UK ELECTION 2015 | PARTY MANIFESTOS

UK GENERAL ELECTION

PARTY MANIFESTOSAll of the major political parties in England have released their manifestos but what are they all saying and what actually is a manifesto?

A manifesto is a list of promises that a political party makes before the election. In it, they say what they will do if they are elected as the government. Often manifestos are really long but they will have shorter versions that are easier to look at so it can be easier to see which party you like most.

On the following pages are the top three promises from each party and two that we think you will be interested in. We have adapted the ‘top policies’ from this BBC article.

An important thing that pops up with all of the different parties is taxes and money. Governments have to spend a lot of money on things like hospitals, schools and roads. That money is either borrowed from banks or other countries or it is earned in taxes. In the past 7 years, the government realised that they had borrowed a lot more money than they could pay back from banks and other countries. We had an ‘economic crisis’ which meant we have had to think really hard about how we are either going to stop spending as much or how we are going to earn more money. The different parties have different opinions about how to do that.

The Conservatives want to save money by spending less on things like doctors, teachers and roads. That would mean they can pay off all the money we owe and probably wouldn’t need to borrow any more for a while. The Green Party wants to make money by putting up taxes and then spending that on things like building more houses. That will give people like builders, estate agents and plumbers more jobs and then they’ll pay more taxes until slowly, the money we owe can be paid back. That might mean we end up owing even more money.

UK ELECTION 2015 | LABOUR MANIFESTO

LABOUR’S MAIN PROMISES

1 Responsibility “triple lock”: fully funded manifesto, cut the deficit every year, balance the books as soon as possible in next ParliamentWhat they mean in a sentence: We won’t spend more money than we have and we can pay for everything we are promising.

This is a fancy way of saying that Labour won’t spend more money than they have. Britain has been in an ‘economic crisis’ since 2007. That means that the country hasn’t been making any money and the government has had to borrow a lot of money from banks and other countries. People blamed the Labour party for that and said that they had been ‘irresponsible’ with their money when they were the government and spent too much. This promise is their way of showing that they won’t do it again.

2 An extra £2.5 billion for the NHSWhat they mean in a sentence: We will give doctors, nurses and hospitals more money so they can carry on making us better.

Every time you go to the doctor or see your school nurse, you are using an ‘NHS service’. NHS stands for National Health Service and it means that we can all go to the doctor when we are ill and not have to pay for it. A lot of countries like America don’t have a national health service and everyone has to pay for their doctor. That means a lot of poor people get much more ill than they should because they don’t have the money to pay. This promise means that doctors and hospitals will be given more money so they can carry on making us better if we get ill.

3 Access to childcare from 8am-6pm for parents of primary school childrenWhat they mean in a sentence: You will be looked after for free if your parents need to go to work.

Some parents need work before or after school so they can afford to make you warm, healthy and happy but you can’t stay at home on your own and it can be really expensive to pay for a babysitter or a club. That means that some parents can’t work as much as they need to. Here, the Labour party are promising that you would be kept safe for free while your parents were at work, so they can earn the money that they need.

UK ELECTION 2015 | LABOUR MANIFESTO

YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN:Give 16 and 17-year-olds the voteWhat they mean in a sentence: You would be allowed to vote when you are 16.

As you know, you are allowed to vote when you are 18 years old at the moment. This means that you would be able to vote when you are 16 years old instead. Labour says that this will make more young people interested in politics. However, other people say that Labour want to get younger people voting because they are more likely to vote for Labour.

FOR: Read this article by St Mary’s and St John’s School about why young people should be allowed to vote

AGAINST: Read this article by Ravenscroft Primary School about why young people shouldn’t be allowed to vote

Guarantee an apprenticeship for every school leaver who attains the gradesWhat they mean in a sentence: If you work hard in school, we will help you get a job.

