To worry I'm going to get seriously depressed as the night goes on

[Seeingthebeautyineveryminute]

I have a sicky feeling in the pit of my stomach that we are going to be lumbered with 5 more years of Tory rule. Please let it not be so.

There are many people who claim the tax credits allow them to be SAHM, there are some for whom work doesnt pay or they dont want to take on any more hours because it will affect their top ups.

There are people like my sister who wants no responsibility at work. Just wants to do her hours and no more. doesnt really care what she does and has no real ambition to do a more highly paid role. She also doesnt vote.

The bedroom tax hasnt gone down as badly as some are claiming. There was a chap who had two kids by different women who was bleating that he needed more bedrooms to house his kids when they visited. didnt work but was of course 'looking'. Those are the people we need to tighten up on. What about the people who have come to this country and are living in people's back gardens or sheds. They are doing low paid jobs and often under the radar. Are we also going to pay for them to be supported. Even though they have just arrived in the UK? That is what people are voting for. A fairer country where sometimes one needs to take responsbility for what you choose to do.

If you asked most of Africa whether they would like to move to the UK most would say yes, They are risking their lives in the Med. These are genrally not people fleeing for their lives. They are economic migrants. Are we also looking to house, support and pay for them too?

Sorry, if this isnt what the left wingers want to hear but this is why UKIP have taken so many votes, why Ed with his tombstone, his belief that the mansion tax was a good idea and that the 'rich' should support his crackpot ideas and allow people to become more and more reliant on the state for EVERYTHING!

I'm just wondering what will be in the Queen's speech now..... work houses, food tokens, break up of primary (GP) care, private health insurance, exit from the EU, flogging off social housing, tax cuts for the mega rich, etc.

soontobesix You feel let down by Scottish voters? Why? It's not Scotland's responsibity to keep the Tories out you know - even if all 59 seats went to Labour it wouldn't have made a difference. So why are you saying you are let down by Scottish voters rather than saying you feel let down by the English Tory voters!

You're right ici it is a complete victory for Murdoch and will only serve to increase his power- worrying indeed. A depressing day

Young voters still follow the daily mail on social media and watch sky news in the gym changing rooms

Have you ever thought people need their top up to live? Not everyone has the opportunity or the means to put in extra hours.

It think its quite arrogant to classify all tory voters as selfish and labour as selfless.

Simple fact is labour didn't do enough to make people trust them. Ed milliband was not the right person to make people believe in labour. Too many labour voters didn't vote.

I feel let down by england. SNP majority in scotland, labour majority in wales. Neither of our countries want the tories in power.

There are other people that need to be 'tightened up on' that don't involve benefit claimants.

I actually didnt vote labour. I can still despair that a "majority" of people (of course, not including those who dont vote - hence the quotes) vote for the kind of policies that will no doubt soon have me on food stamps. Even as a "genuine disabled" person.

Cherry,

have you thought that those that need the top ups may not if they do indeed will not get taxed if they are among the lowest earners?

The thought of 5 more years of IDS running the DWP makes me feel quite queasy.

muddy all those points surprised me too. Including that Ed Balls is very nice. His media persona is not reflective of him. I actually on a personal level like him. My kids go to school on his area.

Unfortunately lots of people do like him....but many don't. I know many people he has let down. And after years of that it shows in votes.

I also a lot of first time voters in the area were not impressed by him in the last five years, while they were still at school. I suppose those impressions stick.

YY hillingdon!

I actually didnt vote labour

Tell me to mind my own. But if you feel labour were better, why not vote for them? Why hope everyone else will? I am not judging, but genuinely wondering?

"One of the many sickening aspects of this is that it's a victory for Murdoch and Rothermere."

Ah yes, when considering why large swathes of the electorate don't automatically rally to your party of choice just condemn them as being easily led fools, the sheep like victims of a Machiavellian press machine. Perish the thought that many of these folk might have given due consideration to the voting options before them and arrived at conclusion different to yours.

Anyway, PMs keeping the press 'onside' is hardly anything new, Thatcher embraced it, Blair refined it, Cameron copied it.

I think this thread has pretty much run its course, the public have spoken so we now just have to deal with the fall out of it. Good luck everyone.

