Come the general election, I currently intend to vote..

[RichardCranium]

What labour have at last finally proven beyond any doubt whatsoever is that there is nothing moral about socialism

Sadly, New Labour aren't even a socialist party so that's something else they've managed to tarnish with their incompetence.

and that "representatives of the people" (labour MPs) are as much if not more on the make than Tories.

I don't think anyone with a decent long term memory can argue with that.

[NickFitz]

Anyway, we'll have a national emergency and the election will be cancelled.

Expect a jet smashing into Birmingham/Manchester/Liverpool/Leeds* sometime soon.

*delete as appropriate

Outside the M25? That wouldn't be seen as a national emergency

[northernladuk]

Outside the M25? That wouldn't be seen as a national emergency

Wouldn't they write that off as natural selection and close the case and start planning the next one??

[d000hg]

I'm pretty sure where I live (Durham) is a strong Labour seat, we get those LibDem "a Tory vote helps Labour" flyers through the door.

Unless I forget how a general election works (never voted in one before), shouldn't we be voting for who we want to stand as our local MP, regardless of party? e.g if the local Labour guy has a great reputation for actually getting stuff done, vote Labour even if you are a Tory on policy issues because the local Tory is useless?

[Platypus]

Unless I forget how a general election works (never voted in one before), shouldn't we be voting for who we want to stand as our local MP, regardless of party? e.g if the local Labour guy has a great reputation for actually getting stuff done, vote Labour even if you are a Tory on policy issues because the local Tory is useless?

No - your local MP doesn't set tax policy or declare wars on people. Look at the national issues

[swamp]

Labour have reached 4 votes now. I'm really cross. What do people round here think this is? A democracy?!

[d000hg]

No - your local MP doesn't set tax policy or declare wars on people. Look at the national issues

So I should vote for someone who I think will be bad not just for me personally but the entire town where I live? You're living in some kind of idealistic dreamland.

[Gonzo]

So vote Monster Raving Loony for a protest.

Screaming Lord Sutch would have made such a good Prime Minister.

[RichardCranium]

Screaming Lord Sutch would have made such a good Prime Minister.

WHS.

[Gonzo]

Because ideologically Tory governments are naturally laissez faire. They do not believe in the state controlling our lives and nor are they motivated by envy.

I agree whole-heartedly with that.

Historically the Tories are better than at managing money.

Sadly this is too simplistic, the Tories have a long a track-record of screwing up the economy with inflationary booms.

"Good luck, old cock," Reginald Maudling chirruped as he left 11 Downing Street for the last time, in October 1964. "Sorry to leave it in such a mess." The old cock in question was Jim Callaghan, and Maudling wasn't apologising about the wallpaper. A year and a half earlier, fearful for the Tories' prospects at the next election, Maudling had cut taxes by £260m and made what became known as his "dash for growth". Alas, far from bringing an end to the postwar cycle of stop-go economics, Maudling succeeded only in speeding it up. The average Brit chose to spend his new-found wealth on foreign imports. Forget the dash for growth - this was cash for sloth, and the balance of payments deficit was reddening by the hour. Not so Maudling's face. Four months before his feared election loss came to pass, he told his Labour shadow that there was no need to panic. None the less, he counselled Callaghan, if you should become the next chancellor, you might like to think about organising a loan from the European central banks. * Christopher Bray's review of "White Heat: a history of Britain in the Swinging Sixties" by Dominic Sandbrook in the New Statesman

The 1964-1970 Labour government got the country out of that mess, eventually, using the tried-and-trusted devaluation technique.

Anthony Barber (Conservative) stoked up an inflationary boom in 1972-1973, granted there were external factors at play and neither party comes out of the 1970s showered in glory, but ...

Nigel Lawson (Conservative) stoked up an inflationary boom in 1988-1990 which again took a currency devaluation to sort out (leaving the ERM).

The current Labour government started quite well, establishing its' economic credibility by making the BofE independent (unfortunately the inflation measure targeted does not include asset prices which has caused an inflationary boom in another way), sticking to Conservative spending plans and establishing the "Golden Rule".

Sadly we now know that that golden rule was a sham that Gordon only got away with it because the economy was booming and "prudence" was a lie.

So don't I think that the "Tories = good with money, Labour = bad with money" assertion holds true. It's all luck rather than judgement.

I won't be voting though because its not really any of my business any longer.