Please convince me that the Tories WON'T create wider divisions btween the rich and poor and haves and have nots?

[poshsinglemum]

I'm not great at politics but I am under the imptression that things like inheritance tax and tax breaks for married people are going to widen the gap between the rich and poor?

Am, I wrong? Would anyone like to explain how the Tories would improve my lot as a single mum. Would they find me a nice man to marry for example?

Can't do that - sorry. I expect it won't make a lot of difference at first as they won't do away with schemes already in place but will limit them and things certainly won't get better

{fears for her job emoticon}

They won't, simple as that.

Find your own man and vote for someone else

Under the last Tory Gov't many people did very well but many did not and unfortunately I can't see it being any better this time round.

As a nurse in the 80s I witnessed lots of things which have caused endless problems - the privatising of hospital cleaning services for example, mixed wards (which had positives as well as negatives) and which the Daily Mail love to bang on about with reference to the Labour administration conveniently forgetting that they were not the Gov't that brought them in.

As a HV I now have services that families can be referred in to as opposed to bugger all services under the Conservatives - I hope so much that these services will remain but am not optimistic.

As far as I can see the Shadow cabinet is made up of ex-Bullingdon "Hooray Henry" chums who cannot possibly understand what it is like to live as a normal person in this country.

I wasn't a single parent when DS was born (was married) and didn't set out to become a lone parent but that's how it is now and I get pissed off with the Tory rags banging on about the "feckless single parents" all the time. I cannot see anything will improve for me under a Tory Gov't but am willing to be proved wrong Mr Cameron - if you or any of your cronies read this.

Not even going to try. The Tories are not interested in helping people who need help. They believe in 'entrepreneurial' people and minimal state intervention. Which is fine if you don't need help.

Those who need help, for whatever reason, are going to find it very hard to come by if they win the next election. And removal of said help will be phrased along the lines of 'necessary cuts in expenditure to restore the economy that Labour has ruined'.

Of course they will increase the divide between rich and poor. To satisfy their own party membership, and keep back benchers on board, they will have to have policies that benefit the upper middle classes. This will probably mean a cut in benefits and services to pay for tax breaks aimed at their core vote (those upper middle classes again).

They will also emphasise traditional family values and as a single mum that's not going to help you.

Tories will not help us out of our current economic problems.
They will make cuts in the wrong places and are too intrested in playing the blame game.
I vote AnyFucker for PM!

the more things change, the more they stay the same when it comes to the Tories.

DC is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

vote for someone else.

I don't trust David Cameron AT ALL.

I like David Cameron, I don't think that the majority of my life in a labour gvt (i'm 26) has benefitted me in the slightest.

The tax break on inheritance will encourage people to save and marriage tax breaks as a positive thing if it evens up the help you get compared to single people.

It can't be any worse than the shit, we have had. Taxed out of existence and fuck all in return. How does that work ?

What would be better is the introduction of Proportional Representation, which would result in a coalition and would stop any one party getting too big for their boots.

expat for a moment I thought you were saying your child was a wolf in sheeps clothing!

posh, sorry, I can't help you, I would never vote Tory ever every.

Have you considered the Lib Dems? They are marvellous

Dont beleive everything you hear Labour crowing on about, you only get the tax if one half of the marriage is not working, which seems bloody fair to me?

but as always they simply miss the point like all of them do, until you stop the "welfare mentality" this country is doomed, schools are failing thousands of average chrildren, as they dont bring in the good figures.

These kids then get sent to college on some "we dont give a crap" course to collect their £35 pound a week allowance, then they have a baby, walk on down to the council, grab a set of keys, and spend the rest of their lives enjoying the benefits.

And remember under a labour goverment you are better off being a single parent, so all the conservaties are trying to do is re-dress the balance somewhat. Labour know that as we have a broken society at the moment it is a easy win with shout that all single parents are now worthless under Tories, you know it is not true, they are all as bad as one another.

also dont forget whoever gets in (even though it is a one horse race) we are all fecked, do ou honestly not think Labour are not gonna cut services like made..

it is all predicatable, consevaties cant lose, they get in we have to suffer to clear up Labours mess, Labour get in they will be like OMFG we won, shit what do we do know.... we thought we would lose so we tried to mess it up for the Tories...

However what is it they say "A Lib-Dem vote is a wasted vote"? well that is now true for Labour, best off voting for UKIP, at least they stand for something

no. but then another labout term won't either - if there is growth in the ecomony the gap widens -

a perosn on £10k gets a 5% pay rise = an extra £500 a year

a person on 100k gets a 5% pay rise = an extra 5k a year.

so even with parallel percentage increases - the gap would widen. What is more impotant to me is that the the person on 10k gets their increase above the rate of inflation - therefore even if the gap is widening, they are getting better off. I have no real problem with there being realy wealthy people in his world - i do have a problem with there being really poor people in it.

the problem is particularly highlighted by recession - say a 1% pull back -

person on 100k - gets paid 80k in cost-saving scheme

person on 10k - loses their job....

it is on of the facts of the economy that the risk is always greater for the people at the bottom.

