Consider this.....please???......I'm worried for our future

[LakeDistrictLardArse]

It appears most people have the view that all parties are pretty much the same and lets face it we don?t really trust any of them that much.

However there does seem to be an overriding difference between the three parties that stands out a mile and that has a huge impact on us all i.e. it appears that only the Conservatives believes that we should have freedom and that the state should not control our lives, for example:

1. That the state should not take more and more of our hard earned money and decide how it is spent (and very often spend it far less efficiently than us)
2. That the state should not be allowed to tell us what we can or cannot do every minute of the day (and then ironically not deal very well with crime).
3. That the state should not tie us all up in ever increasing red tape and legislation whether you are a business, a teacher, a medical professional, a Police officer etc. etc.
4. That the state should not take it upon themselves to give away our sovereignty and rights to Europe without asking us first (and lets not forget the many who died in wars fighting for our rights and sovereignty).
5. The list goes on and on.

If the above is important to us it appears that the Conservatives are the only choice.
We know what Labour are about in terms of the state (we have seen it in practice for 13 years) and it looks like the Liberals are no different (just hopefully a lot nicer, cleaner and charming about it). PS I am not a troll btw just in case you were wondering

Blimey. I can't believe you attacked Weegiemum like that

How bloody dare you?

Has anyone looked at our new friends posting history? Yes, she has one (all be it 48 hours worth). If this is a politroll - then they are evolving very quickly.......By the next election campaign they will be fully embedded!!

Until Labour got into power, I was earning £2.65 an hour (yes, this was 1997) in a 'small business enterprise' with a man who considered it his God given right to only employ women because 'men have to be paid too much'. In 1997.

When the minimum wage came in two years later, he was furious. he ranted and shouted about how it would destroy his business (it didn't at all, by the way) and my wage went up by £40 a week - a nearly 40% rise was needed to take me to the minimum possible living wage!

And the Conservatives would have been perfectly happy for him to pay me peanuts and milk the profits.

Had I not still been living with my parents, I'd have been better off as a Roman slave - they had to have a certain standard of accomodation, and 2 or 3 nutritious meals a day. I could not have afforded this on my pitiful wage before Labour brought in the minimum wage. I would not have survived under a Tory government and I have no idea how people did.

No thanks, I shan't be voting Tory, but thanks all the same.

PS glad to hear you're not at troll.

Here - note how all the fair Wage Councils were abolished under Thatcher...

((shhh still secretly here! Never been saluted before!!! ))

LDLA- cooo-eee! where have you gone??

Well the OP has convinced me....

to vote Labour.

weegiemum, you are the best, now duck down as I think LDLA might be back any minute

A Tory attacking public sector employees? Am shocked, shocked I tell you...

Oh my my my...sensitive lot aren't you??? I take it is OK to give an opinion as long as you all agree with it? Well thats very broad minded of you. Should have expected this kind of response late afternoon, all the conservatives will still be out at work I suppose??? Oh and Weegiemum, what exactly are you reporting my OP for, for expressing my opinion that differs from yours??? Are you going to give me lines next? . Anyway, this discussion point has gone well...I'm off now to roam my 1000 acre estate in my Bentley and to take out my frustrations on the peasant workers if they don't tug their forelocks and doff their caps at me(and before you all start hopping up and down, I am joking....I've actually got a Rolls Royce ) Nighty night.

Yeah, I had a feeling 'health and safety gone mad' might come into it.

Like pronoia's experience of the minimum wage (anyone else remember how cross the CBI were about introducing that? World was going to fall apart?), I think a lot of H&S legislation is very sensible.
Amazing numbers of people are killed and injured at work, often in truly hideous ways, simply because employers can't be arsed to train them properly or spend a few quid on safety equipment.

And a lot of 'H&S gone mad' stuff you see in the papers is to do with the perception of people's readiness to sue, rather than any legislation.

Incidentally, in law, you are allowed to use 'reasonable force' to defend yourself. Shooting a burglar in the back as he's running away (for example) is unlkely to be considered 'reasonable force' by any British jury.

said I think you are onto something about reverse psychology. Some of the posters on here are so unhinged it goes against them.

herbietea it was under Thatcher that the banks were deregulated and this has contributed considerably the current reccession.

I am not a political expert (as you can probably tell ) but I also feel/remember that it was under Thatcher that the house buying obsession began - starting really with the sale of council houses and the instruction that the money from these sales could not be reinvested into further housing or to improving remaining housing stock. That push for everyone to own their own home created a massive increase in mortgages (thus lots of lovely profit for the banks) and personal debt (see our last recession). This attitude has never gone away - to the point where to live in local authority housing is stigmatised in some areas. This absolute belief in the right to own your own home, regardless of whether you can actually afford it or not, and the ready availability of credit - a lot of it secured on the home - is a part of our current economic situation.

Like I said, I'm no expert but I can remember all too well the last Tory administration and it was a lot, lot worse than Labour. How said is that - I'm making my voting choice based on which party I consider to be least bad!

ooooh get you and your nasty little dig about people who work late.

Just because no one has really agreed with you, there is no need to flounce! Oh wait this is a new poster and a very new thread, flounce on!

Well gee op, I guess I was just being silly considering voting anything else other than Con.

Oh Lord I can't even be bothered.

"Tories = keeping the money to themselves, passing it on to their children, paying less tax for the rich (so therefore proportionally more for the poor).

Utterly protectionist party, only interested in increasing the gap between rich and poor. "

Thank you very much for tarring me with that brush some of us are actually single working mums who's ends would necessarily meet if we were made of elastic maybe I just have a thing for william hague or maybe after 13 years of Labour I would actually like a change but wouldn't go as far as to want to join the euro or have PR that would allow the bnp seats for obverall votes and i'm not taken in by cleggyboy talking into the camera , but I can assure you the only thing (apart from dvs and such ) I have to pass onto my children is a reasonable life insurance policy (which i'm sure they have already mentally spent and some words of advice "don't ever vote Labour" .

Phew icons are hard work, can we actually have some we can click on please MNHQ?

'weegiemum Aahhhh! A teacher and a doctor eh? Makes a bit more sense now, public sector employees, no particular interest in stimulating the economy and as a teacher you will want the ridiculous anti-home education rules they advocate.'

I'd be a bit less offensive if I were you OP. Many public servants may vote Tory; before you slag them off perhaps you'd like to fly to Afghanistan and Iraq to meet some of them?

I'm a teacher and I agree that people should be able to home ed and I believe in using private education if that suits your child and circumstances best, and this whilst I worked in the public sector. I also vote Tory, so bang goes your stereotype.

Atlantis, is it the baldness or the reassuring accent with Mr Hague?

This is the first time I have ever been on this site and I am astonished at how you treat new people who post on the discussion boards so I guess I am now going to get the same treatment but hey ho! Its like bullying the new kid on the playground! Its not very nice as LDLA was only expressing her opinion like you all have so what is the harm in that? I think if any of you took the poll on the Telegraph or the Sky Tv websites (you answer lots of questions then it tells you who you should vote based on your answers)then alot of you would be more right wing than you think!

Name changing LDLA?

That didnt take long for the snipes to start. Nope not all and Im sure I will be proven when LDLA posts again and then you will owe me an apology!

I wonder how it is possible to practice 'tying up people with health and safety'? They seem such intangible things to tie people up with.

Moving away from the literal, what's wrong with a bit of health and safety? I enjoy being healthy, as does my family, and I like a bit of safety as well. Most people do. I don't feel fettered by that.

You are perfectly entitled to throw off the shackles of health and safety. You could, for instance, throw health and safety to the winds and jump off a bridge ...