I won't be voting Labour because

[PanicMode]

next year they will be spending more on debt repayments than education, and that's just one example.

From a £6bn deficit in 1997 to £167 bn now....

Oh, and the only new idea (reduction of stamp duty) came from the Tories in the first place.

All those thinking of voting Labour, please read Squandered or The Rotten State of Britain before letting these financially illiterate numpties back in.

I think it depends where your personal priorities are really.

I feel particularly hard done by through the tax system, not just income tax but the whole raft of fuel, car, council tax, vat, that isn't ringfenced to go where it's needed yet a Welsh person in Wales doesn't pay to go to a Welsh University but the English do.

Petty things like parking charges at English hospitals but not at Scottish hospitals annoy me. Also the free prescriptions that are available wind me up when if every person just paid a £1 contribution to each prescription the whole country would be better off.

Not one thing has got better for me or my family under Labour. In fact some things are immeasurably worse. I will be glad to see the back of the incompetent twits.

oojamaflip I think we should sell Ireland!

I think maybe we should have the equivalent of State tax so that individual areas would set and collect their own VAT.

Everything would be more applicable to the locality and if an area needed to raise more money it could reduce the state tax therefore getting more purchasers in or take the Labour party view and put the state taxes up.

In fact if I were Scotland i would break away from the UK and become a tax haven, all the money that would be pulled into the country would be phenomenal for businesses in the area and all problems would be solved.

God! I'm good ;-)

Alouiseg - I think we would have done a LONG time ago if it wasn't for those pesky unionists...

Education

Snoop and snitch culture

and because it will cost me less I'm pretty sure ..and because the country is in a mess.

People seem to be in the wrong when they're not in the wrong, but others get away with things they shouldn't. Appalling smug betrayal by people like Margaret Moran.

Huh Alou? Dh pays to go to Uni, well loan but it is paid.

We may be living here but it is all paid. I was onhe of the last ones through on the old system and count myself very lucky indeed (we are English btw: very much so, moived ehre aged 32)

I do agree with local taxes though but not VAT- had a stint in the VAT office a few eyars back temping, assuming it is still the same the £££#s raised would easil;y be spent on extra infrastructure. I want help to reach the people that need it- regardless of whether they live in Wales, Scotland, England or NI.

Oh and the Uni thing- sorry meant we are English but dh was assessed as Welsh as we moved here for my Uni so he was resident ehre when we came: he ahs full eligibility to bursaries etc 9though doesn't get them as we applied when he became redundant, too late for those)

I will not be voting labour because:

1. of Tax credits. If they are supposed to pay for child care how come I pay 1000 pounds a month childcare and get less than 1% of the cost paid.
2. I am being punished for driving a car. I would like some one to explain how I am supposed to get my children to school (2 miles away), get to work (10 miles away) and then do it in reverse in the afternoon without a car.
3. the economy is in a poor state and neither I nor my husband have had a pay rise in two years and my costs for basic necessities are still going up.
4. I have managed to make some savings, but interest rates are so low that the real value is being eroded.
5. of league tables. League tables cost me money in their administration and do absolutely nothing to improve standards as they are tightly targeted and as a result other areas are neglected so the holistic standard diminishes.
6. they have done nothing to reduce immigration. More people means more pressure on essential services which ultimately costs me money and reduces the level of service that I receive.

I don't actually know who I am going to vote for as none of the parties have any substantiated policies. The "we will do blah blah" doesn't wash with me unless they say how they are going to do it, and quite honestly none of the parties have done that.

Per capita spend is always going to be higher in Scotland because of the Geography. The central belt is no different to the rest of the UK but when you consider health services, transport infastructure and education for the Highlands and Islands, it is obvious that it will cost much more. Primary schools with ten pupils, weekly boarding at mainland secondaries with flights or ferries home at weekends, flying doctor services and so on. But the tax paid rates and VAT are the same UK wide and Council Tax is on average much higher than elswhere (We pay £188 per month on a 2 bed cottage). Not to mention the tax income from North Sea Oil, almost all of which is in Scottish Waters.

What annoys me is the massive spend on London which always seems to get more than its fair share. e.g the Lottery money for the Olympics which has led to massive cuts in Lottery funding for charities and good causes everywhere else.

Ok, so why is a prescription cheaper in Scotland than England?

Why do the English pay for parking at hospitals yet the Scots don't?

NICE regularly approve drugs for use in Scotland when they are turned down for England.

It's medical apartheid.

www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23416323-the-real-north-south-divide-how-the-south-east-i s-bankrolling-britain.do

It's terrifying!

Is everyone really so blind? New Labour are virtually identical to DCs Tory party. They agree on so much that GB nicked most of the Tory's ideas!

The Tories would have gone to war too. There is a Global recession on and it is caused out of greed and the suffering of others for you fuckers to get your fucking huge amounts of money. There are people in this country, pensioners, single patents even those on ordinary low incomes that do fucking work, but have not had the educational chances in life or parents with savings to pay deposits that are counting pennies on a daily basis. I did a boot fair this morning to get enough money for tomorrows packed lunch. I work hard, study hard, have children with manners and grace that you greedy pigs can never know.

As for looking to the Soviet Union, for fucks sake, do some reading. Oh do you know what, I can't even be bothered. I'm ashamed to be English sometimes. But let me tell you this....nothing lasts for ever and let's hope through no fault of your own, a tiny slip of fate, you don't end up on your arse and hoping those in control will see you are ok, because if it were down to me I would let you lot rot. How you cannot see, especially as parents, how hard it is to bring up a child on a lited budget whilst working is beyond me.

The difference is, our money would go straight back into the economy. You lot would be saving for a rainy day for fuckwit bankers to fritter away. Grrrrrr

I don't understand who you are talking to.

Who are you calling "Greedy Pigs"?

Me neither, esp. morespam as I am probably the person you decribe as on their arse and not a tory voter either.

Whom are you yelling at?

I agree that neiterh tories nor labour cut it tbh, i'd give the lib dems a chance purely on the basis that well the rest fucked it up. But there's a whole thread running nbow about that.

Aloouiseg - the SE has more money so it's bound to pay more taxes. I don't see how this is surprising.

MoreSpamThanGlam - who on earth are you talking too?

It's hardly surprising but it's objectionable to be penalised for it! Why should Scotland get free prescriptions and more drugs than we do?

Alou are you aware Wales get that as well?

Just you seem to single Scotland out quite a bit.

there are things we don't het though.

And Scotland is ahrdly a abed of laughs for all; some of the life expectancies in a few areas explains exactly why money might is needed to be spent there.

That sort of language really annoys me. This "greedy fucker" has spent more than 25 years voting to be a net contributor and see it tossed away, or stolen, or abused. I'm fed up with it.

And what will help the most deprived people the most is a good education. This government has screwed up that aspiration most royally. And nothing about THAT will change without a change of government.

I thought life expectancy was lower in Scotland because of the appalling diet.

Yes i though that Wales had it too, wasn't quite as certain until it was confirmed as i do hate getting my facts wrong.

Spending Money in areas where life expectancy is low isn't the answer, especially somebody else's money because one day somebody else will get fed up with bailing out people who make bad lifestyle choices.

I live quite near to Tendring which is on the Essex coast and it has the worst life expectancy in England but nobody is pouring money into Colchester General Hospital which is where they will end up, or ss who are starved of money yet if they were in Wales or Scotland the spend per capita would be much, much higher.