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

o me either, can't wait til my grandparents lose their pension credit and fantastic hospital care, not to mention my children losing their really well funded schools with maximum class sizes, and that big army of do gooder volunteers taking over.
you ready OP - got your 'school starter kit' ready?

also can't wait to have a bunch of posh boy homophobes in power - we'll be the envy of the world!

if you want the tories to win you are either rich or really really stupid.

You are in a minority in 2 ways - if your IQ is over 150 then you are in genius category - that is a very small minority of people who can reach that.

Also, if your parents were poor and you went to a top university in the 80s, early 90s, you would be in a minority too.

OP, I am hoping for a Tory win also. (Followed by LibDem win, followed by the hung parliament outcome.)

However, I think you're being overly optimistic about how how much better things will be if they take power. Things are going to be rough in this country for many years. The good times are over for quite a long time.

In which sense?

You were in the minority and you know it

ladyblablah Au contraire - in days gone past it was those academically brilliant who got to go - AND they got their fees paid AND maintenance grants. I speak as one of those! There's no way in hell my parents could've (would've) paid! I have an IQ of 150 - I didn't need tutors!

LOL'ing at moaning about Labour closing hospitals

If you think they are bad..........really really really what on earth do you think it will be like with the Tories? Do you think they are going to be building brand new hospitals all over the place?? Do you really?

re universities, I thought it was quite telling that in the webchat last night quite a few people had posted questions about what the point of 50% of people going to university is and doesn't it just end up saddling more people with more debt. Then someone said 'I'm 18 and have never voted before, why should I vote for you?' and GB listed 'we have opened up university education to more people' as one of his top reasons.
just came across as him acting like a stuck record and not listening IMO!

skihorse wrote: "I couldn't agree with your stance on education more - when are just going to admit (frankly) that some people are just plain thick (that's old skool for academically challenged) and no amount of education/university in the world is going to change that. I love my boyfriend very much, but he's never going to be a rocket-scientist - and that's just the way it is - so fgs stop trying to tell us all that all children deserve a university education."

So, Ok then, on this point - lets get all the rich but extremely thick people at private schools linched out and put in the deserving poor but very intelligent kids.

Your argument totally loses any logic because if the system that you advocate by supporting the tories. If you want a meritocracy, great - try and even the playing field and get those into the best schools and universities that are the most 'intelligent'.........but you and I both know, that will never ever happen - firstly because the rich and privileged cheat the system (private tutors, private schools etc) and push their children on further, so much so that by the age of 7 the difference in economics is already showing in the child's 'intelligence'

In reality, there is a line at which more 'intelligence' makes no difference - once you have an IQ of about 130, it makes no difference to anything much at all. What makes the difference is your chances in life........and that is where the Tories do not believe in a fair playing field and prefer to look out and protect at all costs the illusion that it is they and their children are more 'intelligent'

Christ, have in fact realised that the 31K thing is just labour bollocks. It's actually incomes of over 50K?

Sorry, but if you've got that sort of money coming in, PLEASE feel free to come and bitch and whine about not getting tax credits to me.

With regard to the NHS

Where I live on the edge of London is not good for hospitals, we were half an hour away from all the a&es, however Labour in its infinite wisdom has decided to close our two closest a&es! The hospitals are impossible to get to by public transport anyway. we now have a limited hours accident department at a cottage hospital but that is only open to 8 in the evening and is very limited with what it will deal with.

does a cheerleading style dance

Goooooooo TORIES!
kicks legs and shakes pom-poms

Also, will use this place to also vent, SHUT UP ABOUT TAKING TAX CREDITS A BLOODY WAY. They're saying they'll take it away from people with incomes of OVER 31K, how is that going to harm the poorest families? I fit into that. It will be a LONG time coming before I'll be able to earn over that money, so it will support a single mother quite nicely.

So poo poo to bloody you.

"....except their own kids, of course, who if they don't go private will damn well go to the best possible state schools even if they have to travel across London to get there....
it's the hypocrisy that gets me."

So, so true. Bog standard comps are only for the little people, not the Establishment.

Antoinette I couldn't agree with your stance on education more - when are just going to admit (frankly) that some people are just plain thick (that's old skool for academically challenged) and no amount of education/university in the world is going to change that. I love my boyfriend very much, but he's never going to be a rocket-scientist - and that's just the way it is - so fgs stop trying to tell us all that all children deserve a university education.

"Labour seems intent on bringing everyone down to the same rubbish level. "

....except their own kids, of course, who if they don't go private will damn well go to the best possible state schools even if they have to travel across London to get there....
it's the hypocrisy that gets me.

Well said Antoinette

"
Labour seems intent on bringing everyone down to the same rubbish level"

that sums up my feelings perfectly

I genuinely don't understand. The OP is complaining because other people can't find an NHS dentist?

The whole 'I-don't-get-much-in-return-for-my-tax' is such a consumer view and not the point.

Expat....Saving ! (hysterically)

I'm too scared to post this on a Labour thread...

I'm a bit sick of hearing how tax credits make it possible for women to work and have a career and a future because this policy does not apply to all women. The tax credit system actually forces some women/partners to stay home: if your combined salary is over the limit but you personally make less than the cost of your childcare.

I worked at a government job 22.5 hours a week and was losing money, around £25 a month, after childcare. Other mothers were only working 16 hours a week with the same amount of childcare and were getting 70-80% paid for by childcare tax credits. You could say that it's fair because my family do not need the help - but fair or not, someone should acknowledge that the system actually discriminates against a whole class of women.

I'm voting Tory because of the deficit but part of me feels like I've been pushed that way by a Labour government who's consistently written off women like me. I've had to set up my own business and find part time contracts that I do not enjoy but pays far more in order to try to keep my career going. (And it's not entirely a selfish vote - financially we as a family would be best off with the Lib Dems).

better start saving for that private school and private health insurance . . .

Antoinette, I'm with you. Stick to your guns.

I have a small son so whoever wins this election will heavily influence his schooling.

Standards of education under Labour have plummetted. The number of kids leaving school who can't even read is a tragedy.

And they took over a healthy economy in 1997, came up with the phrase No More Boom or Bust (did they suddenly think they knew more than generations of economists?) and then wasted 12 years of healthy revenues, spent a billion quid on the Dome (wtf) sold the gold reserves, ripped of people's pensions and now when we need it, there's nothing in the coffers. Even the gap between rich and poor has widened. More children are in poverty.

It's going to take my son's whole lifetime to pay off the debt. I can't wait to be rid of them either, so we can start sorting out the mess.

Again, coming from a place where big government is an anathema to most, you also appear incredibly socialist, not Conservative, supporting universal healthcare at all, much less dentistry.