The Mighty Quint
Player Valuation: £40m
He's a clever fella, like him or loathe him.
The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )
- Thread starter rascal
- Start date
- Status
aye he's not daft like, handles himself well
Are people honestly calling for armed rebellion, here?
Jesus christ.
Jesus christ.
Whistlin' Dixie
Player Valuation: £50m
I take it that's (mis)directed at me?
I hope so, I need a new tele
Seanjd
Player Valuation: £30m
Got the t-shirt?!
All of a sudden, the labour party (With their record on voting WITH the Govt on all sorts of unfair draconian welfare measures, and going so far as to state they will be even tougher on the unemployed than the tories should they get control) have lifted the veil?
As a matter of fact, I DO believe that people (When pushed & with very little left to lose - and people are becoming more desperate by the day) WILL resort to more desperate measures. Why do you think boris bought the water cannon?
Who will you vote for? I agree with your last paragraph by the way, the recent riots reminded us of that. There will never be a meaningful violent uprising in this country though.
daylightrobber
Player Valuation: £15m
I hear what you're both saying and to an extent I agree. What needs to be remembered though is that a political party isnt just the candidates who stand for election. Its the thousands of individuals in society who share ideas and principles they'd like to see implemented in order to run a country. There are too many of these principles which are looking like they will be sacrificed. Ones that members have been under the impression were not up for negotiation are being abandoned last minute. There are candidates campaigning on a no EU referendum platform, who have been sold down the river in the last few days before the ballot.
Joining a coalition with the Tories will have lost them many votes but relatively speaking less party members. The danger is that they will now leave in droves. They maybe once saw being in coalition as a genuine civic responsibility, but surely not at the expense of everything they stood for. With phase 2 looking likely to be the Lib Dems simply making up numbers whilst sacrificing anything worthwhile they had left as an organisation, the decision to prop up the Tories could fracture what's left of them from top to bottom.
He's an actual idiot if he thinks it'll be a coalition. He doesn't, obviously - he's just treating other people like idiots.
daylightrobber
Player Valuation: £15m
David Cameron's Top 100 failures. Happy reading.
Housing
1.In 2013, David Cameron brought in an Under-Occupancy Charge averaging £720 known as the “Bedroom Tax” which hurts 660,000 families, 63% of whom have a disabled member of the household (evidence)
2.Private Rents have soared under the Tories. The average UK private rent home is now £768 a month and £1,260 higher per year than it was on 30 April 2010 (evidence &evidence)
3.Tories are causing a home’s affordability crisis by refusing to build. The number of affordable homes completed this year was 34% lower than last year (evidence). When Grant Shapps was Housing Minister, affordable housing supply fell 97% (evidence)
4.Despite Tory claims that the New Homes Bonus delivered 400,000 new homes, the National Audit Office say the true figure is just 14,000 a year which is very poor value for the £1.3bn spent (evidence)
5.Homelessness is up at least 26% under David Cameron, this is despite Labour having cut it by 41% (evidence)
6.Despite nearly half of homes being deemed Sub-Standard, Iain Duncan-Smith’s Universal Credit Bill forces the poor to move into the lowest 33% of accommodation (Page 19 & Annex 3.3)
Children
7.In April 2010, there were 3,632 Sure Start Centres. Today, there are 2,816 Sure Start Centres. That is a difference of 866. The Tories have cut children’s services by 20%. 92 Sure Start Centres have also been privatised (evidence, evidence& evidence).
8.The Tories have also presided over a 30% increase in childcare costs. In 2011-12 the government cut the funding for Childcare by 10% (amounting to a £4bn cut over 5 years) (Page 44)
9.The government have failed to tackle, in fact worsened the Childhood Obesity crisis that is a future peril to the nation. The government sold off dozens of school playing fields (evidence & evidence). Michael Gove’s Constituency Association accepted funding from Fast Food Businessmen (evidence). 1 year before the Olympics, Michael Gove scrapped the £160m Schools Sports Partnership (evidence). Hospital Admission for children where the primary or secondary diagnosis is obesity is up 16% since 2010 (Table 7.5 evidence). Free Swimming for under 16s was scrapped in a £40m cost savings exercise (evidence)
10.The Government have deliberately withdrawn support from Children. The government cut the Child Maintenance Enforcement budget by £116m & charged parents to apply for Child Enforcement Assistance (evidence). George Osborne cut Child Tax Credits for middle-income households earning collectively £40,000-£50,000 a year (evidence). In June 2010 the Tories froze Child Benefit Payments for 3 years, axed Sure Start Maternity Grants and abolished Child Trust Fund payments (Page 48). From January 2013, the Tories axed Child Benefit for middle income households with a pre-tax income of £50,000 (Page 64).
Privatisation
11.The Tories privatised Royal Mail and claimed it was loss-making despite it making £287m profit the year previous. People with a personal connection to Ministers who signed off on a decision to privatise Royal Mail actually ended up financially benefiting from the sale of Royal Mail (evidence)
12.The government privatised the East Coast Mainline against the wishes of commuters. The rail had previous been profitable for the state have £200m+ in taxes back to the exchequer per year (evidence).
13.Postal collections have been slashed since to just once a day for over 14,000 post boxes and Stamp Prices have also been hiked 50% since 2010 (evidence & evidence)
Education
14.In 2010, The Tories scrapped the Educational Maintenance Allowance which the IFS said was value for money (evidence).
