to think 100 business leaders have more credibility

[longfingernails]

than Ed Miliband?

Cue the usual left-wing demonisation of business, accusations of fat cattery, and the denigration of success. Labour can't escape the perception, firmly rooted in fact, that they are now an anti-business party, and therefore an anti-jobs party.

I'm another whose lived in both the US and France and I'd choose France in a heart beat. If you want a model of socialism that works try Germany, best country I've lived in by a mile a booming economy and you don't have people with two jobs queuing up for soup kitchens like you do in the States.

How much evidence for trickle down economics is there actually?

Zilch, nada, zero. Wages have stagnated, an increasingly large share of created wealth is going to the already very wealthy. On the other hand, if you're looking for evidence of a great hoovering up, there's plenty of that out there.

That's really useful stuff Cinnabar :) Thanks. Politicians use whichever statistics suit their purposes and it obscures the truth.

I'd be very interested to see which business leaders have signed previous letters in bygone elections!

Cinnabar, you're not patronising at all; you're very clear and concise, and also balanced. Thank you for your posts.

I agree very much with vitamink's 'smoke and mirrors' post. I also think we could learn a lot from Germany. I've always slightly wanted Angela Merkel to come and be our chancellor.

Happy Easter all. We're away for the weekend, but I will come back to this thread.

Cinnabar you are well brainy. You are my new mentor for being clear and articulate. I think you might be that nice northern woman who does the finance stuff on bbc breakfast in disguise.