Same Old Tories

“A leopard does not change its spots, and neither has the Conservative Party”

Anastasia Beaumont-Bott, the former Chair of LBGTory spoke yesterday about why she left the Conservative Party.

She said:

'These past few days have been difficult for me.It took a lot for me to go on the record and retract previous statements I'd made asking for people to vote Conservative.

It took a lot for me to admit I was wrong.

And for that I am sorry to the Labour Party, who have shown me nothing but support, kindness and acceptance for who I am. I cannot say the same about my experiences within the Conservative Party. And that is why I decided to speak out.I felt I owed it to the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual/pansexual, and transgender) community and to the country as a whole to lift the lid on the Tory Party.

When I was a teenager I was bullied. I was called every name. Dyke. Lezzer. Freak. And after that I made a promise. I wouldn't stand back and take discrimination. I wouldn't let people push me around. I would never be bullied again. Nobody has the right to make me feel inferior simply because of who I am.

And I thought that when I signed up to the Conservative Party they were a party who shared such beliefs. I thought they believed someone shouldn't be treated differently because of their gender, their race, where they went to school, what their parents did for a living, or their sexuality.

However, that didn't stop their members constantly commentating on my sexuality. As if it even mattered. As if it was inconceivable to them I would stand up for gay rights.

George Osborne briefed gay protesters outside Tory HQ a few days ago and said they would introduce a law which would wipe clean a person's previous convictions simply for being gay. But, just a couple of days later, this "policy" was not in the manifesto.

It feels like there is a different message for every audience.

I think we should have a think about what it is that the Conservatives actually stand for.

I wanted to believe in the ideals David Cameron put forward. A Conservative Party which believes in change... it sounded too good to be true. And it is.

It is an elaborately executed, highly marketed deception. A leopard does not change its spots, and neither has the Conservative Party.

Mr Cameron, I believed in you and your party, and you let me down.

I thought your party was progressive and would stand up for the "great ignored" but your party ignored my complaints about discrimination and smears. I thought the days of homophobia were over.

And then Mr Cameron, you voted against lesbian IVF and gay adoption. Though should we have been surprised considering you were against the repeal of Section 28? Mr Cameron said in an interview that "gay rights were like human rights". They are.

So why, when asked about giving a free vote on the issue, did you not even seem to know what you thought?

His party have called Gordon Brown, "the prime ditherer". And yet it took Mr Cameron a whole week to get Chris Grayling to give half an apology for saying B&B owners had a right to turn gay couples away.

Even now, Mr Grayling still hasn't retracted his original statement.

And Mr Cameron, don't think we have forgotten about MP Andrew Bridgen and his "great sympathy" for Grayling's comments... we're still waiting for a comment on that. Your party has yet to produce one concrete gay policy - but the voice of the gay people of this country will not go away.

We shouldn't have to believe in your party changing, as actions should speak louder than words. We should just be able to look at your party and know whether you've changed. As a now ex-Conservative politician, needless to say, I wasn't convinced. And with your manifesto launch, I'm still not.

Mr Cameron, you have not only lost my vote. You have lost my respect. And I know that I'm not the only one asking themselves: "Have the Conservatives really changed?"

The answer is no. On May 6 I will be voting for Labour because I shouldn't have to believe in change - I want to be part of achieving it.'

Left Foot Forward have produced a video taking a closer look at the Tories' record on equality. Watch it here.

Pro-hunt campaigners out in force for the Tories in Kent

The Tory Party is relying on the support of the pro-hunting lobby in a key seat in the south-east.

The East Kent hunt has been actively campaigning on behalf of the Tories in Dover.

James Stretton, honorary secretary at the club, said that the club had been approached by the Tories to help with leaflet drops and that volunteers had been helping with their campaign.

He said:

“The motivation is to bring back hunting and the Tories have said they would look into this,"

“Everyone has their own party affiliations, although most people involved in the hunt vote Conservative.

“It is better in the interest of any hunt to have the Tories brought in over Labour at the election.”

Hunting with dogs was banned by Labour in February 2005 after years of political wrangling.

The Conservative manifesto (under its “Restore our Civil Liberties” section) has included a commitment to put forward a Government Bill repealing the Hunting Act, offering members a free vote on the issue.

There's little doubt though about where the Tory leaders stand on hunting:

David Cameron: "I would vote for the freedom to hunt" (Talk Sport, 30 Jan 2007)

William Hague: "This is a bad law and bad laws should be repealed, not ignored" (Yorkshire Post, 9 July 2009) 

VIDEO: David Cameron forgets his lines

David Cameron knows how to give a good speech about hope, optimism and change.

But when you push him for real answers about how he’ll change Britain – real answers on how the Tories are any different from the Thatcherites of the past – it’s clear that change is only spin-deep.

Watch this video of David Cameron forgetting his lines in an interview with Gay Times:

Blue Dawn Fades

Back in 2008 Compass embarked on a project to better understand the politics of New Conservatism. We re-visited the project in light of the general election and have today released a new pamphlet – Blue Dawn Fades.

These are the main findings:

1. The economic crisis revealed the Conservative Party as unyieldingly wedded to neoliberal principles, criticising government intervention at every turn. It is difficult to see how, if followed, the Conservatives’ policies would have anything but a catastrophic effect. The refusal to nationalise banks on the brink of collapse, their promises to cut spending and refusal to support monetary easing would have had the likely effect of triggering a dramatic depression.

