{"id":70957,"date":"2024-06-12T04:26:07","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T04:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/12\/general-election-2024-is-the-conservative-manifesto-a-game-changer\/"},"modified":"2024-06-12T04:26:07","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T04:26:07","slug":"general-election-2024-is-the-conservative-manifesto-a-game-changer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/12\/general-election-2024-is-the-conservative-manifesto-a-game-changer\/","title":{"rendered":"General election 2024: Is the Conservative manifesto a game-changer?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"General<\/div>


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Manifestos provide, in theory at least, the spine of an incoming government\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

The promises within them, if not entirely sacrosanct, are at least meant to be possessed of a greater sanctity than other more disposable political pledges.<\/p>\n

And they set a tone, a framework and dividing lines with political opponents too.<\/p>\n

Whisper it, but I quite like to collect them.<\/p>\n

I have old ones from years gone by on my bookshelves at home.<\/p>\n

They are political history preserved in glossy paper, and a constant reference point, for at least five years, for victorious and losing parties alike.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 2024 Conservative manifesto<\/a> is a 76-page tome which has the desire and the instinct for tax cuts as its controlling thought.<\/p>\n

But hang on: cuts in national insurance and stamp duty get the thumbs-up, but there is no equivalent on income tax or inheritance tax.<\/p>\n

The argument goes that as sought after as these might be by many, they are less of a priority than the other two.<\/p>\n

And there is a pattern here, as you can see when you look at the Tory promise on borders and security.<\/p>\n

Rishi Sunak renews his commitment to the Conservative plan to send some of those arriving over the Channel on small boats to Rwanda.<\/p>\n

But look what is not promised: the one thing some reckon would make it more likely this scheme and others like it would work \u2014 withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).<\/p>\n

Instead, there is a rather fudgey formulation in the manifesto, on page 36.<\/p>\n

It reads: “If we are forced to choose between our security and the jurisdiction of a foreign court, including the ECHR, we will always choose our security.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In short this is a manifesto in Rishi Sunak\u2019s image.<\/p>\n

Not surprising really, you might say, he is the Conservative leader and fair point \u2014 but let me flesh out what I mean.<\/p>\n

It feels like a document that encapsulates what you might call Sunakian Conservatism.<\/p>\n

His allies would say the fundamentals of that are deliverable, pragmatic, thought-through ideas, not flashy for their own sake but sensible.<\/p>\n

His critics within the party are already saying they are insufficiently bold, grabby or game-changey – when a game-changer is so desperately needed, if even possible.<\/p>\n

“Doubt any of this will make a blind bit of difference,” one senior Tory texts me.<\/p>\n

Before adding, “Should have gone for a tax cut that would have some cut through. These won\u2019t. ECHR language is completely pointless. It is unreformable and we should be leaving.”<\/p>\n

A final thought: there is an undercurrent to public utterances and social media adverts from the Conservatives now, to match their private musings.<\/p>\n

It is an undercurrent which acknowledges the possibility, even the likelihood of defeat.<\/p>\n

That is not to say for a moment they are giving up – we are three weeks into this campaign with the three most important weeks still to come.<\/p>\n

But a framing is emerging from the Tories which acknowledges maximising Conservative support may be about minimising a Labour victory, not preventing it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Manifestos provide, in theory at least, the spine of an incoming government\u2019s mission. The promises within them, if not entirely sacrosanct, are at least meant to be possessed of a greater sanctity than other more disposable political pledges. And they set a tone, a framework and dividing lines with political opponents too. Whisper it, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/477c\/live\/5ac228a0-2860-11ef-b569-c73a6164936f.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[9450,50,24996,1032,3818],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70957"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70959,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70957\/revisions\/70959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}