As someone who voted to leave the EU my intention was to hold my nose and vote Tory this time in order to protect Brexit as I saw the tories as the party most likely to deliver a true Brexit.
The news on paying for home care in the event of contracting a disease not on the approved list (ie: a 'dementia tax') has however changed my mind.
I am now voting Labour.
The tories spend your whole life telling you to "save hard and provide for your family". My parents have done exactly that as have both me and my siblings. Now I'm being told by these same tories that if I (or my parents) are unlucky enough to be a victim of one of these exempt illnesses it's tough shit mate. We'll take your house and your savings to pay for your care. Despite paying in to the system your whole life.
It's sick and it's immoral.
Don't get sick. Don't get old. Don't end up in any sort of need. You might well have paid in for decades but instead of using your money to provide for you in desperate circumstances we'll use it to give a huge tax cut to the 5% who can afford to send their kids to private school. We'll use it to give a huge tax cut to big business who already don't pay the full amount.
"Thanks for your Brexit vote you ignorant prole now don't bother us again"
Scum.
I can really understand your view - I am more than a bit surprised to see May bring this forward in the manifesto. It must reflect both her confidence in winning the election and also her determination (you may feel that I am being generous here) to be able to get things through the LORDS. It is hardly possible for the LORDS, flawed function though it is, to knock back things that were set out in a manifesto.
I am in a position where I could well be impacted - Dad has his own home and in his 90s, the in-laws have theirs and are in their late 80s.
That said, having done a lot of work for DH and NHS I have seen first hand the angst of the executives seeking to plan transformations of services to address the major challenges of health & social care. It is a simple fact something difficult will need to be done - tinkering is no answer, this is certainly an area where whatever decisions are taken they will be unpopular with some section(s) of the electorate.
The suspicious part of me thinks that May is being deliberate/callous in her approach here. Where I live, in the SE, all housing is way over the £100k threshold - but there is no way this bad news will lead to the return of any party other than conservatives. In areas where May is targeting vulnerable Labour seats, May's policy will have less impact and there may even be a sense of - well that will teach those southerners...
So this introduces a major risk for those suffering certain illnesses - it is very unpopular, certainly with me - people will take steps to avoid the issue by transferring assets to their children earlier - which makes me further question why she risks the backlash.
But on the other hand - what if you vote Labour, the only other credible alternative? The answer is that you are going to get 'across the board' increases in Inheritance Tax - large rises in Capital Gains Tax - across the board and therefore impacting everyone that has assets beyond their punitively lowered threaholds.
The grass is definitely not greener on the Labour side and I am surprised the shitiness of the Labour position is not more widely picked up on.
