The Tories are gonna get in, it's inevitable do you care? Is there an upside?

[TheDullWitch]

Oh why not have the election NOW. Let the buggers get in, show their true colours, become universally loathed, then get kicked out after one term. Come on, let's get on with it!

There is no upside.

Actually, I take that back. Having read SSD's post, I agree that it depends who you are. I'm sure there will be plenty of upsides for the wealthy and for big businesses. Shame about everyone else.

No no no no no. No upside. What ARE people thinking.

I do care about the tories getting in as I've been a labour supporter and party worker for many years.

However I will not support them at this election. I can't. I am sick and tired of being bullied and patronised from the top.
All discussions are stamped upon.
There are so amny career politicians like Yvette Cooper and Ed Balls running the show that ordinary people with jobs and real lives are utterly sidelined.

Do I hope anything good can come out of it?
Yes.
Labour can take a long hard look at what they have become. They can get a whole new leadership. They can beocme something I can be proud of again.

Let's hope so Litchick.

Did anyone see When Boris Met Dave on More4 last night?

Thesecondcoming - do you know how your post makes you sound?

I am not particularly well-off, and would like it if some government chose to acknowledge that being a SAHM does not make you a waste of time, space and money. I can't see any government going down that road. That aside, I personally think that a conservative government would be better for the whole of society. So there!

Yes secondcoming I agree......Lots of people have forgotten what it was like before.....but that was all in the past. DC is a kind, nice tory!

Hmmm...as I said I've supported Labour all along but even my old donkey jacketed, doc martin wearin' self can't blame the previous tory government for our current economic problems.

I know he never will, but Gordy has to take some responsibility for it. As do we all. When the good times rolled we spent like Viv Nicholson and borrowed like African dictators.
Coucil housing and public transport wouldn't really be shoring up the debt crisis would it?
We have spent too much and saved too little.

DC is a kind, nice tory? so its all ok then? is that how we rate our politicians these days? niceness? kindness? OMG what is happening in this country?

Country's in a mess. No one can argue with that. But will take some convincing that present tories are up to it. They have been crap in opposition.

Litchick - despite being a life long Tory. I sort of felt the same as you do now when Tony Blair came to power and the Major Govt got kicked out.

At the time, I just felt that there were a bunch of career politicians at the top of the Tory party who didn't care. They were detached from voters. I genuinely wanted Tony Blair to address things like fairness in employment contracts, dealing with pension deficits, equality issues, reform of the welfare state, reform of the NHS, sorting out education so all kids get a chance. These were/are things that I thought were solid Labour territory and while Thatcher had to break some eggs to get things done - I also thought there were areas that there was a lot to be done for the poorer less well off in society.

It has not happened. I know I am bound to be disappointed but I just hope some of the things that Ian Duncan Smith (welfare reform), Michael Gove (Education) have been talking about get done. I also want Dave Cameron to make Frank Field a peer to sit on the cross benches and get him to implement real pension reform. I also want solid political backing for real enforcemet of sensible work place rights and equality law. This is not Tory 'policy' but it is something that would make a difference to millions of people up and down the income scale and across the political spectrum of society.

I do think LABOUR is dead for ever and hope that it emerges as a left of center merged party with LibDems. Obviously a very great many Labour/Tory/LibDemm supporters have a lot of common ground on may issues so I just hope some of the things that did not get sorted out under Labour get sorted out under a Cameron Tory Govt perhaps even with tacit support from some LibDem/Labour MPs occassionally.

After all, even though Thatcher was/is widely hated by Labour supporters but a lot of 'working class' people did well under Thatcher by founding businesses, buying their own home, etc. None of the mainstream political parties are all bad but a party in power for too long is always bad.

Holy Bumley you should look at the Green PArty citizen's wage proposals. I am not for one second suggesting they will get in (!), but just that there are policies in the area fo SAHM's / Carers etc which make sense in a positive way, and it's a shame bigger aprties don't look towards them.Theya re BTW costed, rather than random proposals. Most of it is about saving in admin etc.

You know,I do think the Labour party wuld benefit from time in opposition- it does nobody any good to win all the time and in a far lesser field I am invovled in, I am praying my team lose at something so we can regroup and shed the entitlement attitude. However there has to be something to replace it with that won't destroy the needy. That IMO is lacking atm.

I'm very firghtened about it.

Being a single mother might sudden;y become much harder to cope with according to what I have heard.

Anyone got a clear idea what their policies are going to do to us as a subset of society? I'd appreciate a rough idea.

It is true that many benrfitted fromthe tories by buying council homes, stariging business- but not everyone can start their own business (who will workfor them?) and the right to buy thing seriously damaged hosing for many poor people.

I would fele less concerned if someone in the tories would come out andsay 'We value carers, and have no wish to see them or the disabled penalised'- they haven't, I wrote to the Tories about some VV scary DLA rumours (That DLA would be amde applicable only to those receiving SSD support, which from what I can see would prevent a very large number of disabled people including the DS's having access based upon randomised SSD definitions and waiting lists) and just got a ltter saying we haven't decided yet.

