I stand by my opinion (and believe it can be borne out by examining what various governments have done when in office) that Labour governments have brought in many progressive policies, such as State Pension, NHS, Minimum Wage, Equality legislation, etc, etc, whereas Conservative MPs have almost always opposed these and other policies designed to improve the lives of the average person.
lemongrove You say my analysis is incorrect, that Conservative government have also introduced measures to help the average person. You cite just one example - our current Conservative government's increase to the tax threshold.
In April 2019, the Guardian reported:
"A surprise £3bn income tax giveaway worth £860 a year to high earners was the centrepiece of Philip Hammond’s third budget, but tax experts said it would leave low earners with little or no gains.
"The rises in personal allowances translate into significant tax cuts further up the income scale. For someone on £12,500, the increase is worth £130, but for those on £50,000 salaries it is worth £860 a year, although this is reduced to £520 once national insurance is taken into account.
................... "Victoria Todd, of the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG), said: “Personal allowance increases are often welcomed as helping those on low incomes. However, such increases do not benefit those on the lowest incomes at all, or benefit them by a lower amount than those with higher incomes.
“Those earning under the current personal allowance of £11,850 will see no gain from this change. Those earning above £11,850 may benefit but it depends on whether they receive tax credits or other means-tested benefits such as universal credit.”
And now Boris Johnson is making tax cuts a central part of his campaign to be PM.
Guardian June 2019
"Boris Johnson has promised to cut taxes for around 3 million higher earners by raising the 40p threshold from £50,000 to £80,000 if he becomes prime minister, saying
“The move would cost around £9.6bn a year, which would be paid for partly from savings in Brexit no-deal preparations, he said." (I think many people would question that blithe assumption - in the same way that they should have questioned the notion of a quick and easy resolution of our withdrawal from the EU)
Jeremy Hunt is also jumping on the tax cuts bandwagon, with his proposals being described by the Institute of Fiscal Studies as likely to cost in the region of £37-65bn.
Virtually all our public services are on their knees - police force (a crisis is manpower, courts system (barristers threatening to strike), probation system (part privatisation described as a disaster and cancelled) , older care system (residential homes closing for lack of funding) , NHS (chronic lack of trained medical and nursing staff and failure to retain) schools (250 either having gone part-time or planning to go part-time because of funding crisis
parents protesting that SEN children are being left completely unsupported) ................... and the list goes on.
At such a time, our two Conservative PM candidates propose to significantly cut taxes and thus the ability of the government to try to address the major crisis in our crumbling public services - upon which the vast majority of this country's population rely.