15.In 2010, the Tories, aided by the Lid Dems, tripled Tuition Fees to £9,000 (evidence)
16.From 2010-14, the Tories have closed 410+ Schools, and overspent £1bn on an academies programme (evidence).
17.According to the IFS, the Tories have delivered the worst real terms cut in Education Funding since the 1950s. UK Education Spending as a percentage of GDP has now fallen behind the USA (evidence & evidence)
18.The percentage of pupils achieving A*/A in A-Level English has fallen 13% under David Cameron. The fall for Mathematics is 6% (evidence &evidence)
19.Government Funding for Universities was cut by almost half (evidence & evidence)
20.The Tories scrapped the Building Schools for Future Programme that was set to renovate or build 715 schools (evidence & evidence). They replaced it with a “school improvements programme” that is nearly £6 billion short of what is required and is only improving 169 schools (evidence)
21.Career advisory services have declined steeply under this government. Cameron removed funding from Connexions Careers Advice Service (evidence & evidence). A report found that 4 in 5 schools are failing to provide adequate career’s advice to pupils at KS3 & KS4 (evidence).
22.The government have cut the number of teachers by 10,000 (evidence). The number of trainee teachers has declined by 13,000 since 2009 (evidence& evidence).
23.The number of over-crowded classrooms have trebled since 2010, and now stands at 2,985 (evidence).
24.The average Free School has 142 pupils, research by the Department of Education shows. The cost of opening those Free Schools has turned out to be double what was expected (evidence &evidence).
NHS
25.In 2012, David Cameron forced through a Top-Down reorganisation of the NHS that accelerated Privatisation (evidence)
26.The Tories have presided over the Closing or downgrading of 33% of NHS Walk Ins, 66% A&E/Maternity Wards and 16% of A&Es (all types) (evidence &evidence)
27.There are 477 fewer GP Surgeries, and a 4 fold increase in unfilled GP vacancies since 2010, partly caused by the £987m real terms funding cut in GP funding (evidence &evidence)
28.The Tories have invited Private Firms to bid for £18bn of NHS Contracts. Of contracts decided upon, private health have won 33%, 56% or 70% of those contracts depending on which statistic you place most stock in (evidence, evidence & evidence).
29.According to the UK Statistics Authority the Tories broke page 45 of their 2010 Manifesto to increase NHS Spending in real terms every year. According to the IFS, NHS Spending is falling 9.1% per patient from 2010 until 2018. The King’s Fund says the NHS is facing its tightest budget squeeze since 1979. And the Nuffield Trust say that NHS spending is falling steeply as a proportion of UK GDP (evidence, evidence, evidence and evidence)
30.Despite inheriting an NHS that enjoyed record satisfaction ratings, the Tories by 2012 had delivered the largest every fall in patient satisfaction with the NHS. To be fair to them, it has since stabilised a little but is still below its 2012 Tory NHS Act peak (evidence & evidence)
31.The Tories have overseen the worst A&E crisis in 11 years. Not since January 2004 have breaches of the A&E 4 hour target been as bad (evidence &evidence)
32.The Tories have failed Ambulance Services. Ambulance Response Times for Category A (8 minute) calls has dropped from 75% to 69% in just 3 years (evidence). Ambulance Trusts have made large cuts to their staff and fleet since April 2010. For example, EMAS has cut staff by 13% and its fleet size by 100 (evidence).
33.The Tories have oversaw the axing of 60+ stations (here, here, here, here,here, here, here, here, here & here). Expenditure on Private Ambulances for use in the NHS has doubled in 3 years an investigation revealed (evidence)
34.The Tories have wasted £11 billion of taxpayers’ cash on NHS Agency Staff & NHS Redundancies, despite then rehiring ¼ of the staff made redundant (evidence, evidence,evidence)
35.The Tories shut down a highly efficient NHS Direct and replaced by a for-profit NHS111 service that botched its initial launch (evidence). 78% of the NHS111 staff who process 111 calls have no clinical expertise. This has caused all sorts of pressures, including additional admissions at A&E (evidence). It has been reported that there have been 22 deaths or serious injuries which were caused by failures in the launch of NHS 111 (evidence).
36.S75 regs, TTIP, and force closures of A&Es take power away from the people and place it in the hands of unelected corporations. The Tories have insisted that healthcare will not be exempt from TTIP. They have passed clauses to allow Jeremy Hunt to force NHS closures against the say of the local public, and diminish the court’s role in holding him accountable. He has also passed regulations to push commercial competition in the NHS much more forcefully. All of this is anti-democratic (evidence, evidence & evidence)
37.¼ of NHS Trusts are now in deficit. 44 new trusts moved into deficit in 2013-14. The total deficit for NHS Trust more than doubled from £297m to £743m in 2013-4 (evidence p.6)
38.England’s GP to Patient ratio has worsened by 3-4% as population increases (evidence). Of 27 EU Countries, the UK is ranked 24th for the number of working doctors it has per head of population (just 2.71 per 1,000 people) (evidence & evidence).
39.3.2million people are now on NHS waiting lists awaiting operations. This figure is at a 6 year high (evidence). The average patient now waits 1 week longer for treatment after referral (evidence).
40.The Tories have cut 1,876 Mental Health NHS Beds. Up to 4,000 Psychiatric Nurses have lost their job, and overall mental health provision has been cut by 25% (evidence)
41.9,746 Hospital Beds have been axed under the Tories. The UK now has one of the worst hospital bed to patient ratios in the world (evidence).
