I won't be voting Labour because

I am note conomically inactive my dear, I save the government much money so please fuck off with your incorrect judgements

clarissimo You are economically inactive and you can call it whatever you like.

I do live in the EU and am constantly amazed that the Brits don't think they're taxed "as much". I've read on this very site tales of people paying in excess of 200 a month council tax! OK, it doesn't come off your pay packet, but it is a tax.

Italy has been a basket case for a long time, part of the PIIGS grouping; I haven't seen that France is worse than we are.

Otter, some of us live in mainland Europe - Ski and I for example; but I think in comparison with Belgium, the Brits get off quite lightly. There is VAT on food, books and children's clothes here. Car tax is calculated on the horsepower of your car and not emissions, so even if your car is 12 years old, you are still taxed at over 2k euros if it is a Range Rover for example, and then, if you use a greener fuel like LPG, you get taxed even more on the car tax.

However, I believe here that there are reductions if you have children and if your wife doesn't work etc. We pay UK tax as dh paid by HMG, so only pay car tax here.

'Unemployment figures are being massaged by "disability", "carer's allowance", "education", CTC, WTC, et al'

huh skihorse? a re you saying disability / CA etc are not separate things then? Should we get off our arseds and find jobs then? And will you be in at 9am for me to drop one moderately autistic child and one with aspergers and severe aggression and eating disorders round your place?

More to the point would you be happy to have a child at your child's nursery who was likely to attack yours?

becuase if the answer is yes then there's soemthing seriously wrong with you, and if the answer is no stop im plying I have any freedom of choice and should be labelled anything other than what I am: a carer.

Yes, Lynette, and I remember the Labour government before that - this is like deja-vu imo.

I can't base my vote on what the Tories did last time - but on what the Labour govt has done over the last 13 years; which is to ruin the economy and screw up defence and education. Why should I vote for them? There is not one thing the Labour govt has done that has had a positive impact on my life; in fact some of their decisions have made it more difficult.

I Googled. I can't find any figures to support the argument that we pay more tax here than the rest of Europe.

The OECD figures I posted do include forms of taxation other than direct income tax, but clearly comparing one country's taxation system with another is extraordinarily complicated.

All I want to know is why people believe they're being taxed so highly in comparison to the rest of Europe. Where have they got this information from?

Lynette Have you ever heard of the IMF?

skihorse so you dont like the figures the fact that france and italy are even further in the shit than we are, sweet and naive is far better than being blardy patronising.

I will not bother showing you the figures for unemployment as you obviuosly can't see what figures mean and will dismiss them and then quote your own figures which you just pull out of thin air and expect people to beleive them - well any sensible person will see they are fictisious rubbish.

Vote tory by all means but then don't moan in three years time about the way they run the country

Yes, I was fine under the last Tory govt, thank you.

I mean this govt has done so well, hasn't it?

I love the confidence of those who plan to vote Tory...Do you not remember the last time they were in power???

Herbie I work in the NHS and all the omeny is being wasted on stupid away days at golf courses or for special courses to teach everyone how to speak to each other and allow people to work to their strengths.

I do actaully agree with Darling on one thing though - those workers in the NHS take loads of time off - in my department you would be sacked for the amount of time 4 of the nurses and senior staff take off if you worked in the private sector and one consultant never comes in on a Monday although he is paid to work 5 days for one reason or another - andhe has just been promoted - they should bring in managers from the private secotr and do a slash and burn on it like you would a company that was not suceeding.

£1.5 billion per year, that is (2006)

Granny23 how refreshing. I would not wish Trident on Devonport either. £20 billion? Running costs £1.5 per year - 2006 estimate.

Not a "deterrant" I would be happy to see - nor a legacy I would want for future generations.

Having been married to a nuclear submariner for almost quarter of a century - what do you think I want?

Devonport has lived with nuclear reactors in the attack boats for a long time, and no 'accident' or attack has ever happened. I think you'll find it is other nations who deploy nuclear missiles in our waters, not us.