When you leave school, most people either find a job or go to university. At the moment, it is quite difficult to get a job if you haven’t got lots of experience. Imagine if you wanted to be a actor but you had never been in a play or performance. Nobody would take you seriously! It is the same when you are looking for a job. Your boss wants to know that you can do the work they give you. An ‘apprenticeship’ means that you are taught by a company how to do the work, making it a lot easier to find work. Here, Labour promises that as long as you work in school, you can get an apprenticeship if you want one.

UK ELECTION 2015 | CONSERVATIVE MANIFESTO

CONSERVATIVE’S MAIN PROMISES

1 Eliminate the deficit and be running a surplus by the end of the ParliamentWhat they mean in a sentence: We will not spend all of the money we earn, we will save some.

At the moment, the UK owes a lot of money to countries and banks because we spent too much and didn’t save any money from taxes. The Conservatives want to save £1 for every £100 they make in taxes. That will mean they can pay back some of the money we owe and have some saved in case we want to spend money on something else. This is a really good idea but in real life, it can be very hard. Very few people want Britain to owe a lot of money but they also don’t want the government to stop paying for things like hospitals and schools. If the government saves £1 from every £100, they will have to spend less money on these things.

2 Keep people working 30 hours on minimum wage out of taxWhat they mean in a sentence: We won’t take any money from the people who can’t afford it.

Minimum wage is £6.50 an hour (if you are 21 years old or more). Imagine your 22 year old cousin gets a new job at a cafe. Her boss has to pay her £6.50 an hour or they are breaking the law. If she is working 30 hours a week, which is about same amount of time you spend in school, she will earn £195 a week. If she lives on her own, she might pay £110 every week to live in her house. That means she just has £85 to pay for food and her oyster card and anything nice she wants for herself.

This promise means that she won’t have to give the government any money out of her pay packet because the government knows she won’t have enough to live on.

In case that doesn’t make sense, let’s change money to sweets.

Imagine you swept your kitchen floor at the weekend. You are given 10 sweets by your parents. You then have to give 7 to your friend because that’s how much you give them to use their bike every day. That means you only have 3 for yourself. With this promise, the government says that they won’t take any more sweets off you because then you would have none for yourself!

UK ELECTION 2015 | CONSERVATIVE MANIFESTO

3 30 hours of free childcare per week for working parents of 3 and 4-year-oldsWhat this means in a sentence: All 3 and 4 year olds will be looked after for free while your parents are at work.

This is really similar to the Labour promise saying you can be looked after for free while your parents are at work. The Conservatives are only promising that 3 and 4 year olds will be looked after, instead of all primary school children.

YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN:Turn every failing secondary school into an academyWhat this means in a sentence: Secondary schools that aren’t doing well will be able to improve faster.

An ‘academy’ school is a little bit different from a normal secondary school. An ‘academy’ can teach its pupils what it wants instead of following the national curriculum. It can also be given money by charities, businesses or religious groups. The Conservatives think these are good things because it means a bad school can change how they are teaching you much faster than if they had to stick to the same rules as everyone else.

Make sure foreign criminals can be more easily deported from BritainWhat this means in a sentence: If a foreign person commits a crime here, they will be sent away from this country.

At the moment, it can be very hard to send foreign criminals away from the UK. There is a law for every country in the European Union that people have a ‘right to a private and family life’. That means that if a foreign person commits a crime but they have a family here in the UK, they cannot be sent away because they won’t be near their family and friends. The Conservatives think that we are spending too much money on foreign criminals. They want to get rid of that law so that people can be sent away if they commit a crime. However if they do get rid of that law, they have to get rid of a lot of other laws that protect our human rights. That means that some people don’t agree with The Conservatives on this.

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT’S MAIN PROMISES

1 Balance the budget fairly through a mixture of cuts and taxes on higher earnersWhat this means in a sentence: We’re going to take some money away from hospitals and schools but also ask for more money from people who earn a lot.

As we’ve heard, the UK has got a lot of money problems. This means that the Liberal Democrats want to stop spending quite so much on things like hospitals and schools but they are also going to ask for more money from people who earn a lot. This promise will probably be quite popular with people who don’t earn a lot but it might not be so popular with the very wealthy workers in Britain.

