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

o whatever, labour voters have bad manners - at least i don't vote bloody tory!

sethstark - thanks for recognising that we have fabulous state schools and hospitals. Glad you are able to recognise the acheivements of this labout government.

farmers and small business people are not the poorest people in society - they are people on benefits and in minimum wage jobs. they will really really suffer under the tories, like they did last time.

I too would be better off under the tories. I just can't guarantee my children would be in the future.

you know, where I live at the moment is a solid Tory area. I've been very taken aback at just how solid. It's also one of the poorest areas I've lived in (mostly farmers and small businesspeople of various sorts) and doesn't get an awful lot in public services.
No-one here is rich (except for one man who has a really well-paid council exec type job - no idea how he's voting) so they must according to Rocknstroll be really really stupid.

Meanwhile my friends who mostly live in expensive suburbs of cities where they have fabulous state schools and hospitals are all voting Labour and Lib Dem. They are also not stupid but they get a lot out of local services so it's not surprising their self-interest conveniently aligns with their conscience. I honestly don't think they have a clue about why people vote Tory.

'Maybe in the long term the Conservatives will be able to get the country back to the state it was in when Labour inherited it in 1997'.

OMG, are you kidding????? One huge step backwards.

o minthumbug, i think the tories are going to win and i think the poorest people in the country wil be the losers. i have enough money, i can pay for bupa or for private school for all of my children if the tories win and undo all the good work labour has done - decent homes, building schools for the future etc - i can afford to survive a Tory government. I will even benefit from the fucked up marriage tax break. I will be ok. It is the poorest most vulnerable people who will not and i think what a bloody shameful small minded self centred little country we are if we deliver such a selfish right wing party into governemtn on thursday.

i Dont know why you think we are in the worst possile position in more than a generation! I ust don't understand what you are experiencing that I am not - the school situation is not awful, hospitals are clean and good and wiating times are short ,the tories supported the war, and the economy is part of a global problem, the tories advocated deregulation of the banks and labour did not rectify that, crime is down and so is violent crime - profesor of criminology on radio 4 last week, maybe thurs of fri morn if you want to google it - asked 'when the tories say crime is up - is that true?' Answer - 'No'. 'What about violent crime?' - 'Falling, all of the statistics, police and british crime survey, indicate violent crime is falling' 'WEll then wh yare the tories saying otherwise - are they lying?' PRofessor - 'Yes'
I don't know about hospitals closing - I live in London - everywhere I look the hospitals are being rebuilt and improved and are now so much nicer than they ever were when i was a child. I do't know where you live or what your situation is, but if you are voting tory to improve public services....well, their PR magic has worked on you.

I was responding to a childish post about pom poms - touche

Mint Humbug - I disagree that the schools are terrible, that the NHS is terrible, that violent crime has gone up, the war was a unilateral agreement, hospitals closing are rare in the sense you mean because they have generally been replaced by brand spanking new ones. The picture you paint is rubbish. The economy simply is not as screwed as most of the European countries and YES it would have been worse under the Tories - Cameron and Osbourne showed their terrible judgement.

'Just about sums up Tory voters really. The attitude of 'I'm voting tory because they will make my life better for me.' As opposed to the majority of Labour voters who vote Labour because they believe they will make life better for the majority of people in our society'.

Jackie, I completely agree with this. My family and I are quite comfortable, not rich by an stretch of the imagination but not on the breadline either. However I will be voting labour because I know that having a Tory government will only benefit the more well off and those less fortunate will suffer. I detest this selfishness of I'm all right Jack, I'll be better off so stuff the rest of you.

'Anoinette, you sooo give yourself away there

Toodle pip, jolly hockey sticks, jolly good show old chap'

I remember this style of debating from primary school. So persuasive.

And how could we forget Chris Graylings? The man you are advocating as Home Secretary? HOmophobic? Almost certainly

O an yes, I most certainly would say it in person.

unpleasant post for an unpleasant tory party - there are people in the tory shadow cabinet who are homophobic, this has (extremely worryingly) not impeded their progress through the party, and even the person who set up the Gay Tory Alliance or whatever it is, has said he is voting Labour as the tories are homophobic! If you find the truth unpleasant, maybe you should rethink your voting intentions.
ANd I'm sorry but if you don't have pots of money to bail out into the private sector when the tories cut £6bn of spending from our public services, which they have pledged to do in a budget that will be published within 50 days of them being elected, then you are really stupdi to vote for them - or do you not need state schools, the NHS, social workers on decent pay, a faling crime rate, well paid emergency service staff, short hospital waiting lists, tax credits, sure start, subsidised child care etc etc.
It is stupid to vote all these things away if you need them. And if you don't need them, it is selfish to vote them away because so many other people need them.
OR do you just really like their inheritance tax cut for the richest people in the country?!

Remember DC and the Gay Times interview? flustered? Talk is cheap

'Would you say that in person, I wonder?'

I certainly wouldn't hesitate to point out the ignorance of anyone who believes taxes are a pay-in, get-out, shop-type system to their face if they made statements to that effect.

And have had no problem calling homophobes on their pathetic views in person, too.

Or racists, misogynists, bigots, etc.

I've called some of my own father's opinions misogynists in front of him.

Because they are.

'jolly sight better'

Anoinette, you sooo give yourself away there

Toodle pip, jolly hockey sticks, jolly good show old chap

o my god - you want it back to 1997?
WHY?

i know, that is a problem - but are the tories the solution?!
(laughs hysterically)

students from poor backgrounds were in a minority at Oxbridge in the 80s and 90s and they are in an even smaller minority now. The Sutton Trust has done plenty of research on the subject.