attention prospective Tory voters (unless you really don't care about "ordinary people")

Oh for goodness sake, WHERE are you all going to emigrate to???

I cannot post what I want to. I would be banned.

I will be voting for UKIP.

I can't vote labour.

a vote for labour is to keep Ed "Home Educated Children are more at risk of Abuse" Balls in office.

The iniquitous children schools and families bill just got defeated in the wash up. If labour get back in, it'll get put straight through, and LA staffers will have the power to enter the homes of HEers with or without consent and without probable cause, and to forcibly interview HEed children alone, with or without special needs, and without their consent or that of their parents, without probable cause. These are powers the police and social services don't have. Refusal to comply would result in a school attendance order.

If Labour get back in, it's not just a hysterical "oooh, I'll emigrate". Thousands of home edders are looking to move to Scotland in the first instance (HE law is devolved). My family would be likely to go NOTB, and to start looking for jobs in the States. Thousands of HEers see this as a child protection issue - protecting our children from unwanted and unwarranted state interference.

Me too, abride. I don't recognise Britain anymore.

All I can say is that if Labour get in again I'm thinking of leaving the country. Not just because I hate what they've done to the economy but because I hate the police state they've brought in.

I'm looking at Canada.

I've had enough.

And maybe removing the safety net of government intervention at every level, might encourage some people (those who are perfectly able) to support themselves a bit more.

How come, while Labour are busy banging on about Cameron and Osborne having gone to Eton, no-one has seen it to point out that Harriet Harman went to St Paul's, Westminster, which is not far off the same.

'I started teaching in the 80s and remember the crumbling state of the building (6 buckets and pans in my classroom whenever it rained). Now think about what state these services would be in now if Labour had not wasted money putting them right. '

Oh yes, the huts with the rats under them, and the windows that rattled, and the roof that let in water that my colleagues taught in from 1997-2006. I went to school in the late 70s/early 80s and there were no buckets in my school when I was a pupil. The state of the huts was appalling when I was teaching - I got my QTS in 2001 after my PGCE, and the state of some of the schools I taught in was appalling, as was the lack of books and resources.

As an ordinary low income working single mother I will not be voting labour. True, some of their policies males and people like me immediately better off, but the government is happy to keep it that way. A government truely concerned about people and not winning votes would have made plans to use tax credits as a stop gap not a long term solution. It is not sustainable for so many to rely on government support for so long.

Oh, and I've spent the best part of the last year fighting intrusive government nanny state legislation when I could have been earning more and getting on with home educating my DD.

So if do care about ordinary people like me please don't vote labour, vote lib dem, green or independent if you don't want to vote Tory.

I don't think MRSA has got anything to do with nurses not washing their hands. That is an example of how stupid they think we are. Third-world countries have lower MRSA levels than us.

CLaig:
"our money has gone to bankers, in bonuses to pay for their swank riverside apartments. Labour took our money and handed it over to them without asking what they planned to do it."
No - the bank are business, the captains of which took our money to pay for their swank riverside appartments. Labour had to recapitalise the banks so that you and I could still draw our money out on the Monday morning following the crisis and the balance on our savings accounts would still show credit. Anyone who thinks that the Cameron Tories will provide a ladder out of poverty is deluded and as for "cutting back on unnecessary regulation" - this is precisesly how the banks got away with it for so long and got us into this mess.

"They built new hospitals, but every week we learned of MRSA rising, apparently nurses weren't washing their hands"

I suppose that when the tories were in power, nurses washed their hands and then for some reason stopped under a labour government. When advances are made new problems always arise but it is how and whether you deal with them: The implementation of hygeine standards are paramount in hospitals now and there are rigorous regimes for handwashing etc. That's how progress happens.

Of course all parties have admitted that they will end up cutting public services to some extent and that there will be pain to come. But we have to consider what are the core things that we value and want to protect and retain for our future and our children's futures? And - which party is more likely to protect them for us?

Take a long hard look.

it was a massive post, but the truth needs to be told. There is so much nore that can be said, for example, how our money was blown so that the MPs could help themselves to what was in the till, an endless supply of our money to meet their every need. But I can't go on with that, it would take days to expound what they have done wrong, and only seconds to say what they have done right.

