Can we get by with only 5? was my biggest concern.
- In 2011, in a speech to NHS staff in London, the Prime Minister admitted there were areas of the reforms that needed to change.
He said: “Hospital doctors and nurses – not just GPs – would now be involved in commissioning, clinical senates would bring together healthcare professionals to oversee the integration of care over wide areas and the health regulator Monitor would have a duty to promote integration.”
Acknowledging widespread concerns about the Health and Social Care Bill, Mr Cameron promised there would be no “selling off” of the NHS, that waiting times would be kept under control and that competition would only be used as a means to improving services. My favourite bit was “I know other governments would announce reforms, and just plough on regardless of the concerns people had for fear of appearing indecisive or worrying about admitting something could be improved…..But this is too important to get wrong”
And at the 2012 Conservative Party Conference we got “Some people said the NHS wasn’t safe in our hands. Well – we knew otherwise. “
Speechless, and that’s only #1.
- In 2012 Mr Camoron again made us a promise, that Coastguard Stations would remain open until the new structure came into operation in 2015.
In reality Coastguard Station closures commenced later in 2012
This letter would appear to prove that he cannot keep his promises;
- In 2010, the Ministry of Defence was ordered to cut £4.7billion – or 8 per cent – from its budget.
But speaking at the time, Mr Cameron promised ‘year on year real-terms growth in the defence budget in the years beyond 2015’. In 2013 Downing Street was forced to admit spending will not rise until after 2016. Defence Secretary Philip Hammond insisted the promise was only that equipment spending would rise by one per cent a year, but other areas would be cut. This comes on the back of his 2007 promise:- In the wake of Labour defence cuts, a promise to increase the size of the army. The reality of that promise is that no battalions were restored to the Army. In fact, military commanders estimate that up to eight of the existing 36 battalions could be lost as the Army shrinks to 84,000 by 2020 – its smallest size since Victorian times – relying on an enlarged reserve force.
So that’s another broken promise then.
- In 2010 a coalition agreement promised to: “Bring forward early legislation to introduce a power of recall, allowing voters to force a by-election where an MP is found to have engaged in serious wrongdoing and having had a petition calling for a by-election signed by 10% of his or her constituents.”
This proposal was subsequently watered down by Camoron last year, apparently to avoid “vexatious” attempts to remove sitting MPs. It has now emerged that the legislation has been dropped altogether and will not appear in this year’s Queen’s speech, the last opportunity for it to do so this parliament. Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith, who has long championed the proposals, said that voters would feel deceived by the government.
And finally;
- In 2010 (before the General Election surprisingly) Camoron said “Any Cabinet minister, if we win the election, who comes to me and says ‘here are my plans and they involve front line reductions’ will be sent back to their department to go away and think again.” Theresa May was insisting that “lower budgets do not mean lower numbers of police officers”.
The breathtaking disingenuousness of these soundbites was exposed when Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary published the first authorised estimate of how the government’s 20% cut in police funding, announced in October’s spending review, would affect police numbers – and in particular how it would affect the front line.
The 16,200 police officers that will be cut between 2010 and 2015 entirely undoes Labour’s investment between 2000 and 2010, taking police numbers back to 1997 levels.
These figures do not take into account my blog in January this year where I revealed that 42% of the 43 Forces in England and Wales are already reporting that their establishment is currently LOWER than their planned March 2015 Target.
So there you have it, 5 pretty major broken promises in my humble opinion. The tragedy of it all is that I could have kept going beyond 5.
Will I be voting Tory in 2015? Have a guess.
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