I analysed every party manifesto in England. Here’s how they compare

Who should you vote for this general election? It's complicated!

Thank you so much for watching! Hope you enjoyed it!

Video Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:25 Transport
7:30 Housing
12:02 Drug Policy
16:19 Healthcare
20:18 The Economy and Taxes
23:16 A quick aside on the Green Party and Nuclear energy
24:22 Reform Party on the Economy
25:31 Migration
30:52 Wildcard Policies
34:18 Final Score
35:58 SPON
36:58 Ukulele Outro

If you're new to my channel and videos, hi! I'm Evan Edinger, and I make weekly "comedy" videos every Sunday evening. As an American living in London I love noticing the funny differences between the cultures and one of my most popular video series is my British VS American one. I'm also known for making terrible puns so sorry in advance. Hope to see you around, and I'll see you next Sunday! :)

If you want to know HOW I make my videos including gear, lighting, all the tiddly bits that connect it all together, (with cheaper alternatives and kit I used to use), I've listed each item, what it's great at, and why I use it on the gear section of my website here:

Otherwise: here's a quick list of some of my kit without descriptions from the above link:

Camera: Sony A7siii

Main Lens: Sony 24mm f/1.4 G-Master

Secondary Lens: Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 G-Master

Main Light: Aputure 120d mkii

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Really useful SSD: SanDisk Extreme Portable 2TB

[evan]

Somehow I forgot to mention that this will be my first general election that I’m legally allowed to vote in! That’s why I put so much time into reading the manifestos and why you might have known more about a lot of the parties than I did going in.

[enuma-elise]

I think your assessment of the Conservative plan on migration was unfair. The Tories have executed a brilliant long-term startegy to cut migration: running the economy into the ground, to make Britain less attractive to migrants over time.

[skasteve]

There is one major manifesto missing here. Highlights include:
All Water bosses to take a dip in British rivers, to see how they like it.
National service to be introduced for all former prime ministers.
Wifi on trains that works.
Trains that work.
European countries to be invited to join the UK, creating a new ‘union of Europe’, if you will.
I pledge to build at least one affordable house'
The reintroduction of Ceefax.
Minsters’ pay to be tied to that of nurses for the next 100 years.
MPs to live in the area they wish to serve for 4 years before election, to improve local representation.
Count Binface to represent the UK at Eurovision.
and most importantly, croissants to be price-capped at £1.10, and 99 flakes to cost 99p.

[peterbrain]

Lib Dem marketing probably seems bad because they are super local campaigners. They don’t have as many resources as Labour or Conservatives so instead choose to put the majority of time and resources into constituencies they can realistically win rather than a big national campaign. They are renowned for doing really well in local council elections and slowly building a profile in those areas.

[Cara.s_Life_Is_Pink]

While I may not agree with all of your takes, I appreciate all the work you must have put into this, so thank you! Reading all those manifestos must have been painful!

[Showsni]

As a child, the impression I got from politics was "everyone wants to vote for the Lib Dems, but no one will vote for them because they're scared of wasting their votes".

[alisonforrester]

The best line comes from you Evan….. “who will we all put in office to destroy the country next”!! That’s what it feels like to me…..

[coysgub]

I was also most impressed by the Lib Dem manifesto, somewhat ironically given their promise of reforming the voting system to be more representative, I can’t justify voting for them, because there is no way they will ever come close to winning in my area. The whole system is so antiquated.

[Skylark_Jones]

To be fair to the Green Party I wouldn't call the destruction of vast ancient woodlands a few "trees" or "a leaf" especially in a nature depleted country like ours facing a climate emergency. There has been a lot of dispute in the past about the best way forward. Years ago when HS2 was a big thing in the media one rail engineer wrote an article saying in so many words that upgrading the infrastructure that was already there would've been less costly. The reasons given for its cancellation in 2023 were ballooning costs and accusations of mismanagement. £65bn has been spent; makes you wonder what the private contractors involved did with the money given that they went over-budget and over-time.

