Conservative Party manifesto

The changes to social care seem to have upset a lot of people. Not sure I can see the problem.

The proposed system allows you to keep £100k in assets as opposed to the current £23k. The only rub is that the value of your house will be taken in to account for both residential and home care.

But don't many people transfer ownership of their house to their children before their death anyeway?

Certainly going to lose votes over this move.

Found this, very good.

Tax his land, tax his bed. Tax the table at which he's fed. Tax his tractor, tax his mule.
Teach him taxes are the rule. Tax his work, tax his pay. He works for peanuts anyway! Tax his cow, tax his goat. Tax his trousers and tax his coat. Tax his ties, tax his shirt. Tax his work. Tax his dirt. Tax his tobacco, tax his drink, tax him if he tries to think. Tax his cigars, tax his beers, if he cries then tax his tears. Tax his car and tax his gas. Find other ways to tax his ass. Tax all he has, then let him know... That you won't be done til he has no dough. When he screams and hollers, tax him more. tax him till he's good and sore. Then tax his coffin and tax his grave. Tax the sod in which he's laid. Put these words upon his tomb 'Taxes drove me to my doom...' When he's gone, do not relax. It's time to apply the inheritance tax.

This policy has certainly got feelings running high.

Yesterday afternoon on LBC, Iain Dale said it was the busiest his phones had ever been.

Too many of those complaining seem to forget their own responsibility to the parents that sacrificed so much to give them a good start in life and help them. Why should I,you or anyone else have to pay to care for others when they are perfectly capable of looking after their own parents but are first in the queue when it comes to inheriting their assets  ?

Finished the Tory Manifesto and of the three main parties it's by far the most interesting read for the political completist.

Far from being the free-market, extreme-right 'hang 'em and flog 'em' document that one might expect from a party riding high in the polls (and as it has been characterised by their opponents), you read stuff about them intervening in the malfunctioning energy market and go 'Huh? Labour said this at the last election!' A £9 per hour minimum wage? Labour were only going to £8 in 2015!

Red Theresa? Come on! Of course not. There's the move to the double lock on pensions, which can be used to keep public sector pay down, since one of the 'locks' is the rate of pay settlements - sneakily Tory-like brilliance! There's the getting rid of hot school lunches for all but the most needy. There's the re-introduction of Grammar Schools under the fig leaf of promoting social mobility, when it's all about well-off parents moving to the right catchment area and hothousing their kids for the 12-plus.

However the most striking feature of this document is the lack of costings, already highlighted by the more ballsy / less supine media outlets (Labour was correctly crucified for their sums not adding up. Here, there were no sums at all!) and the zero detail on Brexit.

Apparently we have to give the (increasingly Presidential) Theresa a strong hand to deal with Brussels in forthcoming negotiations. Unfortunately, that to me translates as a blank cheque, and not just for EU negotiations but for any other policy the Conservatives see fit to introduce.

Democracy works best with a strong opposition. This looks like an appeal for votes across the whole country and social spectrum with it's mix of ''bit of stuff for everyone' policies and 'never mind the detail - we're not Jeremy Corbyn' sales pitch.

If it comes off and there's a Conservative landslide we would be open to all manner of brain-dead, compassionless policies and that's my greatest fear having read all three of the main parties manifesto's.

Not sure I can see the problem.

The problem is that the main Tory pledge in their 2015 manifesto was the promise to cap social care payments to £72,000. 
Which would have been the limit that anyone would have to pay.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/elder/11746216/Tories-poised-to-delay-flagship-cap-on-care-costs.html

They have reneged on that completely, there will be no cap.

They've also extended payments to include home care.

Oh there's a problem all right !!

' ......Quote from a city worker :.......

'People need to read the small print associated with this because its a lot nastier than it looks.
I work in the City. The insurance industry was approached by the Government several months ago with the aim of creating a new market for a new product.
This arrangement is a culmination of those discussions. You wont have to sell your house PROVIDED that you purchase an insurance product to cover your social care. The "premiums" would be recovered from the equity after the house has been sold and the Insurance company will have a lien on the house and can force a sale if it wants to. So your offspring cant keep it on the market for long in order to get the best price.
The real kicker in this is that in order to encourage the industry to market these products the government guaranteed that there would be no cap on the premiums.
This was in some ways "attonement" for Osborne's destruction of the highly lucrative annuties market. This means that the premiums could be up to (and including) the entire remaining equity in the property after the government has taken its cut. Compamies will be falling over themselves to get their snouts in this trough.
In short your offspring and relatives could get absolutely nothing from your estate.
If you buy one of these products you need to read the small print very very carefully indeed because there will be some real dogs on the market.
I suspect that this is another financial scandal waiting to happen, but by the time it does May will be long gone." The bits the tories don't tell you......'

In short your offspring and relatives could get absolutely nothing from your estate.

why on earth should they expect otherwise if they are not prepared to care for their parents ?

This doesn't make it some easily digested, cartoon 'nasty' policy.

It makes it a stupid one, since anyone with any common sense will sell their house and 'gift' the money to their kids.

As a side 'benefit' it could mean a load of houses being dumped on the market and house prices crashing to the point where they're affordable to the rank and file.

Dr C - yes, I should have mentioned the scrapping of the £72k cap. I did say that they've extended the policy to home care.

They've reneged on their promise but increasing social care costs need to be paid for. The alternative would be to increase income tax across the board which was also something they pledged not to do.

if there is more money provided for social care costs, the cost of social care will rise. that's how it works.

the nhs/care system can only be funded by whatever the average everyday citizen of a country can afford, through tax.
because tax is related to work and what people are paid and this is the only true indication of the wealth of a country and what it can afford.
every other attempt to put money the system, such as the sale of peoples homes and assets will have the effect of making healthcare more expensive, not less.
the system must be self regulating, and this is the only way to keep costs down.

Looks like you will get censorship of the internet.