42.Up to 20 treatments are now being rationed on the NHS, and denied to patients in 60+ parts of England. This shows that an NHS free at the point of use, is under threat (NAO, Dr Foster, and Labour Check)
Austerity
43.Tory austerity shifted cash from the poorest 30% of society, and children under the age of 14 and instead diverted it to the richer households (evidence)
44.Tory austerity also hits women hardest, a catalogue of reports revealed (evidence, evidence,evidence). For example, Statutory Maternity Pay was cut 2% (evidence).
45.From 2010-15, 200+ UK Libraries have been shut and 400-800 more are under threat (evidence)
46.There are 8,000 fewer Fire Personnel UK-wide since Cameron became PM, and 39 fewer Fire Stations in England (evidence & evidence).
47.The UK Public Sector has saw a reduction in 865,000 staff since June 2010 (evidence &evidence)
48.The government admit they have shut 10 Prisons & turned 4 more into Profit Making Prisons (evidence &evidence). They are also racing ahead with the privatisation of probation services.
49.UK Legal Practices have fallen into steep decline under the Tories. 400+ legal practices have closed, and up to 2,000 are facing closure (evidence &evidence)
Tax
50.From 2010-15, the Tories are cutting profit tax by 25% from a rate of 28% to 21%, prioritising big business over struggling smaller businesses struggling to make a profit (evidence)
51.Uncollected tax has shot up by 10% (£3b) since 2010 and Osborne has cut the HMRC budget by £577m (evidence &evidence)
52.In 2012, the Tories cut top rate of tax for the very richest earners by 10% from 50p to 45p in the pound (evidence)
53.In January 2011, the Tories hiked VAT to 20% hitting the poorest hardest. VAT added 0.7% to inflation for every month of 2011. VAT taxes are £33bn higher in 2014/15’s Budget than they were in the 2010/11 Budget published on the 24th March. Cumulatively, the average family has lost out £1,800 extra since 2011 (evidence)
54.The number of millionaire bankers has climbed 11% since 2010 to 2,714. Bonuses to the financial sector since 2010 already total £55bn. David Cameron has failed to discourage the risk culture among bankers that caused the 2008 Global Financial Crash. Bankers’ pay still grows 6 times faster than that of NHS Nurses (evidence, evidence, evidence)
Poverty & Inequality
55.As of 2014, 1,080+ Food Banks are now operating in the UK, and 1m people accessed Trussell Trust food banks which account for 38% of the Food Bank Network (evidence)
56.In 2013, David Cameron’s government also oversaw the axing of the collection of Food Bank Statistics and he turned down millions of EU cash to help Food Banks Directly (evidence & evidence)
57.Cameron’s government redefined fuel poverty and have not published any fuel poverty statistics on data after 2012. This makes it impossible for me to say with authority what impact the 30% increase in Gas Prices has had on fuel poverty levels in the UK (evidence &evidence)
58.The number of children in Absolute Child Poverty has climbed by 13% under David Cameron, this was despite Labour having cut it in half (evidence p.24)
59.The number of UK Citizens at risk of poverty or social exclusion has climbed 1.52 million in 5 years (evidence).
Jobs & Wages
60.Middle-Class Household Income fell £5,300 from 2008-2012 says the ONS (evidence)
61.The number of workers saying they are on Zero Hours Contracts has increased by 270% under David Cameron, this is despite it being 13% lower in 2010 than it was in 2010. Other research shows there are now 1.4m Zero Hour Contracts in operation in the UK (evidence & evidence)
62.For over 90% of this entire parliament, Prices have risen considerably more than Wages. This has led to a real term cut in wages approaching 8-10% since 2010 (evidence &evidence)
63.The UK Minimum Wage was worth more to workers in 2010 than it is today. In effect, workers have suffered a real terms cut in the NMW for 3 years, only partially alleviated by a belated rise this year that still fails to bring it above 2010 levels (evidence)
64.There are 2m UK Workers who are either working unpaid, cannot find full time or permanent work in the UK, an increase of 289,000 since May 2010 (evidence)
65.Long Term Youth Unemployment (18-24) is up 6% since May 2010, from 192,000 to 203,000 (evidence)
66.Wage Growth has suffered its most sustained real terms cut since records began in 1855. Average Households are £1,600 worse off today than 2010 (evidence)
67.David Cameron cut redundancy notice requirements for big business from 90 days to 45 days (evidence).
68.Tories make it harder for folk to find a job. Jobcentre Plus budget cut by £160m. 44 Job Centres shut. 1,000 of Jobcentre plus staff sacked (evidence, evidence, evidence &evidence)
69.6.4m UK workers earn below a living wage. There has been a 15% increase the workers being paid less than the National Minimum Wage since 2010 (evidence).
Immigration
70.The Tories have lowered the tone of the immigration debate falsely claiming that Health Tourism cost the NHS £2bn, and for piloting racist “Go Home” vans on the streets of London (evidence & evidence)
71.Despite all their rhetoric, immigration is actually up 20% since 2010. Tory lies on immigration became a matter for the UK Statistics Authority when he reprimanded them for falsely claiming they had cut it by 25% (evidence)
Welfare
72.The Tories ignored NAO warnings that the Work Programme would fail (here) and it failed to deliver jobs for 85%-91%% of participants says UK Stats Authority (evidence). The Government’s £200 million Back to Work Scheme helps just 3% of the people it targeted says National Audit Office (evidence).
73.The Work Programme was twice declared unlawful in a court of law (evidence & evidence).
