Welfare should be a safety net, not a way of life. It should support people back into work, not write them off. We will vote against because, for all their self righteousness, Labour won’t see that ‘fairness’ cuts both ways.
I want us to have a Government which understands, as all Conservatives do, that opportunities for our youngsters depend on business leaders, entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists and all manner of people outside the scope of the public sector.
Unsurprisingly their plans have come unstuck. It has come unstuck because it was, and still is in its U-turn form, woefully unambitious about savings, conspicuously lacking in compassion, and achieves no meaningful reform of a system we all know is broken.
The Government’s welfare cuts it amounted to penny-pinching and tinkering round the edges. In the end they skimmed £5 billion from a sickness benefits bill forecast to rise to over £100 billon by the end of the decade.
A safety net benefits all of us. But a functioning safety net must act as far as possible like a trampoline – cushioning people’s fall and propelling them back onto their feet. A hand up is always better than a handout.
As a Kent MP, I’m delighted Canterbury is one of the sites chosen to host new training facilities.
Every official we met welcomed us for showing an interest in the situation in Turkey. And they consistently called on us to do more: “this isn’t sustainable”.
Conservatives believe in a country where work pays. Responsibility is rewarded. And where welfare is a safety net – not a lifestyle choice. That is the difference. Not just over the two-child cap. But over the future direction of Britain itself.