The Conservative Party launched its political manifesto yesterday (13 April 2010) – a hard-back book bound in a sombre blue – amidst much fanfare at the former Battersea Power Station in London. Tory leader David Cameron issued an “Invitation To Join The Government of Britain” to the public. Yeah, right!
The manifesto hopes to return power to ordinary individuals allowing them to set-up their own schools, elect their own police chiefs and sack their local MP is necessary. Whilst, laudable, I can’t help thinking that this is expecting a lot from the hard-working public – do we really have time to do all this? And aren’t we paying and electing leaders to do just that for us? It seems we already have several layers of Government: European MEPs, Peers, MPs and Local Councillors. On top of that we have devolved government in Wales and Scotland and a raft of agencies (like Regional Delivery Authorities) to rollout initiatives. I thought the Conservative Party was all about reducing all this bureaucracy?
The Conservative Manifesto does however tackle the issue of reducing the debt crisis – so one brownie point to them.
23 days to the election
If I were voting today, it would still be the Liberal Democrats. Coalition government might bring greater scrutiny to public spending and ideologically move politics to the centre. The LibDems also issued their embargoed manifesto last night – the official launch is today, so perhaps my opinion might have changed by tomorrow?