I can't tell you how much I hope the Conservatives win the election.

o no sorry, i do know what is meant by that, just didn't quite understand your sentence structure - read it back - it is nonsense.
Also, don't diss the sun readers catty, that paper is on your team. I'm more of a Mirror woman myself.

'if we want to the capital markets to keep buying UK government debt that is' .....sorry sweetheart, my already tenuous grasp is really slipping away from me now - i just have no idea what that means.

anyway, i've agreed with scary teacher - i'd love to see more funding for the kids in the SW who are struggling. I just don't think the Tories, the party of cuts and volunteer armies, who want to cut IHT for the richest people, are the ones to deliver increased funding for poor kids - even if they are in the countryside! it is just complete madness to turn to the tories to fund better education for the poor! mad.ness.

Being female I don't think the term you want is wanker, and really, if you can't debate without descending to abuse why bother?

Your comment on London though sums up Labour - a totally urban tribe, who have no idea that life in the countryside isn't all Barbours and wellies, and that it isn't a theme park.

The point I am making is that Labour are perfectly aware of the issues of rural poverty, but over the last 13 years have chosen not to address them. They have seen the price farmers are paid for their produce go down and have not intervened to help. This government did too little too late with foot and mouth when loads of farmers killed themselves, or went to the wall in 2000. The schools in Cornwall have been underfunded for a decade; what have Labour done? Nothing.

Yes, there'll be cuts under the Tories, or at least they won't be wasting money - £61k on promoting the useless Contactpoint database for instance. I'd rather that than another hike in NI, which would hit some self employed on 17k and all those earning over £20k. Who knows - they might even reinstate the 10p tax rate, the removal of which hit those at the bottom end of the scale the hardest.

they are poorer in comparison with the rich. not poorer as in have less money in real terms - as the other thread on here about benefits shows- they are demonstrably richer!

ooo touchy scary teacher! sorry for offending you with the mere mention of london, it was just that was the only reason for disparity in funding per child in education that i had ever heard of! and thank you for telling me to please be accurate. please be less of a wanker. so kids in poor areas get more funding for their schooling, but you feel the kids in some areas of the SW should be included in this extra funding as they are poor too? Well then i completely and utterly agree with you.
But i hate to break it to you sweetheart - the Tories £6bn promised cuts to the public sector budget ain't going to deliver SW poor kids any more funding, they are just going to take it away from the ones who have already got it!
ps - if you are parent of young children on income support, milk and fruit are free. so i think they'll be ok.

Er - I was a family solicitor until 2 years ago and am still very much involved in that scene - what you have written above is complete and utter nonsense. The starting point in a divorce case is the welfare of the children and the presumption - even in cases of extreme undermining of one parent by the other - is that the children should maintain good regular contact with both parents. It is only when it is thought not in the best interests of the children that they are prevented from seeing a parent, or that their contact with one parent is limited - such as domestic violence or child abuse, and even then, attempts are made to allow supervised contact. Also children involved in contentious family proceedings have not only a solicitor representing their interests, but they have a guardian representing their interests, and a CAFCASS officer who will do a report on the entire family and make recommendations.

The SW is mostly Lib Dem, especially in Cornwall, please be accurate. Yes there is different funding; nothing to do with London (there is actually life outside the capital you know?) - kids in not so good areas in Manchester for instance get more funding per head for their schooling than do the kids in Cornwall - which incidentally qualifies for EU Objective 1 funding due to the low income levels there; Plymouth has one of the poorest wards in Europe - but the schools there are underfunded too.

The rural community has really struggled under Labour, so hopefully we will at least have a government that understands rural issues and is willing to address them.

Incidentally, the poor will be stuffed for food under Labour as if more farmers go under, even more food will have to be imported and costs will rise again.

There are many reasons to vote Tory on thursday, NOT least because they are the only party promising to solidly review/revise the family law system for one!

There are countless children across the UK caught up in the separation/divorce of their parents....YET immediately upon separation, such children are quite literally ripped away from one of their parents!!! The 'state', family law, courts, juidiciary, social workers and the like, all invariably decide such children SHOULD NOT have any proper continuance of their family life with both parents. Such children are apparently NOT entitled to continue to share their lives, NOR to be cared for by both parents in anything like an equal basis.