I believe the credit crunch was entirely predictable and foreseeable and that anyone with a scintilla of common sense would have known it was coming. So I believe that both sides knew about it, and would not have done much different. The Tories are more savvy about business and would have created a slightly better regulatory environment, whereas Brown was influenced by his buddies like the wonder kid 'Fred the Shred' and had to stand and watch while the entire system was torn to shreds. But no there wouldn't have been a lot of difference.

I am not saying that the Tories are great. In many ways they are a shower, but I think that they are better than Labour, who in comparison are a torrential cyclone.

PfftTheMagicDragon,
"Claig - is that an actual policy then? Can you link me to where it is written down? I am referring to the plan to charge pensioners £10 for not closing the lid of a wheely bin."

I said it was £100 not £10, but it may in fact be £500 or even a £1000. With them there is no limit
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1210570/Families-charged-500-leaving-wheelie-bins-wrong-day.html
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1258755/Families-face-fine-using-wrong-bin-household-waste-crackdow n.html

They won't write this down, it's a stealth tax, they don't want you to know about it. It's not the words that come out of their mouths you need to worry about, it's what they've got up their sleeves.

Well, that sure was a massive post, but - Do you believe the Conservatives being in power would have made any difference to the causes and outcomes of the credit crunch?

"How much is £3:00 a week in marriage allowance worth when your job has been cut from underneath you, when your child care services are slashed, when your families health care and education are "rationalised" under "efficiency savings"?"

Labour will cost hard-working people their jobs. Employers like Marks & Spencer are backing the Tories' NI plans. The Tories believe in business and creating real employment, not Labour phony training schemes that merely massage unemployment figures. The people want a chance to climb out of the hole that Labour have dumped them in. The Tories will provide the ladder, by providing business-friendly policies, cutting back on unnecessary regulation that is binding business, and freeing initiative, innovation and enterprise from Labour's deadly grasp. All parties will cut back services and cut back services hard. They can lie now until they're blue in face, and Labour have had years of practice at it. They've got the master, Mandelson, there's no one better qualified in the land, he is an absolute genius in the art of deception and skulduggery, there's absolutely nothing that anyone can teach him. Labour know what the true figures show, but they daren't broadcast it, we'll find out after election day.

"They claim that Labour has been profligate with money and wasted our resources, but if you think about it, where has the money gone?"

our money has gone to bankers, in bonuses to pay for their swank riverside apartments. Labour took our money and handed it over to them without asking what they planned to do it. Of course they planned to spend it on themselves, awarding themselves extravagant bonuses for a job well done, while industries up and down the land were being shut down and Labour turned a blind eye.

The money has been squandered to line the pockets of fat cat council bosses on £200,000 a year. New high paying jobs such as "environmental waste officer" have been created and ordinary folk pay through the nose in council tax and fines for leaving bins out on the wrong day. We pay for the pensions of this bureaucratic elite, which issues dictat after dictat, whilst large numbers of us have no pension at all.

The money has been blown on grandiose follies like the Millenium Dome, that serve only to self-aggrandise them even more. Why didn't they spend that money on people in need, why indeed?

And of course don't mention the war. Countless billions have been spent, but when nurses or police ask for a decent pay rise, there's never a cent.

"I started teaching in the 80s and remember the crumbling state of the building (6 buckets and pans in my classroom whenever it rained)."

where was this, in Zimbabwe?
Yes they built new schools and hospitals using the PFI. All based on debt that the hard-working public would need to pay one day, in taxes that Labour promised the financiers that they would raise. Everyone was a winner, Brown, cutting ribbons at opening ceremonies, photographed with a rictus grin, and industry who got the contracts, but poor old Joe Public he didn't realise he would be squeezed yet again.
It's not about new buildings, it's about what goes on inside them. Schools were wonder factories, every child was getting an 'A', and yet many couldn't even spell 'unemployment', but they would learn about it soon enough. Year on year they told us that standards were rising, would wonders never cease?, Brown really was the goose that layed the golden egg, and nay-sayers who thought it smelt fishy were told to wise up. we were in a new world, the world of New Labour. They built new hospitals, but every week we learned of MRSA rising, apparently nurses weren't washing their hands. Scandal after scandal was exposed, where vulnerable and old people were not being fed. I don't remember any ministers resigning. We read week in week out of people having to sell their very houses in order to pay for drugs that will keep them alive, and they have the cheek to tell us that we've never had it so good.