74.After the Tories ordered private firms to toughen up the Work Capability Assessments, 158,000 were wrongly found fit to work (evidence), and had their decision overturned on appeal. 1,300 claimants died (evidence) whilst being placed in the category to ready themselves for work. 68 claimants died (evidence) while their appeal against the assessment finding them fit to work was still ongoing.
75.The government introduced forced (or face sanctions) & unpaid Work Programme (workfare) and have obliged 1.6m+ unemployed folk to participate in it, including half a million people who describe themselves as having a disability (evidence)
76.The government tripled sanctions on people in receipt of Job Seeker’s Allowance to the extent that over 90,000 a month were being sanctioned. Almost half of those unemployed but seeking work are not in receipt of unemployment benefit (evidence).
77.The Disabled have suffered real term cuts of 1.7% this year in benefits says the Institute of Fiscal Studies (evidence). The Tories have also frozen benefits to a maximum uprating of 1% which is in effect a real terms cut, for more than 3 years (evidence).
78.David Cameron withdrew the subsidy from Remploy the organisation that helped disabled persons find work. This resulted in the closing of 34 Remploy Factories (evidence).
79.The government’s flagship welfare policy has been an unmitigated disaster that has already wasted the taxpayer £241m in defunct equipment and botched roll out (evidence,evidence & evidence).
Business & Economic Growth
80.George Osborne is borrowing £219bn more than he said he would at the General Election. He has grown National Debt by more Labour Chancellors added together ever did.
81.David Cameron inherited an economy that was growing at +1% of GDP. It has never grown at that speed since. Indeed, most recently, 5 quarters of past growth statements were lowered by the ONS.
82.The UK Current Account Deficit has exploded to £27bn and the pound has weakened against the dollar (evidence)
83.On 19th April 2012, Ratings Agency Fitch downgraded the UK’s Credit Ratings from AAA to AA+ for the first time since the 1970s (evidence)
84.The Tories are asset stripping the UK’s crown jewels. Royal Mail, Northern Rock & 4G and Lloyd’s Shares were sold £3bn less than they were worth (evidence, evidence, evidence,evidence)
85.George Osborne has failed to rebalance the regional economy. The National Audit Office concluded that George Osborne botched the scrapping of Regional Development Agencies and this cause a reduction in regional investment (evidence). Local Enterprise Partnerships were supposed to create 54,000 jobs but in truth they’ll be lucky to create 1/3 of that (evidence).
86.UK production is lower today than it was in 2010. Production Industries had a higher output in 2010 than they do today (B+C+D+E). Infrastructure output is 10 indexed points lower today than May 2010 (evidence).
87.Tories continually boast about the number of new businesses opened under them. It is worth remembering that 968,000 business have died since 2010.
88.500,000+ individuals have been declared insolvent under David Cameron, so far. 70,000+ businesses have also been liquidated (evidence)
Cost of Living Crisis
89.Average Rail and Bus Fares are up 20% from January 2010 to January 2014 rises ( evidence & evidence,evidence, evidence, evidence)
90.Water Charges are up 20% since 1 Apr 2010 show Ofwat & the BBC (here, here, here)
91.OBR predict Household Debt will grow more than £500bn this parliament (here).
Elderly
92.The Tories have accelerated a Social Care crisis by cutting funding by £2.8bn. This has led to a cut of 311,000 in the number of elderly receiving care (evidence & evidence)
93.The costs of Social Care have climbed at least £558-£2,400 per person and this has coincided with a 36% increase in the number of elderly self-financing their care(evidence & evidence)
94.David Cameron made life harder for pensioners. He increased the age of retirement to 68 (and said it will rise further) (evidence) The National Audit Office says the outcomes of the new auto-enrolment pensions are “uncertain” and that ultimately the taxpayer may end up footing the bill (evidence). Cameron also oversaw £500m cuts in Winter Fuel Payments. He also scrapped the Warm Homes Healthy People fund even though it was deemed a success (evidence).
Environment
95.David Cameron tricked voters by saying that to vote blue was to go green. He then ushered in the least environmentally friendly government since 1979, and mocked environmental issues as Green Crap. For example, Eric Pickles turned down applications to build 50 onshore wind farms. The government also cut £1.2bn of funding to develop clean coal (evidence &evidence)
96.In May 2014, the government snuck out proposals that would ban a landowner from attempting to prevent fracking under his own land (evidence)
Ethics & Transparency
97.The Tories have accepted £60m in donations from sources linked to hedge funds or private health. Many of these firms stand to benefit from the increase in out-sourcing and privatisation that has occurred under Cameron (evidence &evidence)
98.David Cameron has demeaned the Office of Prime Minister by deploying bullying jokes that attacked women, elderly & the disabled (evidence). Other Tory politicians followed his example, and stigmatised the poor for relying on Food Banks (evidence).
99.The UK Statistics Authority has repeatedly warned the Tory government to stop lying over Immigration (evidence), Debt (evidence), Unemployment (evidence), Benefit Cap (evidence), NHS Spending (evidence) and A&E Performance (evidence).
