Having called the general election at presumably what they think is the least worst time over the next few months, the Tories have set about bolstering their support with some remarkably retro policies.
There is the promise of reduced income tax for OAPs presumably because the benefit of maintaining the triple lock would be lost if people on the state pension have to pay income tax on it because of the frozen thresholds. The thresholds they recently froze of course. There is an obvious inequity from people on just as low an income (and who don't get winter fuel allowance) not getting this proposed tax break. Especially when some in receipt of the state pension have significant income from private pensions. I suppose you could try to limit the benefit to those who only get the state pension but that strikes me as fiendlishly complex, while also ignoring those with substantial savings or other wealth. There is also the oddity that OAPs used to get an age related income tax break but that was phased out by George Osborne only ten years ago. So this is another Tory U-turn. Indeed it's almost a U-turn within a U-turn.
The Tories also have plans for national service at 18. This shibboleth has been mooted on many occasions in my time on the electoral roll by back bench Tory MPs and maybe the odd (in both senses of the word) minister. National service was abolished in 1960, though the last service was rendered in 1963. I can recall the local Tory candidate in my first general election more than 5 decades ago advocating its return. You can imagine how impressed I was as an 18 year old about to be student. But I don't think it has ever got to a manifesto in all that time. Maybe it won't this time but I'm equally unimpressed.
This all smacks of desperation, doubling down on the grey vote and giving up entirely on winning any votes from young people. Or their parents. (I don't know if they've considered the impact on the grandparent vote!)
We know that the Tories like to throw some red meat to their right wing to keep them happy, especially when under threat from Nigel Farage in the form of UKIP/Brexit party/Reform.
But this isn't red meat, it's rotting fish.
The proposal for a triple ocked personal allowance is discussed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies at https://ifs.org.uk/articles/new-triple-locked-personal-allowance-pensioners
Wow going in hard on your long-supported party Phil. But who will you vote for? Libs and Greens are too leftie for you. Labour could be either be a center-right possibility or you view them as only pretending to be center-right. Staying at home, not voting? You need that old war horse David Owen to come back with a right-wing reincarnation of the SDP, although he was, of course, the reason why the SDP failed (in my view) due to his right of center positioning. Dr Death we Libs called him as we knew he'd kill off the SDP and the Libs too if he got the chance.
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