote out a 'government' (apologies for misuse of the word 'government') if they do not deliver!

Cameron also writes that "Government should not be like some demented branch of the entertainment industry." It is unfortunate therefore that the Conservative Party have presented themselves as similar to a demented branch of the entertainment industry, thus continuing the public's belief that the state of politics in our country is indeed hilarious!

Yet another mis-presentation from Cameron with "And look at how Labour is ending its time in office as it began: lying, twisting, spinning. In this election campaign it has had nothing positive to say, instead resorting to scaremongering about its opponents". Yet what happened during the 'Leader's Debates' - we had Cameron 'scaremongering about his opponents' and not telling the truth about his policies. So as Labour ends its time lying, twisting and spinning, so Cameron intends beginning!