1. General Election 2010 The Conservative Party

2. Symbol Leader David Cameron Born 9 th October 1966 (43) MP for Witney (Oxfordshire) Leader of the Conservative Party and the Opposition since December 2005

3. The Conservative Party Fact-file Also known as the ‘Tory’ Party or the Tories. Beliefs:  People in the UK need to work together more.  The Government should not take too much of people’s money in tax.  People should not rely on the Government to help them with money all of the time – there should be very strict rules about who gets help and it should be limited. People should save and pay for themselves where they can.  England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales should stay together as one country, but they now agree that each should have its own Parliament.  People should be proud to be British, and people from ethnic minorities should be British first BUT still be proud of their background.  Britain should be a part of the European Union BUT all important decisions should be made in Britain and Britain should keep the pound.  Britain should have a strong army, navy and air-force.

4. The Conservative Party – Most Important Promises Start to cut the amount the Government spends from 2010 to get rid of the money Britain owes by 2015. Increase money spent on health. Allow charities, trusts, voluntary groups and co- operatives to set up new Academy schools. Allow charities, trusts, voluntary groups and co- operatives to run other public services. Stop the idea that everyone carries an identity card. People who are married or in civil partnerships should not pay as much tax.

5. The Conservative Party – Money Get rid of most of the money the UK owes within 5 years. Cut spending on everything except health and foreign aid. The Bank of England to make sure banks acting sensibly and ask other countries to keep an eye on their banks. No tax to be paid on money people leave when they die until it reaches £1m. Stop a planned rise in a tax called National Insurance for everyone who earns less than £35,000. Get rid of a tax called Stamp Duty for first-time buyers on homes up to £250,000. Cut the tax paid by businesses to 25p or lower. Cut the cost of the people who help run the country (the civil service) by 33% over five years. Put online everything the government spends over £25,000.

6. The Conservative Party – Race and Immigration Only people who will make things better (because of their job skills) will be allowed to come to live in the UK. People who want to come to live in the UK will earn points and not be allowed to live here unless they get the right amount. Limit the number of people coming to live in the UK. Set up a Border Police Force with the power to stop, search, put people into prison / camps and take people to court. When new countries join the European Union, people from them will NOT be allowed to come and live in the UK for a period of time afterwards. Money will not be given to groups who only work with certain races or religions. It will go to people who do good things for the whole community. Offer English language teaching for all.

7. The Conservative Party – Afghanistan and Defence Support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Buy new and better nuclear weapons for Britain. Give soldiers who are sent to Afghanistan more money. Begin to look after soldiers who return home from war more to make sure that they are not mentally affected. Do regular reviews to make sure that Britain is properly defended. Do an immediate review of how much money is needed by the army before the Autumn of 2010.

8. The Conservative Party – Crime People should vote for the person who runs the police in their area. Police should have more power to stop and search people to stop knife crime. People should be told who breaks the law in their area to make them ashamed. People who do things to stop a crime or catch a criminal should not be arrested or taken to court. Police should be able to fine people or give them punishments straight away if they do anything which is ‘anti-social’. Police should not have to fill in too many forms is they stop and search people. Increase the number of places in prison and stop people from being let out of prison early. Allow courts say the minimum and maximum amount of time someone spends in prison.

9. The Conservative Party – Health Increase the money spent on health within 5 years. Use targets on how many people are made better rather than how many people are seen. Let hospitals be run in the best way for each hospital. Show how well doctors and hospitals are doing online. Let NHS patients use private doctors if they need to. Pay doctors and hospitals according to how well they do in curing people. Cut the amount spent on paperwork by 33%. Create an NHS ‘Board’ to run it. Stop men and women having to share the same wards in hospitals. Increase the number of single rooms in hospitals. Let people pay £8,000 when they retire so that they never have to sell their homes to pay to be looked after.

10. The Conservative Party – Education Allow charities, parent and teacher groups, and co-operatives to set up Academies – schools which get money from the Government but which are not run by the local Council. Allow every school to become an Academy. Give more money to schools that teach the poorest children. Make people who want to be teachers have better exam results. Allow all schools to offer the whatever exams they want to. Make it easier for teachers to use "reasonable force" to stop pupils fighting and getting hurt. Give head teachers the power to pay "good" teachers more. Make it more difficult for parents to argue when their child is excluded. Create 10,000 extra university places in 2010 and 100,000 extra apprenticeships and training places a year. Give back money to students who pay their loans back early.

11. The Conservative Party – Family Let fathers and mothers share the time that just mothers get off when a baby is born. People who are married or in civil partnerships should pay less tax. People who live as couples should not get less money in benefits. Only the poorest families should get extra help when a new baby is born. Employ 4,200 more health visitors for families with new babies. Free nursery care for pre-school children. Every parent with a child under the age of 18 should be allowed to take time off when they need to.

