Reviving Tory Britain
A renegotiation of Britain’s membership of the European Union; radical reform of health and education; and taking millions of low paid workers and pensioners out of tax; should be at the heart of Conservative policy, members of the Cornerstone Group of Tory MPs, including key shadow ministers, say in a pamphlet published today.
The pamphlet published by the 25-strong Group - who are thought likely to put up a candidate for the leadership - argues that the Conservatives have lost their way and that the leadership race has proved a disappointment with the leading candidates shying away from a staunch defence of Conservative beliefs and a radical approach to policy.
Specific policy ideas in the pamphlet include:
Flat tax based on a single rate of 22 per cent, a personal allowance of £10,000 and an overall tax cut of £40 billion, which would take millions of low-paid workers and pensioners out of tax altogether.
Reducing the size and reach of the state.
Proclaiming the supremacy of Parliament and renegotiating British membership of the EU.
Repeal of the Human Rights Act and withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights
Returning agriculture, fishing and the environment to national control; Education vouchers to give parents and pupils a real choice of schools and to lever up standards through competition; Restructuring the NHS so that hospitals are no longer owned and run by the state; Tax breaks for marriage to strengthen the traditional two-parent family and to remove perverse financial incentives for family breakdown; Directly elected sheriffs with the power to appoint and dismiss chief constables; Measures to curb the growing tendency of senior judges to seek to make the law rather than just apply it; A new Tory emphasis on green issues
The authors of the pamphlet also argue that it is time Conservatives recognised that they are engaged in a struggle against liberal values and that they will get nowhere by imitating Tony Blair and New Labour.
In an introduction to the pamphlet, John Hayes MP says:
“Sadly, some in our party have come to believe that by aping Blair, rather than studying Burke, by adopting the assumptions of the liberal elite, rather than recalling our Conservative roots, we might become as popular as real Blairites or real liberals. This route is likely to prove as disastrous electorally as it is unauthentic. Why on earth would voters support imitation liberals when they can have the real thing?
“Conservatives must be both brave and authentic; brave enough to undertake the task of challenging the dominant liberal elite in all the spheres and institutions it has so effectively colonised, and authentic enough to regain the respect and loyalty of our natural supporters.
“It is this courageous authenticity that will awaken the interest of all those weary of the current political stagnation.”
Edward Leigh MP, in a call for a flat tax, says the leadership contest so far has been marked by a “poverty of expectations” and “vague aspirations”.
Mr Leigh, a possible candidate for the leadership himself, adds:
“Now is the time to articulate a clear set of principles based on fighting political correctness and over-regulation, explaining how a smaller state can be achieved, proclaiming the supremacy of the British parliament, introducing real choice in education through a universal education voucher, comprehensively reforming the NHS and also a radical social agenda to rebuild traditional family life, as well as encouraging people to save for their retirement.
“This paper sets out the case for a flat tax. Unless we make these sorts of arguments now, during and immediately after a leadership election, then it will be too late, and we shall lose the next General Election.
“There has to be an intellectual conservative case put forward, so that we can take the common ground and drag the middle ground towards us. This is the opposite of focus group politics, which has proved so disastrous, and simply ended up in the last election with talk about cleaner hospitals.”
“This has been a dull campaign. We need much more explanation of policies, and how they are going to get us out of the hole we are in. We want to ask searching questions about how efficiency gains and tax cuts are going to be made, and what credible radical policies other candidates have to reform the creaking welfare state, that ageing child of Attlee’s highly regulated post-war Britain.”
The pamphlet consists of thirteen essays by Cornerstone members and supporters.
In The Case for Education Vouchers, Angela Watkinson MP says:
“An education voucher would bring the world’s diverse education agenda to Britain by breaking down the social apartheid between the state and private sectors, encouraging the growth of new schools more rapidly than by state sector reform alone, and driving up standards in state schools by stimulating innovation in responsiveness to parents’ wishes.”
“The introduction of new schools provides that essential ingredient to choice – spare capacity. The doctrinal state control over which school a child must attend could be overcome. How much healthier a system in which a range of good schools compete for pupils by demonstrating their success rather than parents competing for too few places at too few popular schools.”
In Who Governs Britain, Owen Paterson MP says that agricultural and fisheries policies should be returned to national control.
“It is ludicrous that over 60 per cent of the laws imposed upon the fourth-largest economy in the world are created by people who have not been elected and cannot be removed in elections… Parliament should not only be supreme, but in respect of the actions of British citizens or legal entities in the UK, no institution other than a British court should have jurisdiction over them.”
In Rediscovering Conservatism for the British People, Bill Cash MP calls for the reassertion of the supremacy of Parliament on behalf of the people.
Mr Cash adds: “The Human Rights Act should be repealed; we should withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, and we should pass laws at Westminster, as we have for generations, that make for a fair, tolerant and just nation.”
“The appalling spectacle of public agitators who treat
Britain with hatred and contempt being protected by “human rights” legislation and financed by the taxpayer must stop.”
In Criminal Justice Gone Mad, Julian Brazier MP and Douglas Carswell MP, call for the scrapping of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, curbs on judicial activism, and elected sheriffs:
“The CPS should be reconstituted as a set of local Sheriff prosecution offices, answerable to the Sheriff for their success in securing convictions… We must give law enforcement back to communities…”
In Thoughts on Party Reform, Andrew Rosindell MP reminds Tories that successful politics is local. He urges Tories to learn from the success of conservative leaders abroad:
“Electoral success is more likely if we stand for something clear and positive and show that we actually believe what we say. John Howard in
Australia and George Bush in the United States have proved that.”
In Faith and Politics – Do They Mix? Andrew Selous MP says that people of faith can make a valuable contribution by softening the tone of often strident secular debate.
Mr Selous says: “Family dysfunctionality and marriage and relationship breakdown regularly hit the poorest hardest, which is why a faith-based contribution to debate on these issues is an important contribution to social justice. Increasing the stability of families and the commitment of parents to each other and their children is also vital to reduce rapidly rising demand for benefits, housing and other social support.”
“Engagement by Christians and people of other faiths on family, marriage, relationship and broader social issues often meets with strong opposition. It is in these areas that our post-modern culture, asserting the rejection of a shared value-system and proclaiming that everything is relative, can make serious debate strident and difficult. The tone and approach of people of faith is so important here.”
In Home Truths – A Conservative Approach to Housing, John Hayes MP and Scott Kelly call for more powers for local communities over planning issues; an end to the Governments’ plan to concrete over the countryside in the South and tear down family homes in the North; and greater support for developers who plan to reinvigorate urban Britain.
In Europe – A Conservative Rethink, Roger Helmer MEP says: “We have made an excellent start by demanding the return of fisheries and foreign aid, and deciding that we should scrap the damaging “social chapter”. Gordon Brown has suggested that regional policy should be repatriated. He is right. We should also bring back agriculture.
“We must take back full control of justice and home affairs; foreign and defence policy and defence procurement; social, employment and economic policy, and environmental policy.
“We want a relationship with Europe based solely on free trade and voluntary, inter-governmental cooperation.”
Attached is a downloadable pdf of the text of Cornerstone’s second publication - ‘Being Conservative: A Cornerstone of Policies to Revive Tory
Britain’.
It was originally published on 30th September 2005.
