Ah but Greengrow I do worry, as politically not that simple and our futures are very much up in the lap of the gods..
Regarding the Conservatives, no party should be in for a generation, in 1997 their time had seen the UK through some difficult times and it was time for some ‘change’; the lesson there (with old Harry Hindsight) is that ‘change’ has to be thought through, and I’ll leave it as that.
Indeed as you say, UK taxes for all were substantially lower in 1997 than they were1979 and that encouraged personal and national growth, but taxes did not go down in a straight line - as they were raised when the Exchequer needed to - but it was a direction of travel, where the smaller, less intrusive and cost effective government was, the more money businesses had to invest, employees could keep.
The Conservatives, with a vote split by UKIP just having 3% of the share in 2010 forced a minority government/coalition, are clearly no ‘shoe in’ for a majority in 2015.
Although over months I have liken UKIP’s controversial domestic policies to ‘Conservatives on speed’ (when I should have used ‘crack’ lol) - they are in some ways similarly divisive to the U.S. Republican Party’s ‘Tea Party’ causing head-up-bum splits in the Republican vote - but in essence their far right wing nationalist ‘focus’ on the EU and immigration for core votes, are similar to France’s Front National.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement
UKIP are a hybrid of the two, who should we leave the EU, they should change their Westminster name to the National Tea Party, ‘the people’ would drink to that, and they’d be in for generations lol.
My point being, is that from 2015, there could be several parties vying to be in a coalition which far from England being “sorted”, the opposite would be true, just thinking of after 2010, when in opposition, seemed to mean ‘oppose everything’.
Re Scotland (finally), while I get your point that Scotland, similar to the parliamentary Labour Party, will get the “socialist very high taxes it seems to love”, I will paraphrase Thatcher, ‘socialism works until you run out of everyone else’s money’.
Scottish politicians headed by Ms Sturgeon, raiding Scottish wealthy voters, could be a different kettle of fish to raiding the south of England, as Mr Balls is apparently finding out with the voter reaction their proposed Mansion Tax.
Which of course is the aim of Labour’s post general election Constitutional Convention, where they are not planning to ask ‘the people’ north of Watford ‘how can we better spend the money we haven’t got’, called an annual budget deficit – they are looking for a mandate for fat Labour regional government to siphon money from the south in the name of the majority democracy, collecting heartland votes along the way.
I suggest Scotland’s SNP Sturgeon, unbelievably rubbing our ‘English MPs for English votes’ noses it, claiming A RIGHT to speak at the 2015 General Election Leadership Debate, is waking up to the fact RAISING Scottish taxes to penal rates may be an ideological wet dream, if it’s in your own bed, you alone have to clean up the economic and electoral consequences – but that won’t be before the next general election, when a new UK Labour government could offer Scottish voters electoral sweeties for 2010.
In conclusion; being a closet English nationalist and taxpayer with 3 children in their 20s, worried about all our futures, between the ‘Kippers and the Sturgeon, heading up the Thames to Westminster – nothing will be “sorted’, salted or smoked, until after that 2015 general election. IMO.