I Warn You Not to Be Sick

Tory policy commitments are almost as rare as Gordon Brown jokes. But slowly Conservative thinking is emerging on various policy areas including education and defence. Rising star of the party, Daniel Hannan (left) Conservative MEP has proven to be an intellectual influence on various right-wing elements of the party through ideas set out in his book 'The Plan' which he penned with MP Douglas Carswell.

Hannan's articulate attack on Brown in the European Parliament was quite a Youtube hit among the Silver Surfers. But Danny rather urinated on his own slippers by appearing on Fox News in US and putting the boot into the NHS, calling it "a 60 year-old mistake" and claiming it commonplace for old people to starve to death on trolleys. Hannan's march to the front bench may have stalled a bit but his views on benefits are solidifying into Tory policy on decentralisation.

Under Danny's plan, the Conservative Sec of State for Work and Pensions would simply send to each County Council a lump sum for benefits and it would be up to them how they allocate it. There would no national framework or agreed minimums, benefits would be vulnerable to every prejudice against any particular group.

Senior Tory peer, Lord Hanningfield, said,"The cost of living is far higher in Essex, say, than it is in Cornwall, so people do not need the same level of benefit," he said. "And someone who is 17 does not need the same amount as someone who is 30."

How does he know? Levels of benefits are determined by a large amount of criteria depending on an individual's circumstances and so to be fair to all, is set centrally. One would assume Tories aren't expecting each county to establish its own standards and systems, thereby losing all economies of scale. Perhaps they are, Hannan/Carswell's book sources US as a shining example of how to cut benefits though decentralising from Federal to State level.

I hope it hasn't escaped David Cameron's notice but the UK does not have a federal system and counties do not have the same level of autonomy as American States. Clearly Hannan is something of a zealot. The fact that his crackpot ideas are gaining credence in the party should be a warning to all those who blithely wish for PM Cameron as it is simply, 'time for a change'.