Even if we got rid of Trident, and I hope we aren't that short-sighted, that does not guarantee our peace. That is dependant upon circumstances beyond our control and I want to be able to defend the UK against those threats. To believe otherwise is naive in the extreme.

ABdad - the SNP MPs do not vote on England only issues by their own choice. The SNP would never enter into a formal alliance with the Tories (SNP are social democrats) but would certainly co-operate on any measures seen to be beneficial to Scotland or the Scottish people. Glad to see someone 'south of the border' with a fair understanding of the situation in Scotland. It requires a bit of self research as the London Centric media do everything in their power to sideline the SNP and indeed all of the so-called smaller parties although at the last Scottish Parliament Election and the Euro Election SNP polled higher than any of the big3.

TRIDENT - I would say that Devonport is welcome to trident but I would not wish it upon them. Does anyone really want to be the target for any (extremely unlikely) attack? or live with the possibility of an 'accident' in their back yard? Faslane is one of the most beautiful, peaceful parts of the country and will survive as that when this obscene blot on the landscape is removed. They may miss the revenue from the Peace Camp people!

However, currently the big financial issue with Trident is that the megabillions, sums so big that we cannot really grasp them, for redevelopment will not be spent here. We will be buying them from the USA with our poor ££££s and deploying them on our soil, in our waters, mainly to serve American interests. Mull that thought over and reconsider whether it is all worthwhile. Would you rather be a small, peacful, prosperous country or do you really want a seat at the top table, the opportunity to go to war for dubious reasons on behalf of the big bully boys, and the increased risk of retaliatory attacks on our country because we poke our nose in where it is not wanted.

Because fewer and fewer of us are paying to support more and more.

Because punitive taxation on those who are better off is very short sighted. Spending money creates jobs. It stifles entrepreneurship and creativity.

Because they keep interfering with running of universities.

Because public sector spending is completely out of control - the NHS has recruited massively last quarter but mainly managers.

And guys people have to think about voting SNP and heading to devolution being something that does actually happen because if they were in power and Scotland was independant during the banking crisis the government wouldn;t have been able to afford to bail out Royal Bank of Scotland or Halifax Bank of Scotland and it was the BoS bit of the last one that actually messed up not the Halifax bit.

And England would get all of the revenue or 90% of it from north sea oil as sea boundaries follow land boundaries so most of that would be owned by the English - add to it that Scotland gets more per head than England and Wales in term son money spent by the government and they should be shitting themselves and voting for anyone that can keep them in the union.

And Alex Salmon -0 well he is a cock - going on about education being cut and health etc - it is going to happen everywhere so whinging about it happening to the scots gets feck all sympathy from me - whjy should they be any different?

And Ninjacat - no if you cannot afford to bring up the kids you have then you are being irresponsible - it is not societies job to pay for you to have kids - be responsible for them yourself.

PM - the South west would be happy to have the Trident submarines in Devonport, as that's where they are refitted, so we know we have deep enough water for them. Falmouth also can take them. We need the money and the knock on benefits, so would happy to relieve the Scots of the burden.

We do need to retain Trident; people tend to forget that it was the threat of MAD that kept the balance of peace during the Cold War. Russia is rearming, especially on the submarine front, and we need to be able to combat that credibly. Moreover, even if we got rid of Trident, do you think that nuclear weapons would go away? We know how to make them now, and that genie won't go back in the bottle. Nuclear weapons are part of the country being well equipped defence wise. The other part of that is that we don't know the shape of future conflicts - there is no guarantee that the conflicts 20 years down the line will look like Afghanistan and that is what we need to be preparing for, and procuring for, now.

Really..?

I'll have to go and think of something intelligent to say.

...I may be gone some time.....

Anhd remember the leader of the greenies is here for a webchat so you can ask any q's you have

Thank you DP [smile}

I do like an informed person, it's a very good aim in itself