I will vote and always have, but it is hard when none of the parties are honest about the challenges faced. Just looking at the two main contenders:
Immigration: Tories bring in probably illegal and certainly distasteful Rwanda policy, at the same time being unable to process asylum seekers at a sensible pace or look after them properly. Lots of hand waving but no solutions to massive nation changing legal migration.
Labour:
‘Here’s what Labour will do on immigration
- Boost Britain’s skills by joining-up Whitehall systems to spot and tackle skills shortages – so we can fire up skills training rather than look overseas to fill skills gaps, and end the days of sectors languishing on the shortage of skills list without a plan to deal with the problem.
- Reform the points-based immigration system, bringing down migration. We will instruct the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to partner with other government agencies to ensure joined-up action to deliver the skills needed for growth, including priority sectors for our industrial strategy. We will work to reduce the need for international recruitment, boost per-capita growth, and ensure quick responses to changes in the labour market.
- New powers to ban hiring from overseas for employers and recruitment agencies who break employment law. An end to workplace exploitation, where migration is used as a way to undercut the terms and conditions of workers here. ‘
Total waffle! As if any government hasn’t tried all the above. All of the above is more civil service than politics, and no meaningful targets or conditions.
Taxation:
Tories, pretty much steady as she goes, with no new taxes and stealth taxes continuing.
Labour: No meaningful clues except some populist taxes which won’t put many voters off, taxes on non doms, private schools (which even if it works, will increase tax revenues by around 0.2%), utilities etc.
But they will need to raise meaningful revenues to improve public services, so we have no idea where these will come from.
Education:
Tories: Have been disastrous, no meaningful new ideas.
Labour:
‘Recruitment and retention
- Recruit 6,500 new expert teachers in key shortage subjects, support areas that face recruitment challenges and tackle retention issues.
- Review the way bursaries are allocated and the structure of retention payments.
- Reinstate the School Support Staff Negotiating Body to address the recruitment and retention crisis in support roles.
- Update the Early Career Framework and ensure any new teacher entering the classroom has, or is working towards, qualified teacher status (QTS).
- Introduce a new teacher training entitlement “to ensure teachers stay up to date on best practice with continuing professional development”.’
Again, total meaningless waffle. They can’t find the 6,500 teachers and, even if they could, is that more than enough to just offset population growth?
NHS:
Tories: They have presided over the collapse of the NHS.
Labour: Here they are slightly better, actually pledging £1.3 bio (again an absolutely minuscule amount, between 0.1 and 0.2% of total tax) to buy some more scanners. But they do have a slightly more detailed policy, although not great!
In reality, though, both parties are relying on ‘growth’ to pay for a lot of their wish list and neither are prepared to commit to where they want total taxation to be as a percentage of GDP or to meaningful reform of the tax system until they are in power.
So we don’t really know how much tax they intend to take, or from where, or what they will spend it on.
The opposition will claim that they need to be in power to gain the resources to address the challenge, but parties used to be far more honest about this (look at Thatcher vs Foot, a clear choice based on an honest stating of priorities).
Electorates, rightly, feel they are being played for fools and become apathetic. As I said, I will vote, but it is with a degree of reluctance.