(8) To what extent have
the Conservatives moved
away from their Principles?
Descripción
A level (Political Parties) People and Politics Mapa Mental sobre (8) To what extent have
the Conservatives moved
away from their Principles?, creado por Marcus Danvers el 06/03/2014.
(8) To what extent have the Conservatives
moved away from their Principles?
Deficit reduction
The Conservatives re-engaged more openly with economic Thatcherism,
due to them alone propoing substantial spending cuts and the "structural"
deficit should be entirely removed within the lifetime of the Parliament
There first emergency budget of June 2010, would increase VAT to
20%, pushing up capital gains tax and introducting a balance
sheet levy on banks and building societies
There would be £81 Billion in cuts in
Government spending in September of 2010
This was a return to the strident neoliberal
rhetoric of the 1980s, about the benefits of
"rugged" individualism and free market
However seen as "necessary" rather than
"desirable" to prevent fisgal inbalance of
Greek and Portaguese economys
The coalitiom's approach to the deficit and its wider
programme of polices bears the hallmark of Thatcherism
Political choice
The coaltions cuts are a political choice, in that they are
more severe than those have been intoduced in many other
European countries in a similar position.
Also, economists and other commentators have been
divided about the wisdom of swift and severe spending
cuts, particularly because of their impact on growth
Spending cuts
rather than tax rises
The deficit reduction programme places much
greater emphasis on spending cuts than on
tax rises £1 tax increase £4 spending cut
This reflects both a willingness to
reduce the size of the state and a
Thatcherite desire to keep taxes low
Growth straegy
The coalition's strategy is largely based on the
assumption that, as the public sector of the
economy contract and private grows
This is based on a faith in the
natural vigour of a market economy
Privatization
Plans to cut spending often invole a shift from public provision to
private provision, based on the assumption that private business are
usally more effcient and responsive than public sector bodies
Wealfare cuts
The burden of spending
cuts affects the wealfare
state and benefits system.
One of the key of Thatcherism is that
welfare creates a "culture of dependency"
and so hampers the economy
The "Big Society"
Conservatism under Cameron is defined by
the distance it has placed between the
contemporary party and its Thatcherite past
Evident in the "Big Society"
The notion of the "Big Society"
is often loose or ill-defined
However, it is most clearly associated with the ideas of so-called "civic
conservatism", which highlights the need of a sense of rootedness and belonging
to the institutions of civil society, standing between the state and the individual
The idea of the "big society" therfore suggest that people at a local level should
take more responsibility and do more to help themselves and their communities,
rather than relying on action taken by state institution and public services
"Big society" thinking certianly differs from the atomistic
individualsim of Thatcherism, in that it clearly places an emphasis on
cooperation and community action rather than individual selfstriving
Similar to Thatcherism in the
desire to "role back" the state
The Conservative-Lib Dem
coaltion departer from
Thatcherite Ideas and policies
Health spending
The coaltion has Promisted to increases
health spending in "real" terms during
every year of the 2010-15 Parliament
The majority reorganiation of the hands that the NHS,which
started in 2011 and places much more control in the hands of
GP. it aims to create an "internal market" in health provisions
Welfare reform
The has a long-term commitment to creating a unified tax and
wealfare system that has much in common with "third way". E.G
Universal Credit to replace a complex range of work-related benefits
Criminal justice
Kenneth Clarke, the justice secretary, has set about
significantly reducing the UK's prison population and
enphasis on non-custodial sentences
Ending the assumption that prison "works". accepting
the view that punishment should seek to rehabilitate
wrong doers rather than just determing wrongdoing
Civil liberty
In opposition, the Conservatives showed greater interested in civil Liberties
issues and constitutional reform, including supporting a larger elected second
chamber, and these commitments have been enlarged under the coalition
In Light of the coalition
The coalition agreement means it has become difficult to identify where
Conservatives polices start and Liberal Democrat policies finish
Conservative policy had a revived
interest in certain Tharcherite ideas can
be traced back to late sumer of 2007
This shift was reflected in greater concern
with traditionalist issues such as law and
order, immigration and the family