I won't be voting Labour because

Who are you calling "Greedy Pigs"?

I don't understand who you are talking to.

Is everyone really so blind? New Labour are virtually identical to DCs Tory party. They agree on so much that GB nicked most of the Tory's ideas!

The Tories would have gone to war too. There is a Global recession on and it is caused out of greed and the suffering of others for you fuckers to get your fucking huge amounts of money. There are people in this country, pensioners, single patents even those on ordinary low incomes that do fucking work, but have not had the educational chances in life or parents with savings to pay deposits that are counting pennies on a daily basis. I did a boot fair this morning to get enough money for tomorrows packed lunch. I work hard, study hard, have children with manners and grace that you greedy pigs can never know.

As for looking to the Soviet Union, for fucks sake, do some reading. Oh do you know what, I can't even be bothered. I'm ashamed to be English sometimes. But let me tell you this....nothing lasts for ever and let's hope through no fault of your own, a tiny slip of fate, you don't end up on your arse and hoping those in control will see you are ok, because if it were down to me I would let you lot rot. How you cannot see, especially as parents, how hard it is to bring up a child on a lited budget whilst working is beyond me.

The difference is, our money would go straight back into the economy. You lot would be saving for a rainy day for fuckwit bankers to fritter away. Grrrrrr

www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23416323-the-real-north-south-divide-how-the-south-east-i s-bankrolling-britain.do

It's terrifying!

NICE regularly approve drugs for use in Scotland when they are turned down for England.

It's medical apartheid.

Why do the English pay for parking at hospitals yet the Scots don't?

Ok, so why is a prescription cheaper in Scotland than England?

Per capita spend is always going to be higher in Scotland because of the Geography. The central belt is no different to the rest of the UK but when you consider health services, transport infastructure and education for the Highlands and Islands, it is obvious that it will cost much more. Primary schools with ten pupils, weekly boarding at mainland secondaries with flights or ferries home at weekends, flying doctor services and so on. But the tax paid rates and VAT are the same UK wide and Council Tax is on average much higher than elswhere (We pay £188 per month on a 2 bed cottage). Not to mention the tax income from North Sea Oil, almost all of which is in Scottish Waters.

What annoys me is the massive spend on London which always seems to get more than its fair share. e.g the Lottery money for the Olympics which has led to massive cuts in Lottery funding for charities and good causes everywhere else.

I will not be voting labour because:

1. of Tax credits. If they are supposed to pay for child care how come I pay 1000 pounds a month childcare and get less than 1% of the cost paid.
2. I am being punished for driving a car. I would like some one to explain how I am supposed to get my children to school (2 miles away), get to work (10 miles away) and then do it in reverse in the afternoon without a car.
3. the economy is in a poor state and neither I nor my husband have had a pay rise in two years and my costs for basic necessities are still going up.
4. I have managed to make some savings, but interest rates are so low that the real value is being eroded.
5. of league tables. League tables cost me money in their administration and do absolutely nothing to improve standards as they are tightly targeted and as a result other areas are neglected so the holistic standard diminishes.
6. they have done nothing to reduce immigration. More people means more pressure on essential services which ultimately costs me money and reduces the level of service that I receive.

I don't actually know who I am going to vote for as none of the parties have any substantiated policies. The "we will do blah blah" doesn't wash with me unless they say how they are going to do it, and quite honestly none of the parties have done that.

Oh and the Uni thing- sorry meant we are English but dh was assessed as Welsh as we moved here for my Uni so he was resident ehre when we came: he ahs full eligibility to bursaries etc 9though doesn't get them as we applied when he became redundant, too late for those)

I do agree with local taxes though but not VAT- had a stint in the VAT office a few eyars back temping, assuming it is still the same the £££#s raised would easil;y be spent on extra infrastructure. I want help to reach the people that need it- regardless of whether they live in Wales, Scotland, England or NI.

Huh Alou? Dh pays to go to Uni, well loan but it is paid.

We may be living here but it is all paid. I was onhe of the last ones through on the old system and count myself very lucky indeed (we are English btw: very much so, moived ehre aged 32)

and because it will cost me less I'm pretty sure ..and because the country is in a mess.

People seem to be in the wrong when they're not in the wrong, but others get away with things they shouldn't. Appalling smug betrayal by people like Margaret Moran.

Education

Snoop and snitch culture

Alouiseg - I think we would have done a LONG time ago if it wasn't for those pesky unionists...

I think maybe we should have the equivalent of State tax so that individual areas would set and collect their own VAT.

Everything would be more applicable to the locality and if an area needed to raise more money it could reduce the state tax therefore getting more purchasers in or take the Labour party view and put the state taxes up.

In fact if I were Scotland i would break away from the UK and become a tax haven, all the money that would be pulled into the country would be phenomenal for businesses in the area and all problems would be solved.

God! I'm good ;-)

oojamaflip I think we should sell Ireland!

I think it depends where your personal priorities are really.

I feel particularly hard done by through the tax system, not just income tax but the whole raft of fuel, car, council tax, vat, that isn't ringfenced to go where it's needed yet a Welsh person in Wales doesn't pay to go to a Welsh University but the English do.

Petty things like parking charges at English hospitals but not at Scottish hospitals annoy me. Also the free prescriptions that are available wind me up when if every person just paid a £1 contribution to each prescription the whole country would be better off.

Not one thing has got better for me or my family under Labour. In fact some things are immeasurably worse. I will be glad to see the back of the incompetent twits.