100.100 government MPs earn additional income to their MPs’ Salaries totalling £3m+ a year. In addition, 50+ government MPs voted for the Tory NHS Act, while having varying degrees and types of financial links to private health companies (evidence)
Housing
1.In 2013, David Cameron brought in an Under-Occupancy Charge averaging £720 known as the “Bedroom Tax” which hurts 660,000 families, 63% of whom have a disabled member of the household (evidence)
2.Private Rents have soared under the Tories. The average UK private rent home is now £768 a month and £1,260 higher per year than it was on 30 April 2010 (evidence &evidence)
3.Tories are causing a home’s affordability crisis by refusing to build. The number of affordable homes completed this year was 34% lower than last year (evidence). When Grant Shapps was Housing Minister, affordable housing supply fell 97% (evidence)
4.Despite Tory claims that the New Homes Bonus delivered 400,000 new homes, the National Audit Office say the true figure is just 14,000 a year which is very poor value for the £1.3bn spent (evidence)
5.Homelessness is up at least 26% under David Cameron, this is despite Labour having cut it by 41% (evidence)
6.Despite nearly half of homes being deemed Sub-Standard, Iain Duncan-Smith’s Universal Credit Bill forces the poor to move into the lowest 33% of accommodation (Page 19 & Annex 3.3)
Children
7.In April 2010, there were 3,632 Sure Start Centres. Today, there are 2,816 Sure Start Centres. That is a difference of 866. The Tories have cut children’s services by 20%. 92 Sure Start Centres have also been privatised (evidence, evidence& evidence).
8.The Tories have also presided over a 30% increase in childcare costs. In 2011-12 the government cut the funding for Childcare by 10% (amounting to a £4bn cut over 5 years) (Page 44)
9.The government have failed to tackle, in fact worsened the Childhood Obesity crisis that is a future peril to the nation. The government sold off dozens of school playing fields (evidence & evidence). Michael Gove’s Constituency Association accepted funding from Fast Food Businessmen (evidence). 1 year before the Olympics, Michael Gove scrapped the £160m Schools Sports Partnership (evidence). Hospital Admission for children where the primary or secondary diagnosis is obesity is up 16% since 2010 (Table 7.5 evidence). Free Swimming for under 16s was scrapped in a £40m cost savings exercise (evidence)
10.The Government have deliberately withdrawn support from Children. The government cut the Child Maintenance Enforcement budget by £116m & charged parents to apply for Child Enforcement Assistance (evidence). George Osborne cut Child Tax Credits for middle-income households earning collectively £40,000-£50,000 a year (evidence). In June 2010 the Tories froze Child Benefit Payments for 3 years, axed Sure Start Maternity Grants and abolished Child Trust Fund payments (Page 48). From January 2013, the Tories axed Child Benefit for middle income households with a pre-tax income of £50,000 (Page 64).
Privatisation
11.The Tories privatised Royal Mail and claimed it was loss-making despite it making £287m profit the year previous. People with a personal connection to Ministers who signed off on a decision to privatise Royal Mail actually ended up financially benefiting from the sale of Royal Mail (evidence)
12.The government privatised the East Coast Mainline against the wishes of commuters. The rail had previous been profitable for the state have £200m+ in taxes back to the exchequer per year (evidence).
13.Postal collections have been slashed since to just once a day for over 14,000 post boxes and Stamp Prices have also been hiked 50% since 2010 (evidence & evidence)
Education
14.In 2010, The Tories scrapped the Educational Maintenance Allowance which the IFS said was value for money (evidence).
15.In 2010, the Tories, aided by the Lid Dems, tripled Tuition Fees to £9,000 (evidence)
16.From 2010-14, the Tories have closed 410+ Schools, and overspent £1bn on an academies programme (evidence).
17.According to the IFS, the Tories have delivered the worst real terms cut in Education Funding since the 1950s. UK Education Spending as a percentage of GDP has now fallen behind the USA (evidence & evidence)
18.The percentage of pupils achieving A*/A in A-Level English has fallen 13% under David Cameron. The fall for Mathematics is 6% (evidence &evidence)
19.Government Funding for Universities was cut by almost half (evidence & evidence)
20.The Tories scrapped the Building Schools for Future Programme that was set to renovate or build 715 schools (evidence & evidence). They replaced it with a “school improvements programme” that is nearly £6 billion short of what is required and is only improving 169 schools (evidence)
21.Career advisory services have declined steeply under this government. Cameron removed funding from Connexions Careers Advice Service (evidence & evidence). A report found that 4 in 5 schools are failing to provide adequate career’s advice to pupils at KS3 & KS4 (evidence).
22.The government have cut the number of teachers by 10,000 (evidence). The number of trainee teachers has declined by 13,000 since 2009 (evidence& evidence).
23.The number of over-crowded classrooms have trebled since 2010, and now stands at 2,985 (evidence).
24.The average Free School has 142 pupils, research by the Department of Education shows. The cost of opening those Free Schools has turned out to be double what was expected (evidence &evidence).
NHS
25.In 2012, David Cameron forced through a Top-Down reorganisation of the NHS that accelerated Privatisation (evidence)
26.The Tories have presided over the Closing or downgrading of 33% of NHS Walk Ins, 66% A&E/Maternity Wards and 16% of A&Es (all types) (evidence &evidence)
27.There are 477 fewer GP Surgeries, and a 4 fold increase in unfilled GP vacancies since 2010, partly caused by the £987m real terms funding cut in GP funding (evidence &evidence)
28.The Tories have invited Private Firms to bid for £18bn of NHS Contracts. Of contracts decided upon, private health have won 33%, 56% or 70% of those contracts depending on which statistic you place most stock in (evidence, evidence & evidence).
