Conservatives fear social progress

Chris Chope’s contempt for the minimum wage highlights the progressive tensions within the Conservative Party.

 

David Cameron might have managed to gloss over the essence of Conservatism – an antipathy towards equal opportunities and minority rights. These values are instinctive and essential to becoming and being a Tory.

 

By galvanising his rhetoric away from addressing his party’s ideas on race, gay rights, David Cameron is using his instincts. Therefore there is no progress.  

 

His reasons for adopting this approach are understandable. It allows Cameron to continue with his clever populist oratory without ever having to commit to any concrete policies. This way he can keep the bulk of his party members happy while at the same time discuss progressive ideas without committing his party to any of them.

 

By even considering the idea of allowing businesses to opt-out of the minimum wage shows the entrenched values evident within conservatism and Conservative politicians.  

 

These values are as far removed from the social progressive ideals espoused by Cameron as is possible. Essential to conservative ideology is tradition and traditionally Conservatives are anti-social progress.

 

 

Chris Chope’s actions have simply highlighted the values evident in all Tories. They might be in opposition but the electorate need to beware of voting Cameron and his crew into power. A Tory will never change because it’s not in their nature.

 

Tories to scrap minimum wage

Christchurch MP Chris Chope has come up with a terrific wheeze for getting the economy back on its feet – scrap the minimum wage.

 

He wasn’t alone. Last week a small but significant group of Tory MPs gave their backing to Christchurch MP Chris Chope’s Bill which proposed a minimum wage opt-out for employers.

 

Mr Chope argued that such an opt-out would help not only those who are out of work but those in the hard-pressed businesses such as retail and hospitality.

 

Yet this isn’t a new idea of his. In June 1998, Chris Chope, the then Conservative spokesman on Trade and Industry, told Parliament the minimum wage would cost jobs and devastate small businesses.

 

History has shown the opposite to be true. Since its introduction th e minimum wage has benefited about two million people – more than half of them in the service sector.

 

By calling for hard pressed families to suffer even more in these troubled times, Chris Chope, now a senior Conservative spokesman, has unwittingly helped the electorate. People can now see what a vote for Cameron’s ‘progressive’ Conservatism will bring – poverty pay.

Let them eat cake

It has been a long time since the ordinary people of Britain have been so incensed by the arrogant behaviour of elites. Yet still Alistair Darling seems more concerned over bankers’ feelings than the ordinary people of Britain.

 

Today he spoke of giving Royal Bank of Scotland future bonuses to be paid in shares, not cash. Alistair get a grip. The cultural change people expect to see you implement is not one of incentives but one of accountability and responsibility for bank bosses.

 

Instead he talks of his ‘legal obligations’ to their contracts. Alistair where were their moral obligations to the people of Britain when they were frittering our money away with their self-indulgent bonuses?

 

People are seething at thought of these greedy, gluttonous and arrogant ‘spivs’ even thinking let alone taking bonuses. The sense of unfairness is palpable everywhere you go. The electorate are not fools. They see a small elite who not only caused the crisis, but seek to profit even further from it as totally reprehensible.

 

I’m being too kind here. Let’s not beat about the bush. The actions of these bankers aren’t reprehensible they are criminal. Peter Cummings of HBOS, lost £7 billion last year. But last month still he was still given a £660,000 payoff plus his £6 million pension pot. What payoff did Woolworth and Cowley workers get – nothing.

 

Jon Moulton, the private equity chief, warned a City lunch this week that he feared our financial melt down could precipitate serious civil unrest. Such siren voices are not so far fetched when you listen to the concerns of ordinary people.

 

Thousands of people across Britain them of are losing their jobs each week. These jobs don’t come with lavish redundancy packages. They bring financial distress and anxiety. Therefore people are understandably outraged at the way they’ve been let down by an unscrupulous elite who still seem intent on lining their own pockets even more. These bankers are so far removed from reality you can almost imagine Peter Cummings saying “let them eat cake”.  

Alistair give us a cultural change. Tread all over the toes of bankers by nationalising the banks the way Sweden did in the 1990s. Sweep away the greed, implement a new business model to get confidence and credit within our banking system.    

Mini workers ‘given’ bankers’ pay-offs

Take a moment to compare the treatment of UK bankers and workers at BMW’s Mini Cowley plant in Oxford and you get an insight into the endemic problems of UK society.

 

While the failed bankers from Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS wallow in their enormous pensions and pay-offs. Highly successful workers at Cowley are laid-off at a moments notice and a weeks pay.

 

Almost every day we hear more and more news about the consequences of our greedy bankers and the way they sucked the very marrow out of our economy in order to satisfy their greed and self-interest.

 

While I’ll be the first person to accept the economic realities of BMWs decision, I fail to see why 850 agency workers had to be treated in such an offhand way. Where was the notice? Where was the respect? Many of these workers had worked at the plant for several years, contributing to making the Cowley one of the most efficient production lines in Europe.

 

Contrast this with the truly reprehensible actions of our leading bankers. Why was Northern Rock’s Adam Applegarth, paid £750,000 to leave his post? Why does Sir Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland still have all his £8 million pension after the RBS lost of £28,000 million last year?

 

I’d like to see the government “claw back” all the bonuses and pension rights of failed bankers and use this cash to support the unemployed. At least this type of action will help narrow the gulf between Britain’s rich and the rest of us.

Tesco ‘threaten’ staff

Tesco bosses have said they will dock the wages of any member of staff who missed work due to the recent snow storms.

I’m surprised that Tesco feels the need to treat thousands of their shelf-stackers and till operators in such a miserly manner especially when it made £2bn profit last year.

