The Spending Review shows Labour up

The Spending Review shows Labour up

Yesterday’s spending review has shown that Labour have filled their policy void with policy confusion.  They have started to accept austerity saying they can’t guarantee they will reverse all the Conservative cuts, but so far can’t come up with a cut they will reverse.  They have said they will use the spending review as a starting point for their own spending if they were elected in 2015 but still say George Osborne is borrowing too much, and their answer is still to borrow more.  Ed Balls has also been talking about Iron discipline while talking about increased spending.  Labour’s current economic policy is currently messed up and if you ask Labour MP’s what their parties economic policy is you will get different answers from each one,  however one thing seems clear Labour are slowly accepting austerity albeit begrudgingly and in a confusing manner. 

Once you unravel Labours complex web of economic contradictions you can start to comprehend them losing their lead in the polls.  Why is Labour in the lead? People don’t like austerity and Labour have been offering an alternative (well sort of).  As Labour start to accept austerities who are these anti-austerity voters supposed to vote for? Voting Labour would no longer make sense, but you are unlikely to vote Conservative if you feel you have been hard done by the cuts, UKIP is a possible destination for these voters they are mainly working class and UKIP has proven to be very appealing to the working class.  Labour are also likely to struggle with the middle class vote which Tony Blair won in 97, although they are sort of accepting austerity they are doing it in such a confusing manner that they are not giving people confidence that they can run the economy, this group is likely to stick with the Conservatives. Overall Labour is likely to be hurt by its new economic position unless it can come right out and embrace austerity and make their message crystal clear, their current half in half out position will lose them votes and possibly the election come 2015. 

Stick With Dave

Stick With Dave

Recent polls have shown that David Cameron is less popular than his party, now should he get the boot?  Many right wingers in the Tory party have been itching to get rid of the Prime Minister and up until now the PM has had the advantage of being an electoral asset to the party, but at long last he is a liability.  There is an argument to remove him, the public move seems to be swaying to the right UKIP’s popularity shows this but who would replace Cameron, Gove? May? Both these potential front-runners for the leadership are also modernisers.  And to be honest the party wants a moderniser in charge when the party fought the 2001 and 2005 elections with a right wing message we were comprehensively beaten.  Plus the Tory modernising project has not really shifted the party to the left David Cameron and the mods still believe in tax cuts and free enterprise, they have just tried to make the party more compassionate, although since coming into government they have dropped the compassionate message.  It is still fair to say that the modernising agenda is more likely to win the party a majority than running a more right wing agenda and actually, the right of the party has plenty to be pleased about.  Dave has cut immigration by a third, he has cut the top rate of tax from 50% to 45%, he has increased the personal allowance which is essentially a tax cut (it also shows some compassionate conservatism), he is tackling welfare and he is promising a referendum on the EU.  The right of the party has been well looked after under David Cameron. 

Forgetting about what Dave has and has not done policy wise removing him now at this stage of the Parliament would be damaging.  The party will have to go into a leadership contest when they should be governing, the leadership contest may well be a bloody affair revealing all the rifts in the party.  And if a moderniser wins the right may not necessarily back them and if a right winger wins the modernisers are unlikely to support him.  A Michael Gove or William Hague may well unite the party however rifts will probably appear again when the European election goes badly and the party will have had two consecutive years of infighting.  I personally think a leadership challenge would be disastrous for the party at this stage of the Parliament and it will make us look divided come election time which could be sooner than 2015 if the new leader did not hit it off with Nick Cleg.  We should stick with Dave and if he loses in 2015 let the leadership battle commence, there are plenty of quality candidates to lead us back to number 10. 

Anne McIntosh has a point buts she will be ignored

Anne McIntosh has a point buts she will be ignored

Today In Parliament Tory MP Anne McIntosh warned that 7 in 10 medical students are women and as most Women doctors start working part time once they have children this is going to be a burden on the NHS.  Now instantly many will think sexist, but if you actually think about it you will say she has a point.  Firstly the problem is not women doctors it is the fact most Women doctors will often have a successful partner so when they have children rather than pay for child care they are better of dropping down to part time, they can afford to do this.  Now the NHS will have to employ two part time doctors to fill full time vacancies.  The problem is not women doctors they can do the job as well as men it is the fact that once they have kids working in a stressful hospital environment is not always practical.  Secondly, this is a wider problem affecting Women nearly every woman has maternity leave and many only work part time after having a child, this is a problem when it comes to women competing with men for top jobs.

So as I said earlier Anne McIntosh has a point however the influx of female doctors is only a problem because there is a child care problem.  The government has passed a bill on childcare but it is not enough, childcare needs to be free or dirt cheap for it to not be a burden on most people.  Another solution requires a culture shift, and that is that men start working part time once their partner has a child however wages between the genders would need to be balanced for this to become the norm.  So until something is done about the cause of women doctors becoming part time doctors Anne McIntosh has a point, because the cost of training the extra doctors to cover those working part time will burden the NHS.   

    

To conclude what I am trying to say is Anne McIntosh is right in saying an increase in the number of part time doctors will place a greater burden on the NHS.  The increase in female doctors is not a problem if the number of them working part time is decreased, and if people listened rather than calling her deluded or sexist then the problem could be solved, and by solving the problem of the high number of female part time workers you will see an advancement in women’s rights in general.  The pay gap between women and men would decrease because employers would not be so worried about women dropping to part time work after having a child, and there would be more women in top jobs because there would be a wider pool of full time female workers.  However stay at home mums can be great for children and a parent working part time can be good for families, but if people fail to acknowledge facts and do not act problems do develop.  There are numerous ways to stop an increase in part time doctors becoming a financial burden on the NHS but if nothing is done about it due to political correctness it will produce a financial burden on the NHS.