UK Government Performance 2019-2024

Dirk Diggler · 13 Dec 2019

With a resounding victory for the Conservatives, it must surely lay to rest any doubt that the English electorate want Brexit done. It also gives us an opportunity to guage whether Brexit did get done, and we must surely not have very long to wait to see... January 31st was the pledge.

This was not a Brexit referendum, this was a UK election and we now have a majority Conservative government in place for the next 5 years. This also provides us with an opportunity to track and discuss the promises pledged and the progress made. Is this Government delivering for you?

Leave the EU by January 31st, 2020 - Kept(1)
Complete EU withdrawal by the end of 2020 (trade deal agreed & completed) (15) - Kept(6)
There will be no customs checks between NI & rUK (11) - Broken(4)
£33.9 billion funding boost for the NHS (2)
40 new hospitals built (2) - see this post for further detail on how to measure progress on this
20 hospitals are being upgraded (2)
50,000 more nurses by 2024/25 (2) - as long as by the end of this Parliament, there are ~330,000 nurses we should consider the pledge met
Reintroduce maintenance grants of between £5,000 and £8,000 a year for nursing students (2)
Over 1 million NHS staff – nurses, midwives and cleaners – are getting a well-deserved pay rise of at least 6.5% per cent and doctors will also see their pay increase. (2, 29) - Kept in 2020(4)
50,000,000 more GP appointments a year (2)
20,000 new police officers over first 3 years (5)
6,000 more police to be recruited in the first year (2020) (5)
Put the Police Covenant into law to ensure they have the support they need (5)
Police will be empowered by a new court order to target known knife carriers, making it easier for officers to stop and search those convicted of knife crime (5)
Anyone charged with knife possession will appear before magistrates within days not weeks (5)
Those who use a knife as a weapon should go to prison (5)
10,000 extra prison places (5)
£2.75 billion will be spent on creating modern, efficient prisons to better reform criminals and keep the public safe. (5)
An extra £100 million to aid the crackdown on crime within prisons (5)
For child murderers, there will be life imprisonment without parole (5)
Expand electronic tagging for criminals serving time outside jail, including the use of sobriety tags for those whose offending is fuelled by alcohol. (5)
No income tax, VAT or National Insurance rises (12) - Kept in 2020(2), Broken in 2021(6)
The state pension will be increased by CPI measure of inflation, wage growth or 2.5% each year - whichever is the highest (12) - Kept in 2020(3)
Introduce a points-based immigration system (12) - Kept(5)
Full gigabit broadband by the end of their term (2025) (26)
Take back control of our waters (fishing) (27) - Broken (5)
End automatic early release from prison (5)
£14 billion boost in school funding (3)
£5,000 minimum funding per secondary school pupil by 2020 (3)
£4,000 minimum funding per primary school pupil by 2021-22 (3) - Broken(7)
Increase minimum wage to £10.50 an hour within five years (4)
What we spend per annum will not exceed what we bring in. (28) - Broken in 2020(3)
Investment in long-term projects like roads and rail will "represent a huge step change in what we currently invest ... compared to the long term average of 1.8%" but will "not exceed 3% of GDP per annum" (28)
Implement a 3% surcharge for overseas buyers of English homes (23) - Broken in 2020(2)
Chancellor Sajid Javid declares end of austerity
We will proudly maintain our commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI on development - Broken(8)
Launch specific investigation into Islamophobia in the party - Broken(1)
The Conservatives will "increase funding" and will not "cut" the Armed Forces "in any form" - Broken(9)

Please feel free to suggest specific pledges that you voted for and discuss how they are being delivered for you.

Opposition claims if the Conservatives won a majority (were these warranted, or scare mongering?):

It will not be possible to strike a future trade deal with the EU by the end of 2020 - false
The Country will suffer a hard Brexit at the end of 2020 - true
Brexit will lead to large scale job losses throughout the country
Workers rights will be diminished by the Tories & Brexit
No deal Brexit will lead to a shortage of essential medical supplies - not proven
~~The NHS will be sold off to Trump~~. - edited on 08-01-20 - The NHS will be further privatised at the expense of freedom at point of use, with a very strong likelihood that parts of it will be sold off to American private health care companies.
The Tory manifesto has surreptitiously included a dangerous mandate for constitutional change
When the Russian dossier is finally released, it will contain evidence of interference during 2016 referendum and raise questions regarding the funding of the Tory Party
The introduction of mandatory photo ID to vote in elections will leave tens of thousands of legitimate voters voiceless.

