I voted Labour in all three of Tony Blair's election victories. However, although I felt that he had been an excellent Chancellor, I became convinced that Gordon Brown was not up to the top job. As the election approached, I began to think the unthinkable - could I, should I, vote Tory?
My wife warned against it. She was unconvinced by Cameron. Just a front man, she said. It is the same old Tory party. Maybe memories of the way Blair changed the Labour party weighed heavily on my mind. Maybe Cameron has changed the Tories, I thought. Maybe they are not the 'nasty' party any longer. Gradually, a combination of the failings of the Brown administration and the soothing words of Cameron began to convince me. And so for the first time ever in a general election, I voted Tory, the sole Tory voter out of the four voters in my household. I got quite a bit of stick from my daughters, and a diplomatic silence from my wife!
It has to be said, it did not start well. Much to my disgust and amazement, having failed to secure an overall majority, Cameron teamed up with the pompous party - the Liberal Democrats. Now this is where my judgement has proved to be correct. I have for many years held the Liberal Democrats in contempt. It irritates me beyond belief the way they stand on the sidelines, holier than thou, proclaiming how honest and principled they are, whilst condemning everybody else. They were not to be trusted. Clegg would boil his own granny down for glue if it would get him what he wants, and in getting into bed with the Tories, he has shown that I was completely correct. Before the election, the Liberal Democrats were positioned clearly to the left of the Labour party, so quite how Clegg can justify sharing power with the Tories, God only knows. It is amazing how important principles are when you are in opposition but how irrelevant they are if you can get a fancy job title and a ministerial car.
Of course, the coalition has been a master stoke for the Tories. They have skillfully placed the Liberal Democrats in the firing line for all the unpopular policies, whilst tossing them a few meaningless tidbits of policy to keep the party happy. Lifelong Liberals must be in despair.
But, of course, I voted Tory, so why am I so unhappy? My hope was that the bad old days of Tory dogmatism would be a thing of the past, to be replaced by a determination to do what is right in the interests of the country. Unfortunately, just about everything they have done since the election has been driven entirely by narrow dogma.
On the NHS, the abolition of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) will achieve nothing more than privatising 80% of the NHS budget - it is easy to overlook the fact that the new GP consortia will be private entities. I would not have a problem with this if it will actually achieve something positive for patients. In reality, it will be extremely disruptive and costly and will very likely reduce quality and choice. PCTs are complex organisations with turnovers often running into hundreds of millions of pounds. Exactly what qualifies GPs to run such organisations is beyond me. I have never been to medical school myself but I suspect there is not much on the syllabus about organisational management. If I want my ear syringed, I will go to my GP. I would not go to him for advice on running my business! Certainly some GPs will have a flair for business and will make a success of the new arrangements but we cannot have it both ways. When I go to see my GP, I want his full attention to my medical condition. I do not want him to be rushing me off because he has a board meeting to chair. Is he my GP or my business mentor?
On education, trebling student fees, whilst at the same time slashing the higher education teaching budget by 90%, has nothing to do with cutting the deficit and everything to do with pandering to Daily Mail ranters who believe that a university education should be the preserve of the middle classes and not for the masses. Michael Gove's decision to scrap modules in GCSEs has nothing to do with raising standards and everything to do with reducing the grades achieved so that cynical, middle-aged, middle-class, middle-Englanders can continue to feel superior to the younger generation. Abolishing Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) for students from poor families gives the lie to the coalition claims to be progressive, and is yet another example of the breathtaking hypocrisy of the Liberal Democrats. Their frankly extremely flimsy defence in the student fees debacle is that the new system is fairer to poor students. Yet for youngsters from a poor background, £30 per week EMA can be the key to getting them to do A levels. Abolishing EMA will reduce the numbers of poor students staying on for six form, and, clearly, if the do not stay on, they will not go to university. And Nick Clegg know this.
So, even though I live in a constituency that always returns a Tory with an extremely large majority and so my vote is largely irrelevant, I feel I have been duped into changing my vote. The Tory party clearly has not changed. It is still driven by prejudice and dogma. Come back, Gordon, all is forgiven!
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