Cameron's finally grown a pair.

[likalixer]

Think I'll vote Conservative.
Sorted! after days of indecision

Yes, the Job Centre which, under the Tories, will have sanctioned the person they are referring to the foodbank and taken away their money so they have nothing to buy food with.

It is irrelevant who is allowed to refer. The people they are referring are in desperate need. They are too poor to buy food. In one of the richest countries in the world, 1 million of us have been too poor to buy food since the Tories came to power.

Which bit of this is so hard to understand? If you vote these people in again, this will get worse. Cameron will hammer the poorest and the most vulnerable in our society, people will die because of Tory policy, and anyone who votes Tory on Thursday will be complicit in that.

It's not irrelevant. Under Labour, no one was allowed to mention food banks. Now they are not a secret.

People have always need food handouts - now it is more open and organised.

How could the Job Centre refer people to something that didn't exist in most areas?!

Now there is at least one foodbank in nearly every town.

You could argue more people use them because there are more of them and they're becoming more accessible and less stigma about using them. Using food banks as proof of poverty is silly

What?!

Have you ever had the misfortune to have to use one??

The indication is that it's been easier for him because he is well off.

But that is the reality, Hillingdon. Caring for someone you love who is seriously ill and who is going to die is always heartbreaking, whatever your income. But caring for them when you can get enough sleep as you have respite care, when you can afford to feed yourself properly, when you can spend time with other family members as you have respite care, are not half out of your mind because of how in debt you are is easier than being a carer who is chronically sleep-deprived and exhausted, in debt, miserable about neglecting other family members and half out of their mind with terror at the thought of losing their job (as constantly having to take time off for caring emergencies) and possibly their home.

Money doesn't cure grief, it's true. It does help a great deal with all the other stuff, though.

One of the biggest reasons for people needing food banks is benefit sanctions.

Under Labour, no one was allowed to mention food banks.

Don't be ridiculous, NonDom. Who fobade it, exactly?

Even if you buy into trickle down bullshit (we need a strong economy to pay for the NHS - yeah, that's what Tories are known for, making money so that they can give it away!), a vote for the Tories is not a vote for the economy.

Britain is bizarrely isolated on this point. Even the sodding IMbloodyF reversed its position on austerity in 2012. It is the biggest con I have ever heard in my life.

www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2015/apr/29/the-austerity-delusion

It's not irrelevant. Under Labour, no one was allowed to mention food banks.
What absolute nonsense.

I don't know why people are signaling Cameron out for being Out of touch and Not knowing what real poverty is like,

None (with maybe one or two exceptions) of the politicians, (Eddie included) have a clue what it's like to struggle with money.
Most of them have had advantages and starts in life the rest of us can only dream of!
Very few of them have ever lived in the real world.

So, harping on about Cameron 'not being in touch' is neither here nor there.
And unfair.

lika because he is the one penalising people with disabilities for being disabled, carers for having to care for people with disabilities, the poor for being poor. Cameron doesn't have a clue, of course he's not the only one, but it's his policies that are making the poor poorer and the rich, richer.

likelixer but Cameron is the one who keeps on telling us he knows how it is for many of us who have cared for a disabled and dying family member. He doesn't - not because he hasn't suffered the grief and heartbreak (he has) but because he wasnt forced to suffer the chronic, longstanding sleep deprivation, exhaustion, debt and desperation that many of us have, on top of the grief and heartbreak. It's not unfair to point that out.

Totally agree with Dawn, that's why I'll be voting Labour.

Malice
I too am old, I'm old Labour, too. I'm voting Green.
John Smith was the last leader of a real Labour Party and was the best Prime Minister we never had. He would have been brilliant.

Good leader article in today's Economist. They come down in favour of DC and the coalition on balance, but plenty of sensible analysis - and criticism - of both main parties. They are highly critical of the Tories for offering the EU referendum. But they do point out that, although things have been very tough for many over the past 5 years, the richest 10% have borne the burden of extra taxes. Of course, that is entirely as it should be; those with the broadest shoulders should contribute most - which is already happening under the current system! Ultimately it's not about absolutes, but about degree. Most people would probably agree that a top rate tax of 90% was unwise/unfair, for instance. But would 55% be fair, perhaps? The other powerful fact, I thought, was that inequality has NOT grown under the current govt - unlike in the US. True, it hasn't narrowed either, but claims about 'the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer' don't seem to be borne out by statistics (inconvenient though that fact may be for some).

The Camerons did not use respite care until they were on their knees and it was suggested to them.

it is not unfair. as long as cameron uses his rl stuff to shut down debate. he is being unfair.
he should not do this, but on the other hand why do the other politicians not call him on him. he is acting like a bully.

I couldn't vote Green because their attitude to women is so shit.

I'm voting Labour. There are tons of shitty sexist men and shitty sexist attitudes and policies in all the parties, including Labour, but at least when you tell a Labour man he's being a shitty sexist, they generally hold their hands up, even the unreconstructed ones. Point out to a Green man that he's a shitty sexist, and you will get a lecture from him telling you how much better a feminist he is than you.

I used to really want to like them, but I'm over that now. Gave them too many chances.

My main concern is if we end up with a minority labour government who's hands are tied and unable to do anything because they'll never get the majority votes in parliament that they need to pass legislation and we (the UK) end up in suspended animation for the next five years.

So on this occasion it's tory for me.

After watching last night's QT I'm beginning to think Tory is the least worst option. None of the parties appeal and it really goes against the grain to put Cameron back in power but I can't not vote.

Are you seriously suggesting, TiedUp, that these two very wealthy, busy people did not have nannies for all their children? Did they have to do all the feeding, nappy-changing, laundering themselves? In the final months, did they face the choice of getting into further debt to pay for a taxi to the hospital every day, or take a train and two buses each way, leaving only an hour at the hospital, and risk missing the pickup of the other children up from school? Were they thousands of pounds in debt by the time they got to plan the funeral, and were they hanging onto their jobs by a fingernail, having had so much time off work?

Nobody is disputing that they had a terrible time of it, or that they have suffered the most dreadful heartbreak and grief. But they don't know what it is like for most people caring for a disabled and dying family member, and when Cameron claims that they do, it's fair to point that out.

Dawn, what is the point about harping on about a man long dead who in your view could have been the best Prime Minsiter ever! It was years ago, times have changed! Labour will bankrupt the country, they left a stupid note saying there was no money...

As the the women said last night on the Election Special. Its NOT funny. She is just getting back on her feet. She is exactly the sort of person that the politicans should be courting. Labour hates big business, they will drive them away along with all those jobs.

Labour wouldnt be doing a complete u turn without Farage saying what he has said.

The Greens have what one MP, they have been given a lot of prime time TV. They are bonkers with their ideas.

If Ed wont do a deal with the SNP he will as Girls stated be struggling to implement anything.

if he does end up doing a deal with SNP he will be dead. No one will will believe him ever again on anything.

I seem to remember DC has been very open about how fortunate his family has been to be able to afford excellent childcare - acknowledging that the same isn't the case for most. Heard him saying that in a radio interview - can't remember with whom.