Incredible Responses

At work today I received a few more cheques to put into our Tsunami Relief effort pot. I am literally stunned by how well our day went on March 17. About 60 men and women from across London and Surrey came together at Lightwater Leisure Centre that day to play indoor cricket in support of adoptsrilanka.com. This is a charity that is taking money directly to schools and villages along the devastated Sri Lankan coastline where it is most needed. Our group has now raised over £1500, with a total in excess of £3000 pledged. Gift Aid and corporate donations have still to be factored in, so this figure could rise still more. I want to pay tribute publically to everyone involved for the effort they made; indeed, are still making. Considering the initial ambition was just to reach four figures we have done incredibly well - something for us to be really proud of. Check it out: there is a Tsunami Relief: Indoor Cricket Day website if you want to know more.

The Conservative Party launched its manifesto today for the upcoming British General Election on May 5. In keeping with the style of the Tory campaign so far it is punchy with lots of attention grabbing headlines, although light on costings at this stage. Tax policy to pay for all these ideas will be revealed in the next few days by all accounts. So this'll be outside the manifesto then, and any failure to keep to it won't be a failure to adhere to a manifesto commitment. Clever, huh?

They're tough on law and order. 20,000 more prison places, expanding the potential prison population in the UK by 25%. Just what's needed, enlarged training colleges to swell our criminal community by a quarter. That's OK, we'll get 5000 more policemen every year: well, we'll need them! In a similar vein, there's the plan to improve school discipline by excluding the unruly and herding them into Turnaround Schools. More training colleges for criminality! I mean, a child in a school full of yobs and bullies is really going to get his head down and work for those qualifications, isn't he? Hell yeah.

Want to send your child to private school? No problem, if the cost is the same as state education, a Conservative government will foot the bill for you. Isn't that taking taxpayers' money out of state education and ploughing it into independent schooling though? Of course it is, but don't worry, it won't last long. As demand rises, so will the prices. Then, private schooling will always be more expensive that the state equivalent (isn't it anyway?) and the policy will lapse. So here the Tories appear to offer us something (wrong in principle anyway) when, in fact, they don't. A gimmick!

We see a similar, but probably more successful, financial transfer planned for hospitals. If patients want to go private, a Conservative government will help them do so by giving them the cost of the state care they're foregoing towards the cost of private treatment. Once again, money leaves the state sector and ends up in the hands of private health providers. Pity the poor souls who can't afford to bridge this gap and are left behind to be treated in a system that has been depleted of funds in this way.

It is a grotesque insult to NHS staff to insinuate that they have such poor professional pride that they can't keep their establishments clean. Of course, it's not their fault, the Tories say, it's Blair's target culture. Remove the targets, and doctors and nurses will be able to spend time caring again. But just what targets were these doctors and nurses actually aiming for while putting their patient population at risk of MRSA infection? Even if this were happening and was successful, there'd be some targets manifestly not met. It makes no logical sense and is another story blown out of all proportion to help build the atmosphere of fear needed for the right wing to gain ground.

Fear brings me to immigration and asylum. I've no problem with this subject being talked about as part of a sensible political discourse and I'm not about to accuse the Conservatives of being racist by raising the issue. However it does seem to have stirred up some disturbing and previously hidden hatreds amongst the white British population. Once again, the atmosphere of fear is being enhanced. How often on the TV news have you heard some random bloke in the street say "I'm not a racist but...." and then come out with something almost fascist in its xenophobic intensity? It's happening more and more, and it is the raising of immigration as an issue which has unleashed this disgusting undercurrent in our society and lent it a respectability it should never and will never deserve.

Some have called for the Labour Party to get righteously angry about this, and shout out that it is wrong and should stop. It's hard to argue with the validity of that view, but relative silence of the Left on this matter to date might, in the end, be the best approach. It's immoral, but it's a side-issue when the future of the economy, our health and our education is at stake.

So, all in all, no, I don't think I'll be voting Conservative on May 5.

Sorted the wing-mirror by the way - good as new.