2 Equal care for mental & physical healthWhat this means in a sentence: Illnesses inside your head will be treated as just as important as problems that a doctor can see.

If you fall over and really hurt your head, you might go to hospital. All of your friends would ask you if you were okay, the doctor would try and fix you as fast as they could and you would probably get a lot of sympathy from your parents! What if you were ill inside your head, instead of on the outside? That can be just as dangerous and needs hospital treatment, care from your friends and sympathy from your family but for a long time, no one would say that. This promise is about making sure that people who are ill inside their head will be treated with the same care in hospital as the people who have illnesses that you can see.

3 Five new laws to protect nature and fight climate changeWhat this means in a sentence: Before the last election, the Liberal Democrats were known as a very ‘green’ party, meaning that they really cared about the environment. That has disappeared quite a lot since then but they have still made some big promises. Here, they have made five laws that will help protect the environment and make sure the earth is looked after by Britain.

UK ELECTION 2015 | LIBERAL DEMOCRATS MANIFESTO

UK ELECTION 2015 | LIBERAL DEMOCRATS MANIFESTO

THEY ARE:1. There are people who tell the government how to look after the environment.

With this promise, what they say could become law.2. The government will have to make a plan about how to save the countryside and

turn it back into a natural place for animals and insects. The plan will last for 25 years.3. All of the business that the government runs like schools and hospitals and road

building companies, will have to slowly become better and better for the environment.4. The forests in Britain need to be looked after. This is a promise that a special

government group will do that.5. The EU has given us some laws about how much pollution we can have. Instead of that

being an EU law, the Liberal Democrats want to make it a British law which will mean we definitely have to stick to it.

YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN:Make sure every child can read by the time they go to secondary schoolWhat this means in a sentence: By the time you get to secondary school, everybody in your class will be able to read a book.

Children from rich families are around 12% more likely to be able to read and write well than children from less wealthy families. That makes a lot of difference to what kind of education you can get and then your chances later on. This promise will try and get rid of that difference so that everyone can have equal chances.

Let people vote in elections when they are 16 years oldThis is the same as the Labour promise but it is important that you see more than one party is promising this!

What they mean in a sentence: You would be allowed to vote when you are 16.

As you know, you are allowed to vote when you are 18 years old at the moment. This means that you would be able to vote when you are 16 years old instead. Labour says that this will make more young people interested in politics. However, other people say that Labour want to get younger people voting because they are more likely to vote for Labour. Why do you think the Liberal Democrats want to do this?

FOR: Read this article by St Mary’s and St John’s School about why young people should be allowed to vote

AGAINST: Read this article by Ravenscroft Primary School about why young people shouldn’t be allowed to vote

UKIP MAIN PROMISES:

1 Rapid referendum on Britain’s membership of the European UnionWhat this means in a sentence: We will let you vote on whether we should be part of the European Union or not.

There is a lot of discussion about whether we should be part of the European Union. The European Union is a collection of countries in our part of the world who make laws and do business together.

Some people say we should not stay part of the the European Union because:• It is very expensive to be part of the European Union• It takes some power away from Britain because we have to follow laws set by the

European Union• It means that a lot of migrants come to work in Britain. Some people say this is a

bad thing.

Some people say that we should stay part of the European Union because:• It means we can do business with all of the other European countries really easily • If we left, we would still have to follow some EU laws if we wanted to do business

with EU countries but we wouldn’t be able to have our say on what the laws are.• Having migrant workers is a good thing that our economy relies on. If we didn’t

have immigrants coming in, a lot of stuff wouldn’t get done and we would lose a lot of money.

2 Control immigration with points system, limit of 50,000 skilled workers a year and a five-year ban on unskilled immigrationWhat this means in a sentence: People will only be able to come and live in Britain if we need them here.

UKIP are well-known for not liking immigration. They think it is ruining our country and meaning that there are fewer jobs for British people. This promise means that no one would be able to come to live in Britain unless we need them here. Australia has this system and it does work in keeping down the number of people going to Australia. Some experts argue that it has made Australia a lot more racist than other countries.

