Theresa May MP: We’ve heard it all before, Gordon

Working my way through Gordon Brown’s speech at the Labour Party conference, I waited – and waited – for something new.  But there was nothing.  The speech was nothing more than a re-hash of every other speech he has given in the last few years.  And it wasn’t even just the content that was a re-hash – it turns out that even his rhetoric was a re-hash from old American campaign speeches.

He promised a ‘personalised’ NHS.  But he first announced his back in May 2004.  And he failed to deliver; in fact he spent all of his time as Chancellor seeking to restrict consumer choice.  As he once famously said: ‘In healthcare, we know that the consumer is not sovereign’.

He promised more competitive sport. But he has been announcing this since 2001.  And as ever with Gordon Brown, the truth is hidden in the small print.  Government figures show that Lottery money going to grassroots sport has been cut by 47 per cent since Labour came to power.

He promised to build ten new ‘eco-towns’.  But despite the fact that he has been talking about doing this for the last two years, Labour actually promised to build seven of them back in 1997 – when they called them ‘Millennium Communities’.  Gordon’s Brown’s protégé, Yvette Cooper, has admitted that only one in ten of these homes have been built.

He promised to double the number of hospital matrons to lead the fight against hospital superbugs. But the 2000 NHS Plan promised ‘clean wards – overseen by modern matrons’.  Yet there was no increase in the number of NHS matrons, and in the last two years, cases of Clostridium Difficle have increased by 25 per cent.

He promised to spend money from dormant bank accounts on youth centres.  But he has announced this over and over again: in 2005, 2006 and 2007.  Who believes he’ll deliver this time?

His speech contained promises on medical research (announced three times before), family-friendly opening hours for GP surgeries (announced three times before), fast-track treatment for cancer (first announced in 2000), cancer screening (first announced in 2000 – by Tony Blair), carbon limits (announced twice before), extended maternity leave (announced six times before), ‘British jobs for British workers’ (meaningless, probably illegal and announced three times before), and deporting drug dealers (also illegal and announced before).  I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point: Gordon Brown says he is a break from the past, but nothing could be further from the truth.  He is the past.

Meanwhile, the public wants to know about politicians’ priorities for now and for the future.  We live in a world that is changing fast.  We face new and complex challenges.  But Gordon Brown’s politics are the old politics; they haven’t worked and they will not work in dealing with the challenges of tomorrow.   

Next week, at our party conference, we will present our ideas and serious policies that meet these challenges; policies that will deliver opportunity and give people power over their lives, make families stronger and society more responsible, and make our country safer and greener.  That’s the change the country needs.

Comments

[James Maskell]

This was of course reported in the press yesterday... We are the party of plagiarism!

[Steven Mills]

Err, no James - this is about the content of the speech. Yesterday's report was about the language Brown "borrowed" from the Yanks.

The Party desperately needs to keep its nerve. That means MPs need to keep in line, but it also means supporters - including people on this website - need to have some faith.

Let's see what we come up with next week. I'm sure we'll bin the mad Goldsmith stuff and have some serious policies that appeal to both traditional Tories and floating voters.

[Mike Christie]

Any chance of the party bigwigs actually saying this forcibly in public rather than preaching to the converted here and telling use what we already know?

The limp-wristed rebuttal posted on the party website that was at least a whole ten lines long was pathetic.

Why was there no senior party figure on the Today programme the morning after the speech, why was the only voice that of Mandleson saying how lovely and New Labour Brown was?

[Tony Makara]

Gordon Brown and 'Stale Labour' have nothing new to offer our country. This is a tired and burnt-out government. Their entire raison d'etre now is to remain in power. Nothing more. The fact that Gordon Brown refuses to even acknowledge that we have social breakdown, a debt-dependent economy and disintegrating public services shows he has to policy to confront such issues. Gordon Brown now sees himself as above the political fray. His head in the sand approach is dangerous for our country. Gordon Brown is in denial and his speech exposed him as a man who breaks promises and has no new promises to offer.

[Moral minority]

Gordon's broken promises reminds me of David Cameron's broken promise to leave the EPP! The Tories are also fond of re-announcing policies.

If this is best that we can offer, God help us if Brown calls a general election. Parties slagging off each other turns the voters off.

