In Coventry the Tories haven’t changed their spots

By John Mutton

We hear a lot about Cameron’s new Caring Conservatism, but what does it mean in reality? In Coventry it seems that there is very little difference between Cameron’s Conservatism and that of Thatcher; perhaps the only difference is that Maggie Thatcher was brutally honest about what she believed in, while today’s Conservatives say one thing but mean another.

The Tory controlled Council in Coventry tried to dress up a cuts package in last year’s budget as investment in the City. A great deal of the cuts were a direct attack on the old, the young, the frail and the disadvantaged.

Their first cut was for people with learning difficulties, where, at first, they tried to close down workshops for people with learning difficulties. When that was not successful they stopped the meagre allowance which was seen as a wage packet by the users and gave them a sense of pride. This was followed by attacks on young people starting with a reduction of £150k in the budget for children leaving care. The Tories’ attitude was effectively to say, those people are no longer our responsibility.

But they didn’t stop at looking after our children. They also went after children from poorer backgrounds by stopping the before school and after school children’s clubs, which in some cases forced single parents back onto benefits, as they had no one else to look after their children and couldn’t afford childminders.

At a time when obesity in children is high on the political agenda we would expect Councils to encourage children to participate in sports to keep healthy. But in Coventry, the Tories’ way of keeping children healthy is to increase the cost of playing football on Council-owned pitches by 50%.

Just to prove that the Tories aren’t biased against children alone, they also cut funding for the elderly and increased charges for services. For some elderly people, the meals on wheels service is a lifeline. Yet over the last two years the Tories have increased the price by 60% and now they intend to take a further £540,000 out of the enablement and promoting independance budget without stating what the implications will be.

Probably the worst example of Compassionate Conservatism was evidenced in their first budget after taking power, in which they scrapped the scheme for poorer families to be able to get free school uniforms for their children to save £100k and then spent it on flowers in the City centre. The Tory priority is seemingly to have a bunch of flowers, by literally taking the clothes off children’s backs.

In Coventry we have clearly seen that the Tory Leopard hasn’t changed its spots; it has just got sneakier in the way it goes about things.

References:
Budget Summary 2007/2008

Budget Summary 2008/2009