Is anyone else really scared of the prospect of waking up to a tory administration on May 7th?

[electra]

Because I am! i think it will be truly awful. Don't get me wrong, I don't think labour are fabulous but omg surely they are better than another Thatcher style administration?? I have a disabled child who is 8 years old.......I somehow doubt that it will be any easier to get her what she needs as she goes into her teenage years under a conservative government. It's hard enough now!!

Yesterday the blues were campaigning in our town centre - I live in a swing area - traditionally tory but fell to new labour in 1997. They seem so.....backward thinking to me.

Am I overreacting? Is there an upside at all?

Perhaps it's good some are afraid. Be ye very afraid. Perhaps too cushy a number which tax payers cannot afford has been bad for the country both rich and poor and some come uppance is due. In fact with either party I think 30% public sector cutbacks will be needed before the the borrowing of Brown and the world recession. The traditional Tories who got into power when I went to university like most female mumsnet posters knew how to balance a budget and ran the country like most of us on here - we don't spend what we don't have. Labour never manages that but I know we will sort out the mess - we always do.

What is fairness? If we think everyone shoudl be the same we should have a national cloning programme. If we want everyone educated as well as the private system then just copy that - rules, uniforms, calling teachers Sir, all the stuff that doesn't cost a penny and the private schools do such that they are the envy of the world. The Tories will manage this all well. Mumsnetters have a unique opporunity to turn this nation around.

Seize the day and vote Conservative.

I'm not talking about everyone being the same, I'm talking about equal oppotunities, which is something the Conservatives know little about.

You are right in saying that Labour have taught us little more than how to spend what we don't have. I agree they have been irresponsible and they are wrong to always refer to this financial crisis as a globally created one. They played a significant role in producing the economic mess we are in today. I will not be voting Labour.

However, I believe your memory, Xenia, is very short. How about the stock market crash of 1987? Black Wednesday in 1992? The Tory 'Buy your council house' scheme has led us to the severe shortages we have in social housing today. I could go on and on...

And do you honestly believe that state schools do not have rules, uniforms, polite terms for teachers? Private schools are not the envy of the world and I could find you an awful lot of Mumsnetters who will not be voting Conservative.

I am with you, Xenia.

Sophia, have you ever lived in a council house? Have your family? Maybe they have. My mother was from a council estate - and she, along with her four siblings and all their neighbours, aspired to escape from 'social housing' and council estate life. They aspired to own their own homes, not to wait around for someone else to pick up the pieces for them. Every single one of their generation on that council estate ended up owning their own home, either because they bought their council house or because they worked and moved elsewhere. I can see the argument against making council houses available to buy, but it's okay for me to say this: I'm the well educated and very well off product of my mother's determination for her children to have a very different life from hers. But if you're stuck on a council estate with a government that seems intent on keeping you in poverty (and, therefore, under their thumb), being able to buy your own home is a massive opportunity.

I'd also disagree re. private schools. Whether or not you use or like them, I think you'll find that they are indeed the envy of the world. Why the state system can't emulate the private one, goodness only knows. Again, I can only think it's because of the wretched government ideologues who can't bear to admit that some children are brighter/faster/more talented than others. Keeping all children at the same low level seems to be what's meant by 'equality'.

"The Tory 'Buy your council house' scheme has led us to the severe shortages we have in social housing today. I could go on and on..."

Actually it was labours policy of not allowing local council's to build new council homes that is the problem. Any new build had to be from the private sector, or housing association, who could then build buy/rent homes and private housing.

Labour also cut the 70% reduction on right to buy properties which meant most people could not afford to buy them.

The state education system does not keep children at the same low level. It is this kind of snobbery that keeps our society from evolving. My daughter is three years above her expected levels in maths and literacy and all thanks to a state education. I feel very sorry for you for having such blinkered views.....

The Lib Dems' tax on bankers and refusal to 'modernise' trident will go far in helping to sort out many of society's problems. They have my vote.

Have you ever met a family in social housing in today's generation? The provision is extremely sparce and people often live in squalor. Many of the homes originally bought up by council tenants in the 80's are now owned by greedy landlords who let them through the housing benefit system back to those who really need council housing. This is hardly cost effective and the standard of housing is far poorer than is acceptable.

I'm withdrawing from this thread now, as I suspect we've been infiltrated by Tory lobbyists.

I am not a member of the Tory party. I have no agenda. However I do believe in the free market and letting families take their own decisions. I have seen at first hand the benefits to some working class people of being able to buy their own homeand the social mobility that gave them. I am also old enough to remember when because of the Rent Acts and security of tenure for life at fixed low rents there was very very little private rented housing available in the UK. Those rules were changed and suddenly people were able to let again. Plenty of mumsnetters will also have benefited from being able to buy and rent property.

I don't need people to feel sorry for me as I'm very happy and very lucky but I do know that Conservative policies are much better for Britain and I am sure most mumsnetters will do the right thing on polling day.

I am sure Xenia is not a Tory lobbyist. Neither am I. My 3 DC go to a very good state school. I will be voting Conservative, because I believe in freedom.

"The Lib Dems' tax on bankers and refusal to 'modernise' trident will go far in helping to sort out many of society's problems. They have my vote".

Hmmm, we had better keep our fingers crossed that they decide to stay in the UK - it would be shame to lose the revenue that their taxes bring in.

I'm not a tory lobbiest either and I do live in social housing.

Both my older brother and sister were lucky enough to buy their council houses under the conservatives and get 70% off the purchase price, I however was not so lucky because by the time I was in a postion to buy my house labour had decided that £34,000 off was more than enough to ensure that most people could not afford to buy.

