If you’re tuned into my social media, you could easily have got the impression I’d gone AWOL, having spent much of the summer out and about taking photographs of aeroplanes. That’s only half true. I’ve been beavering away in the background on the website project I ventured in late July. And here it is...
Firstly, I want to thank my web developer, Sean, who has done a superb job. It's exactly what I asked for. Simple, clean and no fuss. We will be adding features along the way, but for now, it does exactly what I need it to do.
If you read the original manifesto I wrote last year, some of the themes and ideas will be familiar to you, though there's been a lot of re-working and refinement. Some of the content is patchy and I have no problem admitting to this. With nearly forty policy areas, it's actually quite hard to have an opinion on all the topics, especially an informed one. As such, this is the provisional state.
I was going to sit on it and develop it some more before releasing it but some of you who donated no doubt want to see *some* results, and I've hit a bit a creative wall with it until I have some more inputs. I'm not too concerned about that. It's pretty good considering the limited resources and time constraints, and it sets out what a policy platform is supposed to look like.
As much as anything, I have often remarked that it doesn't matter if you have policy if you don't know how to use it. That's why I will also be running @policyprojectX in order to respond to daily events with our policy positions. This is a demonstrator project - and as such, it doesn't really matter if you completely agree with the policy positions or not. The Manifesto Project is not a pressure group or political party. The function of this is to develop a canon of coherent right wing thought based on substance, with supporting arguments instead of the bullet point slop we're subjected to. You will then see why it matters.
In any case, it is what it is for now. I'm not an oracle. I don't have a budget to throw at it. My point is the same as it was last year. If this is what can be done by one bloke and his long suffering web developer in the space of a month, the rest of the right with all their exposure, money and human resources have zero excuses for being as useless as they are. My thanks, as ever to all the people who have contributed and offered their support. I especially thank those of you who've donated I hope you will follow @policyprojectX and get involved.
As ever, I don't like asking for donations, but if you can donate, I can afford to pay for some expert contributions - which the right badly needs. I'd also like to chuck my web guy a little bonus for the great work he's done, and will no doubt do for us in the near future. Meanwhile, please get in touch if you feel you can add to this project. I sure could use some help.
Good evening Pete. There is a lot in there.
I have started on the farming. Looks very good. I'll get sharing.
Hi Pete
I've had a look at a few areas in your MP and I think it is good.
However, in the 'health' section, you have omitted to explain how the NHS will be funded, insisting that 'free at the point of use' is fundamental. But we know that it is unsustainable being paid out of general taxation.
Secondly, when explaining why the NHS is not meeting its original objectives, you have stated that it is due partly to an aging population, immigration, etc., but you have not mentioned the fact that the public expects all of its medical needs met, including those which have developed due to changes in society (sex change operations) and improvements in research (meaning breast cancer patients (previously very few compared to today) would then have just expected to die but now expect to be offered much support and even breast reconstruction). This is why the 'free at the point of use' is utterly unsustainable as a model which is funded by general taxation. It MUST be supplemented by private insurance for which, in my view, tax relief should be given against premiums paid.