2. David Cameron still fundamentally sees the state as an impediment to freedom and blames the big state for causing the social recession. He also misdiagnoses the cause of people’s insecurity, blaming the state and remaining silent about the effect of neo-liberal economic policies forced on Britain by his own party.

3. A Conservative government will not aim to reduce economic inequality or make Britain more egalitarian. Whilst claiming to care about inequality he openly stated in 2009 that ‘That doesn’t mean we should be fixated only on a mechanistic objective like reducing the Gini co-efficient’.

4. The further targeting of benefits and the willingness of the paternalistic wing of the Conservative Party to use the state to make value judgements through the tax system may undermine the long term reciprocal relationship of the welfare state, and the viability and popularity of state benefits.

5. To achieve the good society and tackle Britain’s social recession, we need an active, interventionist state and tighter regulation of markets. Cameron has shown little appetite to implement either of these things.

The resulting increase in inequality that would result from the implementation of the Conservative economic and fiscal policies would worsen ‘broken Britain’, undermining the pro-social aspects of New Conservatism. The over-zealous cutting of the budget deficit combined with public sector pay freezes and a firm commitment to a regressive taxation system – including inheritance tax cuts for millionaires – would increase the Gini co-efficient. That means shorter, unhappier and unhealthier lives, and increases in obesity, teenage pregnancy, violence and addiction. Every other value that David Cameron claims to hold, including social justice, fraternity, the sacredness of the family unit, and the value of ‘big society’, will ultimately be undermined by this widening of income inequality.

Another Young Tory defects over discrimination

A rising star in the Tory party has quit Conservative Future - the Tory Party's youth wing - after claiming she suffered discrimination from Tory parliamentary candidates.

Adele Douglas, 19, from Manchester said that she was bullied by Tory PPCs who mocked her state school background in an email leaked to The Mirror.

The Mirror also reports her saying:

"A Tory PPC called me a P***-shagger when I was seeing a man of Asian origin."

Coming hot on the heels of the defection of Anastasia Beaumont-Bott, the chair of LBGTory over the Chris Grayling B&B furore, this provides further evidence that beneath the veneer of “Compassionate Conservatism” the Tory party retains its old prejudices.

Read the fully story here.

Stop the Scaremongering

In response to the postcards delivered to thousands of homes highlighting Labour’s commitment to first rate cancer care, the Tory party launched a website called “Stop the Scaremongering”.

If they are so concerned about scaremongers, perhaps they ought to look at some of the material that their local associations are putting out.

This rather charming leaflet, showing a machete dripping with blood, is being distributed door-to-door in Edmonton on behalf of the local PPC Andrew Charalambous. The unpleasant imagery is designed to depict Britain as the “crime capital of Europe” and includes a message from Mr Charalambous in which he promises an immediate “zero-tolerance policy” on crime. It all seems a far cry from David Cameron’s message of "hope, optimism and change".

The Conservatives have some form when it comes to exaggerating violent crime. In February of this year Chris Grayling was officially rebuked by the UK Statistics Authority for misrepresenting crime statistics. They were warned again last month after trying to make comparisons between 1997 and the current day on misleading figures.

The UK statistics authority advises that the British Crime Survey provides the best means of direct comparison between violent crime figures in the nineties and now.

That report shows that, rather than being the “crime capital of Europe”, violent crime in the UK has actually DROPPED by 41% since 1997.

(Thanks to The Straight Choice for their excellent work in uploading party leaflets in this campaign)

Tory stalwart abandons party

In the past few days, more people have caught onto the Tories' game.  Even their own supporters are turning away.

Anastasia Beaumont-Bott, the first chairman of the Tories’ gay rights group, LGBTory, defected from the Conservative Party yesterday.  She told the Independent:

“I became disillusioned after meeting one too many people in that party who were not like what the leader was saying the party was about. If you make a comment like [those made by Mr Grayling], you should be out. This isn't a question of party lines – it is disgusting. I don't like doing this to Mr Cameron. I like him, but the insides of his party are not what the people are led to believe."

“Vote for change” is a nice party slogan – but not when you want to return our country to the same broken Tory policies that divided our country for years. 

Same Old Tories

The general election is about a choice. It’s not just a choice between Labour and the Tories, but a choice between believing the Tories have changed their ways, or whether they are the same old Tories who doubled VAT, damaged the NHS, shortchanged pensioners, and isolated Britain in the world.

We’re launching this website to expose the truth about the Tories. They haven't changed – and David Cameron’s ‘modernisation’ is only spin-deep.

The media won’t tell this story. They’re embedded inside the Westminster village. They're obsessed with poll numbers and sound bites, not substance. That’s why we need you to tell your friends – email them about the stories we post, tweet the quotes from the same old Tory candidates, and post links to this site on your Facebook wall.

This election is the closest we've had for 20 years. But if we don't show Britain what the Tories truly stand for, they'll take our policies back 20 years as well. Thanks for doing your part to stop the same old Tories from ruining the progress we've made.

Cameron should sack Chris Grayling: sign our petition

News broke on Saturday that Tory Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling believes people who run bed & breakfasts should be allowed to refuse business to gay and lesbian couples.

Allowing certain business-owners to discriminate based on sexual orientation opens the door to discrimination based on race, religion, country of origin, and anything else and to the sort of inequality that I thought we'd said goodbye to forever in this country.

The Tories must either stand by or condemn this intolerance. Sign our urgent petition to David Cameron, telling him to sack Chris Grayling and clearly state his party's stance on discrimination.