to wonder whether this General Election thinking is more prevalent than one might suppose?

[grovel]

It was freezing here this morning. I invited our window cleaner inside for his coffee. He told me that he has only ever voted Labour (I'm guessing he's in his early forties). In May he is going to vote Conservative. I asked him why.
In 2010 he thought the country was economically doomed. He credits the Conservatives with dragging us back from the brink.
He's has just raised his prices for the first time in 5 years (by 10%). All but one of his customers have accepted this graciously.He senses his customers are beginning to feel confident.
His petrol bill (we're semi-rural) is down £40 a week.
His domestic fuel bill is coming down by 5%.
His mortgage has never been cheaper.
He reckons his like-for-like weekly supermarket bill is down £20 since last year. Partly courtesy of discovering Aldi.
He doesn't like Cameron but believes he will be stronger than Miliband in the event of ISIL or EU crises.

I asked him about austerity cuts. He doesn't like them but believes Labour's cuts would have been similar.
I'm asking this question because (perhaps lazily) I had not reckoned on Labour voters switching to the Conservatives.

Hi grovel.

I don't vote tbh as all the same, but will say the oil and cheap mortgages are to lull us into a false sense of security.
Unfortunately, joe Public falls for this. Not just under this conservative/ coalition government but any of them.

I know a few people who don't think that a Labour government will be able to do much different to this one or backtrack on the cuts. Many of us are still trying to figure out who to vote for this time.

From talking to friends, I think more and more people are becoming floating voters. The days of voting loyally for the same party at every election, whether local or national, are long gone.

Under Labour the economy was fucked and we tumbled down the international education rankings. The gap between the rich and poor yawned open massively. Wages stagnated well before the economic crisis. The cost of housing rocketed under Labour. The working poor became much more likely to be in poverty than people on benefits.

I don't want to saddle my children and grandchildren with huge public debt. The fact that borrowing has increased under the Torys despite the cuts shows how catastrophic the debt would have become if Labour had stayed in and maintained higher levels of public spending.

Labour utterly betrayed the working class and I think anyone who isn't on benefits or doesn't work in the public sector would be mad to vote for them.

We voted conservative last time, never again!

I don't see what they have done to help the economy in any way. Things might be better in the south, but they definitely are not in the north west.

We don't feel much better off now than 5 years ago, have not had a pay rise and are in negative equity. Yes petrol prices have gone down - but are people really stupid enough to think its down to good government? I don't usually believe in conspiracies but this seems much too suspicious to me.....

Spice, can I ask how you think you will vote?

I'm doing fine under the Tories but I want a change as so many other people are suffering. The massive rise in the use of Foodbanks is a sign of how badly some people are off under this government.
We need a government who care about people and care about the poorest strata in society and who try to change the country to include all the marginalised people. The Tories seem to only worry about the well off and leave the poor to suffer. What a terrible attitude. They have unlimited money for some things like Trident, anti-terrorism, pay rises for MPs but can't set a reasonable living wage as the minimum that is paid.

I will be voting labour. At least they do not take from the poor to give more to the rich.

spice The labour party always take from the poor. The austerity is caused by excessive borrowing, mostly to the detriment of the poor. The poor are always shafted by the Left and always have been.

I can see where you're window cleaner is coming from.

Labour might have made different cuts, but cuts had to be made and they were always going to affect the people who used the most in public services and benefits.

I have no idea who to vote for. Live in a Conservative area, but I think they are scared of people defecting as our MP and councellors were out in force on Saturday.
Glad your window cleaner is more optimistic about things.

I have always voted Labour - But as they are talking about continuing with this austerity and building (un)Affordable housing I won't be voting for them this time - I'm going Green!

They will introduce the Robin Hood Tax - Taxing banking transactions to raise money and build council homes which I will believe will bring the housing market back under control as well as reducing the benefits spend.

I don't see much between Labour and Conservative any more

I haven't made up my mind yet. Traditionally I have been a Conservative voter but voted LibDem last time. There was at least one thing going on with the Conservatives five years ago which cost them my vote. Our local MP is Greg Mulholland. Seems like a reasonable and likeable chap. if the election was tomorrow I'd vote for him.

Thanks all.

At a time when most of the country have struggled badly, the super-rich have never had it so good.Are you happy that the rich are now richer than ever and the middle and the poor poorer? all in it together? My arse!
You want more of the same?

So your window cleaner is crediting the tories with engineering the global fall in oil prices which is the reason why his petrol, heating and food prices have fallen.

I've always been a Labour voter, I must admit I am slightly swayed by the Green party this time around. But I will be voting Labour again.