UK ELECTION 2015 | UKIP MANIFESTO

3 Extra £3bn a year for the NHS in EnglandThis is very similar to the Labour promise, except UKIP are promising 0.5 billion more than Labour

What they mean in a sentence: We will give doctors, nurses and hospitals more money so they can carry on making us better.

Every time you go to the doctor or see your school nurse, you are using an ‘NHS service’. NHS stands for National Health Service and it means that we can all go to the doctor when we are ill and not have to pay for it. A lot of countries like America don’t have a national health service and everyone has to pay for their doctor. That means a lot of poor people get much more ill than they should because they don’t have the money to pay. This promise means that doctors and hospitals will be given more money so they can carry on making us better if we get ill.

YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN:End sex education for primary school childrenWhat this means in a sentence: You won’t be allowed to learn about sex in primary school.

Most primary schools teach a bit of sex education. This means that you are more informed about things that might affect you in the future and that you can keep yourself safe.

UKIP argue that by teaching primary school children about sex, we are encouraging you to think about it too early and that is making everyone grow up too fast. They want to stop primary school children learning about sex.

Tightly regulate animal testing and keep the ban on animal testing for cosmetics What this means in a sentence: Animals will be looked after better.

UKIP want to make sure animals are looked after better. They will make sure that companies don’t test things on animals unless they absolutely have to, for example if they are making medicine. They will also make sure that companies never test things like makeup or shampoo on animals.

UK ELECTION 2015 | UKIP MANIFESTO

GREEN PARTY’S MAIN PROMISES

1 End austerity What they mean in a sentence: Instead of saving money on hospitals and schools, we will spend money on them.

‘Austerity’ means saving money on things like hospitals, schools and benefits. That can lead to some people losing jobs and the quality of those things going down. Instead of saving money on schools and hospitals, the Green Party wants to increase taxes and spend money on it. That would mean owing more money to begin with but would give people more jobs and then mean that they can give the government more money.

2 End privatisation of the National Health ServiceWhat they mean in a sentence: We will make the government run the NHS again.

The National Health Service is mostly run by the government. That is why it is called the ‘National’ Health Service, because it is run by a group owned by the nation (the government!). Recently, lots of different parts of it have been given to companies to run. The Conservatives say that the companies are good at running the National Health Service because they are experts in it and the government isn’t. They also say that because companies have to make money to stay running, they will try harder.

The Green party is worried that if we let companies run the National Health Service, it will be more focused on money than making people better. They think that the quality of the NHS will go down.

This promise means that they will make sure the government starts running the NHS again, so that it isn’t about money anymore. It will be more about making people better again.

3 Work with other countries to ensure global temperatures do not rise by more than 2CWhat this means in a sentence: We will help to stop climate change all over the world.

The Green Party are very interested in the environment. This promise is saying that they will make sure Britain does its part to stop climate change but also that Britain helps other countries stop climate change.

UK ELECTION 2015 | GREEN PARTY MANIFESTO

YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN:Bring empty homes back into use to ensure everyone has access to an affordable place to live.What this means in a sentence: People will be able to live in all of the empty buildings around London and the rest of the country.

If you walk around London and look closely at each building, you will see that a lot of them are empty. This happens for lots of reasons, like people buying homes from abroad and never moving in or somebody dying who has no family to give the house to.

As you are walking around, you’ll also notice a lot of homeless people. They live on the streets, usually because they can’t afford a home. The Green Party want to stop this happening so much by letting people live in all of the empty houses.

Promote walking and cycling to help reduce pollution and improve people’s health.What this means in a sentence: We will encourage everyone to walk and cycle more.

The Green Party want to encourage people to walk or cycle everywhere they can. This will save them money because people will be healthier and need to see doctors less. It will also mean there is less pollution which will help the environment! At the moment, it can be dangerous to cycle in some places though, so they will have to build cycle lanes and spend quite a lot of money on teaching people to cycle properly.

UK ELECTION 2015 | GREEN PARTY MANIFESTO