Alouiseg - that is how the Scottish Assembly chooses to spend it's money. It does have more money allocated to it than England, but not MUCH more compared to variation between other areas of the UK.

This is from Wikipedia, so usual discalimers apply:-

Spending per head

By Country

England £7,121
Scotland £8,623
Wales £8,139
Northern Ireland £9,385

By English Region

North East £8,177 -111%
North West £7,798 - 106%
Yorkshire and Humberside £7,188 - 98%
East Midlands £6,491 - 88%
West Midlands £7,065 - 96%
Eastern £6,144 - 83%
London £8,404 - 114%
South East £6,304 - 86%
South West £6,677 - 91%

80% doh

though soemtimes it feels like 980 (ev en if he seems to eb thriving atm)

Am no expert on Scotland but doesn't the devolved Government set priorities there differently? I know they do here and it swings both ways- for example we get free prescriptions but the ASD plan was never formalised and we can't get a blue badge becuase they don't apply to autism at local level.

As soemone who moved to Wales 5 years ago from England, tis swings and roundabout all the way. We get free access to the local museum but even with a child with up to 980% of developing ASD (due to genetics) have yet to see a HV aged 2 next week.

Why is more money needed to be spent in Scotland per head than England? Cancer treatments that have to appeal in England are a given in Scotland! There is huge disparity on University Fees between the 2 countries. I would be more than happy to see the Scots have complete independence but they can be financially independent too.

LF yes, I grew up in Bridgwater which is in Somerset. I used to have a Lecturer at University who who had started out working in Aberfan during teh disaster, and he was trying to persuade me to do research into the way communities react to financial collapse - in Wales you've got the strong faith, in Bridgwater there's a different carnival network but we managed to draw up an awful lot of parallels.

Dh studies in Pontypridd, we live just outside Newport, we love it ehre and the boys are so much better off here than home but we miss it as well. I have never lived in teh SE or even spent any real time there but I have read so many people fearing for their livelihoods etc in a aplce where everything cost so much more that it must be hard. OTOH there are benefits from living in the SE- precisely the reasons people moved to them, the variety of careers that are centred there for a start, and sadly whislt I knkow people worry about the infrastructure there other have bad services too- 2 days after our last child was born the local mat unit was declareed a safety risk because of a high level of maternal deaths!. Luckily I had a HB (I delivered in 35 minutes, there would have been no options anyway)- but still! Am not sure it's exclusively a Labour issues though; worked in NHS frontline under Toroes, had first baby just after Labour got in and have horror stoiries from all times. I think it is better now in respect of teh services we regaularly access (the paediatric team at the local) but it's variable I suspect.

And there is of xcourse a balance- yes SE houses are costly but the average wage there is somewhat higher than the average wage here, which for DH as a transport mannager would have been @ £15k had he shifted from his abse in Bristol. In fact houses in our village cost £189,000 in our road so perhaps the disparity is more spread than epople realise? Of course we have the blessing of the Ryder Cup this year, second only in terms of travelling fans to the Olympiucs that the SE has coming its way, so we are getting a nice taster of all that too (although afaics the only infrastricuture we have gained is a bridge that appears to cross a river and two fields and a prettier golf course! And road closures that seem to indicate ds3 has a trip to his SNU in September taking over an hour if not double.)

LF yes, I grew up in Bridgwater which is in Somerset. I used to have a Lecturer at University who who had started out working in Aberfan during teh disaster, and he was trying to persuade me to do research into the way communities react to financial collapse - in Wales you've got the strong faith, in Bridgwater there's a different carnival network but we managed to draw up an awful lot of parallels.

Dh studies in Pontypridd, we live just outside Newport, we love it ehre and the boys are so much better off here than home but we miss it as well. I have never lived in teh SE or even spent any real time there but I have read so many people fearing for their livelihoods etc in a aplce where everything cost so much more that it must be hard. OTOH there are benefits from living in the SE- precisely the reasons people moved to them, the variety of careers that are centred there for a start, and sadly whislt I knkow people worry about the infrastructure there other have bad services too- 2 days after our last child was born the local mat unit was declareed a safety risk because of a high level of maternal deaths!. Luckily I had a HB (I delivered in 35 minutes, there would have been no options anyway)- but still! Am not sure it's exclusively a Labour issues though; worked in NHS frontline under Toroes, had first baby just after Labour got in and have horror stoiries from all times. I think it is better now in respect of teh services we regaularly access (the paediatric team at the local) but it's variable I suspect.

And there is of xcourse a balance- yes SE houses are costly but the average wage there is somewhat higher than the average wage here, which for DH as a transport mannager would have been @ £15k had he shifted from his abse in Bristol. In fact houses in our village cost £189,000 in our road so perhaps the disparity is more spread than epople realise? Of course we have the blessing of the Ryder Cup this year, second only in terms of travelling fans to the Olympiucs that the SE has coming its way, so we are getting a nice taster of all that too (although afaics the only infrastricuture we have gained is a bridge that appears to cross a river and two fields and a prettier golf course! And road closures that seem to indicate ds3 has a trip to his SNU in September taking over an hour if not double.)

Thought Labour did broadly a lot of good to begin with but can't and won't be voting for GB and Labour this time round for many of the reasons cited on here. What is even more concerning ime is that in Labour heartlands where dh's family is from, the protest vote goes to the BNP!