John Redwood has a secret plan to solve the pensions crisis and boost the economy; change the fire regulations so you can cram more codgers per square foot into your “care home” (Orwellian of the decade; they don’t and it’s not).
Given a brief to banish Teh Curse of Regulation, this is what he comes up with – even less in the way of hire’n’fire restrictions (are there actually any to get rid of?), abolition of the European Working Time Directive (John either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that for most jobs where this is an issue, you get told to sign the waiver or leave), and the notion of “loosening health and safety regulations on care homes to free more places for elderly people”. Oh yes, and none of those home information packs.
To put it another way, the essential liberties the Tories have picked as a top priority to defend are those to lie about the condition of your house in order to sell it at a higher price, and to keep old people in rather worse conditions. ID cards? Road pricing surveillance? Truly, I can’t begin to guess how anyone would think of them as the Nasty Party.
I fully agree with you on this one.
The Conservative Party just seems to be bereft of any proposals that grab you by the crotch and make you want to vote for them.
I can see Brown calling an early election on the strength of DC & co showing at the moment.
All he needs is a majority, regardless of how slim it might be, so long as it is more than the combination of the opposition.
Then he is home and dry for the next five years.
Be fucking good if the BBC News had told us any of that though. I saw more than one news broadcast covering the issue when briefly back in England last week: I don’t think a single actual regulation was mentioned in any of the reports as they were too busy telling us whether it would or would not enable Labour to present the Conservatives as something or other. Truly, we are not living in an information society.