Very Good. I think that's been used before though - anything fresh to offer?

Raising Income Tax rather than National Insurance would affect those who have retired and pay tax but not NI. So which is fairer, asking workers and employers for another 1% NI, or asking everybody, including those on fixed incomes, for another 1%?
Why have the Tory party now identified £6 billion efficiency savings when, only recently, they derided the Government's own efficiency savings as fantasy?
George Osborne says he has no plans to raise VAT.
I remember another Tory chancellor saying exactly the same thing years ago, and then doubled VAT.
Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true!

Bolton West looks like a tight seat

I think this thread requires an idiot's guide to politics, so that folk can get a more simple way of finding out what they can expect from the 2 main parties, rather than all this serious debate, which while enthrallinmg for some of us, may be a tad tedious for others.

So here goes my best attempt....

LABOUR - Most of the time their hearts are in the right place, wanting to please everybody and trying to right the wrongs of previous generations...However, this ultimately can be their downfall, as by attempting to do this, they just seem to alienate the masses, who see them as a bunch of liberal do-gooders.....Their re-building of thousands of decaying schools has been a fantastic acheivement. Critics will claim that this spending is part of the reason we are in such a financial mess, but the mess the Tories had left this sector in was absolutely scandalous, and in my eyes this rebuilding programme has been an unqualified success....On the downside, their most obvious mistake has been immigration, which while not the mess that the Daily Mail would have us believe, is very close to a fiasco, with massive under estimation of numbers being the most startling error.

CONSERVATIVE - The party for business....Or in other words, the party for the rich, the Tories are like that craggy old dog that looks all harmless, until you let it get too close and then it bites your hand off. They are actually a clever bunch, but they spend far too much time making sure that those who vote against them suffer for daring to do this.....Just remember, this is the party that claims to be wanting to fix our broken society, whilst failing to mention that during their last reign, the Emperess Thatcher destroyed communities the country over, all because of a petty squabble with a man called Arthur Scargill, thus sparking the 'broken' society we are now burdened with.

Hope this simple guide might help some out there....Feel free to ask any questions....

What about Clause IV and Blair's continuation of the centre-right Thatcher idealogy?

This argument always puzzles me, it like saying I'm the best person to save you from drowning because i'm the one who pushed you in!

This 1% NI issue is getting farcical, how much time is going to be wasted talking about it. Yes I can understand the issues in the debate but we are talking 1% which is not going to be a deal breaker either way. It will be an inconvenience for business and yes for small businesses it might make them think twice about taking on new staff, but it is not going to plunge the economy back into recession like the Tories are claiming. Neither is it going to "safeguard schools and hospitals" like Gordon Brown is saying.

It's not business leaders who are being deceived its all of the media who is being deceived by being lulled into spending the whole campaign talking about this. Really they should be putting the hard questions to both parties like -

what rate will VAT be? (probably 18-20%)
how much will the basic rate of income tax go up? (probably 2-4%)
how much will student fees go up? (probably from £3225 to about £7000)
how many redundancies will be made in the public sector? (probably 300000-600000)

Given how people were so angry about the expenses scandal last year, I anticipate a similar outcry of public anger against politicians, when, whoever gets in, the real policies targeted at paying back the debt come in next year, and it will be based on things which were not talked about during the election campaign.

But for the meantime expect more heated debate about the 1% increase in National Insurance. The Health Secretary will soon be adding his name to that letter in the papers opposing it, he employs far more staff than Stuart Rose or Stelios Easyjet

Blair deemed the old Labour Party as unelectable and set out to modernise it, leading to the New Labour landslide in '97....His obvious admiration for Thatcher was, I believe, more based on her steel-grip like leadership of the Tories and not as much her wicked witch impersonation.

Similarly, Cameron knew that the 'old' Tories were unelectable and has set himself up as Blair II....Only Blair did have a few brain cells and a pair of balls, neither of which Cameron has.

I prefer my "I think that we are in the situation that it comes down to the basic philosophy of the parties and deep down I think Labour MPs want to do good for the whole of society through their interventions whereas the Tories think that individuals come first and that will create a better society. Both are trying to manage a system better than the other." although I think we're basically saying the same.

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8608807.stmNational Citizen Service[/url

Not a bad idea from the Tories this, but if it's voluntary it won't really hit the people who need it, will it?

I hate politics.

I love it (in case you hadn't realised).

Lol it just bores me to tears

Don't bother with a thread about Politics then

Is this about politics.. i thought it was about the National sorry.

Probably used before because it's true.

'Vote Green: It's a pretty colour.'

snowy morning

a racing cert.

From what I can understand the National Citizen Service is voluntary on the basis that if teens don't like being forced to do things. A lot of work has gone into it, in fact it is mentioned as far back as in Dylan Jones' 2008 book Cameron on Cameron.

Make it one of the options to fulfil (at least in part) the requirement to do something in order to receive benefit as per the Select Committee's [url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8607014.stmreport[/url?

Stop derailing the thread.

The last 13-years have been a disaster for education and training - those who have been through it should feel hugely let down. There's been no joined up thinking to maximise the return on the effort from one side and the resources by the other - an absolute shambles.

The National Curriculum is now too big, teachers have no freedom in what to teach Students, despite their experience and knowledge being far greater than that of a Civil Servant sat in Whitehall

some of you may find this interesting www.voterpower.org.uk/

some of you may find this interesting www.voterpower.org.uk/