It is really difficult because none of them have a sensible economic prospectus or seem even willing to raise publicly the main issues which need to be addressed, let alone actually implement the obvious changes required. And then of course we must consider that what is stated in manifestos isn’t worth the paper it is written on, as everyone has discovered at great cost since 2024.
The economic policies of both the Greens and Reform are complete cloud cuckoo land so if anybody wants any hope of rising living standards (or even no further decline) then clearly they cannot vote for either of these. Labour said the right things to get elected but have done the opposite, as I feared would be the case (it was clear based on discussions prior to the election that Reeves had no intention of following through with her promise of “laser focus on growth” and pretty much every economic measure she has implemented has had the opposite effect, with it known beforehand by her that this would be the case) so Labour isn’t an option either for anybody who cares about the cost of living/ tax rates/ growth/ living standards. Not as dire and insane as Reform or the Greens, but still making things worse than they would be if the Government had literally done nothing at all since being elected. And now there is the prospect of their leadership being replaced with people who would do even more damage to the economy, as is always the risk where we elect a party not a PM/ Chancellor.
The Conservatives aren’t an option until they purge the Brexiteers (including Kemi) and return to some sanity focusing on competent economic management rather than nonsense social policy issues and obsessing about Reform. That’s mow difficult for them to do because they have some few MPs left anyway and drove everybody competent out of their party in 2019 under Johnson. It will probably take a couple of electoral cycles before they return to a more socially liberal but “one nation” centre ground prudent fiscal position again and become electable. Led by Kemi they continue to be a disaster and not focusing at all on any of the policy areas that would improve things.
The least-worst of the options available to us therefore seems to be the Lib Dems. They, like all the others, have some fairly insane things to pander to the mob written in their manifestos. But they appear to have some fairly sensible MPs who have a decent and balanced grasp of economic issues and Ed Davey himself is a sensible and compassionate centrist who understands trade-offs and balance and listens to people, and genuinely seems to want to act for the public good. As a person I think he is actually a decent human being: he cared for his sick mother who died when he was a very young man and he has a disabled son so he does actually grasp some of the difficulties of life with which many people have to grapple. I believe that he is the only party leader at the moment who at least has good motivations for being in politics and genuinely wants to improve things for people rather than just himself and an obsessive pursuit of power.
He’s far from perfect and has blind spots as do all human beings and he made some serious mistakes/ went along with things that were stupid when in the coalition Government previously but at least has some experience of senior roles in Government and what is involved unlike Polanski/ Farage, and was capable of doing his job unlike Kemi, so out of the 5 options we have at present, the Lib Dems are almost certainly the least-worst if we wanted to heal social divisions, make rational policy based on evidence, and have decent economic governance that may lead to a prospect of growth. Their pro-Europe stance is essential for growth to take place and living standards to rise and their current MPs seem mostly sensible and balanced regarding the trade offs required to balance tax and services, in spite of some fairly wild and silly things in their manifesto (like all of the parties, but manifestos are really just propaganda to appease party members and quite meaningless anyway).
They are FAR from a perfect option, and still refuse to address a number of critical economic issues to which obvious solutions are available, but at least with them there could be some level of confidence they would be trying to behave sensibly for the good of the country as a whole and they have some MPs that seem to have a grasp of economic issues and the fact that nothing will improve until these are addressed, unlike the others who instead spending most of their time on childish soundbites about socially divisive side-issues which are largely the effect of the economic decline, not the cause.
Overall, it is a depressing analysis that this is the best we can do but out of the options we have at present, they seem to be by far the least useless currently available who at least won’t make things substantially worse than they are already.