Tories pledge new anti-union law

Submitted by Zac Muddle on 27 November, 2019 - 7:37
tory manifesto

The Tories, in their manifesto, signal their intention to launch a new assault on trade unions, with a pledge to ban transport workers from all-out strikes by requiring the operation of a “minimum service” during action.

Otherwise the Tory manifesto is very content-light. Despite all the stuff about the Tories junking austerity and spending big on public services, the manifesto pledges barely any new money – about £3 billion, as against tens of billions from Labour and the Lib Dems.

On social care, for instance, it offers virtually nothing beyond an appeal for cross-party consensus.

It pledges tax changes, for instance on national insurance, which would mainly benefit the well-off. Most importantly, however, the Tories would clearly continue the current direction of travel, for instance the cancerous growth of NHS privatisation, the destruction of meaningful local government and the progressive disappearance of council housing.

In other respects, the manifesto would pull politics sharply to the right. It commits to hard Brexit (though even there the detail is vague). It promises to scrap existing free movement in favour of an “Australian-style points based” immigration system, because bashing migrants and rallying nationalist votes is more important than the consequences even for big business. It also sketches out a right-wing authoritarian pitch on criminal justice.

The Guardian notes that the Tories have done much less then Labour to promote their manifesto on social media. It looks like they are not keen on having people actually read their manifesto. Rather, they are relying on their pitch to “Get Brexit done” and their appeal to generally right-wing sentiment.

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