So how much is the Prime Minister’s word worth? The well-informed James Forsyth wrote in the Mail on Sunday on 13 December 2010:
Breaking one of Cameron’s personal promises is one of the great no-nos of this government. All the way through the Spending Review, great care — and cost — was taken to protect any commitment that Cameron himself had made.
Downing Street is desperate to protect the Cameron brand. They know that a leader’s word has to mean something . . .
Forsyth is right: in an age in which trust in politicians is plummeting by the day, a party leader’s word does have to mean something. He’s wrong, however, to say: “Breaking one of Cameron’s personal promises is one of the great no-nos of this government.” The Prime Minister himself has broken a fair few (child benefit? VAT?) and, as this morning’s newspapers make clear, he is in the midst of violating a few more.
Take the NHS. Cameron, in opposition, made a great fanfare about protecting the NHS budget from cuts; in fact, in December, Cameron told MPs at Prime Minister’s Questions:
We are not breaking that promise. We want to see NHS spending increase by more than inflation every year.
Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month
Yet, as the Mirror reports:
An analysis by the highly respected Institute for Fiscal Studies showed yesterday rising inflation means NHS funding will fall 0.9 per cent over the next four years, equivalent to a cut of £900m.
The Chancellor, George Osborne, has helped to cook the books by reducing the baseline from which the Government measures health spending.
But the IFS said that even with the new baseline Mr Osborne will struggle to maintain NHS spending above “zero” and was “sailing very close to the wind”.
Then, there is the issue of pensioners and the Winter Fuel Allowance. From the Guardian:
Older people will receive up to £100 less from the government in payments to help with their winter energy bills — a cut George Osborne failed to mention in his Budget speech, or include in the Budget document.
The winter fuel payment is currently worth £250 for the over-60s and £400 for the over-80s, following a temporary uplift of £50 and £100 respectively — introduced by the previous government in 2008. It is this top-up that the current government is allowing to expire from winter 2011.
Yet in a speech delivered 48 hours before last year’s general election, Cameron proclaimed:
And I want to say to British people clearly and frankly this; if you are elderly, if you are frail, if you are poor, if you are needy a Conservative government will always look after you. On the journey we need to take this country on, no one will be left behind. And let me say very clearly to pensioners if you have a Conservative government your Winter Fuel Allowance, your bus pass, your Pension Credit, your free TV licence, all these things are safe. You can read my lips, that is a promise from my heart.
Hmm. Dave had better be careful. There was another centre-right leader who made grandiose promises — before breaking them — while uttering the fateful words, “read my lips“. Whatever happened to him?
Content from our partners
Related