Depends what you class as lowest earners. My mum earns a piss poor amount, has to pay full rent, council tax etc there's no help for her. I help her because otherwise she wouldn't make ends meet. I would love for her not to.have to pay tax, I cannot see that ever happening for herm

I agree cherry but benefits do need to be addressed and people need to think ebfore they rely on them and get defensive when people question the need. That's what happens when you need support.

The days of claiming to have a bad back or to be depressed has just been too easy so people have taken advantage. The families from the poorer parts of the EU coming for our benefits and support knowing they wont be allowed to starve. The schools that are overrun with people arriving. My DM works in an Inner London school. Constantly battling to cpe with people just arriving not being able to speak English.

Then, when we have sorted this there will be more money for the people needing the support. There isnt an endless pot of money for everything and everyone.

What I would do being an ex Londoner is do something about houses being brought as investments by foreign buyers in London and then sitting empty. It spoils it for everyone else.

I would also look at upping the age where people are required to leave a council house because of a change of circumstances.

My DB lives right in Central London in a 1 bed flat. Most of the flats are council owned. The lady next to him early 60's who has never worked lives in a 3 bed. Has never paid rent and never worked. Wants to transfer it to her 20 something son who also doesnt work.

Hillingdon- what about the tax gap?

Dont the top 1% pay 30% of tax?

I'm in a labour safe seat, which they did win. So i can vote how i want, its irrelevant.

If you asked most of Africa whether they would like to move to the UK most would say yes, They are risking their lives in the Med. These are genrally not people fleeing for their lives. They are economic migrants. Are we also looking to house, support and pay for them too?

You seem to forget the economic stranglehold European business interests imposed on post-colonial Africa. Shell, Umicorp etc etc. The Belgians created a fake history for colonial control which directly caused the Rwandan genocide. $35m bribe from Union Minere to change regime in Congo. and on and on...

They are often fleeing a country 'we' fucked up.

The bedroom tax hasnt gone down as badly as some are claiming.

It was a disastrous policy for Labour to use front and centre.

The basis for it as a policy from the Tories is pure spite: the sums of money involved are trivial. However, the Tories may be heartless scum, but unfortunately for Labour they are politically astute heartless scum, and they realised that (a) the myth of the benefit scrounger being given a jacuzzi on the rates actually is strongest, and plays best, amongst the working poor and not-quite-poor and that (b) the bedroom tax isn't going to be a major issue amongst people who don't live in social housing anyway. So it's spiteful social policy, pointless financial policy, smart political policy.

The only people that endless banging on about the iniquity of the bedroom tax appeals to is a portion of Labour's own base, who either already vote Labour or don't vote. Meanwhile it alienates another portion of their own base, people who see themselves as hardworking and ill-treated (ie, the people Emily Thornbury sneers at, because they don't even buy the right sort of ciabatta). It's a gift to the Tories and to UKIP, as it allows them to paint Labour as the party of the workshy. Yes, I know that's both ludicrous and nasty, but the genius of the evil Tories is that they fight the election that's happening, rather than Labour's habit of fighting the election they wished was happening.

Chuck in Labour's failure to produce a credible policy on immigration because they were more bothered about the reaction over Islington dinner tables than in actual marginal constituencies and why would anyone who didn't vote for Labour in 2010 vote for them now? And they didn't. I'd vote Labour under any circumstances (hell, I voted Labour in 1983, unilateral disarmament, leaving the EU, leaving NATO, nationalising my sock drawer and everything) but I can see why they lost this time. Labour's campaign was incompetent. They were hoping the Tories would screw up, and the Tories very rarely do that.

In my constituency, Labour slightly increased its vote (yay!) and a very silly Tory candidate funded by her rich husband rather in the manner of a cupcake business who loves local schools so much her own children are at boarding school 100 miles away got soundly beaten. On a decent turnout, too.

Thing is the people who are questioning the need to rely on benefits are the people who have never needed them.

People don't like relying on benefits to top up their wages and in an ideal society people who work should be able to live but thats not the case for millions of families.

People who abuse the benefit system need to be stopped I do agree with that. Unfortunately there's no sure fire way to determine who is genuine, who is not etc. But i do believe the people who are abusing the system are in the minority, and the massive amount of genuine people in need should not be penalised because of the actions of a small minority of people.