The Conservatives
The Conservative Party emerged from the Tory Party back in the 1830s and during the 20th century, the party was in office for a total of 67 years with extended periods from Churchill to Douglas-Home and Thatcher to Major. The Conservative Party has always been seen as the Party for the middle and upper classes as they hold gradual pragmatic reforms, but wish to preserve the status quo of the society we live in. The Conservative Party holds many conservative beliefs, however, has evolved over time to see many different intra-party ideals, and therefore to find what they stand for in today's society, one must look at their current policies.
Policies
Here are their most recent, relevant policies regarding several different aspects in our society
Environment
The Conservative Party has been known in the past for ignoring climate change's impacts, recently, they have put forward some new initiatives. Their claim to want to 'invest in nature' involves a £640 million funding scheme and involves creating 75,000 acres of woodland a year. They wish to instate new green parks for people to visit and animals to live in. They wish to introduce a new levy to increase the number of recyclable plastics in packaging and create higher producer responsibility so that producers pay the price of effectively dealing with the waste. There would be an increase in the penalties for fly-tipping and a scheme that promotes depositing reusable items such as glass. They have made it clear that they will not be amending any part of the hunting act. They have dedicated a £500 million fund for saving our oceans, £800 million for creating the first carbon capture by the mid-2020s, and another £500 million to help move energy-intensive businesses towards low-carbon emission techniques.
Equality
In their manifesto, they have claimed to further protect people from hate crimes due to their skin colour, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, etc. They also want to increase funding for religious places of worship. They want to combat any harassment for people, including the LGBTQ+ community.
The people
For the people of the UK, they have claimed to make several changes to keep them protected. For example, by acknowledging mental health as equal to physical health and funding £1 billion every year to the social care sectors. There will also be £74 million over 3 years to help people with learning difficulties and disabilities. There will also be an increase to the living national wage to around £10.50 for over 21s. They want to overall lower the number of migrants every year into the UK, especially those who are 'less skilled', to ensure that 'the British people are always in control'. They will increase funding for English-teaching sectors to promote assimilation into British society. They wish to prevent people from claiming child benefits for children living overseas.
Economy
For taxation, they have focused on anti-evasion measures to attempt to ensure there cannot be avoidance with tax. They wish to double the sentence for tax evasion to 14 years and to redesign the system to promote growth and investment in our society. They have reduced corporation tax from 28% to 19% over the last few years. They claim to recognise the value of free TV licenses for those over 75s, but believe it to be the BBC's responsibility. They want to carry out an investigation on why, disproportionately women, have been missing out on their pension plans. They have also doubled the personal allowance to £12,500 without taxation.
Education
The Conservative Party has pledged £14 billion towards schools, which is roughly £5000 for every secondary school student and £4000 for every primary school student. They also would like to raise the minimum teacher's salary to £30,000 across the UK. They believe in backing teachers to use discipline within schools and easier access to the ability to exclude students. Whilst they are firm on their promotion of public schools, they wish to create more free schools in the next few years. They will also promote P.E and the arts from a young age to make students more active. For further education, they wish to create an 'institute of technology' in every major city for enriching university students' education.