Did you vote Conservative?

[ampere]

Do you regret it or do you think the government are doing what they said on their tin?

Giddypickle and chil1234 I agree with you both. The coalition as it is was the only possible outcome given the results, and the libdems would have been remiss to have entered into any other agreement (including non-coalition arrangements). I do think there are areas of consensus between Tories and libdems which as you suggest can't (and shouldn't) be ignored. A libdem vote is not a left wing vote, but a 'liberal' vote. I suppose that was my point really ( maybe not very well put). I had rather hoped that a movement away from very simple 'left' and 'right' with libdems perceived to sit on the fence somewhere between the two, was possible. I don't wholly agree with libdem positions, but I do think they had a valid third perspective. It seems to be being lost on the coalition.

I also agree that the tories are doing ok out of all of this at the moment. Can't see how anything other than a Tory majority is going to happen at the next election. Gutted.

Labour is the problem at the moment. Swimming around, bad choice of leader I'm afraid, no clarity. As someone who wants to vote labour, it's incredibly frustrating that they seem to have as an ineffective a voice as the Tories did after 97, without having suffered the same level of defeat.

EdgarAleNPie, I thought that might be a solution. But it's like trying to give up smoking. I guess I will have to buy some new keyboards.

I voted Tory at the last election, much to my surprise, partly because I was so appalled at how Labour had cocked up higher education, the economy and Iraq, but also because the Tories promised to scrap ID cards. I actually wanted a Lib-Con coalition.

On the whole I think they've done okay so far with a very ugly situation. I'm unhappy with the way that tuition fees have been raised, but I blame Blair's disastrous decision to commoditise further education a decade ago, which has driven the cost of FE up and standards down to the point where a lot of it is just a vast Ponzi scheme. Politically, the coalition had to choose between shutting down half the universities, and raising tuition fees: there simply isn't the money to fund the current volume of students.

Hopefully by the time my kids are ready for uni the the Mickey Mouse degrees will have disappeared, as no-one will want to pay nine grand a year for one, and we'll have a sensible system with proper academic standards again.

It's worth adding OTHM, that a number of HEIs are at risk regardless if the hike in tuition fees. A £9k fee doesn't help if a course costs more than this to deliver and your teaching budget has also been cut.

Just to be clear, I completely agree with your analysis re 50% participation rates and the impact this has had. A laudable attempt by Labour to further widen access to HE has backfired I think. And we're all crazy if we think the fee hike isn't going to impact on the sorts of people who feel able to go into HE. I guess I think the whole thing is a bloody mess.

There is an issue across the education sector I think, about what we (and our politicians) value, and about what our young people subsequently aspire too. There's an argument for sector wide reform, a real look at academic and vocational education, and a more equal relationship between the two. My personal feeling is that this is a hangover from more than the last labour government. We're at the culmination of a trend which started way before that (and certainly during the previous tory years).

Please LFN what are you talking about.

You do know that debt as a % of GDP was lower under Labour than the previous tory administration until the banks nearly collapsed and the bail out was required. The banks racked up the debts not Labour.

As for spending - despite rebuilding the infrastructure of this country desimated by the last tory government the debt was still lower than under the tories. Please get your facts right.

New wave is correct tory voters are selfish or deluded. The only reason to vote tory on an intellectual basis is if you are very rich.

Labour were dealing with the debt. Unemployment was lower than expected, confidence higher, the debt itself was 10billion less than forecast, crime at its lowest in 20 years, growth higher than expected.

Now afer only 8 monthe of the condems the debt is already higher than expected, unemployment higher than expected, growth lower and confidence has fallen through the floor.

You are right too New Wave, Labour looks after and tries to look after everyone in society, the tories look after themselves and their rich mates. The rest of society and especially the weakest and most needy can go to hell.

Why can't we all pull together and help the needy and vulnerable in our society - what is wrong with that? why are people talking about cost cost cost so that more and more people are struggling and suffering.

Tories = the price of everything - the value of nothing.

Imagine evry person in the UK had to pay their portion of the national debt tomorrow.

the bank bailout portion would be about £3-400. depending how it goes - those shares can go up as well as down!

the rest - the consquence of government overspend - would be £66k

that is why a sensible person does not blame the banks.

madoka growth in winter was really hit by the weather. that isn't a consequence of government, unless you think the Snow God s a Conservative.

Lets see shall we.

Unfortunately for me I lived through the 80's and don't see anything different so far to thatchers nasty politics - which incidently the tories freely admitted to themselves.

They caused unemployment to rise from 1 million to 3 million. Devastated communities which only relatively recently have started to recover. And best of all they didn't give a damn, schools run down, hospitals run down. They didn't give a damn.

Yes EANP - you've got it I think - well nearly. yes governments have always had, have now and will always have debt - when the NHS was built the country was in much higher debt as a % of GDP than now.

The point is that the bail out and the sudden required injection of liquidity needed to stabalise the economy was due to the collapse of the banks - nothing else.

Thats why a sensible person knows the recession of 2007 was due to the greed of the bankers.