Please feel free to provide detail of particular reasons why you didn't vote conservative

Sources:

Promises/Pledges/Manifesto

Promises Broken/Abandoned

Promises Kept/Achieved

Kanpai · 13 Dec 2019

I'll be surprised if we leave the EU by end of Jan.

Dirk Diggler · 13 Dec 2019

SpartaK said:
I'll be surprised if we leave the EU by end of Jan.

Well, they pledged it.

I'm genuinely interested in all their pledges, not just Brexit. Given the enormous backing that England has given them, I think they should start off their term with the benefit of the doubt. Some of these pledges will be quick to guage, others not so.

fez · 13 Dec 2019

They won't get Brexit done by the end of Jan and the general election wasn't a Brexit vote, it was a vote of no confidence in Labour and more specifically Jeremy Corbyn.

Half of the things in your list above are literally the reversal of years of cuts to the HNS and the police as well so quite the manifesto promise...

iamtheoneneo · 13 Dec 2019

fez said:
the general election wasn't a Brexit vote

Nearly every single political commentator doesn't agree.

Kenai · 13 Dec 2019

SpartaK said:
I'll be surprised if we leave the EU by end of Jan.

With the majority he has now, if it doesn't, it can surely only be as a result of what would be a hugely embarrassing remain inspired rebellion inside the party. I can't see that happening.

fez · 13 Dec 2019

iamtheoneneo said:
Nearly every single political commentator doesn't agree.

And they don't think that Labours massive losses are mainly due to Corbyn and the fact that Labour have gone full retard and basically tried to take the UK back to the 70s. Even people inside the labour party doing the canvassing were saying that people didn't want to vote for Corbyn. Staunch Labour supporters were voting Conservative because they didn't trust him.

Sankari · 13 Dec 2019

String said:
With a resounding victory for the Conservatives, it must surely lay to rest any doubt that the English electorate want Brexit done.

Really? People rejected one party that promised Brexit, and voted in another party that promised Brexit. This election wasn't about Brexit, it was about sticking with the Tories instead of risking it all on Labour.

Meanwhile, support for Remain is over 52% and has been for at least 18 months.

ElliorR · 13 Dec 2019

fez said:
And they don't think that Labours massive losses are mainly due to Corbyn and the fact that Labour have gone full retard and basically tried to take the UK back to the 70s. Even people inside the labour party doing the canvassing were saying that people didn't want to vote for Corbyn. Staunch Labour supporters were voting Conservative because they didn't trust him.

As a life long labour voter I'd never vote Conservative but I will never vote Labour again as I cannot forgive them for Corbyn as leader.

Panos · 13 Dec 2019

String said:
Brexit done by January 31st, 2020

Complete EU withdrawal by the end of 2020

40 new hospitals

50,000 new nurses

Reintroduce maintenance grants of between £5,000 and £8,000 a year for nursing students

20,000 new police officers

No income tax, VAT or National Insurance rises

The state pension will be increased by CPI measure of inflation, wage growth or 2.5% each year - whichever is the highest

Introduce a points-based immigration system

FYI if UK doesn't crash out in January, don't expect to leave the EU until 2022 at least.

fez · 13 Dec 2019

ElliorR said:
As a life long labour voter I'd never vote Conservative but I will never vote Labour again as I cannot forgive them for Corbyn as leader.

Personally I don't have an issue with Corbyn and I think all the anti-semitic BS was exactly that. It was a good man trying to ignore a load of made up rubbish that he assumed would naturally peter out. Hes basically a dinosaur of politics. On the other hand, I completely disagreed with most of his policies and wouldn't vote for him in a million years. I have traditionally voted Conservative but the last 5 or so years have made sure I won't do that again in a hurry. I have to believe that people don't genuinely support the current Conservatives and its people who can support Labour even less right now because you couldn't hope to find a less decent, honest party if you tried.

