Today, we've moved the Dilnot-o-meter back to 'too close to
call' from the heady heights of 'looking good' at the start of
November.
Partly we've been influenced by you. In our poll, you voted:
Forget it - 9.5%
Odds against - 31%
Too close to call - 26.2%
Looking good - 33.3%
So while a third of you agreed with our initial assessment, over
40% were pessimistic and over a quarter were undecided. Tellingly,
not a single person thought social care funding reform was a done
deal.
Why the pessimism? Well, maybe you were concerned by the
continuing stand-off between the main political parties about
cross-party talks on social care funding. Newly appointed shadow
Andy Burnham is still smarting from the 'death tax' reception to
his Green Paper in 2009 and won't commit to talks without secrecy
preconditions. So far, the coalition seems unwilling to sign up to
this code of omerta.
But more likely you're concerned (as we are) by the continuing 'no
money' noises coming out the coalition and the lack of firm
commitment to legislation. You may have noticed that the coalition
is prepared to consider scrapping the proposed increase in fuel
duty (loss to the Exchequer: £1.5bn), but it will not give this
encouragement to social care funding (nominal cost £1.7bn). Even
weekly bin collections appear a higher political priority.
Dilnot-o-meter verdict: Too close to call.
