Why are you dreading a Tory government?

[Swedes]

Social mobility under Labour has fallen to the levels experienced in the 1950s. That means if you are born poor, you remain poor and if you are born wealthy, you stay wealthy.

I heard this morning on R4 that the NHS is experiencing the worst funding crisis in its history.

I could go on but I'm sure you get my drift.
Labour have had over a decade to fulfill their promise that "things can only get better". It's time for a change.

Can you please give me a few good reasons why Labour should remain in office?

A very simple Tory policy that affects us here is the cock up they amde over the Severen bridge contract when the new one was built, meaning that employers are withdrawing from Wales because of the basic running costs. As that is DH's industry gone, we feel that.

Might not be a national concern but it's something we feel daily, the total freedom of the bridge ocontractors to set costs with no responsibility for bridge maintenance or motivation to offer discounts / loyalty bonuses or even take cards.

Swedes I am not sure you can really stop people from being poor altogether.

If someone becomes rich it usually means that someone else becomes poor in your place.

That was what was so wrong with the tory govt.

Unless we go totally socialist and make everyone equal but the would be a clever ruse to pull off in this era without cries of communism.

Can anyone tell me what single parents will have to face under a tory govt? I'm quite scared about that.

Can I add the lack of public transport infrastructure to that list?

The privatisation of the railways - waht a bloody fiasco that was

because they're lying, unprincipled fascists

beonit - yeah, thanks for that. That really helps.

hoochie shall we do a poll of all the MNers with foodie names to see if they agree, too?

LB, quite! And it has been proven that nationalisation is more successful, when Connex had to give up their franchise for being rubbish. Performance and efficiency shot up and costs down when it was run by the public sector - but of course the so-called Labour government couldn't be having a nationalised industry showing the private sector up, could they? So franchised it off again. Swines.

When British Rail was in charge, the railways may have been starved of investment, but at least they were staffed by people who cared about the industry and understood how it worked. Now you've got sodding bus companies and airlines running the railways, trying to force passengers - sorry 'customers' - to book months in advance and travel on one specific train (and creating hideously complex 'fare structures'). Which is NOT how passengers want to behave - and they certainly do not want to lose their money if they happen to miss that train.

The idea that the private sector is necessarily responsive to customers is just plain wrong.

The 3 day week was under a TORY Government - the Heath one, to be precise! Targets for NHS and Education were introduced by a TORY Government. I can remember the headlines from the 80s, too: the closed wards and hospitals: at least we don't have pensioners freezing to death in the winter as we did under the last TORY Government. Plenty of power cuts under the Tories in the early 80s, too.
OFSTED and SATS, anyone? Introduced by the Tories.
It was the Tories who insisted on services being contracted out to the cheapest tender (school meals and hospital cleaning, for example). It was the Tories who did away with nutritional standards for school meals.
I can also remember Douglas Hurd and Norman Lamont complaining that their Prime Minister hid himself in the toilets for hours on the Black Monday of the last recession under the Tories. At least Gordon Brown has faced up to his job.

They are already on record as saying they will cut funding for Children's Centres so that resources are targeted towards "the needy".

I dread a Tory Government because I can remember the last one.

And why was the three day week introduced? Because of strike action by coal miners.

I haven't read all the thread, but do people seriously objest to Ofsted?

Swedes - glad to be of help. I always find it useful to get right to the heart of the matter.

oh yes and they abolished the dog licence

I voted Labour in 1997 and was truly delighted when they got in as I really hoped that a lot of the worst inequalities in our society would be rectified.

This article makes for depressing reading

Fact is they don't really want a more equal society, they've just recognised that that's what they need to say to be in with a chance of getting elected, because Labour has managed to bring about a massive change in society's expectations.

A Tory Government would mean less money for education, health and social care, less regulation of business and the economy, and more protection for the privileges of the rich such as private education and healthcare.

I'm the first to accept that Labour hasn't got everything right, and I'll never forgive them for the war in Iraq. But can you imagine what state the country would be in now if the Tories had been in power for the last 12 years?

So, to sum up, lying, unprincipled fascists.

Oh come off it.

A potential Tory cabinet would be, if the current shadow cabinet is anything to go by, stuffed full of middle aged white men from priviliged backgrounds who were educated privately and have had little experience of life outside the closed world of Westminister.

I fail to see how someone who thinks that cleaning their moat or building a duck island is a legitimate expense and should be paid for by the taxpayer has any idea of the realities of life for the majority of the population.

I dread it cos it'll all be sex scandals again.

Labour - it's always money.

Tories - always sex

And SomeGuy - you're George Osborne aren't you?

What I really don't get is the fact that all of these improved services have been supplied on credit (it now transpires). I really don't want my children to be paying for 20 years for the fact that I've got a shiny new hospital now IYKWIM.

Last time I looked, a higher number of Cabinet Ministers went to Private School that the shadow cabinet.