To wonder if tory voters care about the 1 million.

[Jacobsmum1972]

I bet they don't give a flying monkeys for anyone coming under attack by the Tories. The poor, disabled and tennants.

I have felt close to tears all day because I know what a conservative majority means for so many in this country.

bursary then that's 2 different things. Zero hours contracts aren't a disgrace. Abuse of them, the same as any abuse from an employer is a disgrace.

Labour wouldn't have every got round to touching them because they use them. If they were so against them they wouldn't use them. No one is made to employ people on zero hours. Labour could have just chose not to use them...but they didn't and then wonder why people don't trust them.

Lawyer a lot of people cant afford to do extra shifts unless they are permanent But very often they are not They are intermittent and inconsistent. And the system cannot cope with this and cant keep up.

Charis1 You were without hot water and heating for a long time?
a. Was this over the winter months? (its still not on to have to go with hot water in warmer months due to having to bathe or shower?
b. How did you manage the bathing/showering. Did you bathe your children and wash and rinse their hair in freezing cold water all that time OR did you boil up LOADS of saucepans and kettles for SIX MONTHS thus being happy to risk creating mould in your home that you own.

c. You have a disability Would this have impeded you carting bowls/pans of hot water back and forth and could you have possibly ended up burning yourself or DC by accident?

Helena I too find it hard to imagine how anyone would cope without hot water and central heating for six months so I'm interested to see how it's done.

I had to do it once for 4 weeks and it was very tough indeed. I'm not keen to repeat the experience (understatement).

YY flippinada I did it for two weeks and that was long enough And i had to look and smell presentable especially as i was in a customer facing role at the time.

Something doesnt quite add up here.

No thought seems to go into planning for many, they have children young with no career behind them and then when the relationship goes south they have no means of supporting themselves let alone children. We need to get across the message of a good education, good career and familes when stable and able to support them. Life does change but many could have planned better

nice view up there on the moral high ground?

You think that educated people who have children later in life don't ever split up? Or that because you took a longer time to choose a husband you are somehow not going to be beaten or otherwise abused? Or because you have a good education you are automatically independent in a 'good job' and make good choices in your personal life as a result? That being educated with a good career means you have a stable family life?

Seriously. That's some Utopia you live in there.

And after you have been up before you go to bed to lick the road clean you need a good wash.

Is that before or after you go home to your cardboard box, Queen?

Caris1?

I too find it hard to imagine how anyone would cope without hot water and central heating for six months so I'm interested to see how it's done.

Seriously? Take one kettle. Use it to boil water for daily washing. Wear appropriate indoor clothing and use an electric heater when really needed.

You may be horrified but it really is not life threatening.

How do you think people lived before CH boilers were invented???? Sadly I am old enough to remember.

Mind you, it was shite in winter.....our net curtains were frozen to the inside of the windows. Uncomfortable? Hell yes - life or death - FFS NO!!

Takes more than one kettle to fill a bath And it would certainly take a lot more than that to rinse out long thick hair.

And BMW houses that arent properly heated are more liable to develop damp and mould. Boilng kettles and saucepans will contribute to that too.

And i find it hard to believe someone would risk letting their own home develop damp and mould or contribute to that risk.

During those six months there is also the chance of a child mentioning their long term endurance of cold baths and no heating at school and i think this would get flagged up.

Anyone remember the seventies - 3 day working week, power cuts every night. No lighting or electric for cooking, never mind hot water or heating.

Of course it's a matter of life and death!
That's why we have winter payments for the elderly and why the charmless Edwina Curry advised them to knit wooly hats and scarves to keep warm and stop them dying of hypothermia.

I did this growing up, mum was a single parent in the 80s and the boiler went, I'd completely forgotten about it!

But yes, boil a kettle and strip wash every evening and it was bloody cold! It broke in February and got it back for Christmas.

Takes more than one kettle to fill a bath And it would certainly take a lot more than that to rinse out long thick hair

Are you stark raving mad!!!

Fill a BATH !!!

No dear - you pour the boiled water into a washing bowl. You top up with cold till just hot enough. You have a strip wash (top to toe) using that water and a flannel.

You get your hair cut shorter. Wash it using cold water via a jug.

Helena you wash your hair in the sink, rinse it in cold water and you don't take a bath!

Mold
Caused by poor ventilation, warmth and damp. If your house is colder and air circulates there is no mold. We never ever had mold in my "poverty stricken" childhood.

hypothermia
This is a big risk for the elderly only. Hence WFP.

There you go people. Stark raving mad to expect not to go without heating or hot water for months on end in 2015 Such progress.

No. Stark raving mad to even think of filling a bath with a kettle. As well you know so stop trying to put a spin on it. You are not Alastair Campbell.

I don't get the posters trying to trip people up

Surely we've all been in situations where we have had no heating or hot water for up to a week

I absolutely agree that it's a shitty state of affairs to be in this type of situation for any longer than that

But just because someone says they have been in that situation for 6 months doesn't make them a liar

I used to go without heating/hot water for weeks and sometimes months at a time up until a few months ago when I couldn't afford to replenish the heating oil and business wasn't doing so well - not exactly uncommon for rural folks in low-paid work! It happens, you just get on with it. Not sure who folk think should've stumped up the £200-300 to buy the minimum order of oil for me - council? Government? Oil company? Have a whipround of Labour voters? It was my problem to solve, nobody else's, surely...?

In fact, it's the raised tax threshold and being able to easily get a zero-hour contract job that means heating's affordable now...not sure what that says, never considered myself a tory before!

Aplaceonthecouch "We need to get across the message of a good education, good career and familes when stable and able to support them.
But you need more than a message. You need case workers. You need schools with good resources and enough places. You need access to and funding for further or higher education. You need relationships advice and access to contraception. As a country we need to work to provide options not messages, and I'm sorry but I just don't see the Conservatives doing that. In fact I don't see them making any attempt to even pretend that they are going to help to provide options."

The only thing that is really relevant there is contraception and relationships advice. You don't need a degree to not make stupid life decisions. That guidance is out there and has been for decades, many people don't use it and we are now in an infinitely more competitive global economy, we can't afford to give soft options any more or it's going to get much worse.

It's tragic the genuinely vulnerable will suffer from further cuts, but we should be blaming those who abuse the system into its current state and not the people who have to take the tough decisions to fix it.

As for the nonsense stats about the increase in usage, that's primarily availability of food banks, from a government that doesn't care incidentally...... Being shocked by that stat is like being stunned that broadband use has increased since 2004

Renart your two posts contradict each other. If you couldnt afford to sort your heating out what makes you think someone on a zero hours contact can pay high fuel prices.

Many rural Tories were humming a different tune in the winter of 2013!