So...why do we hate the Conservatives so much?

[Chulita]

And why do we think Labour has anything left to offer after 13 years?

Just wondering...

[Tinasan]

"My personal view is that the whole tax system is wrong and should be calculated along the same lines as the tax credits system ie per household rather than per individual. If you as a couple earn say £100k between you you are going to pay signifficantly less tax than an individual who earns £100k. And yet if you as a couple earn more than £59k you lose your entitlement to tax credits. So the tax system is actually still balanced in favour of the "rich" as some put it, because "rich" couples are still not being taxed fairly compared to rich individuals"

Sorry Wannabe, my brain is probably just not functioning as am completely knackered but I don't get the point you are trying to make. You say that rich couples are better off if they are both earning as they individually pay less tax, but your logic in the last part of your post then seems to contradict this?

[MagicMountain]

I remember the 80s, Thatcherism and all that.

Don't for one minute believe that caring Conservatism tripe, not least because of those dubious European alliances that have surfaced.

[newyorkshire]

wealth created by Thatcher?

You are having a laugh arn't you?

[BelleDameSansMerci]

I, personally, would be better off under a Tory administration (despite them despising my single parent status) but I voted Labour yesterday.

I always feel that a vote for the Conservatives is generally placed for selfish reasons (sorry but I don't think they will be able to fix the economy with their plans) and a vote for Labour is, these days, for the greater good.

I do remember the 70s and 80s (I'm 44). The Conservatives don't seem any different to me now than they did then. The Labour party are different now.

[BelleDameSansMerci]

The "wealth" Thatcher created was propped up by the revenues from North Sea Oil. We were slightly misled, I believe (happy to be corrected if I'm wrong).

[newyorkshire]

I am and Labour is for creating wealth.

However, there is wealth at expense of others and there is wealth that is FAIR.

[BelleDameSansMerci]

Also, and this seems to be often forgotten, it's highly unlikely that she would have won a second term if it hadn't been for the war in the Falklands.

[DavidHameron]

Someone said before the election, Tory voters vote for what they will get from it; Labour voters vote for what others will get from it.

That just about sums it up for me. I can't bear the Tory blindness about how people really have to live, as if you can just ignore poverty and it will go away.

And their moral hatred of difference is chilling: however much Dave tries to convince people how 'naice' he is, the first things they would have done with a majority would be to turn back the good work on equality, rights and fairness that the last few years have brought in.

[newyorkshire]

David, even more chilling is that they still probably will.

[OrmRenewed]

The last Tory administration was responsible for killing off our manufacturing industry and making us a nation of 'service providers'. And now all the call centres are relocating somewhere better Yeah well done tories....

[Chil1234]

36% of the people who voted yesterday don't hate the Tories... On the other hand, if you've lost people in the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, were a victim of the hastily re-written 10% tax abolition, are worried about the erosion of civil liberties (ID cards, DNA database, 90 days detention without trial), have seen the return on your savings halve and are fed up paying through the nose in tax for nothing in return.... then you'll be quite sure Labour has done all it should be allowed to get away with.

[OrmRenewed]

Some of have longer memories.

Mistakes are one thing. Deliberate callous destruction of a nation's character, culture and industry is another.

[BelleDameSansMerci]

And, let's not forget, the Tories fully supported the deployment of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan...

[Chulita]

Lib Dems seem to be the only ones who aren't in favour of the Trident/strong military country business.

[Chil1234]

I have a longer memory of pre-Thatcher Britain.... bodies unburied at grave-yards, three day weeks, power cuts, strikes, wage-freezes, rubbish piling up in the streets, 34% basic rate of income tax, Britain going to the IMF for handouts...

That's why Labour lost against the odds in 1992. Because people were frightened it would happen all over again. And guess what!?

[BelleDameSansMerci]

Chil1234, genuine question - wasn't the three day week under Edward Heath?

[Nettiespagetti]

I tried very hard to vote Tory as i work in a small business and they will hopefully support small businesses and think VAT on everyone would be better than National Insurance increase which will not ony affect the individual but the huge amount of small business owners who are emplying staff and having to pay the employers contribution. This would undoubtedly increase too! This quite possibly mean loss of jobs in our firm alone where we currently employ 10 people on more than the minimum wage requirement.

But being a parent of 2 DC and making full use of Tax Credits, Childcare Vouchers and Surestart Children Centres i am concerned about the effect that will have on me and my family. My DC attend nursery 2.5 days a week and without that and the preschool funding my nursery payments would be akin to a months mortgage payment for a lot of people. I have family and friends who are less well off than we are and this would dramatically affect their ability to be a two earner household and pay for childcare. Which would result in loss of nursery place, job and ultimately home!!

I am also Scottish 80's child and marched through westminster as a student during Major's time demonstrating against the abolishing of grants and the implementation of Student Loans which i still have!!

The real question for me is why have they given me no option but to hate them and their whole ethos.

So befuzzked and confused and dont feel despite my many hours reading and digesting and trying to decide who to vote for that the overall decision i made was right but i could not in all honesty vote Tory!!

[drosophila]

I don't hate the tories I just worry that they are not as different as they pretend. Here is one man's view www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/04/why-i-hate-tories-david-cameron

[gaelicsheep]

Erm Nettiespagetti - have you forgotten that it is Labour that wants to abolish childcare vouchers?!

[goodnightmoon]

the wealthy have become far wealthier under Labour than they ever did under Conservatives, and the division between rich and poor is greater than 13 years ago.

As a higher-earning family, I think it's ludicrous that we receive child benefit at all. And I certainly wouldn't want child tax credit, the money should go to people who really need it, as the Tories say.

I do believe in vouchers though - otherwise it wouldn't have been worth it for me to go back to work. So that was a strike against Labour when they wanted to repeal them.

Re: student loans - it is a true luxury for all students to expect their tuition to be paid by the government, no matter how frivolous their intentions or course. It is certainly not impossible to repay student loans and the terms here are more than fair.

[ItsGrimUpNorth]

Goodnightmoon, please can you find figures to substantiate your claims about the division of wealth?

If it is the case then why would the rich vote Tory when they've done so well under Labour? Weird.

And since when is education a 'luxury'? In Toryville, yes where they like to keep education for the rich only so that power can be kept in smaller circles.

[gaelicsheep]

I'd consider many of the more pointless degree courses to be a luxury myself. What isn't a luxury is further education to help adults re-skill and get back to work. The former people want to be free. The latter always needs to be paid for. It's completely wrong. And I agree that the terms of student loan repayments are very far from onerous.

[Tortington]

dont think labour had much to offer. i think they would all be in a hard place considering theecomony, europe falling apart, the national debt - theres nowt to do but tax us one way or another

however the principle stands that tories royally fuck poor people up the arse

and tenderly lick the balls of the rich

[DuelingFanjo]

because the conservatives take from the poor and give to the rich.
They don't fund community regeneration properly. they don't see the importance of education and rehabilitation but prefer to punnish people rather than try to help them. They take money away from services which benefit the people who need them the most like the homeless, the disabled, those in poverty.

They are homphobic in the main, they hate single parent families, they put too much faith in the idea of the 'ideal' family, marriage etc.

Mostly they think that people who just can't stand on their own two feet for whatever complex reasons should be MADE to stand on their feet by having assistance taken away from them.