Scottish Tories unveil manifesto, it’s a political obituary for Annabel Goldie, bad ideas and policy lite, 'evidence' for Tory leadership contenders

Dear All

The Tories are using a phrase at the moment ‘common sense’; it is a phrase I have notice being used through the Tory Party in Britain.

It is a gimmick.

So, let talk ‘common sense’ and look at the Scottish Tory version.

Annabel Goldie the weak leader of the Scottish Tories wants children to be able to leave school at the age of 14 to learn a trade.

This is in the Scottish Conservative manifesto.

Is she plainly stupid?

We want children to do better than their parents and as such a possible route out of poverty is education.

Cutting short a child’s education at 14 restricts opportunities in later life and pigeon holes youngsters from further achievement.

The way to grow a country is to have a well educated country.

Sending off people to learn a trade robs them of so much educationally.

Goldie is in trouble but I always thought she was smarter than this; perhaps stupidity is a virus running through their policy unit.

The next ‘big’ idea is the capped graduate fee.

Wow, shoring up a rotten corrupt system by papering over the cracks and screwing the poorest in society.

Is this vision?

Goldie is promising to deliver "common sense" policies that faced up to the need to cut the spending deficit.

Only problem there isn’t any common sense there.

I popped in to read the stuff on university reform; it is so lite that it could blow away in the wind.

The big idea isn’t reform but passing the buck onto students?

That isn’t university reform.

On Colleges, Goldie trots out a meaningless gargle of tripe and platitudes.

Have a read yourself.

http://www.scottishconservatives.com/downloads/scottish-conservative-manifesto-2011.pdf

There should be four tiers of education, school, community college, college and university.

I blog more on this aspect in another post!

Standing in the Glasgow Science Centre, Goldie said the policies would grow the economy and boost jobs.

Crap, this is window dressing and policy lite, I expected better from university educated people.

It isn’t a road map to a better Scotland.

It is a brochure for an election to confuse, what do the Tories mean, it is so vague.

On fostering the university problems on the student to maintain the status quo, she laid out plans for a variable student graduate fee, capped at £4,000 annually.

Goldie:

"I think people will respect us for being honest about the challenge, for telling the truth about the facts and being absolutely up-front about what this debate is really about."

Honest?

The Tory solution is to ‘pass the buck’.

Goldie is simply following the lead of corrupt foreigner Anton Muscatelli of human rights abusing Glasgow University in wanting a graduate contribution.

Muscatelli was given a vote of no confidence by his own staff!

Muscatelli was asked to resign by Glasgow University students.

Muscatelli was asked to resign by the Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University.

Muscatelli doesn’t fair well in the Scottish Review:

http://www.scottishreview.net/KRoy102.shtml

Two losers cling to each other, one politically dead clutching someone morally corrupt.

Goldie says the manifesto was properly costed and "tells it like it is".

Well that’s bull shit for a start, how many children would leave school at 14?

Would these children be entitled to benefits since they are entering employment via an apprenticeship?

Would they paid by an employer?

Would they be paid by the state?

If so, would they be paid by the Westminister or the Holyrood Government?

If these children were entitled to benefits does that mean all children are entitled to benefits at 14?

There are lots of unanswered questions to this badly drafted and ill thought out idea.

And nowhere are they addressed.

Which begs the question, why is Annabel Goldie still the leader of the Tories in Scotland?

And how does she get round the children working time regulations?

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/scotland/your_money/employment_index_scotland/young_people_and_employment_scotland.htm

“No one under school leaving age can be employed in work other than light work. You are not allowed to do work which is likely to be harmful to your safety, health, development, or work that will affect your attendance at school or participation in work experience.

You are not allowed to work:-

in a factory or in construction work
in transport
in a mine
on a registered merchant ship”.

Annabel Goldie’s manifesto is sheer utter tripe!

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University