In a flash. This last 9 months has been basically a mopping up excercise following the that the slack jawed one eyed gobe made of the country.

What I will never understand (and I include my parents in this) is why someone ALWAYS votes a particular way irrespective of what they're offering, because either their family have always voted that way or they just do.

Yvette Cooper failed to get the nomination to be Labour candidate for one of the Warrington constituencies in 1997.

Why blame Clegg for the student fees rise. It's a policy by Cameron.

Fair enough he made an u turn on that but Cameron has made that may U turns he will end up back where he started. Only thing Labour needs to do is get a decent Leader and play the Libs off against the Cons next election and they will walk in. Especially if the Condems get the full term as by then most services will have less people working for them.

Biggest issue though is why have they hammerd the poor and working classes and let the banks get away with it. WHY becasue they bank roll them.

Because no fees for students was one of the major policys from the lib dems, and it wasn't a Tory one. That plus the fact that after the coalition was announced they still stated they weren't going to back down on those major policys.

Essentially it was expected from the tories, but it just shows how little impact the Lib Dems have and easily they sell out for a little power.

I agree with what someone said about Ed Milliband, he just looks stupid. Much rather have had David leading the party, at least he looks the part.

I don't think theres masses of direct contributions from the banks to Conservative party funds but the Tory front benchers have got one eye on an executive board position with a bank after they retire/are forced out over some scandal, where they'll attend about 4 board meetings a year and draw a £200k salary for it etc. So the banks have some of the politicians locked in on that one.

There was something in this months Bank of England Financial Stability Review which was very revealing about how much the banks benefit from the tax payers' guarantee, which Robert Peston blogged about on the BBC website. Because the largest banks have got taxpayer guarantee (ie if they go bust, depositors will have their savings guaranteed by the UK taxpayer), those banks get to borrow at a lower rate of interest than other banks do, its the same idea as if you were able to tell your mortgage provider that HM Government would meet your repayments if you weren't able to, they would let you have a super low rate on your mortgage because they aren't taking any risk.

Because those banks can borrow cheaply, and lend at the rates that they set themselves, that obviously helps them make money through borrowing from one source and lending to others at a higher rate.

The Bank of England estimates the "implicit value" of that taxpayers guarantee, at being worth £50bn in 2008 and £100bn in 2009, without those margins, the four big banks would not be making profits AT ALL. So if the government was to talk tough and say, these are the rules, don't pay any bonuses this year, offer low rates to small businesses and so on, when the Banks started to talk tough in response and say the government should keep its nose out, all the government needs do is say OK we will remove the taxpayers guarantee to allow the banks their independence, and then next time those banks try to borrow money they will start facing sky high rates of interest which will soon make them come back cap in hand to government to ask for the taxpayers guarantee back.

Ive heard some b....cks in my time but the above statement takes the biscuit !!
I would class myself as exactly what you describe - middle class professional, who owned his own property during the late 1990's.
Am I better off.....NO
Was I better off....NO
Has the property price increase affected my disposable income......NO
Has the property price fall affected me...NO (you can work out why I trust)
Has my tax burden risen over the last 10 years.....YES


Don't ever forget it is exactly the likes of me that gets hit every which way, MIDDLE ENGLAND, it always does, has and will.
I work bloody hard to keep my family together and bring them up in the right way, provide for them and try and make them good people, and if your statement was aimed at those of us who have done well and buy our own properties on the back of it.....guilty as charged.
I have worked abroad in so called 1st World Countries as well as 3rd, and anyone who knocks the NHS....go try it somehwere else, come back and tell me its not superb.

Anyone who tells you that we would be in a much better position had the coalition not got in and things remained the same under Labour, doesn't know much.
Who was it sold all our gold reserves at such a knock down price ?
Who made it 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' ?
Who led us into an illegal war, with no exit plan, just so they could kowtow to the USA ?

I am not a Conservative/Lib Dem supporter, but neither am I so narrow minded as to consider voting for only ever 1 Party - NONE of them are any good, and only their for themselves.

To the guy who said he hadn't voted since 78, till someone brings back the death penalty and public flogging...maybe he migt wish to go and spend a few months in Saudi, or any other Sharia led/Dictatorship Regime.....you might just change your mind.

(Can tell its the off season can't you.....)