Do theye xpect me to vote for that? Seriosuly?

Haven't read whole thread (sorry) so apols if I'm repeating anyone, but there's an interesting article here about why the Tories might struggle to get a working majority.

I'llemail that to DH PW, he will smile.

What I do notice on MN is that a great many of the oh no camp on the Tories gaining power are vulnerable individuals.

How can it ever be a psoitive that people are really scared about the future? The Tories could reassure us- but when I wrote to them about a aprticualr policy all I got back was a letter saying they haven't decided anything yet.

I like to think that one day we'll be better palced, but I hope then that if I see an election and the vulnerable are scared that I will have the heart to take that on board. The Tories oculd address that with some policy releases becuase far is far worse than information in my book, but it hasn't happened.

If they reduce access to DLA the boys won't get better overnight; if CA is reduced or frozen Is till won't be able to work in a regular job or qualified to work for msyelf yet.

My options won't expand- but becuase of a reduced income and what will be sheer poverty, my horizons will have to. The first thing that will go is the MA (the savings will be needed for rent)- so reduding my chances massively. After that we'd be down to house (rented- would need LA house) and car (that we use for Uni etc)

having options costs a little bit in cash and more importantly long term feelings of safety

i feel like in the past ive always know who to vote for, now i have no idea, i think for the first time i might not vote.

when will be required to vote anyway?

I don't personally see any upside, but I only read as far as a male poster describing the thread as 'shrill', which is the put-down preferred by men when they don't want to recognise that women can have an intelligent debate (some posters notwithstanding ). Sorry, but that was out of order guys.

My experience of living (growing up) under a Tory government (I'm now 32):

State educated:

• in buildings which were always filled with buckets to catch drips from the leaking roofs
• always allowed to wear our coats in the classroom as the heating didn't work *one textbook per class so we spent more than half the lesson just copying the questions off the board
• 30+ pupils in every class, no support for those less bright/with SN who took up ALL the teachers time
• so little money for resources we drew our art on newspapers and begged waste paper from local businesses to use as hand towels (both true! - actually the "hand towel" paper we teabag offcuts from Premier Brands)

My father:
*made redundant 5 times, each time another factory closed as we witnessed the collapse of manufacturing

• no-one interested in employing a 40-something engineer, so he was sent on several compulsory humiliating "re-training" courses where someone half his age told him stuff he already knew

My uncle:

• a schizophrenic murdered in an old-style mental institution which was being run into the ground as a result of the care in the community policy (he was too serious to be released into the community, as was a fellow patient who saw it fit to send him to heaven). It was the usual story of not enough resources to properly separate and supervise patients
• enquiry into above situation kept secret (even from the families)

Other stuff:

• Parents narrowly avoided losing their home as a result of extortionate interest rates
• Due to financial squeeze we didn't have a single holiday for 8 years
• I borrowed money to go to university (thanks for abolishing grants!) which took me until I was 30 to pay off

Nowadays (obv. under labour government) my parents rely on state benefits (state pension, winter fuel allowance etc.) to scrape by. Mum had cancer last year - thank God for the investments into the NHS she got great, early treatment.

I am DREADING the return of the tories as these things which are JUST keeping them afloat will be taken away.

I'm with UQD, one party rule is not consistent with democracy.

I would like a nice small Tory majority or a hung parliament. I would love some of the privacy issues to be resolved in the next parliament.

The only one of Labour's policies that I like the sound of is a referendum on reforming the electoral system. Dh is against this, and cites the BNP getting a MEP as an example of this. However, I am unconvinced, and think that just because some people use their vote unwisely, it does not excuse the joke that is first past the post.

Politically, I am mostly Lib Dem, but they seem to be lacking talent (apart from Cable).

No there is no upside. Don't you remember what they were like last time? Do you really think they've changed (in hundreds of years)?

All those who think that NuLab is great because of tax credits:
-are you happy living in a society where the only way you can get by is on Govt handouts
-are you happy with NuLab using Govt funds to 'buy' your allegience and vote
-are you happy that NuLab promised you a minimum wage but fluffed its implementation so that it is not fit for purpose.

sorry for changing subject slightly but if they get in

what happens if you are (god forbid) a single parent on benefits (the shame)

Well FB I am happier than I was living in a world where we couldn't get by without Giovernment handouts in all truth

But as without any handouts we would have a total income of £50 pw, I'm not certain what the viable option is?

TC'saren't just making peopleexist in acceptance- they are what enabled DH to set up his business and cope in that first few years, rather than claim post redundancy JSA and fester, I have met a few people (some on here) who have the same experience.

Surely that is a positive? It'sfar better somone be working and trying, with the increased likelihood of success, than claiming IMO. TC's have enabled that for my family.

If TC's stopped we would have to move into council housing (none available) or I'd have to go into work; in order for me to go into work I would have to access residential school care for DS 1 at a cost to the state of ££££, as well as breaking my own heart and I am certain completely blowing any chances of a future he may have (it would kill him emotionally). The state would lose through costs (the SN residential schools cost a fortune) and we would all lose through being bereft of a much loved if difficult child.

Yep, I like TC's.