Last week David Cameron was courting the so-called “pink vote” with a video interview with “Gay Times” part of which Tom Harris has posted with some well chosen words. It really is well worth a watch if you like a laugh.
Today it’s the so-called “grey vote” that he’s after (I just noticed that it was last week gay; this week gray... I wonder when it will be Brown!). What I’m thinking is... is this as erm inept as last week’s courting....?
Cameron said he wanted 'dignity and security in old age' (well, he’s not going to say the opposite, is he?) and he promised to protect the winter fuel allowance and free bus passes (I guess the latter will be in England).
He agreed that the older generation has a vast amount of power at the ballot box, being as there are so many of them and that they tend to vote.
Mr Cameron restated the Tories’ commitments to re-linking the state pension to earnings, a hugely expensive reversal of the iniquitous reforms of Mrs Thatcher’s in the 1980s. He also committed to freezing council tax for two years as the Salmond government has already done in Scotland.
He said that he was aware that many, many pensioners lived on incredibly tight budgets and that as a result increases in electricity prices, gas prices, or council tax, were hugely difficult for them.
He said: “We are facing a very difficult situation in this country with huge budget deficits, massive problems with the Government’s finances. So we have to be very careful about the policies that we make but I think there are some things that we can do to help.”
The Conservatives claim that a single pensioner on an average income will be more than £110 a year worse off under Labour because of what they are calling ‘tricksy’ changes in the budget. They party claims that this 2.5% rise in basic state pension is £59 less than if it had been increased in line with inflation, and pensioners lose out too because of the income tax allowances freeze.
Cameron said: "Who would ever have thought a Labour government would hurt pensioners in such a devious way?" And in that matter I agree wholeheartedly. What kind of people cheat OAPs, and have done so for so long. Barbara Castle must be spinning in her grave.
Cameron added: "They (Labour) go around scaring pensioners, telling you that the Conservatives are going to cut the winter fuel allowance, cut pension credit and end free bus travel and TV licences for over 75s. I can promise you, these are lies, lies, lies. You have my word. If we win the election, we will protect all of these things."
You will be held to that Mr Cameron. All of it including the dignity part. There is currently no dignity in the way that some of our senior citizens live, and it is up to you to start to fix it, regardless of the country's financial situation. It is more important that people over 65 live in a decent and relatively comfortable way than that bankers get bonuses or MPs and Lords get expenses. Make sure you see to it David.
Pictured: Mr Cameron, and a random illustration of how some of our people, that's you and me, spend our last days.
Today it’s the so-called “grey vote” that he’s after (I just noticed that it was last week gay; this week gray... I wonder when it will be Brown!). What I’m thinking is... is this as erm inept as last week’s courting....?
Cameron said he wanted 'dignity and security in old age' (well, he’s not going to say the opposite, is he?) and he promised to protect the winter fuel allowance and free bus passes (I guess the latter will be in England).
He agreed that the older generation has a vast amount of power at the ballot box, being as there are so many of them and that they tend to vote.
Mr Cameron restated the Tories’ commitments to re-linking the state pension to earnings, a hugely expensive reversal of the iniquitous reforms of Mrs Thatcher’s in the 1980s. He also committed to freezing council tax for two years as the Salmond government has already done in Scotland.
He said that he was aware that many, many pensioners lived on incredibly tight budgets and that as a result increases in electricity prices, gas prices, or council tax, were hugely difficult for them.
He said: “We are facing a very difficult situation in this country with huge budget deficits, massive problems with the Government’s finances. So we have to be very careful about the policies that we make but I think there are some things that we can do to help.”
The Conservatives claim that a single pensioner on an average income will be more than £110 a year worse off under Labour because of what they are calling ‘tricksy’ changes in the budget. They party claims that this 2.5% rise in basic state pension is £59 less than if it had been increased in line with inflation, and pensioners lose out too because of the income tax allowances freeze.
Cameron said: "Who would ever have thought a Labour government would hurt pensioners in such a devious way?" And in that matter I agree wholeheartedly. What kind of people cheat OAPs, and have done so for so long. Barbara Castle must be spinning in her grave.
Cameron added: "They (Labour) go around scaring pensioners, telling you that the Conservatives are going to cut the winter fuel allowance, cut pension credit and end free bus travel and TV licences for over 75s. I can promise you, these are lies, lies, lies. You have my word. If we win the election, we will protect all of these things."
You will be held to that Mr Cameron. All of it including the dignity part. There is currently no dignity in the way that some of our senior citizens live, and it is up to you to start to fix it, regardless of the country's financial situation. It is more important that people over 65 live in a decent and relatively comfortable way than that bankers get bonuses or MPs and Lords get expenses. Make sure you see to it David.
Pictured: Mr Cameron, and a random illustration of how some of our people, that's you and me, spend our last days.
It is just as well that vegetables can't vote or he would be after the green vote as well!
ReplyDeleteI watched that Cameron interview with the 'Gay Times' and as a bisexual block it really honeslty insulted me.
ReplyDeleteWith a bumbling shpeal Cameron thought that we should all be simply thankful for him taking the descriminating anti-gayism out of the party!
He demonstrated a cynical shallowness on gay rights issues which; frankly; annoys me.
And it is related to our Party's current problem. We have been drifing, presuming that we have changed enough of ourselves, when coupled with popular dislike of labour to simply drift into No.10.
Cameron, if he thus wants a 'gray vote' should start by coming up with policies, and a detailed awareness of what problems confront the elderly. Such as reading up on the usual elderly choice, of whether to be warm or hungery.
Cameron needs to improve his act, and damn quickly.
Dean: I am totally in agreement with that. It was indeed an horrendous insult to gay and bisexual people that he could not be bothered to do any research at all and he came over as a total buffoon. God alone knows how may votes he lost there.
ReplyDeleteOch Munguin, he already tried the green vote.... cycling to work (with a limo behind him) and flying to Norway or Greenland or Finland, I forget which, to see some snow melting.
ReplyDeleteGrey, Pink, Green, and he's already got the true blue:.... Is there a purple vote, or an orange one.....?
Dean: I've always thought that his was a kind of peripheral politics. I can’t imagine him being good at anything except the PR. The devil is always in the detail for him.
ReplyDeleteIt was plain stupid. He went out to do an interview with a magazine directed at one particular section of the community and he didn’t know what his MPs/MEPs voted, or whether they had a free vote... well duh David. Basic policy in any management position: anticipate the questions and know the facts.
I think in honesty the Tories come from so far behind on this matter that some of them think that it’s really forward-looking and they are ever so cool that they no longer want to repeal the 1967 Act. It kinda reminds me of when one of the leaders in the early Labour years arranged an away weekend for shadow ministers, and, in competition to the jeans wearing cool Tony Blair, told the participants to dress down for it. I’ve never seen such a bunch of uncomfortable looking people in an array of elderly jumpers and a few just couldn’t help it and appeared in a tie, as if they had been born with it on...and were going to dies with it on.
I feel that some of the Tories are so far behind the rest of us that they think it’s rather risqué to listen to Rosemary Clooney 78s, and do the jitterbug!
You make a good point. Until recently all that the Tories had to do to get into number 10 was to keep breathing.... Now they find they actually have to work for it, and they are making heavy weather of it. If Cameron doesn’t win this election the Tories are going to have to find someone to lead them who might one day be a prime minister... (if there is anything left to be prime minister of) and I fear it’s too late for Ken Clarke. The best prime minister we never had.
Yes Munguin. I can see some people who were thinking of voting Tory thinking "no way" after that display.
ReplyDelete