29.According to the UK Statistics Authority the Tories broke page 45 of their 2010 Manifesto to increase NHS Spending in real terms every year. According to the IFS, NHS Spending is falling 9.1% per patient from 2010 until 2018. The King’s Fund says the NHS is facing its tightest budget squeeze since 1979. And the Nuffield Trust say that NHS spending is falling steeply as a proportion of UK GDP (evidence, evidence, evidence and evidence)
30.Despite inheriting an NHS that enjoyed record satisfaction ratings, the Tories by 2012 had delivered the largest every fall in patient satisfaction with the NHS. To be fair to them, it has since stabilised a little but is still below its 2012 Tory NHS Act peak (evidence & evidence)
31.The Tories have overseen the worst A&E crisis in 11 years. Not since January 2004 have breaches of the A&E 4 hour target been as bad (evidence &evidence)
32.The Tories have failed Ambulance Services. Ambulance Response Times for Category A (8 minute) calls has dropped from 75% to 69% in just 3 years (evidence). Ambulance Trusts have made large cuts to their staff and fleet since April 2010. For example, EMAS has cut staff by 13% and its fleet size by 100 (evidence).
33.The Tories have oversaw the axing of 60+ stations (here, here, here, here,here, here, here, here, here & here). Expenditure on Private Ambulances for use in the NHS has doubled in 3 years an investigation revealed (evidence)
34.The Tories have wasted £11 billion of taxpayers’ cash on NHS Agency Staff & NHS Redundancies, despite then rehiring ¼ of the staff made redundant (evidence, evidence,evidence)
35.The Tories shut down a highly efficient NHS Direct and replaced by a for-profit NHS111 service that botched its initial launch (evidence). 78% of the NHS111 staff who process 111 calls have no clinical expertise. This has caused all sorts of pressures, including additional admissions at A&E (evidence). It has been reported that there have been 22 deaths or serious injuries which were caused by failures in the launch of NHS 111 (evidence).
36.S75 regs, TTIP, and force closures of A&Es take power away from the people and place it in the hands of unelected corporations. The Tories have insisted that healthcare will not be exempt from TTIP. They have passed clauses to allow Jeremy Hunt to force NHS closures against the say of the local public, and diminish the court’s role in holding him accountable. He has also passed regulations to push commercial competition in the NHS much more forcefully. All of this is anti-democratic (evidence, evidence & evidence)
37.¼ of NHS Trusts are now in deficit. 44 new trusts moved into deficit in 2013-14. The total deficit for NHS Trust more than doubled from £297m to £743m in 2013-4 (evidence p.6)
38.England’s GP to Patient ratio has worsened by 3-4% as population increases (evidence). Of 27 EU Countries, the UK is ranked 24th for the number of working doctors it has per head of population (just 2.71 per 1,000 people) (evidence & evidence).
39.3.2million people are now on NHS waiting lists awaiting operations. This figure is at a 6 year high (evidence). The average patient now waits 1 week longer for treatment after referral (evidence).
40.The Tories have cut 1,876 Mental Health NHS Beds. Up to 4,000 Psychiatric Nurses have lost their job, and overall mental health provision has been cut by 25% (evidence)
41.9,746 Hospital Beds have been axed under the Tories. The UK now has one of the worst hospital bed to patient ratios in the world (evidence).
42.Up to 20 treatments are now being rationed on the NHS, and denied to patients in 60+ parts of England. This shows that an NHS free at the point of use, is under threat (NAO, Dr Foster, and Labour Check)
Austerity
43.Tory austerity shifted cash from the poorest 30% of society, and children under the age of 14 and instead diverted it to the richer households (evidence)
44.Tory austerity also hits women hardest, a catalogue of reports revealed (evidence, evidence,evidence). For example, Statutory Maternity Pay was cut 2% (evidence).
45.From 2010-15, 200+ UK Libraries have been shut and 400-800 more are under threat (evidence)
46.There are 8,000 fewer Fire Personnel UK-wide since Cameron became PM, and 39 fewer Fire Stations in England (evidence & evidence).
47.The UK Public Sector has saw a reduction in 865,000 staff since June 2010 (evidence &evidence)
48.The government admit they have shut 10 Prisons & turned 4 more into Profit Making Prisons (evidence &evidence). They are also racing ahead with the privatisation of probation services.
49.UK Legal Practices have fallen into steep decline under the Tories. 400+ legal practices have closed, and up to 2,000 are facing closure (evidence &evidence)
Tax
50.From 2010-15, the Tories are cutting profit tax by 25% from a rate of 28% to 21%, prioritising big business over struggling smaller businesses struggling to make a profit (evidence)
51.Uncollected tax has shot up by 10% (£3b) since 2010 and Osborne has cut the HMRC budget by £577m (evidence &evidence)
52.In 2012, the Tories cut top rate of tax for the very richest earners by 10% from 50p to 45p in the pound (evidence)
53.In January 2011, the Tories hiked VAT to 20% hitting the poorest hardest. VAT added 0.7% to inflation for every month of 2011. VAT taxes are £33bn higher in 2014/15’s Budget than they were in the 2010/11 Budget published on the 24th March. Cumulatively, the average family has lost out £1,800 extra since 2011 (evidence)
54.The number of millionaire bankers has climbed 11% since 2010 to 2,714. Bonuses to the financial sector since 2010 already total £55bn. David Cameron has failed to discourage the risk culture among bankers that caused the 2008 Global Financial Crash. Bankers’ pay still grows 6 times faster than that of NHS Nurses (evidence, evidence, evidence)
Poverty & Inequality
55.As of 2014, 1,080+ Food Banks are now operating in the UK, and 1m people accessed Trussell Trust food banks which account for 38% of the Food Bank Network (evidence)
56.In 2013, David Cameron’s government also oversaw the axing of the collection of Food Bank Statistics and he turned down millions of EU cash to help Food Banks Directly (evidence & evidence)
57.Cameron’s government redefined fuel poverty and have not published any fuel poverty statistics on data after 2012. This makes it impossible for me to say with authority what impact the 30% increase in Gas Prices has had on fuel poverty levels in the UK (evidence &evidence)
58.The number of children in Absolute Child Poverty has climbed by 13% under David Cameron, this was despite Labour having cut it in half (evidence p.24)
59.The number of UK Citizens at risk of poverty or social exclusion has climbed 1.52 million in 5 years (evidence).
