With both the Conservative and Labour Party Annual Conferences wrapped up, we should now take some time to evaluate both parties position before the next election.<\/p>\n
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Let’s start off by looking at the home team, the Conservative Party:<\/p>\n
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After days of speculation, Rishi Sunak finally confirmed that the ever-contested HS2 leg to Manchester would be cut \u2013 which was weird to announce whilst in Manchester. Many have praised the decision to cut the loses of HS2, yet the cancelation remains embarrassing, as a long-term – perhaps pig-headed – investment into improving Britain\u2019s infrastructure was cancelled by short-term economic failings (and the fact that HS2 won\u2019t even reach London furthers this).<\/p>\n
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Alongside the HS2 cut, Sunak announced a more positive policy to raise the legal smoking age from 14 by one year, every year \u2013 allowing the next generation to \u2018grow up smoke-free.\u2019 Alongside this, new legislation would be created concerning vaping amongst children. Sunak unnecessarily tacked it on to the NHS by saying it would reduce wait times, but this is a good health policy by Sunak. Its effectiveness remains to be seen, and although children and teenagers will now find it harder to vape or smoke legally, we wait to see if it will actually reduce proportions of smokers and vapers for younger generations.<\/p>\n
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As worries for years lower down grow about a compulsory study of English and Maths at A-Level, Sunak pushes further with his education policies. Now the current primary school years will not be studying the new \u2018Advanced British Standards\u2019 (apparently, he didn\u2019t fly it past his marketing team, as hinted at by the anacronym of \u2018British Standards\u2019). How will Rishi’s ‘BS’ differ from A-Levels and T-Levels? Hard to say, other than courses will be more \u2018rigorous\u2019 and \u2018knowledge rich.\u2019 But if Sunak says A-Levels aren\u2019t \u2018knowledge rich\u2019 enough whilst subjects like A-Level OCR RS have 30-odd different sections to study, then God knows how vigorous his new ‘Standards’ will be.<\/p>\n
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Sunak also delved into the gender identity debate: \u2018we shouldn\u2019t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be\u2026 a man is a man\u2026 a woman is a woman \u2013 that\u2019s just common sense!\u2019 It\u2019s a move to cater to those against \u2018woke culture\u2019. Despite \u2018trans-phobic\u2019 undertones, Sunak\u2019s speech defends itself from backlash by mentioning how same sex marriage was legalised under a Conservative Government (so accusations that policies are \u2018Anti-LGBTQ+\u2019 are undermined). It reflects the increasingly reactionary nature of this regeneration of the Tories (if only they could regenerate into David Tennant), especially when remembering Parliament\u2019s blocking of Scotland\u2019s trans-gender bill \u2013 and with talks of Cameo Sensation Nigel Farage returning to the Conservative Party, this right-wing rise seems confirmed.<\/p>\n
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One stranger aspect of Sunak\u2019s speech was that, rather than being introduced by a fellow Conservative, he was introduced by his wife \u2013 in a seen that seems akin to American politics. Usually, the Prime Minister is introduced by a member of his party who respects him, but in lieu of any such individual, Rishi resorted to his wife. The speech was like the film Morbius, one of the<\/em> speeches of all time. Nothing notable came from it \u2013 but hearing the words \u2018Rishi is MY best friend\u2019 was almost as cringe-inducing as the time Sunak said he told two school boys he was a ‘coke addict’.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now we have seen what the Conservative’s position, we should look at Labour Party:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This year\u2019s Labour Party Conference was a chance to layout Labour\u2019s policies and plan going forward into the next election. This is something Kier Starmer clearly did, by showing his focus on economic growth in the country by building \u2018a new generation of Labour new towns\u2019 \u2013 consisting of 1.5 million new houses to be built. This is a pledge Starmer thoroughly backs, proudly saying he was a YIMBY not a NIMBY, as well that these new houses would be built alongside infrastructure like schools and GPs, and also not disturbed any natural wildlife by being built on \u2018grey sites\u2019 \u2013 which can also refer to Starmer himself. But this shows Labour’s main focus in policy \u2013 it is almost solely economic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another economic Labour policy. Shadow Health-Secretary Wes Streeting took a harsh jab at the Sunak et al. over the NHS \u2013 \u20187.7 million people waiting. The longest waiting lists ever. And the audacity of the fifth Conservative Prime Minister in 13 years blaming NHS staff for the Tories\u2019 abysmal failure.\u2019 Speaking as a cancer survivor, Streeting was unapologetically critical of the NHS’ current position. Streeting then pledged that Labour would remedy this with \u2018two million more appointments a year to cut waiting lists\u2026 [via] the biggest expansion of NHS staff in history.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A small yet notable takeaway comes from Labour\u2019s plans for a proposed migrant facility in Lincolnshire. A former RAF base (once home to Red Arrows and Dam Buster squadrons) near Lincoln is planned to house 2,000 migrants. Labour says that, if it were to get into power, it would veto the decision in favour of redeveloping the site into a business area. It is another example of how Labour wants to fight the next election on the economy \u2013 but its notoriety comes in that it is one of the few mentions towards issues of migration from Labour, which could make it difficult for Labour to make decisive points on non-economic issues during campaign season.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Although Labour was cautious to avoid tradition in referring to their leader as \u2018the next Prime Minister\u2019, speakers at the conference did not shy away from mocking the Conservatives. Ed Miliband, former Labour Leader (who somehow couldn\u2019t beat a man like David Cameron), got up to proclaim, \u2018let\u2019s recycle them from government to opposition… let\u2019s chuck them into the seven dustbins of history!\u2019 Aside from a historical reference to Trotsky at the All-Russian Conference of Soviets in 1917, but also in Rishi Sunak\u2019s promise to scrap the proposal for households to have \u2018seven recycling bins\u2019 \u2013 a proposal that has never been proposed anywhere in the UK. Not like a politician to get caught on a lie.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This was the main focus in the media about the conference \u2013 mere moments after stepping out on stage, a man supporting the \u2018People Demand Democracy\u2019 movement (don\u2019t bother googling it, nobody knows what it is) ran up to Starmer and chucked Strictly Come Dancing levels of glitter over him. Starmer’s handling of the situation has been commended, however. He ignored the protestor\u2019s yells on stage, waited for him to be dragged off, took of his jacket, made a quick joke to flatter his wife and proceeded to give his speech. Starmer faired very well in the scenario \u2013 other politicians often failed in similar stunts, like Theresa May being handed a P45 \u2013 and it helped give notoriety to the conference in general.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Where do the parties stand then? At this time, it is hard to say. Sunak and the Conservatives can seemingly be more criticised over HS2, but in reality, they have brought nothing new to the table \u2013 policies over education were expected, and trends of HS2 and the trans-debate show continuity over the last few months rather than anything ground-breaking. Labour is only in a reasonably better position. Starmer has laid out new policies that will be picked apart within the coming months, as all policies are, but the ideas of a strong economy also reflect Starmer\u2019s continuity \u2013 are we really surprised, after two years as leader of the opposition, that Starmer’s main policy is economic? If anything, Starmer has been strengthened by the incident of the glitter attack, whereas Sunak has neither gained nor lost from his conference. However, it is too early to tell. There is still time before the next election and position in government remains all to play for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Political Editor Monty looks at the key policies of the two big parties. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":647,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions\/647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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