12. The Conservative Party – Environment Make 34% less greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and 80% by 2050. Offer every household the right to have up to £6,500 worth of home insulation, with payment back from the savings the home makes in bills. Start a "Green Investment Bank" to encourage companies to put money into inventing ‘green’ technology. Encourage homes to make their own power. Make people have meters which tell them how much power they are using and enable people to choose to take more renewable energy. Help pay for a network of large-scale wave farms on the coast to make power. Help build new nuclear power plants more quickly. Only allow coal-fired power stations to be built which will not make pollution. Cut the government’s carbon emissions by 10% within 12 months. Begin a national recharging network for electric and plug-in hybrid cars. Make sure all new homes are energy efficient from 2016.

13. The Conservative Party – Pensions Pensions should go up at the same rate as wages. Increase the retirement age to 66 (for men in 2016, for women in 2020) Make it easier for companies to offer pension schemes to people who work for them. Make sure that people who work for the government don’t have pensions which are too large. Keep the Winter Fuel Payment to help old people afford fuel when it is cold.

14. The Conservative Party – Housing Give local councils money for every new house that is built in their area. Get companies to take over council houses, but only where most people agree. People who live in council houses with five years of "good behaviour" should be given 10% of the home. Stop people who are buying their first home which costs less than £250,000 should not have to pay the special tax on buying homes. Get rid of Home Information Packs, which house owners have to provide to people when they are selling their homes.

15. The Conservative Party – Foreign Affairs and Europe Will not leave the European Union or go against agreements Britain has made with the EU. In the future, people will vote on any changes to the European Union. Make sure that Parliament has the final say on what happens in Britain, NOT the European Union. Promise to keep the Pound and not use the Euro in Britain. Britain should not have to agree to the rights given to people by the EU. Britain should not have to limit the amount of hours that people work as in the rest of the EU. Create a National Security Council, to talk about and sort out things to make Britain safe from problems with other countries. Give more power to Germany, Japan, Brazil, India and Africa in the United Nations. Help Israel and Palestine sort out their differences. Increase money given to help poorer countries.

16. The Conservative Party – Local Government Give local councils enough money so they do not have to increase Council Tax for 2 years. Give local councils more power over what goes on in their areas and how much they spend. Allow the people who live in an area to say no to big increases in Council Tax. Hold a vote on whether to have a directly-elected mayor in 12 of England’s largest cities outside London. Allow local people to vote on things which are important locally, by collecting a petition signed by 5% of local people over a six month period.

17. The Conservative Party – Transport Support the London Crossrail project but do not want to spend as much money on it. Build a North-South high-speed rail line. Stop the third runway at Heathrow. Sell off the airports in the South-East of England to difference companies. Make the railways take more notice of what passengers think and give passengers more of a say. Should not charge people to use roads. Stop the price of petrol going up too much if prices of oil increase. Only let local councils put up speed cameras if they are going to make things safer for people.

18. The Conservative Party – Countryside and Farming Make sure farmers have less paperwork to do. Change the money given to help farmers by the EU. Help people to "Buy British" by changing rules on food labelling. Give MPs a free vote to allow fox hunting again. Not allow genetically modified (GM) crops to be grown until they are proved to be safe. Give someone the job of making sure Supermarkets are not too powerful and take too much money from customers. Kill badgers in areas where there is a high risk they carry diseases which might hurt people.

19. The Conservative Party – Human Rights and Freedoms Get rid of the idea of identity cards and a data base with everyone’s details on it. People should only be kept by the police for a maximum of 28 days before they are charged. Get rid of the Human Rights Act and write a British Bill of Rights. Change the laws which protect people from terrorism. Stop local councils having the right to spy on people. Look at getting rid of laws which some people say treat Muslims unfairly. Keep the DNA information of criminals, but if someone is found innocent, destroy their DNA sample.

20. The Conservative Party – Making Government Better Get rid of the Human Rights Act and have a British Bill of Rights. Make sure that every person over 18 has to register to vote. Give non-English MPs less of a say on England-only laws. Voters should be allowed to remove MPs if they have done something wrong. People who have worked for the Government should not be allowed to use what they know for to make money for at least 2 years. Cut the number of MPs by 10%. Force Parliament to talk about something if enough MPs ask for it. Make all areas which have an MP the same in population size. Do not change the system of voting. Stop the Government having too many people in to advise them. Allow people to vote for most of the members of the House of Lords. Allow the Scottish Parliament to make taxes and the Welsh Assembly to make laws.