And after all of this, they tell us that they are best to put things right. We know they think we are stupid, we just don't realise how really stupid they think we are. They tell us "don't trust the others, we know what to do". Unfortunately, their proclamations ring hollow, they've shafted us once too often, this time we really do know what to do. They tell us "put things right, vote for more of the same", but we're not buying it, we won't be fooled again.

To be fair, prinnie, the inheritance tax cut/top rate cut/higher rate pension tax cut are all stated tory policy. Hari's just doing the maths as to who will actually benefit.

claig, I notice in one post you slate GB for 'looking after his banker buddies', then later you applaud the tories for their pro-business, anti-regulation approach. Having your cake and eating it?!
Do you believe the Conservatives being in power would have made any difference to the causes and outcomes of the credit crunch?

Very irresponsible to post an opinion piece from an uber left winger in a newspaper as fact!

brogan

Claig - is that an actual policy then? Can you link me to where it is written down? I am referring to the plan to charge pensioners £10 for not closing the lid of a wheely bin.

tories tax break for married couples announced for those earning under £44,000

The country is coming through a tough time - a global economic storm - and at the moment the recovery is fragile. The tories are skillfully capitalising on the public's general but natural feeling of lassitude by suggesting that we would all be better off under the tax give-aways they are promising. One thing is certin - someone will have to pay for them. Who? How much is £3:00 a week in marriage allowance worth when your job has been cut from underneath you, when your child care services are slashed, when your families health care and education are "rationalised" under "efficiency savings"? They claim that Labour has been profligate with money and wasted our resources, but if you think about it, where has the money gone? I was in hospital for 2 months in the 80s and believe me, you don't want to go back there! I started teaching in the 80s and remember the crumbling state of the building (6 buckets and pans in my classroom whenever it rained). Now think about what state these services would be in now if Labour had not wasted money putting them right. I shudder to think! And the global economic bomb would still have hit - the banks would have probably collapsed (can you imagine Osbourne ever having come up with the solution to it?)

If the electorate decides to have a collective tantrum and vote against Gordon Brown, thereby cutting off its nose to spite its face - then God help us... because the tories won't!

I have forgotten what the atmosphere was like in 1997, but I just remember the mood that we all hoped it would be better. I can't remember anymore why the Tories had let us down so much. But we have seen Labour in action for years now, we are under no illusions. We know what they will dish out if we vote them back in.

I didn't vote Labour in 1997 and was neither unsurprised nor disappointed (as I had a suspicion it was all window dressing) when it all turned to rats.

I think whoever gets in will do what they always do, as Churchill used to say "keep on buggering on". When they get in they will find a way to do what is necessary to get the country moving again. All of their predictions now don't mean much, they have to get their feet under the table to see the real situation.

I voted Labour in 1997, we were all sick to death of the Tories and just wanted them out. We hoped they would create a fairer society. They let us down. We've seen them in action (even as the clock strikes twelve pretending that they care about proportional representation). The public has had enough of them. We know that the Tories are pro-business, anti-regulation, pro choice in education, pro freedom, against bin snooping etc. Of course they will let us down, plus ca change, but we need a new broom.

But you said you believed they were going to do something. I pointed out that in fact they were saying something quite different. So do you honestly believe that when they get in, they will cut NI, but won't promise that during the campaign? Really?

By your own arguments surely, voting on perception is a dicey thing to do. What do you think people's perception of Labour was in 1997? Do you think they have lived up to that? Might your perceptions of the Tories be inaccurate and misleading?

Granny, the low paid workers would get most childcare paid for if they are on that low a salary and using registered childcare.