Cameron’s Tories believe they are a progressive and a forward thinking party… hmmm…

Nationally, the Tories in the past have tried to not only ban the practice, but the very concept of homosexuality… But now, just because they have a handful of out candidates or the odd civil partnershipped gay men on their front bench and, hmmm, haven’t  done anything bad in parliament since last time they were in power (and have no manifesto to point to and evil plans) - then they would say vote Tory, wouldn’t they… After all, it’s not as if they knew gay men were within their own ranks when Section 28 was past into law by the Tories!

But this is it… its not how good or evil the Tories are under Cameron, but it is all about their history on this issue. There grand plans to scrap the Human Rights Act, shows that they still believe that rights are divisible and tradeable for votes. This also point to how a future Tory gov’t would be.

In fact Mr Duncan, the Tories’ first openly gay MP, branded the Lib Dems “shits” after the following facts were pointed out:

• 80% of the 25-member Tory shadow front-bench has voted against major items of gay rights legislation since 1998;

• 90% of those eligible to vote voted against the equalisation of the age of consent; and

• 85% of those eligible to vote voted against the repeal of Section 28 (this includes Cameron - tut tut).

Mr Duncan said on the New Statesman website:

Historically, the Conservatives have been behind the curve. … But a piece of research like this isn’t constructive. It just makes the Liberal Democrats look like shits.

Hit a nerve???

You’d think Section 28 was a distant memory but wait:

Sandy Bruce-Lockhart wanted to introduce Kent’s very own Section 28 and he was later knighted, made a peer and selected as their man for the head of the LGA.

Then you have Cameron’s great new ultra-right-wing EU alliance, which the likes of Stephen Fry have written to him to reconsider and the German and French premieres have been snubbed by. Even Lord Heseltine has stated that Cameron would be forced into a swift and humiliating retreat on Europe if he wins power.

Then there is climate change, an issue that the Tories have already begun to disengage from. With local Tories describing our 10:10 motion as “a silly little motion.” Also, it would seem that any plans they do have on tackling climate change will be at the expense of developing nations.

Even Tim Montgomerie, ConservativeHome editor, attacked the BBC for having a “complete belief in the climate change” - Great!

I’ve tackled this issue before, but it seems to keep wanting to come back! Interestingly, its always the Lefty Green Party or the authoritarian-rightwing Tories (“cuts across the board” - expect an easyBorough if they get in and cuts in frontline services!) that are absolutely obsessed with our bar charts.

I’ve only ever had one resident mention it to me on the doorstep, he was a maths teacher, and I told him it was a cartoon representation and the numbers are there for all to see… and DTP packages don’t always make it easy to be millimeter (or even cm) accurate!  He seemed to be ok with that. In the end, our Focus leaflets, etc, are not scientific papers - so for the love of sanity - get over it!

Clearly, we are a bit of a threat - probably because of the amount we do for the communities we serve…

Quite frankly, if the UK had a little too much left-wing-ism then at best you’d get some-sort-of East Germany, and at worst some kind of Stalinist Russia.

If we have too much right-wing-ism you’d get something like Burma.

But if you have a little too much liberalism you basically get Canada, or Vermont!

Now, which would you prefer………

This can also happen if you take your eye off the ball:

A local resident has been filling me in on all the other political blogs in the Reading. Generally I use Reading List to see what’s going on and can rarely be bothered to look at what Tory bloggers are wittering on about - of cause there are no real Labour councillor blogs so the Tories have one up on them!

Any way… So inaccuracies #1, on the subject of an extra council meeting to discuss the Civic centre re-build one strangely quite in council Tory said:

We then had the bizarre moment when the Lib Dem group decided to vote it down, despite having previously agreed to it.

Of cause, we abstained and didn’t vote against. Clearly something has to be done about the Civic offices - they’re falling to pieces - but its a bit odd that a year ago we were hearing “we can’t delay this decision any longer” and now we’re basically at square one again. That’s the issue we have… the process not the outcome.

In the same entry, this Tory blogger also states:

Later in the meeting we got down to a motion on 10:10, which aims to reduce carbon emissions by 10% in 2010. A very worthwhile motion which has had full support from sides both locally and nationally.

Worthwhile indeed, it’s a shame that the Tories described it as a “silly little motion” and a few meetings ago said that there was no conclusive proof of climate change! So, we have massively increased the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and they don’t expect that to have any impact on our climate… hmmm…

But it’s ok because as another Tory stated climate change is less popular now! A sign of things to come, I think…

Not liberal:

• Cameron would scrap the Human Rights Act
• Cameron voted to retain Section 28
• ‘Liberal’ is still a term of abuse for the Tories - frontbencher Jeremy Hunt recently attacked the BBC for having a ‘liberal bias’

Not progressive

• Cameron would cut taxes for millionaires – at a cost to the country of £4.4bn – while doing nothing to help low earners
• 40% of children in poverty live in one-parent households, yet the Tories’ tax credit reform proposals will only help couples while doing nothing for single parents

Not fit for Government

• Economically illiterate – Cameron and Osborne would cut before, not after an economic recovery, risking plunging UK back into recession
• Fiscally incompetent – six unfunded pledges leave a black hole of £53bn in Tory plans according to Treasury estimates; by contrast, Cameron’s recent ‘salad’ speech on cutting costs set out just £120m of savings
• Cameron’s foreign policy would leave the UK isolated on the lunatic fringe of Europe, less safe from terrorism and international crime
• Cameron’s claim he will fix broken politics rings hollow in the light of his refusal to punish George Osborne for ‘flipping’ his second home, a move by which the Shadow Chancellor made himself £55,000

At the next election there will be a clear choice between Liberty (i.e. the Lib Dems), or the other authoritarian parties (Labour, Conservatives, UKIP, BNP, Green etc…)

A joy of joys came through my letter box today - a shiny-shiny Tory leaflet!

In the section on Council tax they seem/continue to imply some sort of Lib/Lab pack brought about the last budget… in a way, only the Lib Dems and LieBore voted for the new (Lib Dem amended) budget. But after 3 nights of extra council meetings and lots of nasty gripes from LieBore, aimed at us - it was hardly a love-in. But we won a budget for NAG’s, some new speed guns for communities, free bulky waste pick-ups for all those on benefits, and in fact a lower level of council tax increase than the original Labour offering! A lower increase than some neighbouring Tory councils - LOL!

The Tories did mutter something about 0 % rise in council tax and then didn’t have the numbers to back this up.

(At least they were able to call us by our real name and not the Liberals, every cloud)

So what would a Tory Reading be like?

You just have to look at neighbouring Tory authorities to get an idea. Kiss all social care programs goodbye - like caring for the very ill or elderly. Oh and no more dog waste bins, no more open gov’t etc… and still no 0 % council tax rise!

Looking at other Tory councils like Barnet, we even see the beginnings of a pay-as-you go system for ‘non-essential services’ or even to be bumped ahead in a queue! The Grundian reports that Barnet are now a no-frills-council! They say,

Barnet wants householders to pay extra to jump the queue for planning consents, in the way budget airlines charge extra for priority boarding. And as budget airline passengers choose to spend their budget on either flying at peaktime or having an in-flight meal, recipients of adult social care in Barnet will choose to spend a limited budget on whether to have a cleaner or a respite carer or even a holiday to Eastbourne. Other examples of proposed reforms include reducing the size of waste bins to minimise the cost of council rubbish collections.

What a lovely prospect, you pay council tax but if you really want that planning approval or some level of social care you need to pay even more… How delightfully right-wing.

So, how brutal will our local Tories be, should they get into power… I’d say the writing is already on the wall for us all to see.