[starkillre]

So an important distinction that I like about the green parties manifesto is that they are actually proposing a wealth tax. I just looked to remind myself and it is a 1% tax on those whose net worth is £10Mil and up. This would be massive because rich people can avoid most taxes by simply letting their assets appretiate while not actually using any more money then an average person. Personally this alone made their tax policy worth 2 points using your system XD

[ChoobChoob]

But NHS workers ARE working outside their hours. Literally need more staff.

[joepiekl]

The cap on political donations is a huge one. Personally, I'd completely ban donations from corporations and unions. I'd also put a limit per person of something like £100, and ban anyone not eligible to vote in the UK election from funding it. If you want to spend a lot of money on your campaign, then you should have to convince enough ordinary people to support you, not 5 to 10 billionaires.

The proportional representation is a great policy. Unfortunately, that was in the Lib Dems' manifesto in 2010 and they sold everyone out for a shot at power, basically agreeing to a ridiculous Alternative Vote system that even they didn't want, in exchange for enabling the worst of the Tories' austerity.

[Nikox]

The problem is you can't even trust what these parties put in their manifesto.

[RaunienTheFirst]

"I myself am an immigrant"
Oh, Evan. You are not the kind of immigrant that people who are yelling about immigrants get mad about...

[Ramtamtama]

Access to NHS dentistry is currently so bad that my brother, who left home 5 years ago and currently lives 200 miles away, has the same dentist as myself because he wasn't able to find one with any spaces for NHS patients within a reasonable distance (1 hour drive) of either his previous address or his current one, so he books 2 days off work and stays overnight at our parents house. The dental surgery, on a university campus, is a 10-15 minute walk from my house and has 1 NHS dentist alongside 4 private ones and 1 for exclusive use by university students and staff. If you were to ring up today (2/7) you'd have a 6 week wait to see the NHS dentist but under 48 hours to see a private one.

[thomaspickin]

When you mentioned the Greens and Nuclear, I was just like "Yes!" in my head, seriously it feels like the Greens are stuck in the 80s/90s when it comes to their policies on Nuclear, things have changed since then but they haven't. I mean if they really expect everyone in the UK to get an electric car and our grid to be able to cope without having to burn extra coal at peak times, then we will occasionally need Nuclear (as well as solar and wind).

[Matthew-rdgq]

I think the Liberal Democrat’s manifesto offers some solid policies and I’m hoping they’ll form the opposition if only to imagine 5 years of the Tories not having a stranglehold on the media discourse. Saying all of that I would probably never vote for the Lib Dem’s given their track record in the coalition. Ed Davey himself was in the cabinet signing off on Cameron and Osborne’s spending cuts. Austerity, that the Lib Dem’s supported, is a huge reason why our economy is in such a massive decline with stagnant wages, failing public services and lower standards of living. The cost of living crisis is only currently reported in the media because it affects middle class people like those with mortgages, but before that austerity was already pushing people into poverty with the UN finding the government of coalition responsible for ‘grave and systematic violations of the human rights of persons with disabilities’. The Lib Dem’s complicity and involvement in the worst government of this century has to be remembered.

[stuartrobb]

British election manifestos are not worth the paper they are printed on as they are not contracts and not enforceable in law. In 1981, Lord Denning said "A manifesto issued by a political party - in order to get votes - is not to be taken as gospel… It may contain - and often does contain - promises or proposals that are quite unworkable.". Even this notwithstanding, there is no legal principle of “legitimate expectation” and in any case, the Courts have ruled themselves out of jurisdiction saying it is a matter for Parliament. Hence, why manifestos are a total waste of time.

[TBowenMedia]

I found this incredibly helpful as someone who finds politics such a complicated, polarising thing. Thank you for presenting the policies in such an accessible, easily understandable way.

[imsoboredhahaha]

My politics a-level teacher’s catchphrase was

“Manifestos are not ✨legally binding✨”

She also made us do jazz hands whenever she mentioned that.

Seriously though, governments do not have to actually commit to what they promise in manifestos. Granted, they have the consequence of losing trust amongst the electorate (+ possibly votes) but they have no legal consequences.