To ask you who I should vote for?

[VivaLeBeaver]

I can read their policies, watch their debates until the cows come home but the problem is I don't believe a word any of them say.

I'm cross that the Conservatives haven't done stuff which they said they'd do. However my mum (dye in the wool Tory blames the LibDems for holding them back).

My main concern is the economy. So do I believe Dave who says the last Labour lot fucked the economy up and they're trying to sort out the mess and are doing a steady job of sorting it?

Or do I believe Labour who say it was a global recession and not their fault and that its a global recovery which has been aiding the Tories recently. And also that the Debt hasn't decreased as much as the Tories like people to think?

Then of course there is the fact that the Tories seem to be trying to save money by cutting public spending especially from vulnerable sectors of society which I don't agree with. But the Tories say that sadly this is the only way And if they don't do this we will end up like Greece or something.

I work in the nhs and worry about how much the Tories seem to be privatising bits of it and am concerned this will get worse.

Dd is a teenager and I want her to have a chance of getting a job when she's older so I'm worried about unemployment rates.

I was on the dole for yonk's under Labour, live in an 'everyone votes labour so i will area', never clapped eyes on any Tories, they don't even bother door knocking here but i will be voting Tory this time round. I think there are people who have had help to get into work and had a kick up the backside to do so. On my facebook i see people who have never worked for decades getting jobs then saying they are much better off. I always worked right up till i had DC3 then i seperated from my EX so childcare was a problem, sat on the dole for 5 years then got put onto JSA and no one helped me find work or said maybe if we do this or that, i just signed on, got my money and that was that. I noticed a marked change when Tory policies started coming in, the job center became very pro active in helping you find work or getting you prepared for work, coursese were introduced etc. I know there are people worse off under the tories but i know there are also working class folk who are much better off. I myself am an extra £175 per week better off than i was on the dole.

Amy no sub-prime mortgages in the UK? No approval of the ABN AMro takeover in 2007 by the FSA which brought down RBS less than 12 months later?
Tax is down because the tax-free allowancs has increased to over £10k, taking 2 million people out of tax.
Totally agree with investing in education. My point is that no-one pays for the university education until they are earning. Only the top earners will pay the full amount, lower earners will not. The Labour policy will therefore make no difference to, for example, teachers and nurses as they will not earn enough to pay off either a £9k or £6k loan. The only beneficiaries are those who will be earning £70k plus. If this is the group you think should benefit from £2.7bn a year, then please continue to support Labour.

Fifis but do you not think that the Tories have kicked the wrong people up the backside. Eg benefits sanctions and bedroom tax.

Working is beneficial shocker?

Carol no it's not the increasing of the tax free alowence it's that most new jobs do not pay enough to even pay tax.

Also the Tories cut the top rate of tax so you can't say that labour only looks after the rich.

I did the 'vote for policies' quiz the other day and it was brilliant. I recommend it - though it does take a while if you do the whole thing. Result was a little bit different to what I expected and has made me rethink who I'm going to vote for.

Another vote for the 'vote for policies' quiz. V. interesting, gave me a result I (almost) expected, but a great opportunity to read the policies of some of the parties.

Just saw on fb: Voting UKIP because you don't want to vote for Labour or Tory is like drinking piss because you don't want to drink Pepsi or Coca-Cola.
But I'd go for Labour.

In what way did Gordon Brown cause a global recession?

And what about the recession in the 90's?

It does seem that there is a cycle of boom and bust in our (and other countries) economies.

How about voting for whichever local candidate wasn't involved in the parliamentary expenses scam. Our Local MP stole a lot played the system.

The vote for policies survey hasn't helped me at all. I had a 33.3%/33.3%/16.7%/16.7% split!

Oh well back to the drawing board.

Amy Where else would you cut spending - there have been cuts across the board except NHS
The 45% rate brings in more tax than the 50% rate. If the Labour party had believed it was the right rate, why did they wait until the end of thier 13 years in power to introduce it?
Hanna the Labour party has never left power with unemployment lower than when they started - it may increase in the middle as they spend large amounts on non-jobs (walking co-ordinator anyone? But the inevitable recession at the end of the term means unemployment increases.
Zeezeek Bad bank regulation and ignoring spiralling house prices led to a banking collapse in the UK and US, which spread to a Western recession. Asian countries (including Australia) where mainly unaffected. GB set up the tri-partate regulation system which failed.

