11/10/04 Tony Blair All Talk - No Action

Tony BLAIR: All Talk

Today we have had 5,000 more words of talk from Tony Blair.  He cannot stop talking about building new societies and new economies. So far, we’ve had “the decent society”, “the creative economy”, “a stakeholder economy”, “a new Age of Achievement”, “the partnership economy” – not to mention  â€œNew Labour’s Millennium Challenge”, “the information superhighway”, “a people’s Europe” and, of course, “the third way”. All this from the man who said “this is no time for soundbites”.

And what has all this talk achieved?

Britain’s Poor: Let Down By Labour

• The gap between rich and poor is widening: the income disparity between the richest 15% of people and the poorest 15% of people has actually widened since Labour came to power (Poverty and Inequality in Britain: 2004, Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2004).
• The poorest one fifth of households pay a higher proportion of their income in tax than any other group. Over 30 per cent of their disposable income goes on indirect taxation compared to less than 15 per cent for the highest quintile. (The Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income 2002-03, Office for National Statistics, 2004).
• Despite all Labour’s fiddling with pensioners’ benefits, there are still over 2.2 million pensioners living on incomes below the official poverty line (60% of the UK median) (Households Below Average Income, Office for National Statistics, March 2004).
• The Government has removed nearly a million children from the child poverty figures just by removing housing costs from its calculations (Poverty and Inequality in Britain: 2004, Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2004).

Pensioners: Let Down By Labour

• Gordon Brown has introduced a £5 billion a year tax on pensions, by removing the dividend tax credit.
• More and more pensioners are being means-tested under Labour.  The Pensions Credit has spread means-testing to over 5 million pensioners.
• 40 per cent of the increase in the basic state pension since 1997 has been swallowed up by council tax increases.
• The £57 billion shortfall which Adair Turner, Chairman of the Pensions Commission, has found means that workers should be saving an average of £4,385 per person per year more – double previous estimates (Daily Mail, 11 October 2004).
• Britons are only saving half as much as they did in 1997.
• After seven years of Labour, more than 2 million pensioners still live in poverty (Households Below Average Income Survey, ONS, 2004).

Jobseekers: Let Down By Labour

• In 1997, there were 7.6 million economically inactive people of working age.  Given rising employment levels, one would expect this number to have fallen.  But the figure has gone up to 7.85 million – the highest level since 1983, and a total of one in five people of working age (Labour Market Trends, 2004).
• Over a million people have left the New Deal, but only 38 per cent have moved into a sustained unsubsidised job (only defined as lasting 13 weeks) (ONS Statistical Summary, June 2004)
• Over 665,000 people have left ND25+, but only 23 per cent have entered sustained jobs. Nearly half of all leavers go back onto benefits.
• The number of claimants has stayed at 2.7 million since 1997.  More people are claiming Incapacity Benefit for ‘mental and behavioural problems’ rather than physical disability – up 50 per cent since 1997 (DWP September 2004).  Over 50% of IB claimants have been on the caseload for more than five years (DWP September 2004).   The Shaw Trust says 1.5 million Incapacity Benefit claimants are willing and able to work (BBC1 News, 20 Sept 2004).
• Labour claimed to have virtually eradicated long-term youth unemployment’ (Alan Johnson, Opportunity for All, DWP 2004).  But the Labour Force Survey shows there are currently 154,000 people aged under 25 unemployed (Labour Market Trends, Sept 2004).  Among the under-25s, unemployment and economic inactivity account for over a million young people not in work or education.  The Labour Force Survey reveals that over 2 million of the economically inactive want to work (Labour Market Trends, September 2004).

Young People: Let Down By Labour

• One in three children leave primary school unable to write properly.
• A million children play truant from school each year.
• Under Labour, graduates face a massive increase in debt of up to £27,000, and students from poorer backgrounds will be charged fees for the first time.
• Since the last election there has been a decline in the total number of starters on Modern Apprenticeships of eight per cent, falling from 176,500 in 2000/01 to 163,000 in 2002/03.

Crime and social-exclusion: Let Down By Labour

• The poorest in society are more likely to be burgled. A household with an income of less than £5,000 a year is almost 80 per cent more likely to be burgled than a household with an income greater than £30,000 (Home Office, Crime in England and Wales 2003-04, July 2004, Table 4.01, p. 58).
• 1.8 per cent of ‘wealthy achievers’ and ‘flourishing families’ have been victims of burglary, compared to 4.5 per cent of ‘hard pressed’ families and 5.3 per cent of families living in ‘high rise hardship’ (Home Office, Crime in England and Wales 2003-04, July 2004, Table 4.08, p.64).
• Homes in a council estate are 43 per cent more likely to be burgled than homes that are not (Home Office, Crime in England and Wales 2003-04, July 2004, Table 4.01, p. 58).
• The poorest in society suffer most from vehicle crime. Those on the lowest incomes are twice as likely to have their vehicles stolen (Home Office, Crime in England and Wales 2003-04, July 2004, Table 4.03, p. 60). While 6.7 per cent of wealthy achievers have been victims of some form of vehicle-related theft, a massive 17 per cent of people living in ‘inner city adversity’ and 17.5 per cent of people living in ‘high-rise hardship’ have been victims of vehicle-related theft (Home Office, Crime in England and Wales 2003-04, July 2004, Table 4.08, p.64).
• Unemployed people three times more likely to have their vehicle stolen (Home Office, Crime in England and Wales 2003-04, July 2004, Table 4.03, p. 60).
• People living in a council estate twice as likely to have a vehicle stolen (Home Office, Crime in England and Wales 2003-04, July 2004, Table 4.03, p. 60).
• Unemployed people are twice as likely to be victims of violent crime (Home Office, Crime in England and Wales 2003-04, July 2004, Table 5.04, p.84).
• People living in the most deprived areas of England and Wales are three times more likely to be victims of violent crime.

Patients and Parents: Labour is All Talk on Choice

Only the Conservative Party will offer patients and parents genuine choice.

Hospitals

Labour policy on choice in the NHS:

• From summer 2004 – choice of one or two hospitals after a 6 month wait.
• From December 2005 – choice of four or five hospitals decided by Primary Care Trust.
• Access to Treatment Centres and private hospitals under block contract to the NHS – no choice for patients, inflated prices for NHS.
• Either wait for NHS treatment or pay twice for private care.

Conservative policy on choice in the NHS:

• Immediate and unrestricted choice of hospital – anywhere in the NHS.
• Free access to any independent hospital that can offer treatment at NHS tariffs.
• 50 per cent of your NHS entitlement to help with private bills or to reduce the cost of private insurance.

Schools

Labour policy on choice in schools:

• ‘Universal specialist schools’.
• There will be ‘more places in popular schools’ centrally chosen by Secretary of State.
• Large expansion of the City Academy programme, with 200 to be built by 2010 selected by the Secretary of State.
• Every secondary school to be refurbished or rebuilt over next 10 to 15 years.
• ‘Foundation partnerships’ to enable schools to group together.
• Foundation status will make the schools ‘quasi-autonomous’ from local councils.

Conservative policy on choice in schools:

• We will have real autonomy for all schools, not restricted autonomy for a selected few.
• The parents of all school-age children - at primary, secondary and sixth-form levels – will have the Right to Choose the best school for their child. Any family may apply to any State school: local councils will not decide admissions.

Parents will also be entitled to send their child to an independent school which can offer a good education for the cost of a State school place – which will be around £5,500 on average by 2007-08.