Though Cowards Flinch

10) Eric Pickles says the conference will be a champagne free event.

Lie. There was loads of the stuff.

9) ‘We will work with councils to freeze Council Tax for two years – saving over £200 for the typical family.’ (Cameron in the Sun)

Lie. ‘A typical family living in a Band B/C property (a typical family home) will save, on average, between £136 and £158 during a two year Council Tax freeze, not ‘over £200’ as David Cameron has pledged.’ (Ministry of Truth)

8) Lansley announces an £8,000 one-off payment into an insurance scheme will stop old people having to sell their houses if they go into residential care.

Lie.  For a start, it’s £16,000 for a couple.  How many old people have £8,000 tucked away in anything other than property they may own?  And it just doesn’t stack in relation to the government social care green paper, which says, based on real working out, it will cost between £17,000 and £25,000 a person.

7) ‘We’ll double magistrates sentencing powers from six months to a year’ (Cameron in the Sun)

Lie. Magistrates can already sentence people to prison for up to a year in specified circumstances set out in the Magistrates Act, 1980 S. 31 (1). Dog whistle politics of the highest order.

6) ‘The world is watching Britain at the moment. It is casting doubt on our country’s creditworthiness. It is questioning our resolve to deal with our debts. And when that starts to happen, then long term interest rates rise.’ (Osborne)

Lie. ‘Real long-term interest rates – yields on index-linked gilts – have fallen to record lows.  Far from questioning our resolve’, bond markets have never been happier to lend to the government.’ (Chris Dillow)

5) Devolution; the minimum wage; civil partnerships, these are good things that we will we keep (Cameron)

Lie. David Cameron campaigned against the introduction of minimum wage: ‘Labour’s plans for minimum wages, the Social Chapter and large increases in spending and taxes would send unemployment straight back up.’ (The Chronicle Stafford, February 21 1996).

The Conservatives voted against third and second readings of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998.

Eleven Conservative MPs sought to bring a private members’ bill to get rid of the National Minimum wage in May 2009.   Cameron did nothing to try to stop them.

4) ‘But if we find the money that should be going into stronger bank balance sheets is being unreasonably diverted into bigger pay and bonuses – we reserve the right to take further action and that includes using the tax system.’ (Osborne)

Lie. Obviously.

3) ‘But also this year, in these difficult times, we’ve won the argument on the economy and debt.’ (Cameron)

Lie. Just saying you’ve won the argument on debt over and over again doesn’t mean you’ve won the argument.  It means you’re like a small child not getting her/his way.

Every sane economist disagrees with Conservative policy on the national debt.  See The Economist, or the Financial Times, or Sam Brittan, or Paul Krugman or Giles Wilkes.

2) Osborne claims raisng the retirement age will says £130bn over a decade.

Lie. Sensible economists, and even Tim Leunig from the LSE, reckon the most you can save is about £20bn over this period.  As Tim says ‘It really doesn’t look like Osborne can add up, subtract, multiply, or divide.’

1) ‘Who made the poorest poorer? Who left youth unemployment higher? Who made inequality greater? No, not the wicked Tories’ (Cameron)

Lie. ‘Inequality rocketed under the Conservatives.’ (Giles Wilkes) See Figure 3.7 of this IFS report).

Osborne on people screwed by the inequalities the Tories helped put in place:  ‘No one takes pleasure from people making money out of the misery of others but that is a function of capitalist markets.’