Jobs & Wages
60.Middle-Class Household Income fell £5,300 from 2008-2012 says the ONS (evidence)
61.The number of workers saying they are on Zero Hours Contracts has increased by 270% under David Cameron, this is despite it being 13% lower in 2010 than it was in 2010. Other research shows there are now 1.4m Zero Hour Contracts in operation in the UK (evidence & evidence)
62.For over 90% of this entire parliament, Prices have risen considerably more than Wages. This has led to a real term cut in wages approaching 8-10% since 2010 (evidence &evidence)
63.The UK Minimum Wage was worth more to workers in 2010 than it is today. In effect, workers have suffered a real terms cut in the NMW for 3 years, only partially alleviated by a belated rise this year that still fails to bring it above 2010 levels (evidence)
64.There are 2m UK Workers who are either working unpaid, cannot find full time or permanent work in the UK, an increase of 289,000 since May 2010 (evidence)
65.Long Term Youth Unemployment (18-24) is up 6% since May 2010, from 192,000 to 203,000 (evidence)
66.Wage Growth has suffered its most sustained real terms cut since records began in 1855. Average Households are £1,600 worse off today than 2010 (evidence)
67.David Cameron cut redundancy notice requirements for big business from 90 days to 45 days (evidence).
68.Tories make it harder for folk to find a job. Jobcentre Plus budget cut by £160m. 44 Job Centres shut. 1,000 of Jobcentre plus staff sacked (evidence, evidence, evidence &evidence)
69.6.4m UK workers earn below a living wage. There has been a 15% increase the workers being paid less than the National Minimum Wage since 2010 (evidence).
Immigration
70.The Tories have lowered the tone of the immigration debate falsely claiming that Health Tourism cost the NHS £2bn, and for piloting racist “Go Home” vans on the streets of London (evidence & evidence)
71.Despite all their rhetoric, immigration is actually up 20% since 2010. Tory lies on immigration became a matter for the UK Statistics Authority when he reprimanded them for falsely claiming they had cut it by 25% (evidence)
Welfare
72.The Tories ignored NAO warnings that the Work Programme would fail (here) and it failed to deliver jobs for 85%-91%% of participants says UK Stats Authority (evidence). The Government’s £200 million Back to Work Scheme helps just 3% of the people it targeted says National Audit Office (evidence).
73.The Work Programme was twice declared unlawful in a court of law (evidence & evidence).
74.After the Tories ordered private firms to toughen up the Work Capability Assessments, 158,000 were wrongly found fit to work (evidence), and had their decision overturned on appeal. 1,300 claimants died (evidence) whilst being placed in the category to ready themselves for work. 68 claimants died (evidence) while their appeal against the assessment finding them fit to work was still ongoing.
75.The government introduced forced (or face sanctions) & unpaid Work Programme (workfare) and have obliged 1.6m+ unemployed folk to participate in it, including half a million people who describe themselves as having a disability (evidence)
76.The government tripled sanctions on people in receipt of Job Seeker’s Allowance to the extent that over 90,000 a month were being sanctioned. Almost half of those unemployed but seeking work are not in receipt of unemployment benefit (evidence).
77.The Disabled have suffered real term cuts of 1.7% this year in benefits says the Institute of Fiscal Studies (evidence). The Tories have also frozen benefits to a maximum uprating of 1% which is in effect a real terms cut, for more than 3 years (evidence).
78.David Cameron withdrew the subsidy from Remploy the organisation that helped disabled persons find work. This resulted in the closing of 34 Remploy Factories (evidence).
79.The government’s flagship welfare policy has been an unmitigated disaster that has already wasted the taxpayer £241m in defunct equipment and botched roll out (evidence,evidence & evidence).
Business & Economic Growth
80.George Osborne is borrowing £219bn more than he said he would at the General Election. He has grown National Debt by more Labour Chancellors added together ever did.
81.David Cameron inherited an economy that was growing at +1% of GDP. It has never grown at that speed since. Indeed, most recently, 5 quarters of past growth statements were lowered by the ONS.
82.The UK Current Account Deficit has exploded to £27bn and the pound has weakened against the dollar (evidence)
83.On 19th April 2012, Ratings Agency Fitch downgraded the UK’s Credit Ratings from AAA to AA+ for the first time since the 1970s (evidence)
84.The Tories are asset stripping the UK’s crown jewels. Royal Mail, Northern Rock & 4G and Lloyd’s Shares were sold £3bn less than they were worth (evidence, evidence, evidence,evidence)
85.George Osborne has failed to rebalance the regional economy. The National Audit Office concluded that George Osborne botched the scrapping of Regional Development Agencies and this cause a reduction in regional investment (evidence). Local Enterprise Partnerships were supposed to create 54,000 jobs but in truth they’ll be lucky to create 1/3 of that (evidence).