I mean the figures for voting kind of tell a story.

Labour lost 7.8% of their votes vs 2017 and the Conservatives only picked up 1.2%. I'm not sure how people can see this as anything other than a massive **** up by Labour. That 1.2% has gained the Conservatives 47 extra seats which is mad.

ElliorR · 13 Dec 2019

fez said:
Personally I don't have an issue with Corbyn and I think all the anti-semitic BS was exactly that. It was a good man trying to ignore a load of made up rubbish that he assumed would naturally peter out. Hes basically a dinosaur of politics. On the other hand, I completely disagreed with most of his policies and wouldn't vote for him in a million years. I have traditionally voted Conservative but the last 5 or so years have made sure I won't do that again in a hurry. I have to believe that people don't genuinely support the current Conservatives and its people who can support Labour even less right now because you couldn't hope to find a less decent, honest party if you tried.

I mean the figures for voting kind of tell a story.

Labour lost 7.8% of their votes vs 2017 and the Conservatives only picked up 1.2%. I'm not sure how people can see this as anything other than a massive **** up by Labour. That 1.2% has gained the Conservatives 47 extra seats which is mad.

I should have put more detail in my post but yes it's mainly the antisemitism that he didn't deal with and he was never likely to appeal to the wider Labour base. Also he was for leaving the EU and I could never vote for a party who's leader wanted to do that.

I feel Labour have let down labour supporter who were anti Brexit.

To keep it on topic I shall be following this thread carefully as I fully expect the new Tory government to screw the country over as it seems all the half decently Tory MPs are no longer MPs.

Panos · 13 Dec 2019

ElliorR said:
To keep it on topic I shall be following this thread carefully as I fully expect the new Tory government to screw the country over as it seems all the half decently Tory MPs are no longer MPs.

Yep, the lunatics are in charge atm so expect the worst.

"Those that do not learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them"

Usher · 13 Dec 2019

Some of you are still in serious denial that it wasn't about Brexit, cannot accept that a large majority of people clearly want to leave the EU can you?
complete bigots

fez · 13 Dec 2019

Usher said:
Some of you are still in serious denial that it wasn't about Brexit, cannot accept that a large majority of people clearly want to leave the EU can you?
complete bigots

Well Labour lost 7.8% of their votes from 2 years ago and the Tories picked up 1.4% of those votes while the Lib Dems picked up over 4% of them. Lib Dems are staunch remain so what does that tell you?

For a 1.4% increase in votes the Conservatives got an extra 47 seats. Colour that how you want but this rhetoric that the Conservatives cleaned up with the electorate is complete BS.

ttaskmaster · 13 Dec 2019

String said:
it must surely lay to rest any doubt that the English electorate want Brexit done.

English?
OK... but what do the other three countries of the UK want, then?

Panos · 13 Dec 2019

Usher said:
Some of you are still in serious denial that it wasn't about Brexit, cannot accept that a large majority of people clearly want to leave the EU can you?
complete bigots

And beyond Brexit what? If the Tories stick to their manifesto, in 2024 this country will be in such a state that SNP can put candidates in English seats and win them.

Panos · 13 Dec 2019

ttaskmaster said:
English?
OK... but what do the other three countries of the UK want, then?

Wales & NI have no idea, Scotland become independent and join the EU, which will be gone by the time they apply for it

Apex · 13 Dec 2019

fez said:
And they don't think that Labours massive losses are mainly due to Corbyn and the fact that Labour have gone full retard and basically tried to take the UK back to the 70s. Even people inside the labour party doing the canvassing were saying that people didn't want to vote for Corbyn. Staunch Labour supporters were voting Conservative because they didn't trust him.

I remember when corbyn was selected as party leader that this same thing was said. When they tried to remove him, the same thing was said.

Thankfully the public finally got the chance to show that to be the case

dowie · 13 Dec 2019

Is this just another thread to chat about Brexit?