The man with no plan

David Cameron says he’s a man with a plan. But all we got today was warm words and easy populism. In the last few weeks the world has changed. For all his talk of change David Cameron shows no sign of keeping up with events, and still offers nothing to meet the serious economic and financial challenges we face.He made judgement the test today, but on the major issues he’s called it wrong - Northern Rock, Bradford and Bingley and voting against emergency powers to save banks.
It's no good just talking about responsibility if you won't back difficult responsible decisions to support financial stability. It's no good talking about reining in borrowing, then promising high speed rail links and tax cuts.
And it's no good claiming society is broken then offering nothing but warm words.


Thanks to Labour's tough targets 99.9 per cent of suspected cancer patients are seen by a specialist within two weeks of GP referral.The Tories would scrap this guarantee. In fact, they would scrap all of Labour’s tough targets and patient guarantees which have delivered the shortest waiting times in NHS history.(Source: Conservative Party Health Policy document, 29 September 2007)
David Cameron needs to come clean with patients and explain that he plans to:
SCRAP Labour's guarantee that all suspected cancer patients are seen within two weeks of GP referral
SCRAP Labour's guarantee that all patients begin hospital treatment within 18 weeks of GP referral
SCRAP Labour's guarantee that all patients in A&E are seen within four hours.

The Conservative’s flagship tax policy in recent months is to give tax cuts to millionaires."I am happy to confirm that our inheritance tax proposal will introduce a threshold of £1m per person (not per couple). This means that it would be possible for a married couple to enjoy a threshold of £2m."(Source: Shadow Leader of the Commons, Theresa May, Letter on Conservative Party inheritance tax policy, Daily Telegraph, 2 September 2008)
David Cameron needs to explain why, instead of helping people on modest and middle incomes, he would divert £1 billion to the 3,000 richest estates in the country.Labour’s mission is to build a Britain of prosperity and fairness. This year we are giving 22 million basic rate taxpayers a £120 tax cut and lifting 600,000 pensioners out of tax altogether.

Labour has negotiated a deal with GPs which means that by next year, half of GP surgeries will provide at least one three hour evening or weekend session each week.The Tories would scrap this deal(Source: Andrew Lansley MP, Shadow Health Secretary, interview with Pulse magazine, 29 April 2008)
David Cameron needs to come clean and tell you which GPs around here would stop offering weekend and evening opening under his plans.Labour is extending GP opening hours, opening over 100 new GP surgeries in the areas that need them most, and opening 150 new GP-led health centres across the country, to be open 8am-8pm, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The Conservatives have said they will fund their school plans by making £4.5 billion of cuts to Labour's fund to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in England.(Source: Conservative Opportunity Agenda, Policy Green Paper; Raising the bar, closing the gap: our action plan to raise school standards No. 1, 20 November 2007)
That would mean hundreds of school building projects would have to be cancelled. David Cameron needs to come clean and tell you where these cuts would fall.Labour is transforming the schools in which our young people learn after years of neglect. We are committed to rebuilding or refurbishing every secondary school and half of all primary schools over the coming years to provide the ideal learning environment for all of our children.

The Conservatives want to cut £200 million a year from Sure Start centres, taking £79 million from health outreach workers and another £121 million from core Sure Start budgets.The only way these cuts could be achieved would be by cutting the Children’s Centres that families rely on.
David Cameron must come clean and tell you which children's centres in this area would face the axe because of his cuts.Labour has already created almost 3,000 Sure Start Children's Centres and a free nursery place for every three and four year old and by 2010 there will be a children’s centre in every community providing support for hardworking families and allowing every child to fulfil their potential.

Blue rinsed love in

Here’s your update from the blue-rinsed love-in in Birmingham. Speaking as a school governor - of an inner city secondary depending on Building Schools for the Future money - it looks like Michael Gove has committed a schoolboy error by announcing 5,000 schools without costing them properly. The schools - based on the Swedish model - would be completely experimental and cost billions of pounds, probably taken from Labour's ongoing Building Schools for the Future programme to rebuild or refurbish every school in England. Schools Minister Andrew Adonis has said: "Michael Gove calls for 'straight talk' but it's time the Tories came clean about the true cost of their Swedish model. He needs to tell us what he would cut to pay for these 5,000 schools. Until he can answer this question, their 'free' schools are just fantasy schools compared to our 1,200 real academies and new or rebuilt schools nationwide."Labour has set up more than 130 new academies, built or rebuilt more than 1,200 schools, and employed 40,000 extra teachers, raising standards nationwide. "Nearly 300 extra academies are also planned and funded, and we are supporting parents who want to set up their own schools, creating a new generation of co-operative trust schools [like Elm Green, the first parent-promoted school, which happens to be in Lambeth]."When the Tories first proposed a few hundred new "Swedish style" schools they conceded they would have to cut £4.5 billion from our school building programme to pay for the capital costs. But the 5,000 schools the Tories are now talking about would cost many billions more. "Where is this money going to come from and how are they going to deal with the impact on existing schools?" Finally, we had to smile when we heard that Cameron was thinking about calling for a 'National Government' to help Gordon through this global crisis.Cameron is a man who has no business experience beyond (a) being a PR man for a TV company – a man the respected City journalist Jeff Randall said he "wouldn’t trust my daughter’s pocket money with” – and (b) advising Norman Lamont during the Black Wednesday debacle when interest rates went from 10% to 15% IN A DAY and £27 BILLION was flushed down the Treasury toilets trying to prop up the pound to keep it in the ERM. Thousands of decent, hard-working people ended up being plunged into negative equity and having their homes - their HOMES - repossessed. Thanks Dave, but I think we’ll pass.So let's get out there and turf these Tories off what we know must remain a Labour government's territory - providing better, fairer education and safeguarding the economy through the current turbulence.Please don't forget to register your email at www.gofourth.co.ukAnd take a look at www.labour.org.uk if you want more on some of the other reality-lite, cost-heavy Tory policy announcements from Birmingham.