Are the Tories taking a risk with their core demographic?

The Tories are taking a bit of a risk with their central demographic with today’s care proposals and the proposals on pensioner benefits.

Extrapolating from the latest polls it looks like around 64% of their projected vote at the election could be over 50, 36% could be over 65.

Compare that with Labour’s much younger demographic: 67% of them could be under 50.

Maybe the Tories are hoping all their older prospective voters are reading the very unusual take on this story that’s on the front of today’s Daily Mail?

Well, that’s one way to look at it.

The experts in care at King’s Fund and elsewhere, the man who reported on care for the last government, Sir Andrew Dilnot, have all lined up to condemn the Tory proposals as a massive missed opportunity.

They can’t believe that the Tories are signing off on a scheme which massively discriminates between a physical illness (covered) – and a condition like Alzheimer’s (you could suffer catastrophic losses).

Theresa May has chosen an area in Yorkshire to launch her Manifesto where over 65s make up 16% of the population. But she’s also chosen an area where median house prices are £117,000, quite a bit below the big city prices and maybe making the Tory proposals less alarming for voters here?

The slogan behind Theresa May at today’s launch has changed. The backdrop says “Forward Together,” which has shades of Berlusconi if not an earlier period in Italian history. Rumour has it that even Mrs May herself was showing signs of fatigue repeating the “strong and stable” slogan, but I doubt we’ve heard the last of it.