I can't.

I just typed out and huge long rant, but I think I'll leave it at that.

Also i think it is worth remembering that the UK was in a really bad economic state at the beginning of the 80's - the government did not have access to money to throw at things in the way it does now.

The last labour govt broadly continued the same policies as MT did (in fact she advised them on it..)

i see v. lttle difference between the two main parties -

labour - ID cards

Conservatives - no id cards.

that's about it.

how could anyone be in favour of inheritance tax?

will be glad to see the back of this desperate, clueless govt

Errr are not missing the obvious?

What do you think has happened to the gap between rich and poor under Labour (especially Brown), compared to the Thatcher years?

What about social mobility under Labour (especially Brown), compared to the Thatcher years?

Who scrapped the 10p tax rate? Who has introduced 90% marginal tax rates for many poor people on tax credits?

I find it depressing. I sound like a card-carrying Tory Thatcher-worshipping activist on MN but that's only because the consensus here is so skewed away from the country as a whole.

I found it easy to vote for Blair, twice, and will find it easy to vote for Cameron. They are both political centrists and pragmatists, who have changed their respective parties for the better.

I will never in a million years vote for Gordon Brown. He is pathetic. He has no leadership skills, no communication skills, no team-building skills, no economic skills. He writes books on courage, but has none. He dithers and can't decide on anything. He pretends to be ethical, but just look at how he and his cronies treated Tony Blair. This was the man who kept Damian McBride on after he smeared Ruth Kelly. This is the man who is best mates with Ed Balls.

The next few years are going to be utter crap, for everyone, whoever wins the election.

Oooh yes and don't forget tax breaks for married couples so that you will DEFINITELY be richer if you stay together (i.e. single parents i.e. women will be in an even more dire state than they are already)

(Dunno about lesbians. I don't think David Cameron believes they exist.)

The gap between the rich and the poor, under Labour, has grown massively.

I don't know who I will vote for but I would need a gun at my head before I vote for Gordon Brown. I will never vote Labour again. They are a disgrace.

Blair too us into an illegal war and Brown sat there and signed the cheques. Well I hope he is fucking happy now.

As a "son of the Manse" I wonder how his God will judge him.

This "the gap between rich and poor has grown under labour" is easy to trot out, but overall the poor are RICHER than they were

It's fairly unusual for families in particular to be hungry /freezing and these were NORMAL when I was a child 30 years ago

Unemployment has also reduced enormously and of course that is a huge contributor to poverty

Well my dad was on thee dole 30 yrs ago and we were not hungry and freezing.

Unemployment has reduced but is now nearly 2 million and looks like ti could reach 3 million by the end of the year. However, there are now millions more claiming sickness benefit. They have massaged the figures beyond belief.

The Tories are not the right party to vote for if you are concerned about the gap between the rich and poor. They have absolutely no interest in it, they are the party of the rich after all.

That's not to say Labour are much better, although they have done some good in that direction with tax credits etc, but if your main concern is inequality then I would certainly not suggest you vote Tory.

I saw Kirsty from Location Location representing the Tories on Question Time the other day. She was bleating about how unfair the Lib Dem proposal for a mansion tax to pay for tax cuts for those earning under £10,000/annum was. The Lib Dem proposal would allow those elderly people who wish to stay in their mansions to pay this tax after their death from their estate. Kirsty said this would force her parents in law to move from their £2m house to a £1.9m house in order to protect the inheritance for their kids, and how this was so terribly unfair on them at their late stage in life. I just sat there thinking sarcastically, "God imagine if in order to protect your kids unearned inheritance you had to move from a £2m mansion to a £1.9m mansion, how awful!" The Tories have no idea how incredibly privileged that kind of thinking is, and that is why they will fuck over the poor as always. They simply have no understanding of a) how privileged they are and b) how poor people actually live, so how on earth are they going to be able to help lessen inequality?

Do you remember the demonisation of single mothers by the Tories in the 80's? I was only a child when all that hateful rhetoric was happening, and I still remember it sickening me. Though Cameron has played a nice game of rebranding the Tories, those bad old boys are still very much in the party, don't kid yourself. You wont see 'em now, but I give 'em 6 months after being elected (as they inevitably will, thanks to the S.E. of England and the shitty FPTP electoral system) to show their true colours. By which time it will be too late.

Thank fuck I live in Scotland and am insulated from the worst excesses of a Tory government by the Scottish Parliament.