so if labour aren't still in power on 7th may...

[duckyfuzz]

what will change?

18 years will be. You may have to contact the child benefit people and check that you still get HRP with dd, and if not, that you get the new credits as her carer.

You can also ask for a pension forecast from the pension people. You now have to have 30 years contributions for a full pension. When you get your forecast, it won't have the current financial year on it...my forecast says I have 23/30 years, but I know once this financial year has ended on 05/04, I will have 25 years towards my state pension.

Hope that helps.

I think Scottish Independence would be far better supported if the tories got in! Scotland had to put up with a tory government for years, despite the fact that they actually had a very poor representation here. If the choice for me was Tory or Independence, I'd be rebuilding Hadrian's wall myself!

Joolyjoolyjoo - you would have been well and truely fecked as a Scottish Government would not have been able to bail out RBS or HBOS when it nearly went to the wall, it would have had to come to us cap in hand begging for the money.

Scotland cannot afford independance.

As for surestart - would you like to be the one cutting their funding rather than some health department or something in education or services for the elderly.

It is going to be a very fine balancing act where some important services are cut and some people will suffer, someone, somewhere is going to be pissed off but I think to vote on the issue of Surestart alone is a bit niave.

I really don't buy the "you need us, you couldn't manage without us" argument. It always reminds me of men who tell their wives they aren't capable of living without them, and effectively keep them down.

Maybe we would mess it up, but we'll never know unless we're given the chance to find out. Unfortunately we'll probably never get the chance to find out, as most Scots seem to be too underconfident to try it- but a few years of Tory government might convince them, especially if they treat SCotland as well as they did the last time!

Surely a Scottish Government could borrow money as effectively as an English one?