CONSERVATIVE PLEDGES

Introduction

T
he 2010 general election is time for Britain to speak up, to invoke a change that will take our country back to prosperity, and back to where it should always have been. 13 years of Labour have resulted in a battered economy, declining standards in education, and a broken society.
This simply cannot go on.
But together, we can make a change for the better; a change that you can believe in.
We admit that it will not be easy, that is the extent of Labour’s failure to all of us. We will inherit the worst set of economic statistics of any government since before the Second World War, we will be forced to deal with a massive budget deficit, and problems which have become so deeply engrained into our society. But with the strength of our economic team and our undying faith in what we can achieve as a nation, we promise to deliver a stronger, fairer, better Britain.
As Leader of the Conservative party, you have my promise that, should we be elected, we will implement the entire contents of the strategies outlined in this manifesto, and together we will re-build our great nation.

Karl McLean,
Conservative Party Leader








ECONOMY


T
he extent of our budget deficit is so great that we must cut spending as soon as possible. Coming out of recession, removing areas of unnecessary spending will be highly beneficial towards helping our recovery. And the real positive our economic strategy is that these cuts in spending will not affect the quality of our frontline services. So, in the remaining 6 months of the calendar year, we will cut £6 billion of unnecessary government spending in the following ways:
Reduce child tax and benefits for households earning over £50,000 a year. We are aware that we cannot fully remove these things, but we simply cannot afford to give benefits to high earners.
Grant control over all banks to The Bank of England, meaning that a reduction of bank bonuses, which were ridiculously high for a number of years under Labour, will save a substantial amount of money and can be controlled by the government. Furthermore, management of banks will become a lot stricter to ensure that we never get into an economic crisis again.
Hold a review to bring forward the 2026 date at which the state pension age starts to rise to 66 to no earlier than 2016 for men and 2020 for women. It is estimated the increase in age for both men and women will save £13 billion a year.
Cut government input into Child Trust Funds in all but the poorest 30% of families and families with disabled children for at least 5 years.
Cut the pay for Minister’s by 15% and reduce the number of MPs on wages of over £50,000 per year.
Increase technological trade with other countries. We have a massive pool of young, innovative scientists whose work would increase trade links particularly in the West, and would help establish a more sustainable economy. We will ensure this by raising focus on science, technology, and mathematics within schools and by funding schools to become specialist colleges in these areas.
Offer more help to households to manage their debt.
Removing welfare benefits to those who are fully able but refuse to work, ensuring a decrease in welfare dependency.
These cuts in spending will allow us to inject money into the NHS each year, and reduce inheritance tax on estates under £500,000, as well as giving us the balanced, dynamic economy we so desperately need.

EDUCATION

A
s mentioned previously, we want to ensure that more schools become specialised in certain subjects to ensure that our country is always producing young people who are very talented and will help with our continuing development in different subject areas. Additionally, we want to increase discipline in schools to reduce violent altercations between teachers and students, and help towards solving some of society’s problems. We will do this by lowering the number of issues of bad behaviour needed for a head teacher to expel a student, and by removing the 24 hours of notice given prior to an after-school detention. We also aim to reduce the bureaucracy in our schools and give teachers more freedom over what should be taught in the classroom. Finally, we want to give parents more choice with regards to which schools their children attend, especially parents of disabled children.


CRIME AND JUSTICE


A
nother area where we feel bureaucracy needs to be reduced is in our justice system, where paper-work seems to dominate our police force. This once again ties in with the increase in discipline we are proposing as part of our social reformations, and we will make sentences harsher on multiple-time offenders. Our big aim is to prevent the young offenders of today from becoming the criminals of the future, and we aim to do this by increasing the education students have as to the consequences of getting involved in criminal behaviour, and by re-evaluating the ASBO so that it actually means something to youngsters.



ENVIRONMENT

I
f we are elected, we will appoint a Minister for Climate Change and the Environment to monitor how the world develops to combat global warming. We aim to install energy-efficiency standards in all household appliances, and pledge to heavily tax high-polluters in order to see our contribution to climate change go down. Furthermore, we will cut down our country’s carbon emissions by 20% over the next 5 years. As part of our enrichment scheme for science and technology, we will always have a large number of scientists working on producing cutting-edge technology to help us become greener, and by increasing our technological links with other countries we will all be able to work together as a global community to combat climate change. Finally, we aim to give all renewable energy sources a thorough examination, before our Climate Change Committee publishes a report on which of these sources of energy we will use to save our environment.

HEALTH

T
he quality of health care in our country has always been something that could be improved, whether it be by a Labour government or a Conservative government. We propose to:
Increase spending on the NHS every year.
Give families the right to choose their GPs.
Make sure the NHS focuses on things that matter to patients.
Cut the cost of NHS bureaucracy by a third.
Make sure you have access to your GP in your area from 8am to 8pm seven days a week.

Provide more single rooms in the NHS.

Provide an NHS dentist for a million more people and free dental checks for all five year olds.

Introduce a voluntary insurance scheme so that people are no longer forced to sell their homes if they need residential care.

(Above policies on Health drafted by Conservative Candidate Aidan McGuire)


DEFENCE

S
ince the start of the 21st century, and the tragedies of 9/11 and the 2005 London bombings, management of defence has become a major issue for our governments, and we propose the following to ensure our country remains safe and prosperous:
Introduce a system of regular defence reviews, where the latest developments in this area are fed to the Head of MI6 and the government Secretary for Defence.
Replace trident subject to review and maintain the UK’s independent submarine-based nuclear deterrent.
Ensure that NATO, not the EU, remains the cornerstone of our nation’s defence.
Double the operational bonus for troops serving in Afghanistan to reward the importance of their service.
Maximise troops’ rest and recuperation time, making sure all serving officers are fully fit and prepared.

(Above policies on Defence drafted and compiled by John Welsh)


IMMIGRATION

We will introduce an annual limit on the number of non-EU economic migrants allowed to work here.
We will crack down on illegal migration by creating a dedicated border police force to crack down on illegal immigration and people trafficking.
We will introduce new rules to tighten up the student visa system, which is the biggest hole in our border control.
We will promote integration into British society. There will be an English language test to anyone coming here from outside the EU to get married.
A conservative government would also apply transitional controls as a matter of course for all future EU entrants.
[1] Conservative Party Secretary for Defence, John Welsh