ALL children have two parents and every children deserves to be afforded the input, care, interaction with, contact and residence with both parents. In separation/divorce, it is the parents who are terminating their inter-parent relationship, NOT the parents who are terminating their individual relationships with their children/offspring, SO WHY does the UK continue to allow/tolerate the latter premise, to continue and more often than not 'blight' the lives of all such children, AND for many years thereafter, OFTEN for the whole of their childhoods???

Of all the political parties touting for our votes this week, there is only one such party, namely the TORIES, who are making positive statements about resolving/reforming the abhorrent family law system, to remedy/'blow away' the nonsence that has been allowed to harm all chidlren of separating/divorcing parents, and for so long (20 year plus). This is of crtitical importance to ever parent in the UK, read about their plans here:

romsey.conservativesintouch.com/news/216/

Now, at some 48 hrs to go before polling, Nick Clegg himslef has finally chirped up to see he also supports a comprehensive review of the family law system in the next Parliament. See his letter statement here:

www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=24885&post=325738&uid=404775273803#!/photo.php?pid= 5340437&id=404775273803

So, of the 3 main parties, it is only the incumbent Labour who is steadfastedly against sorting out the family law system, which so badly blights the lives of so many children through the UK !

Just to clarify what I said earlier (re: education) - at no point did I say I attended a "top" university - although had I been able to drag myself away from the fucking pub long enough to actually revise for my exams, Oxbridge would've been a shoe-in for a pauper like me!

Zeph - they are too busy getting ready to join the army of unpaid volunteers who are going to run things come friday. scaryteacher is going to set up a school for rural farmers children on free school meals, and everything will be so much better then.

No, I don't live in the SW, nor would I want to with a bunch of torieS!
didn't know there was diff levels of funding depending on where you live - is that just because of inner london weighting - extra salary for teachers in london reflecting higher cost of living etc or is it something else? I don't think the urban poor are any more deserving than the rural poor, but I do think poor people wherever they are from are going to really struggle under the Tories. Unless of course, these fab volunteers come good. ready?!

'really well funded schools with maximum class sizes,'; you evidently don't live in the SW then!

'farmers and small business people are not the poorest people in society' When I was teaching in Cornwall, some of the farmers kids qualified for free school meals; and the families were on the bones of their arse trying to keep things going. Labour do NOT understand rural Britain and have done nothing for it. Less money is given to schools in Devon and Cornwall than in other Labour held parts of the country; please explain how that is fair? Rural poverty is not a myth, it is a stark and unpleasant reality. Why are the urban poor in the Labour heartlands so much more deserving of school funding than the rural poor in the SW? That's one of the reasons I won't vote for them.

At the risk of being labelled rude with the rest of the Lefties, it's getting awfully hard around here to find a Tory who is actually willing to engage in any kind of discussion about policy. Wonder why.

What have the Tories said to suggest that they are going to change that AntoinetteOuradi?

(Did you read the link I posted earlier by the way? Would be interested to hear your comments.)

agreed kaylas mum, rich will get richer and poor poorer - what is so depressing is it seems some poor people don't realise this and are voting tory out of some really ill informed notion that that ridiculous blue book - the volunteers call to arms - will save us! it would be hilarious were it not so tragic.

antoinetteOuradi You say you and DH earn around 40K per year, what about the people like us who earn 17K per year? How are we supposed to cope with tax credits being scrapped if the tories get in? Also my dd has a mental health illness which is stopping her from being able to look after her ds at the moment. I'm looking after him along with my 2 young dcs. What chance does my dd have in getting the help she needs if the tories stop the mental health care that she needs.

One thing will happen for sure if the tories get in, the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer! No doubt!

I'm in Scotland and will be voting SNP.

It is pretty much meaningless to look at things like tax credits and say "I would be better off under the Tories/Labour".

What is going to make all of us better or worse off is what happens to the economy after the election, and the Tories bizarrely don't seem to have acknowledged/understood at all the dangers of cutting too much too soon.

You might think your own job is safe. But you'll be paying for those that aren't somewhere down the line.

THey did create it. Labour inherited 18 years of Tory privatisation and disinvestment in public services.