The public wants to know what we stand for and what we will do for them. The opinion polls show that they still don't know, just days before Brown can could call a snap election.

[Bel]

"He promised to spend money from dormant bank accounts on youth centres. But he has announced this over and over again: in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Who believes he’ll deliver this time?"

To be honest, Theresa May, this is one promise I would be glad if he did not keep. As Conservatives, should we really be pressing Brown to plunder private property? Even if it is for the 'noble' aim of building youth centres?

That aside, a brilliant article. Thank you.

[John Leonard]

Moral Minority:

What do you want a Labour Government and NO EU Referendum or do you want a Conservative Government and a guaranteed EU Referendum?

As far as I am concerned who cares what EU group they belong to? The EU as a whole is a disaster for this country and has been for many many years. Let's have the referendum, the EPP can wait.....

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Good article by Theresa May. It is always worth reiterating what Gordon Brown really is. A clapped out 80's style politician with no vision or ideas who is clinging to power using every superficial political stunt he can think of. Labour policies are vapourware.

[Mrs Campbell]

Gordon Brown's policy announcements are second hand cars which have been "clocked" -the sales force will say anything to close the sale too. Don't buy

[Malcolm Dunn]

A good piece Mrs May. It is a shame though that rather than pointing this out to a (mostly( converted audience our spokesmen were not making the same points to the national media this week. Why the silence?

[Oberon Houston]

Why didn't he talk about his 10 years of delivery.

1. Individual Learning Accounts: Huge number of fraudulent claims and waste of taxpayers money.
2. New Deal: Huge waste of money, number of youth long term unemployed now higher than 1997. Paid for by tax on pensions.
3. Army: Fighting two wars with poor equipment, terrible post-injury medical care and inadequate housing
4. PFI: Massive 25 year debts for the next genertion to pay after Brown is long gone and past the terms of over ten parliaments.
5. Prisons: Awful
6. Gun crime: Up up up
7. MRSA: Transmitted through people not dirty wards. No research to combat the problem.
8. Dentists: 1/2 mile queue to register for one.
9. EU Treaty: No referendum. The Dutch get one.
10. Tax: Highest ever.
11. Farming: DEFRA is a disaster, doesn't like farmers. Single payments fiasco. Farmers going bust, massive disruption, poverty and committing suicide. Beckett is responsible, won't talk to farmer who traveled 400 miles for booked appointment and is waiting in reception.
12. Police: Form fillers.
13. Home office: Selection of staff using not merit but 'positive' discrimination with massive ethnic targets, which are met. Department turns into basket case.
14. Schools: Targets for exam results, everyone gets A's, whole point of an exam is forgotten. Everyone wins a prize, Labour MPs are happy.
15. University: Research grants are not awarded on real merit. Everyone wins a prize again. Research goes down.
16 Devlopment: Goes overseas, cost's in UK due to red tape are too high.
17. Pensioner poverty: On rise - and I mean real poverty, less than £5K/year.
18. Productivity: Going down like an anvil in a lake with a tractor attached. Due to Brown reforms to public services.
19. GP contract: Double their salary for less hours. Brown negotiated it, but didn't understand what he was agreeing to.
20. Junior Doctors: On dole queue or plane out.
21. Dr Kelly.
22. Railtrak grannies losing their shirts in illegal liquidation.
23. Social mobility: Dropped fastest since 1997, now lowest in OECD. Welfare trap is biggest ever.
24. Disability Benefits: Half of claimants able to work immediately
25. NHS computer project: Most expensive IT fiasco in UK history. Still not working.
26. NHS cardiac improvements: Due to better lifestyle & diet over last 30 years, not current healthcare improvements.
27. Devolution in Scotland: SNP in power, West Lothian Question, Full separation looms.
28. Postal voting introduced: Massive fraud. Hewitt implicated, Labour candidates jailed, fined and reprimanded. Judge compares system to 'Banana Republic'.
29. A&E closures, Maternirt closures.
30. Special Education: Kids requiring special education have schools closed, are forced into mainstream system to prevent them being 'stigmitised'.
31. Gold sale.

What a guy!

[Air Jordan shoes]

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.