CONSERVATIVE MANIFESTO : SURPRISINGLY SENSIBLE.

And so now, with the publication of the Conservative Manifesto, we have a complete set.

Unlike Labour the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives have shied away from making huge spending commitments and have, instead, mostly concentrated on some tinkering at the edges and some measures designed to release funds.

Most significantly, they are proposing changes to the way in which social care is funded, a much needed and long-awaited reform. They propose that the existing nonsense of people's houses being ignored when assessing eligibility for state funded care should be scrapped. Instead, everyone would be expected to provide for their own care if they have total assets, including their house, of more than £100,000, something which seems to me to be quite right. The notion that the state should have to pick up these costs while the family wealth is protected and passed on to future generations is plain crazy and it's long passed time for this change to be made.

The Conservatives are also proposing to reduce the so-called 'pension triple lock' to a 'double lock', dropping the commitment to an annual increase of 2.5%, again something which is eminently sensible. There can be no justification for ensuring that pensioners get a higher increase than those of working age or than inflation, and this is also a measure to be applauded. Allied to this is the introduction of means testing for payment of the 'Winter Fuel Allowance', something else which is long overdue.

As someone who will potentially lose out from all of these proposed changes, I still have no hesitation in supporting them; they are right and sensible. The 'triple lock' on pensions' is completely arbitrary and illogical, giving a fuel allowance to people who quite obviously have no need for it was nothing other than a vote-winning gimmick, and for the state to be paying for the social care of someone owning a house worth hundreds of thousands, or millions, of pounds is ludicrous.

Why they're fiddling with school meals is a bit of a mystery, though I suppose an effort to ensure that all children have a good start to the day makes sense. However, while a lunchtime meal takes place during the normal working day, providing breakfast raises various issues about times and staffing. Many parents may welcome being able to dump their children at school early though others may find their usual routine horribly disrupted if they take up the offer. How much it will all cost is another matter.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Conservatives have kept their previous pledge to reduce immigration to no more than 100,000 a year. As Home Secretary, Mrs May had no joy at all in achieving this target but perhaps she now feels that, with the open border to the European Union about to be closed, her government will be more able to control the overall number of immigrants. Some have complained that this would affect their ability to recruit staff with what they call the 'right skills' though why we aren't developing these amongst our existing population defeats me. Perhaps our schools spend too much time on teaching useless 'social skills' and not enough on teaching the skills needed for future careers.

All-in-all, what I've seen and heard about this final addition to the manifesto library makes good sense, certainly much more sense that any of the others. How it will all work, we'll no doubt find out over the next 5 years.