Never Vote Tory! Here`s why.

NEVER VOTE TORY!  An acrostic, with 13 out of hundreds of reasons why people should never vote Tory again.

 National Health Service, constantly being denigrated and criticised by right-wing  press and government, with many of its components being sold off to private concerns, is not safe. Full privatisation is inevitable under a Tory government.

Education of 93% of the country`s children, in the state sector, under constant attack and interference from the education secretary, whose academisation programme is a prelude to the total dismemberment of state schools. Gove succeeded in uniting teacher unions in opposition to all policies. Good teachers are leaving the profession in droves.

Voting changes, such as reducing the voting age, or changing venues of polling stations, all refused by Tories; they do not want present system modified in any way, as they know their chances of election success depend on the older voters.

Ethics before profits! As long as banks mouth such platitudes, Tories will support them, and allow their scams and fraudulent activities to continue, with non-deterrent fines and punishments.

Rents in the private sector allowed by Tory-dominated coalition to soar exponentially, making saving for home ownership impossible. Many of the rented properties are not even checked for safety. Tax avoidance by private landlords is rife, with totally ineffective punishments for the guilty exploiters;  Rachmanism has returned.

Vindictiveness is a Tory trait; notice how the weakest and most vulnerable were the ones suffering most from the austerity measures like the Bedroom Tax. The tax increase favoured by the Tories is always on the unfair tax, the indirect one; rather than increase income tax on the rich, they reduced it and increased VAT!

Osborne`s austerity policies are based on promise to wipe out deficit by 2015. He has not even halved it, and it will still be around £80bn after the election. Real reason is ideological desire to shrink the state, with admitted aim to return to levels last seen in 1948. The chancellor frequently flies to Brussels to defend right of banks to pay bonuses, and to attack the idea of a financial transaction tax.

Taxation policies of the Tories reveal their underlying hypocrisy. Reduction of the top rate tax was achieved at the same time as widespread cuts being made, with the Laffer curve their excuse. Piketty and other economists have shown this as nonsense. The rich have increased their wealth massively with the help of a cabinet dominated by multi-millionaires.

Evasion and avoidance of tax are so widespread a tax gap of at least £35bn, possibly even double this, has been created, with trillions squirrelled away by the rich in British-controlled tax havens. Multi-nationals, celebrities and sports stars are allowed to get away with denying the Treasury billions, whilst HMRC sacks thousands of tax inspectors. Tax avoiders even get to keep their honours!

Trade Unions frighten the Tories, so they are ridiculed as Labour`s paymasters, so that cowardly opposition leaders distance themselves from industrial action, no matter how justifiable. Inequality rockets as the power of unions is weakened and influence on pay declines.

Obfuscation is a key word in understanding Toryism; they cannot admit the real intention or effect of their policies, so they are hidden and made difficult to interpret. They claim unemployment falls because their policies create jobs, when thousands come off the unemployment rolls because their desperation leads them to self-employment, or because their jobseekers` allowance has been sanctioned. Gove`s use of unreliable data to justify his school reforms is becoming legendary.

Railways or any public utility will never be re-nationalised by the Tories, even though public opinion is almost 80% in favour; the example of the state-owned East Coast line, with its lower fares, higher levels of customer satisfaction, and millions of pounds in  profits going to the Treasury is ignored by the Tories whose preference for privatisation leads to the exact opposites.

Young people in general are always given shabby treatment by Tories who know very few will vote, even fewer will vote for them, and their policies reflect this. No attempt has been made to increase social mobility, end the dominance of private education and Oxbridge, or prevent the exploitation of students  and young people in general by profiteering landlords. Student fees and the ending of the Education Maintenance Allowance, allied to Gove`s assessment changes, all speak for themselves!

     The message is very clear, which ever way it is read!