Madoka The only time Labour were fiscally prudent were when they were running on Tory spending plans. After the 2001 election Gordon Brown turned on the spending taps, and borrowed money like water - because he had "abolished boom and bust". Instead of paying down debt during the good times, we get a borrowing binge, and deficits for years before the banking crisis.

when the NHS was built the country was in much higher debt as a % of GDP than now.

we haven't just fought the second world war though. if something like that came along now ....

The NHS is perhaps the biggest structural mistake this country has made for 100 years.

Left-wingers, answer me this: if the NHS is so fantastic, why has no other major country in the world copied it?

LDP I know that you'd like to believe that what you say is right. And that you've been spoon fed this lie by the tories over many years but it is not true you know.

Please find below the actual figures relating to what Labour did or didn't do regarding debt. I think mostly it does speak for itself and you might actually be surprised at the level of deception you've been exposed to. Labour clearly had paid down the debt and even at the end, before the banking crash Labours level of debt as a % of GDP was less than the figure they inherited from the tories in 1997.

UK National Debt As Percent Of GDP
Fiscal Years 1997 to 2010

1997 830.094 41.92%
1998 879.102 40.14%
1999 928.73 37.86%
2000 976.533 35.37%
2001 1021.83 30.57%
2002 1075.56 29.33%
2003 1139.75 30.45%
2004 1202.96 31.82%
2005 1254.06 33.81%
2006 1325.8 34.92%
2007 1398.88 35.74%
2008 1448.39 36.25%
2009 1395.87 44.19%
2010 1474 52.34%

The tories do like their porkies don't they?

Madoka Like all Labour MPs, it seems, you are deliberately talking about the debt instead of the deficit.

Sorry LFN I meant not LDP can't think what I was thinking.

Anyway LFN your comment re the NHS just about perfectly sums up the selfish, uncaring and mean spirited attitute clearly required to be a tory voter.

Remember, in the early years - the only years when debt fell as a proportion of GDP - Labour were running to Ken Clarke's spending plans, because they were (rightly) concerned that the British people did not trust them with the economy.

LFN - I am talking about debt as a % of GDP - I think I did clearly say that - it you have a different case please provide your figures.

Do not hide ebhind every tory MP's attempt to muddy the waters.

Where's your facts then - figures please not waffle.

Why is a compulsory insurance model "selfish, uncaring and mean spirited"? Or a "state pays, anyone can provide" model?

Why exactly should the State run our hospitals?

I believe universally accessible healthcare is a fundamental pillar of developed societies. Yet, somehow, questioning the NHS model is seen as heresy.

No I did not, and I'm very angry at them for the cuts they are making which will cause unbelievable hardship for disabled people. I understand that cuts had to be made, but punishing the most vulnerable members of society and taking away their basic rights is downright evil. I am praying that the things I have heard recently about the cuts being illegal will be true and that they will be stopped.

Do you deny that Labour were running a deficit during the boom years 2003-2007? Indeed, your own figures show it.

Do you deny that it would have been better to pay down debt than borrow more and more during these boom years?

It took the Tories over a decade to get the economy back in shape after the last Labour economic crisis in the 70s. It might take even longer this time round.

LFN debt as a % of GDP was always lower under Labour of 1997-2010 than the tories until the banking crash.

What are you talking about - where do you get your rubbish from - do facts actually matter to you or are the lies so ingrained you can't believe the truth.

LFN - I feel sorry for you faced with the facts you blindly repeat your lies.

You are wrong - the tories have lied to you.

You don't seem able to understand basic economic concepts.

Firstly, I agree that under the Tory spending profile Labour ran in their early years, debt fell as a proportion of GDP. I applaud them for sticking to the sensible Ken Clarke economic plans.

You seem unable to comprehend the fact that Labour ran a deficit from 2002 onwards, despite your own figures. This was despite an economic boom - and was precisely because Gordon Brown thought he abolished boom and bust.

LFN/ Madoka - You may be interested in an impartial analysis of our economic situation.

The Full Fact Guide to the Economy covers the debt and the deficit and looks at the various claims of both government and opposition.

Useful for getting straight the difference between debt and deficit, and understanding the importance of the structural deficit.

I think this is the 3rd time I've to linked this . I don't work for Full Fact - but I do admire what they do.

LFN The reason the deficit increased during that period was to fund the massive improvements required in the infrastructure of this country - schools, hospitals (which I know should just be there for people who can afford it as in America according to you) and the transport network, as a result of the tories mismanagemant during their previous administration.

The deficit was falling again after 2005, and would not have been there now if were not for the banking crisis.

The figures in my previous post do relate to the debt that the tories are always referring to and do correct the myth that Labour over spent when clearly the tories ran much higher levels of debt despite having all utilities to sell to the devil.

Thanks Jackstarb a really useful link.

You'd think that Labour were the only party ever to have had a deficit when you read LFN's posts only to see that actually of the 18 years of tory misrule they were only not in defecit for 3 of them.