The real, unchanged Conservatives

David Cameron has conjoured a remarkably good smoke-and-mirrors routine since he became leader of his party to fool the public that the Conservatives are no longer the nasty party (as their own Shadow Leader of the House of Commons branded them); that they've learnt the lessons of their calamitous period in office and are fit for government once more.

But a few days ago, on the Today programme on Radio 4 he showed just how shallow his conversion is. This is what he said:

"The Labour Party for a long time said only it could deal with deep poverty, because it understood about transferring money from rich to poor. I think we have reached the end of that road."

There are many reasons for poverty and inequality in this country but no sensible politician or economist believes that a redistributive tax system is not essential to tackling those fundamental problems. And this isn't the first time that the Conservatives have said that they don't believe in redistribution.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has been a prominent advocate of a flat tax - that is everyone paying exactly the same tax rate regardless of whether you earn £10,000 or £10 million. Such plans have been shown to be economically illiterate leaving a huge black hole in public finances - money used to fund schools, hospitals and public transport amongst other things. And the Tories swiftly stopped talking about them. But have they stopped thinking about them?

These remarks - coupled with David Cameron's assertion last week that poor people have only themselves to blame for being poor (how easy it is for the wealthy, Eton-educated Tory leader to lecture all of us about meritocracy) show the Conservatives are still unfit for Government.

Until the Tories understand that it is morally and economically just for those who earn substantially more to contribute a fair share to society, they remain unfit for Government.

Incidentally, I've been asked why I've reposted a picture of the hugley criticised Tory posters from the last election, above, on a post about economics. Simply this: David Cameron masterminded that nasty, negative campaign - so just think about that next time he's spouting his focus group-tested nonsense on TV.