How similar are the Policies of the Conservative and Labour Parties?

Politics of the last 10 years have increasingly been edging away from the extreme wings and have been collecting in the centre regions of the spectrum. Does this mean that soon we will be faced with two identical manifestos, with only the name to tell them apart? How similar are the policies of the Labour and Conservative parties?

Labours economic aims where to encourage sustainable growth, i.e. to create long-term markets, rather than short-term booms. Another new key Labour idea was to keep the inflation at low levels (previously Labour had been branded with a bad reputation when they let inflation reach 25% levels). Also the aims to keep public debt down by repaying national loans and reducing public borrowing unless it is for long term growth. Conservative policies are pretty similar, with aims to keep inflation and public spending down. As you can see, Labour and Conservative's policies on the economy are pretty similar.

Labours policies on health are to increase public spending on the N.H.S. (6.1% annual increases till 2004), and are in general committed to the basic N.H.S. as it stands, we also see an emphasis on primary health care with ideas like "N.H.S. Online" and "N.H.S. Direct".

Conservative policies on health are to match Labours planned public spending increases, the conservatives also seem keen to prove that they are the party of Health Care, as you can see if you study Ian Duncan Smiths 2001 conference speech, "we will find ways to achieve high standards in our ... medical care." Also the Conservatives believe that they can achieve better Health care by achieving greater efficiency and by copying foreign ideas, as Ian Duncan Smith also said "I have instructed the shadow cabinet to visit other countries to see why it is that there public services are better than ours.". This perhaps shows that the Conservatives are interested in totally changing the N.H.S., this is an area in which the two parties are trying achieve the same things, but by different methods.

One of the clearest differences in the policies of the 2 main parties is the issue of Europe and Britons role within Europe. Labour's policies are a to support clearer integration within Europe, as Tony Blair said in his 2001 conference speech "Europe is not a threat to Britain, it is an opportunity". They also agree to have a referendum on entry to the EMU when the economic conditions are right. They also support the idea of a European Defence System, a "European Army". The Conservatives are more anti European, generally opposed to further European integration for the foreseeable future, Williams Hauge's 2001 election campaign's slogan was "Keep the Pound". They are also opposed to the idea of a common European Defence policy, as Ian Duncan Smith said in his 2001 conference speech "that is what is dangerous about the plan for a European army" and that it would "stand in the way of our national defence". But the Conservatives are not interested in leaving the EU. As you can see this an area in which the parties have very different aims and there for very different policies on how to achieve them.

As you can see, the two parties on average agree on the ideas of most things, but disagree slightly as to how to achieve these ideas, but there are some areas like Europe on which the parties are very split.