What is the tripartate regulation system and how did it fail? I'm genuinely interested, Carol, this isn't my area of expertise at all!

Haha one my DPs result was like that! And neither of the two that came out top were ones he was planning on voting for. He is now a little confused!
But, it is a nice clear outline of the different policies (and I could spot UKIPs a mile off)

Amy, i did but then 2 friends who were living in overcrowded flats and had been on the council list for ages with their kids got a 3 bed house each within weeks of each other, possibly the people in those house moved out because of the bedroom tax into smaller accomodation. My ex is on the dole and has to pay it from his JSA as he has 2 bedrooms so i see both sides really although i think he could work if he tried.

Carol it was pointed out to you that there have been more financial crises with Tory governments than with Labour. You chose to ignore that.

The conservatives do care about the poorest and most vulnerable, just don't agree that giving them endless money and, in the process, bankrupting the country is in the best long-term interest of the poorest and most vulnerable (or anyone else).
Cutting respite care, care packages, and changing the rules for PiP (DLA) have helped the vulnerable. The mobility descriptors are disgusting and the mental health descriptors have been described by both charities and judges as not fit for purpose. That is what this government has done. So, how have these helped the most vulnerable in society?

have not* helped the vulnerable

I did that vote for polices thing and I was more than surprised 70% labour and 30% liberal.

My friends got 20% ukip but it was on defence she voted for them and their defence policy was okay.

Vivacia Mon 06-Apr-15 17:35:43
Working is beneficial shocker?

Yes most people know this but some also listen to the rhetoric that they will be worse off if they work which is usually dished out by people who want to stay on the dole for whatever reason and usually have loads of kids so they are better off, i think your average person with a couple of kids will be better off but it depends on housing and travelling expenses etc, i know a few people like this when in reality they would be better off working, i just have to assume they don't want to work.

what i find hard is the people who are a working couple and just under the threshold for help, my brother is one of them, he gets no help whatsoever and pays £340 a month nursery fees as well as his mortgage. No idea how the tax credits works for couple but he cant get any help but me as a single parent would get all sorts of help with nursery fees and tax credits.

zeezeek Basically prior to GB, the Bank of England was responsible for money markets, bank regulation and the financial system. The government set interest rates.
GB split this into three areas bbc link and asked the BoE to set interest rates to maintain an inflation target. The inflation target ignored housing costs, leading to a bubble which meant banks were lending more than they should have. The FSA was basically crap and allowed banks to rely too heavily on cheaper wholesale funding rather than equity. They also allowed the ABN Amro takeover in 2007, which destroyed RBS, despite obvious warning signs.
GB liked all this as the banks were posting (phantom) profits which paid lots of tax, so he could fund hos bet schemes, such as child tax credit to higher rate taxpayers and excessive housing benefits costs.

Dawndonna Its not about number, its about severity of crisis. In 1977, the Labour party literally bankrupted the country and had to call in the IMF as lender of last resort. In 2008, they created the largest bank collapse in world history.

There is, of course, also PFI deals, which are one of the reasons the NHS is suffering and staff are being cut. PFI

Vote Match is better than Vote for Policies. I took both quizzes and Vote Match was quicker and easier, plus the results made more sense. If your closest match is a party you don't want to vote for, you can see what the 2nd or 3rd closest matches are.

Ooo, thanks anotheremma!

Enjoyed the vote match, and pleased to have broadly same results for both that and vote for policies, so I think I'm settled who to vote for now.

Thanks Carol. I'm still a Labour supporter, but this has been interesting reading. I think, for me, that the main issue is public services and how the public sector has been treated under the last Government - especially the NHS which I have worked in and of which I am proud. For that alone I will always vote for the party that promises the kind of society that I want to live in. For me that is Labour. However, I also concede that the last Labour government made mistakes and may not have been the best custodians of the economy at that time - but the question is: have they learnt from their mistakes? And what about the recession in the 90's - which I remember well. That was caused by a Tory government....