Letters From A Tory Daily views on British politics and the Conservative Party from a centre-right thinker who writes letters on his blog to politicians, journalists and many others.

In a country where everyone seems to be fighting for the ‘centre ground’, people like myself can sometimes be excluded from the political debate.  Labour are no longer left-wing, the Conservatives are no longer right-wing, and the Lib Dems are…  well, no-one really knows what the Lib Dems are. 

I’d describe myself as a centre-right social conservative with hints of economic liberalism and fiscal conservativism as well.  To this end, here is a list of the principles and policies (in no particular order) that I would use to guide this country if/when I become Prime Minister, which should give you a flavour of what to expect on my blog:

FAMILY
Families are the cornerstone of modern society and they are the most important institution in this country.  I get really bored of hearing how people think that supporting the traditional family is somehow ‘stuck in the past’.  It’s not stuck in the past – it has been shown through decades of research to be the best environment for children to grow up in – better than adopted families, better than stepfamilies, better than single parent families, better than everything.  The best place to bring up a child is in a family with a loving mum married to a loving dad and everything possible should be done to make sure that every child grows up in this environment.  Only once every avenue has been exhausted should we consider alternatives.

• Paid parental leave should be extended up to 12 months, which can be divided between the parents as they see fit
• Child benefits should be increased to around £200 a week through a voucher system
• Every parent working for a medium or large companies should have the legal right to work limited hours (e.g. from 10am-2pm) before their child’s third birthday
• IVF should not be available unless both a mother and father are present
• Issues such as gay adoption should be settled by psychological research (in the absence of political interference) into the outcomes of children

BUSINESS
A strong and vibrant business community is essential to our future.  Companies are perfectly entitled to seek high profits but they must also demonstrate a basic level of social responsibility.

• Corporation tax must be kept low (e.g. 5% for small businesses, 15% for medium businesses and 25% for large companies)
• Regulation should be kept to a minimum
• Business tax loopholes should be closed and all companies that trade in the UK should sign up to a strict code of conduct on paying tax
• Banks and building societies should be made liable for worsening people’s financial situations through reckless lending for mortgages, credit cards or any other financial products
• Pubs and bars should be partly liable for the damage caused by drunken patrons that they send onto the streets

WELFARE
Every individual should take reasonable care of themselves in terms of their health, lifestyle, safety and general well-being.  If they don’t take care of themselves, they certainly don’t deserve to have taxpayers’ money spent on bailing them out of whatever hole they have dug for themselves.  The welfare state should pick people up when they need help but it must always be very wary of crossing the line between helping people and incentivising the wrong behaviour. 

• Any form of obesity treatment should not be available on the NHS
• Those who have cirrhosis of the liver as a result of excessive alcohol consumption should not be allowed transplants unless there is a surplus of donor organs available
• Binge drinkers who end up in a police car, police cell or ambulance should be billed for their idiocy
• Unemployment benefits must be kept below the amount that could be earned through working and should only be available for those looking for work
• Child benefit should be limited to the first two children with a single partner or spouse and only be available at the full rate for those over 21
• People who come to live in the UK should not be entitled to unemployment benefits, child benefit, free schooling or free hospital treatment until they have lived and worked here for five years

WHAT A GOVERNMENT SHOULDN’T DO
The default position should be that people are allowed to make their own choices about how to run their lives, while the government’s job is essentially to make itself as irrelevant as possible.  Thus the British Government should take a small-state pro-market approach wherever possible. 

• The income tax threshold should be raised to £10,000 a year
• The 10p tax band should be reinstated for those earning between £10-20,000.
• Tax credits should be abolished
• Control over public services such as policing, schools and hospitals should be devolved from central government
• Competition should be encouraged in education and the health service and a greater role given to charities and private enterprise

WHAT A GOVERNMENT SHOULD DO
There are, however, a few circumstances in which the government is entitled to intervene.  Examples of this include supporting people from disadvantaged backgrounds or when one person’s actions unnecessarily harm another being.

• The government should invest heavily in early years care for infants born in disadvantaged areas in addition to giving extra funding for schools and universities who take on children from disadvantaged backgrounds
• The government should set up an agency to remove child pornography and other inappropriate material from the internet (e.g. bomb-making websites)
• The smoking ban should be kept in force, although any pub or bar should be allowed to have smoking areas inside the building
• Hunting with dogs should remain outlawed
• The government may need to correct market failures in some cases e.g. pollution being spewed out into the air, rivers and countryside

CIVIL LIBERTIES
The balance between civil liberties and protecting the public is a difficult one to achieve.  However, civil liberties have been fought and won over centuries and we should never give them up without a seriously good reason.  For the British Government to use terrorism as justification for denying law-abiding citizens our freedoms or spying on us is insulting and unacceptable.

• Everyone is entitled to a private life. The public and the media have no right to follow people, harass people, take photographs of people or publish stories about them.  The only exception to this would be if an elected representative of the public (e.g. MP or MEP) behaves in a way that is unfitting of the responsibility that they have been given.  Unless there is a representative of the public behaving inappropriately, newspapers, magazines and websites should be banned from publishing any details of anyone’s private life
• The police should be allowed to use wiretap evidence in court if they can convince a judge of the need to collect it
• 42-day detention without charge would be a disgrace and 28 days also seems too high

NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY
This country should retain the right to self-determination and the British Government (in fact, every government) has a duty to prioritise the needs and interests of their own citizens above people from other countries. People should stop confusing ’standing up for this country’ or ‘putting this country first’ with ‘racism’ – it’s really irritating.

• Britain should withdraw from the EU while remaining part of the Common Market in order to trade freely with Europe
• Immigration should be controlled through a system of work permits for foreign workers that are issued as and when skills gaps are identified in the British economy.  That said, an overall limit on the number of immigrants per year should be installed, with a lottery system being used to allocate any remaining places not used up by economic migrants
• The government should be forced to have a referendum on any changes that they wish to implement that pass constitutional powers to a body or organisation outside of the British Parliament.  This means that we should have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and every subsequent treaty of a similar nature
• Each country in the UK should have its own Parliament with the power to raise and spend taxes.  On matters concerning international relations and national security all these parliaments could still be brought together, but for the rest of the time let them get on with governing themselves and make their own laws

VALUES AND TRADITIONS
This country should be a meritocracy. Equality is a myth that will never be achieved because every single person on this planet is different (a shocking concept to socialists).  In the modern era, enforcing equality is just a euphemism for ‘hating people who have more than me’.  Barriers to particular careers and professions should be broken down and the rest should be left to the individual.  We must also stop telling people how different they are if we are to live in a society where your ability is all that matters.  If politicians keep reminding people how different they are in terms of religion, ethnicity, skin colour, social class or anything else, they will never live and work together peacefully.  Highlighting differences promotes segregation and having lots of different people living in the same country but not integrating or talking to each other or even speaking the same language isn’t helping anyone.

• Faith schools are nothing more than state-funded religious indoctrination and should be banned
• Phrases such as ‘multiculturalism’ should be removed from the English language
• ‘Political correctness’ should also be removed from the English language because the PC brigade spend all their lives telling people that we are different from each other, which is extremely damaging
• Freedom of speech is so fundamentally important to this country that unless you support it, I don’t think you can call yourself British
• Laws on religious hatred should be repealed
• Positive discrimination should be outlawed and made a criminal offence should any employer seek to implement it
• All entrants to the UK must learn English before being given an entry permit