Let's not forget that labour have let in millions of immigrants into this country who also take away social housing from British families by jumping the queue and the lib dems are planning on giving amnesty to lord knows how many more illegals and they will need housing as they will then be entitled to bring over all of their families.

"and refusal to 'modernise' trident will go far in helping to sort out many of society's problems."

No, they have said they will replace trident with a 'cheaper' version (possibly a sailor shouting 'bang' really loudly?), labour have costed the project and opted for the cheapest option, so where will the lib dems find something cheaper I wonder? Hand held stinger type missiles perhaps?

Oh and the reason people live in social housing 'squalor' as you put it is because labour skim 40% off council's social housing for the treasury making it almost impossible for the councils to maintain their properties.

No, I'm not a Tory lobbyist either. However, I am a landlord, and the daughter of a small business owner. I also believe in the free market and in families having the freedom (and responsibility) to make decisions for themselves.

LOL at sailor shouting bang really loudly.

Yes as I said and as AO comments the Tories are the natural choice for self sufficient women particularly those who manage families and budgets well and want control of their lives rather than a bloated state saying - there there pat on the head - just do as you're told by the Big Socialist State and all will be well. Conservatism is the real power to the people.

I haven't read this all, so sorry if I am cutting across the thread...

Observation: one of the problems that the Tories have is that on the big events they made/would have made the same call as Labour e.g. Iraq, allowing the free market to prevail etc. So Clegg can play the part of the true change agent. Just an observation.

Question: Will the debates now herald a move further towards presidential/personality politics per USA?

Either way, good to see NC shake up the old order.

"Observation: one of the problems that the Tories have is that on the big events they made/would have made the same call as Labour e.g. Iraq, "

Errr, no. Sorry, but your wrong, the conservatives wouldn't have voted to go into Iraq if they weren't lied too, hell, I don't think most of the Labour party would have voted to go into Iraq either without Blair and the cabinets lies, campbell pulling the strings, the dodgie dossier and the WMD's, so please don't even go there.

The Labour big wigs own that war, it's on their heads not the conservatives.

But I tell you what it does show, that the lib dems can't be trusted when it comes to defending this country and it's people (with what was thought at the time WMD's pointed at our shores) they made that clear then and they make it clear now, god help the falkland islanders if they ever get in and I suppose they want to give Gibralta back as well incase the spanish say boo.

And we may well be subject to new Spanish influences if Mr Clegg gains any power, the career politician with all those euro expenses we have all been funding revealed in today's Times.

I won't be voting Conservative, simply because of the BSE fiasco back in the 1980's-90's. Lies and cover-ups over the safety of British Beef, and now we know that every child who received certain vaccinations between 1985 - 1996 may have been exposed to the human form of Mad Cows Disease. Unfortunately one minister who was involved in decision making during this time was Kenneth Clarke he remains a prominent figure in todays Tory party,we are seeing the repercussions of his policies from 25 years ago, young people dying from vCJD latest victim currently dying is Dean Burrell aged 25 from Norfolk, poor Dean how did he get this lethal disease, we were told humans could not get this from animals how wrong they were and they knew it.

I will be voting Labour. Gordon Brown is coming across as a decent and honourable man. I think he genuinely cares about the people of this country and he keeps being rubbished by people for no reason other than appearance, lack of smarm and other irrelevancies. The reason we are in such a financial mess is because the Tories destroyed the country leaving us heavily reliant on the financial services sector. Labour couldn't reign in the banks because the banks, the media and the people of this country wouldn't have stood for it. When the people blame Gordon Brown they should look to themselves. Gordon didn't say to people go buy up a street of newly built Barratt houses and rent them out. He didn't say to people go lie to the bank and tell them you earn 60K so they will lend you 300k to buy an overpriced pile of bricks either. Do you think it would have been a vote winner if Gordon had said you shouldn't be allowed that 20th credit card? He could have brought in rent control, he could have asked or even legislated so that people didn't buy their 3rd or 4th house, he could have legislated for tighter bank regulations. He could have and the people (supported by the tories and the media) would have said it was a restriction on their freedom. He and the Labour party have markedly improved the public services of this country let us not forget just how awful the NHS was in the 80s and early 90s. We should have exercised restraint ourselves. And finally, who do you think the party of choice for the bankers was? You can safely say it wasn't Labour.

It was the Tories, not Labour, who originally prevented right to buy income from being used to build more housing. Unfortunately Labour didn't break decisively with Tory housing policy when they first got back in in 1997 - the events of the last 13 years have made it much harder for any government to make that break.

And those of us who work in the public sector are probably putting nearly all our income back into our economy in some way, not hiding it in some tax-dodging investment. I saw some figure that every £1 of public sector pay generates about £5 in the economy (housing, food, council tax, childcare.... Council tax in turn goes towards other workers' wages, and my children's childminder will spend her income on food and clothes etc for her family, and the rest). Does that not mean that cutting public sector jobs and pay will take a lot more out of the economy than it saves? And then there's the hard financial costs of unemployment in benefits, social problems and the rest.

''Do you think it would have been a vote winner if Gordon had said you shouldn't be allowed that 20th credit card? He could have brought in rent control, he could have asked or even legislated so that people didn't buy their 3rd or 4th house, he could have legislated for tighter bank regulations.' So, given his majority in the Commons, why didn't he? It hasn't stopped him with other unpopular policies.

The NHS was fine in the 80s and 90s. I was in hospital twice and didn't get MRSA or C.Diff. I had ds in 1995, and got all the treatment I and ds needed and then some, under the Tories.

I won't be voting Labour, or Lib Dem as I am not pro the spread of EU control. I will be worse off under the Tories, but I trust them on the economy more than the others. Whoever gets in, it is going to be painful for the public sector and there will be a few austere years.