by matttbastard
A kinder, gentler Conservative Party (UK)? That’s certainly the image Conservative leader David Cameron has been desperate to project ever since he took the reigns of the so-called ‘nasty party’. But Harry Potter impresario (and single parent) J.K. Rowling isn’t buying the Tory’s New Labour Lite makeover. Rowling notes that despite the fuzzy rhetoric, Cameron’s Tories exhibit the same naked contempt for the poor they did during Maggie T’s tenure — especially towards poor women:
Yesterday’s Conservative manifesto makes it clear that the Tories aim for less governmental support for the needy, and more input from the “third sector”: charity. It also reiterates the flagship policy so proudly defended by David Cameron last weekend, that of “sticking up for marriage”. To this end, they promise a half-a-billion pound tax break for lower-income married couples, working out at £150 per annum.
I accept that my friends and I might be atypical. Maybe you know people who would legally bind themselves to another human being, for life, for an extra £150 a year? Perhaps you were contemplating leaving a loveless or abusive marriage, but underwent a change of heart on hearing about a possible £150 tax break? Anything is possible; but somehow, I doubt it. Even Mr Cameron seems to admit that he is offering nothing more than a token gesture when he tells us “it’s not the money, it’s the message”.
Nobody who has ever experienced the reality of poverty could say “it’s not the money, it’s the message”. When your flat has been broken into, and you cannot afford a locksmith, it is the money. When you are two pence short of a tin of baked beans, and your child is hungry, it is the money. When you find yourself contemplating shoplifting to get nappies, it is the money. If Mr Cameron’s only practical advice to women living in poverty, the sole carers of their children, is “get married, and we’ll give you £150”, he reveals himself to be completely ignorant of their true situation.
As they say, read the whole damn thing, then read it again — and, if you are a UK citizen of voting age, maybe think twice before uttering the foreboding words “I’ve never voted Tory before, but . . .”
h/t Chris Bertram
bastard.logic 
Spoiled rich brat Cameron who has grown bored with wealth and now craves it’s substitute. Hung parliament would be doing the citizens a favour considering their awful choices. Sort of like what our next election would look like.
Cameron/Brown – just ewww!
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Yes, Cameron’s been cycling to work too. (See bicycle blog article in the Guardian). Isn’t the marriage thing also heterosexist? I don’t believe GB has same-sex marriage – does it respect SSMs contracted elsewhere within the European Union?
The problem of course is that a number of disaffected Labour voters are thinking of voting Tory to show Blair-Brown a lesson, but Cameron is no less pro-war and pro-imperialist than the social-democratic-sellouts and while he comes across as personable and “modern”, indeed he is advocating reactionary anti-women, anti-worker and heterosexist policies, and his greenwashing is utterly superficial. Although Labour’s own policies with respect to sustainable transport and green urbanism are ghastly in comparison with those of social-democratic parties in continental Europe, the Tories are even more in thrall to powerful business interests defending motorways and airport expansion at the expense of developing good urban public transport, practical commuting bicycle lanes and restoring the gutted rail system that was once the envy of the world.
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Well we already know the failings and dangers single mothers bring to the table, so she’s a little late with the ammo: http://goo.gl/I8Rw
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Actually, the marriage tax break applies to same-sex couples as well. The Tories have three openly gay people on their frontbench team (could you imagine a Democratic President, let alone a Republican with three gays in the cabinet?) Labour doesn’t actually offer any more benefits to single mothers than the Tories do. The LibDems are still preferable to the Tories for social liberals, but Labour are warmongering, authoritarian bastards.
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The Tories have had a shadow cabinet member state that Christian B&B owners should be allowed to refuse service to same sex couples (despite us, y’know, having laws against that kinda thing.) They would also reduce the abortion limit to 20 weeks despite vast swathes of medical evidence that it is a pointless exercise, would allow schools to teach sex-ed in whatever way matches their moral beliefs, thus opening the door to abstinence only sex ed which works so well in America (or, presumably, just not teaching it at all) and to top it off would block any moves to legalise assisted dying, despite widespread support for it from the British public. They are a vile bunch of woman haters. I’ll be voting Lib Dem.
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tories are complete bastards, always have been, always will be – when will the public learn this fact?
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