afleitch
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Atlas Star
Posts: 29,862
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« on: July 05, 2007, 05:29:08 AM » |
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« edited: July 05, 2007, 05:32:49 AM by afleitch »
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Or, 'It's society, stupid.'
It looks as if the next General Election will be fought along familiar lines, with one party dedicated to fighting terror, bringing in tough security measures and ID cards and supporting a sense of Britishness and national pride. The other party will be dedicated to fighting poverty and deprivation, supporting social justice and promoting community action. So a good, traditional fight. Correct?
If you were to take a wild stab at guessing which party will fight which platform you may be suprised. After a year long policy review, the Conservative Party have reported. They have concluded that 'breakdown Britain' and repairing Britains 'broken society' will be it's top priority, with an important community based approach to action. The effects of the tax burden and local crime will be also be identified as the party seeks to reduce social cost and promote social justice.
While the party has not taken on board my own favoured proposal; a raising of the income tax threshold to between £10k and £12k to lift millions of low paid and part time workers out of the income tax system altogether, coupled with the scrapping of the overcomplicated, and often misappropriated Working Tax Credit's scheme, overall taxation will be looked at which I am pleased with. Some are concerned that this is a change in emphasis away from crime and tax, but it is quite the opposite. It consolidates these issues with the framework of 'breakdown Britain.'
The policy identified that in many areas of Britain, society has broken down, the 'social contract' of welfare state is increasingly breaking down as children are denied the support in education and in housing that their parents had, and pensioners continue to struggle. Many young people are plagued with debt from pursuing an education, many more are dependent on welfare exacerbated by family breakdown and long term educational failure.
The Conservatives have said that they want to 'put an end to the economic cost of the social malaise.' It is noted, that the cost of maintaining welfare dependency and failed initiatives totals some £102bn. It further states that the effects of educational underachievement costs £18bn and crime £60bn.The effect of family breakdown costs £24bn a year.
So there we have it; a repositioning onto an strange but important new territory. The approach itself will be local and personal, with Cameron seeking to promote volunteering and local initiatives and targeting funding to alleviate problems. Labour's response had been distant under Blair; top down national schemes, headline grabbing initiatives and ASBO's. While I'm Labour friends will disagree with me, but I feel, to use an old political phrase, Labour's response has often been to 'throw money at the problem.' Funding is needed, but it has to be targeted by those who know best at a local level and funding has to be the response to social problems, not the assumed solution to them.
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