86.UK production is lower today than it was in 2010. Production Industries had a higher output in 2010 than they do today (B+C+D+E). Infrastructure output is 10 indexed points lower today than May 2010 (evidence).
87.Tories continually boast about the number of new businesses opened under them. It is worth remembering that 968,000 business have died since 2010.
88.500,000+ individuals have been declared insolvent under David Cameron, so far. 70,000+ businesses have also been liquidated (evidence)
Cost of Living Crisis
89.Average Rail and Bus Fares are up 20% from January 2010 to January 2014 rises ( evidence & evidence,evidence, evidence, evidence)
90.Water Charges are up 20% since 1 Apr 2010 show Ofwat & the BBC (here, here, here)
91.OBR predict Household Debt will grow more than £500bn this parliament (here).
Elderly
92.The Tories have accelerated a Social Care crisis by cutting funding by £2.8bn. This has led to a cut of 311,000 in the number of elderly receiving care (evidence & evidence)
93.The costs of Social Care have climbed at least £558-£2,400 per person and this has coincided with a 36% increase in the number of elderly self-financing their care(evidence & evidence)
94.David Cameron made life harder for pensioners. He increased the age of retirement to 68 (and said it will rise further) (evidence) The National Audit Office says the outcomes of the new auto-enrolment pensions are “uncertain” and that ultimately the taxpayer may end up footing the bill (evidence). Cameron also oversaw £500m cuts in Winter Fuel Payments. He also scrapped the Warm Homes Healthy People fund even though it was deemed a success (evidence).
Environment
95.David Cameron tricked voters by saying that to vote blue was to go green. He then ushered in the least environmentally friendly government since 1979, and mocked environmental issues as Green Crap. For example, Eric Pickles turned down applications to build 50 onshore wind farms. The government also cut £1.2bn of funding to develop clean coal (evidence &evidence)
96.In May 2014, the government snuck out proposals that would ban a landowner from attempting to prevent fracking under his own land (evidence)
Ethics & Transparency
97.The Tories have accepted £60m in donations from sources linked to hedge funds or private health. Many of these firms stand to benefit from the increase in out-sourcing and privatisation that has occurred under Cameron (evidence &evidence)
98.David Cameron has demeaned the Office of Prime Minister by deploying bullying jokes that attacked women, elderly & the disabled (evidence). Other Tory politicians followed his example, and stigmatised the poor for relying on Food Banks (evidence).
99.The UK Statistics Authority has repeatedly warned the Tory government to stop lying over Immigration (evidence), Debt (evidence), Unemployment (evidence), Benefit Cap (evidence), NHS Spending (evidence) and A&E Performance (evidence).
100.100 government MPs earn additional income to their MPs’ Salaries totalling £3m+ a year. In addition, 50+ government MPs voted for the Tory NHS Act, while having varying degrees and types of financial links to private health companies (evidence)
This has just been unearthed from ITN
A young Ed Miliband leading a rent strike whilst at Oxford Uni. Worth pointing out at around the same time in his life David Cameron was setting fire to £50 notes in front of the poor with his Bullingdon Club friends.
Like I've been saying Ed may be a little odd but he believes in a fairer society, he isn't a career politican. His views were shaped a long time ago through life experiences. The reason he has come into his own this election is simple - he has been his (genuine) self.
http://t.co/9TJUMDsnz3
A young Ed Miliband leading a rent strike whilst at Oxford Uni. Worth pointing out at around the same time in his life David Cameron was setting fire to £50 notes in front of the poor with his Bullingdon Club friends.
Like I've been saying Ed may be a little odd but he believes in a fairer society, he isn't a career politican. His views were shaped a long time ago through life experiences. The reason he has come into his own this election is simple - he has been his (genuine) self.
http://t.co/9TJUMDsnz3
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UKIP doing their usual - threatening to shoot an ethnic minority Tory candidate:
http://news.sky.com/story/1478269/ukip-candidate-threatens-to-shoot-tory-rival
When asked how he felt at the prospect of Mr Jayawardena getting elected in what is considered a safe Tory seat, Mr Blay said: "It makes me quite sick.
"But I've always said in my constituency you could put a monkey out there with a blue rosette on and it would win."
Mr Blay went on to accuse his opponent's father of having come to Britain from Sri Lanka and "ponced off us ... like all the East Europeans are".
"His name's Jayawardena and I'm told that name is a Tamil name.
"Well the Tamils were Indians which went to Sri Lanka to take it over and they got their asses kicked.
"So he comes here, ponces off us and then his son's in our political system."
http://news.sky.com/story/1478269/ukip-candidate-threatens-to-shoot-tory-rival
When asked how he felt at the prospect of Mr Jayawardena getting elected in what is considered a safe Tory seat, Mr Blay said: "It makes me quite sick.
"But I've always said in my constituency you could put a monkey out there with a blue rosette on and it would win."
Mr Blay went on to accuse his opponent's father of having come to Britain from Sri Lanka and "ponced off us ... like all the East Europeans are".
"His name's Jayawardena and I'm told that name is a Tamil name.
"Well the Tamils were Indians which went to Sri Lanka to take it over and they got their asses kicked.
"So he comes here, ponces off us and then his son's in our political system."
Blue 1
Player Valuation: £70m
That is exactly what I thought when I read it. It would be carnage.
Jib in lad
Player Valuation: £25m
How can anyone vote for them.
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