Please nominate your favourite stupid manifesto pledge in the comments and I'll sort out the Poll this evening.
Don't worry so much about whether any of these are worthwhile or make economic sense; focus on whether there is the slightest chance that the party proposing it actually means it (or is just saying to try and grab a few extra votes) and would actually make happen on a practical/administrative level were they to get into government - remembering always that the next government is almost certain to be a coalition anyway.
My favourites so far are:
Lib Dems - £1,500 loans for tenants' deposits
UKIP - reduce VAT on 'women's sanitary products' to zero per cent.
Tories - three days a year paid leave for volunteering.
Labour - The 'Budget responsibility lock'.
Greens - Increase minimum wage to £10 an hour.
SNP - keep retirement age in Scotland at 65.
But that's just off the top of my head and I'm sure there's worse.
Monday, 13 April 2015
Fun Online Poll: The stupidest manifesto pledge yet.
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13 comments:
Greens aiming to reduce all UK greenhouse-gas emissions to 10% of their 1990 levels by 2030.
AK/Mark,
I think we should exclude the greens as options as most of their manifesto is as mad as a box of frogs.
Labour's promise regarding "guaranteed apprenticeships". Just not going to happen (most employers don't want apprenticeships).
Keerist. Where to start? They are all talking such bollocks I really cannot choose.
Why is this
"UKIP - reduce VAT on 'women's sanitary products' to zero per cent."
So bad?
Apart from the fact that is clashes with the far worse UKIP policy to have a local sales tax.
It is not a big issue either IMHO.
MW, are you another one south of the border that thinks Salmond, Sturgeon and co aren't actually serious about independence? that they really just want to suck on the teet of the English taxpayer while playing student politics?
Because if so, you couldn't be more wrong, they want out, even if they need to hoover up the votes of people who don't quite want out, want to use the pound etc in the process.
AKH, that idea is insane but devoutly held and has been in their manifesto for donkeys years, it's not something they just pulled out of the hat.
TS, good one.
LF, VAT changes meet the tests of "plucked out of the hat at the last minute". The local sales tax is bats hit insane, but again, it is devoutly held and has been in their manifesto for years.
SL, in their hearts, they probably do want independence. But they'll settle for big handouts as a second best. And ultimately, they are just politicians.
Not a political party but this is insane:
http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2015/04/on-natural-resources/
Apparently the govt is "unprotecting property rights" and a load of waffle.
http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2014/04/who-owns-the-land/
More nonsense and waffle.
More madness:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/13/fossil-fuel-subsidies-say-burn-more-carbon-world-bank-president
Tories inheritance tax policy...
mombers,
That (and right-to-buy for housing associations) are, unfortunately, all too real.
It all really depends on who they have to go into coalition with. Funnily enough, I still think we'll be looking at a Con/LD coalition.
All of the crime section in the Conservative manifesto:-
finish the job of police reform, so you can have more confidence that your local policing
team is working effectively.
toughen sentencing and reform the prison system, so dangerous criminals are kept off your streets
support victims, so that the most vulnerable in our society get the support they deserve.
scrap the Human Rights Act and curtail the role of the European Court of Human Rights, so
that foreign criminals can be more easily deported from Britain.
We will continue to build a Northern Ireland where politics works, the economy grows and society is strong.
More from the Conservatives:
keep our economy secure by running a surplus so that we start paying down our debts
We will defend our hard-won Common Fisheries Policy reforms, which include ending the scandalous practice of discarding perfectly edible fish and reforming the quota
system so that all at-risk species, including cod, plaice, haddock and seabass, will be fished sustainably by the end of the next Parliament.
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