THE GOOD

THE BAD

1. National service.
2. Banning ‘low-quality’ degrees (ie. anything creative or focused on the humanities).
3. Cutting welfare.
4. Sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Obviously, it’s all bad, but at least we don‘t have to worry about any of these measures coming to pass – the Tories are finished. But let’s look at some of the worst ones anyway. The party is doubling down on its commitment to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, despite the astronomical cost, human rights concerns and ongoing legal challenges. The end of this inhumane policy is reason enough alone to celebrate the downfall of the Tories. 

On tackling the climate crisis, the manifesto maintains the party’s pledge to achieve net zero by 2050, but without what Sunak has called “unaffordable eco-zealotry”. So no new green taxes or charges, no imposition of low-traffic neighbourhoods or onshore wind projects – effectively, the party is ruling out the kind of urgent action we need to tackle the climate crisis. 

When it comes to education, the party has restated its commitment to get rid of ‘low-quality’ degrees, including those which fail to increase graduate earnings – this is likely to have a particular impact on the humanities and creative arts (which, as the Tories see it, have no intrinsic value if they don’t land people with a well-paid job). In the Tories’ vision of an ideal world, only the wealthy should be allowed to study photography or Norse literature; for the rest of us, anything other than business management is a reckless extravagance. 

The plan to reintroduce National Service has been met with widespread mockery and deservedly so (the government should not be able to compel adults, with the threat of legal action, to spend their weekends ‘volunteering’.) The rest of the manifesto is mostly Tory-by-numbers. They want to toughen up offences and send more people to prison, even as Britain’s prison system is already suffering from a crisis in capacity. They want to increase defence spending. They want to cut down on the welfare bill, which would likely mean benefits cuts and making it even more difficult for disabled people to be deemed eligible. In effect, they want to keep doing what they’ve been doing for the last 14 years, continuing a failed approach which has left Britain a more unequal, sick, unhappy and impoverished society. I’m not going to be cracking open the champagne when Keir Starmer becomes Prime Minister, but I will take some measure of satisfaction in seeing the Tories get their long-overdue comeuppance. 

Read our cheat sheet on the Labour manifesto here.

Read our cheat sheet on the Liberal Democrat manifesto here.

Read our cheet sheet on the Green Party manifesto here.