It's that time in the election cycle that the main parties make promises with no contractural obligation to complete. Their researchers and campaign managers come back to them with a complete list of 'what the public want to hear' and they then go on to construct lists that satisfy people on their doorsteps as they run their campaigns. We should be honest with ourselves and recognise these campaigns for what they are, empty promises. 

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The Conservatives & Unionists have a list of all the usual items of public concern - https://public.conservatives.com/static/documents/GE2024/Conservative-Manifesto-GE2024.pdf

At first glance you have to ask the question, 'if these are also your concerns then why have you not improved on any of them while you have been in office'. In fact, the Tories have doubled down on their policy to sell off the tax payers assets for pennies in the pound to their wealthy mates from the old school and their party donors and their employers in the most part when they are meant to be employed by the electorate. The result is that the tax we pay towards the services we are owed, particularly the health services, are being syphoned off in profits paid to contractors, many of them set up as off-shore corporations who don't even pay what they should be back in corporate taxes. It is nothing but a scam. Our railways and our energy providers are also contracted out which has only driven up costs to the consumer massively so that we watch them walk away with profit that should be ours, every household and every commuter. We have been lied to about a state operator not being able to efficiently manage an organisation while at the same time we contract out to French state owned companies. We have to expose the lie that this is 'free market economics' at its best. This is Oligarchic Capitalism, the take over of the democratic process by wealthy corporations to profit from everything that the public do. Here you will find some figures that will make your blood boil - https://weownit.org.uk/

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Labour have focussed their campaign on five main items. They are not pushing back on Tory policies as they were under Jeremy Corben but they are making similar sounds about ending some of the Tory scams. I worry though just how motivated they are when Labour are also hounded by lobbyists, employers and funders who attempt to say them on policy awasy from public sentiment. My worry about Labour is that no longer have a political philosophy as a foundation for their policies so that each policy stands alone unsupported by a general movement towards anything in particular. We can be grateful that they have fully detatched from their Marxist roots but this has left a void of philosophical foundation to their causes or direction. So six points they highlight as their 'first steps' once in office conclude with - https://labour.org.uk/change/first-steps-for-change/

1. Drive Economic Growth - when you dig into that some of it means driving up the housing market again to be even further out of reach to first time buyers. Beyond that it looks like they don't actually understand some basic principles of eceonomics and are starting to just adopt the language, and thereby potentially more policies, of the Tories. Economic growth could be building over arable or scenic land while they massively increase the population size with migration or it could be to simply drive up inflation giving the appearance of more money being around. Economic growth has never meant that ordinary people have more money in their pocket at the end of the week. Its only ever been a useful indicator for those with large investments in the economy, the 1%. For Labour to be talking in these terms is frankly worrying.

2. Cut NHS Waiting Times - Another crowd pleaser. It suggests that they are about to step in as hospital managers doing something that the professionals who have spent their education and lifetimes dedicated to health provisions are incapable of managing these things. Labour should be concerned with the funding of the NHS. We need to stop our taxes being wasted on the profiteer contractors, we need to ringfence spending on the NHS from a taxation source. I suggest assigning all of our VAT reciepts towards the NHS and then leave its management to the professionals who can make long term plans for the nation's health that would include - early screening to prevent costs further down the line and to ease discomfort, to adopt tech like big data gathered within the NHS to inform better treatments, to build infrastructure in our education system for tomorrow's NHS staffing needs, invest in R&D so that big pharma is not ripping off the tax payer keeping people in a constant state of need rather than sure, I could go on. There are many ways the government could be helping our health service by policy rather than management. 

3. Launch New Border Control - It's great that Labour have managed to get behind this public concern. Their other policies surrounding migration though are still more about virtue signalling as opposed to genuine concerns for the well-being of people. If well-being of migrants who risk their lives trying to get here were of concern then they should take a tougher line and make it clear that if you risk your own or your family's life crossing seas to get here then you will not get the reward of being able to stay period. There is a lot more help we could and should be giving to displaced people in times of civil unreast around the globe. Our military should be better designed as a 'peace corp' so that its capabilities are invested in more effectively so that they are able logicstically solve problems around the world and to keep them in prime condition should conflicts break out but in the meantime to keep their management of logistics, half the battle in times of war, in tip top condition. 

4. Set Up Great British Energy - I completely welcome this move. It shows backbone and makes it clear that some things are better delivered collectively by the state and not farmed out to the free market when there is onnly one supply route. They could have gone further in this commitment though. Firstly, they could have offered grants to locally produced energy within communities. They could have extended the re-nationalisation to other utilities, to rail, post and the NHS. 

5. Crack Down On Anti-Social Behaviour - Again, its an idea that they don't take far enough due to their lack of underlining philosophy on the subject. Antisocial behaviours and low level crime nurtures long term criminal behaviour that course people in society endless stress so, yes, lets tackle crime at the lower end to nip in the bud those seeking out a criminal lifestyle. They don't really dig down into this subject as I do (in chapter 9 of my book) and so they say nothing of rehabilitating those offenders away from anti social behaviours and towards pro-social behaviours. They say nothing of how they will approach those with dependencies or mental health issues or those drug dealers who fund their gangsterism by selling to the junkies who are committing many of the low level crime and antisocial behaviours. 

6. Recruit 6,500 new teachers -  Again, rather than talking about how that gets funded, I suggest a ringfenced amount paid for by the assigning of tax reciepts from Corporate Taxes. Labour suggest that they have to step in to better manage this executive branch, The Department of Education, better than the professions who have dedicated their lives to their profession over some cabinet minster recently shuffled into the subject of the nation's education. Labour could be talking about our 21st century understanding of the human brain and the learning processes and how our education system couls and should be modernising to be more effective. They don't talk about how they could be better funding specialist schools who take a subject and specialise in its teaching and thereby driving excellence in the system as a whole. They say nothing about education for life and what they could be divising to help everybody to achieve more in their career paths whenever they need it in their lives, they say nothing of dewsigning a tax system that allows a grant to be spent on higher education so that students are not saddled with debt and all the stresses that go with that. Again, there is no core philosophy to the Labour party and so its policies will opnly ever be disjointed and half-ass. 

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