A whole host of services included public transportations were disrupted by the extreme weather. This left many people with little option other than to stay at home especially as the broadcast media advised people not to drive to work.

A spokesman for Tesco said that staff at all of their stores across the country would have to make up the unexpected loss

Sadly it is becoming so easy for large firms to threaten employees, and it’s even easier to intimidate lower paid staff when jobs are few and far between.

Yet I wonder if the same rule applies to any of Tesco’s bosses caught-up in the inclement weather? No doubt they were ’snowed-under’ choosing to work from their homes.

Prescription pain

Recently I had to purchase several prescription drugs. As many people are well aware the cost of each prescription drug is £7.10 and because I had to have several items my bill came to well over £55.

For people on low or average incomes these charges are painful, especially when you subsequently go online and see the same items available for a fraction of the cost.

The issue of prescription charges isn’t new; since Mrs Thatcher introduced prescription charges in the 1980s they have continued to be a bone of contention.

However the issue of prescription charges is yet again high on the political agenda. Scotland and Northern Ireland will soon be abolishing them; Wales already has.

From 1 April 2009, prescription charges for cancer patients will be abolished. Moreover Professor Ian Gilmore is leading a review of prescription charges with a view to extending free prescriptions to more people with long term illnesses.

However this isn’t good enough. There’s plenty of evidence that many poor people do not take medication, or sometimes do not even take medical advice, because of cost.

Prescription charges undermine the values of the NHS. The time has now come to abolish prescription charges in England for everyone.

Cutting social class down to size

This morning’s announcement by the Liberal Democrats  to cut classroom sizes can only be heralded as a move in the right direction.

However I would argue that such provisions in the primary sector need to be implemented in secondary schools as well.

The UK comes 23rd in a league table of 30 developed countries’ class sizes in state schools. State secondary schools need to provide class sizes which emulate the private sector. By allowing excessive class sizes in state schools remains a national scandal. It entrenches social inequality by discriminating opportunity through parental income.

I will continue to work to bring such social inequalities to an end so every child – rather than the elite few – can have an equal opportunity  to develop their talents.

Social security improves ouput

We all suspected there was a relationship between welfare provision and worker commitment. My guess is many people would assume the relationship between the two is a corrosive one. With logic suggesting the greater the welfare provision the less enthusiastic the worker.

However a recent report found the opposite to be true. Worker morale, enthusiasm and output is stronger where the welfare provision is greater.

 Ingrid Esser one of the report’s authors said: ‘It is clear that work morale has not been undermined by generous welfare states……..it appears to be quite possible to maintain strong work morale within a generous welfare state.’

The British Social Attitudes Report published on January 28^th found that a generous welfare state undermines people’s commitment to work are unsubstantiated by international evidence.

Their evidence comes from collecting data from a range of countries on people’s employment commitment – the extent to which they want to work for its own sake rather than just for the financial reward. From these outcomes were put on a scale of 0 to 5. Where 5 is the strongest employment commitment and showed considerable variation between countries:

• The highest commitment score is for Norway: 3.9 out of 5.
• The lowest commitment score is for Britain: 3.3 out of 5.

It would seem another ‘common-sense’ notion has been challenged through clear evidence rather than supposition. We now need politicians with the political integrity to champion such ideas and help create a society worth contributing to.

Bottom of class system

Paul Griffiths (Bottom of class system, January 23) hit the nail on the head regarding selection in state schools. In contrast, Cllr Tony Woodcock (Keep the class war out of the classroom, January 28) and Gary Hunt fail to even see the metaphorical nail which ‘catches’ and subsequently hampers the educational progress of many children.

Selection is an anachronism. It blights our society because it misleads people into thinking the process selects the right people for the right career paths. Bright children pass the test and go to grammar schools, while children with other diverse ‘talents’ go to secondary schools.

Yet passing the 11+ is as much to do with tutoring, coaching, post-code, primary school and parental ambition, as intellect. Sadly while this nature verses nurture debate rages on, many children continue to ‘fail’ in our schools. Yet the evidence indicates it need not be like this.

Dorset LEA’s league tables’ show there isn’t such a polarised gulf between the top and bottom performing schools. Contrast this with Poole and Bournemouth LEA data and the gap becomes a chasm. This was Paul Griffiths point. A child attending school where selection exists is less likely to get the necessary 520GCSE passes than a child taught in an area without selection.

Would Gary Hunt and Cllr Tony Woodcock be such ardent advocates of the selective system if their child failed the 11+? I doubt they would, but then why would or should anyone? Instead maybe we should all be championing for an education system like Finland’s.

Its “one-size-fits-all” system has no selection, no streaming, no SATS, an insignificant private sector and yet delivers the best education results in the world. But here’s the quandary; if so many people succeeded at school, how would our social-class system survive in a true meritocracy?

Published in Bournemouth Echo

Help end postcode suffering

On February 27^th The Autism Bill will be debated in Parliament. For the Bill to reach the next stage in the parliamentary process at least 100 MPs have to vote in favour of the Bill.  Without this support the Autism Bill will end.

 

Therefore I urge as many readers as possible to email their MP via The National Autistic Society at: http://www.autism.org.uk

The bill help put an end to the postcode lottery of services for the half a million children and adults with the condition in the UK, because the Bill will:

1. strengthen information about the numbers of people with autism and their needs, in order to improve local planning of services
2. improve inter-agency working to secure effective transition for young people with autism who are moving from child to adult services
3. ensure access to appropriate support and services for people with autism in adult life.