I dont understand the economy, nor am I able to debate intelligently and informatively on the current state of the economy. although tbh it seems that there is so much contridictory information on mn about the state of the country when labour got in etc that Im not really sure it matters.
however what I am able to do is remember what it was like growing up under the tories. my SD was unemployed, on long-term sick (not that it mattered, there were no jobs anyway). we were treated as second class citizans. there was no money for coal (still, at least it built up my immune system when i caught colds every month) on a monday evening (giro would come tuesday) we ate plain spaghetti for dinner. there was nothing left in the cupboards. milk was eeked out with hot water because it was a luxery.
im sure there were many worse off than us, and yes you can blame my parents to a certain extent, but it was horrible. unless you have been poor (and im talking genuinely poor) you cant understand what it was like. In my opinion the best thing Labour has done was to introduce tax credits. low income famillies have at least the chance to make ends meet. schemes such as new deal give people the chance to get back to work. these are not bad things.
there has been a lot of talk about boom/bust under labour, didnt the same thing happen in the 80's under the tories? the whole yuppie explosion? as far as i can gather its all part of an economic cycle. and the recession has been a worldwide one. it hasn't (as the mail and sun would have you believe) been confined to the UK. how on earth can labour be blamed?
as far as i can gather, the tories are the same party with a new leader. if you have a facelift it doesn't actually make you younger. the same applies here. I dfont want VAT to rise to 19.5% the £2 or so a week extra someone worked out it would cost the average family is the equivalent of a bag of potatoes. I dont want a conservative government. I want a change!