Let's remind ourselves why we fight the good fight

May I remind you all that we had 18 years of a Tory government STEALING money, STEALING people's livelihoods, STEALING rural and northern communities by pushing them into poverty.

The only way to help Britain was to spend spend spend. The money wasn't there to fix everything, because they'd done so much damage. So they spent more. We went into debt because the country needed every penny to make things work again.
People complain about Brown selling our gold, but he was trying to HELP get rid of the debt - they try and do the right thing and people kick off, the hypocrites.

In 18 years they built no new schools, no new hospitals. They let the country shrivel up and die - which is OK as long as their banker buddies are making a shit load isn't it?

Liberal-Labourcrats

So, as we've seen the Lib-Dem's have received a massive boost in support and critical acclaim from even across seas. Indeed, even yours truly finds himself enticed by their opposition to the Digital Economy Bill and the pledge on reform in the House of Lords. But I'm repelled by their complete lack of policy cohesion and a manifesto of numbers that can't add up.

But what's interesting is that Labour are doing exactly what they need to do: kissing Liberal Democrat arse.
Now of course I want Labour to win the coming election, but like so many I recognise the importance of Labour forming a government rather than winning the election. We know that the more likely scenario is a a hung parliament, and both the Tories as well as Labour are making their alliances with much smaller parties and independents. Clegg's Liberal Democrats were already set to be in a powerful position, but with the first leader debate we see a large swing his way, with many of those first time voters that Cameron has been so keen capture realising that actually, cutting public services and overall spending to the degree the Tories propose isn't something that's in everyone's best interest.
That's right, Nick Clegg has snapped 'the mob' out of it's infatuation with a perfect Tory Britain where
everything is just gosh darn hunky dory. So I applaud him.
But back to the point. Alongside Gordon Brown courting Tory favour last night, Lord Adonis (the transport secretary and ex-liberal democrat) announced he would not tell voters whether to back Labour in Lib Dem-Tory marginals. Some might say it's a little bit like the left-wing consensus in the 1997 election where Liberal Democrats voted Labour purely to unhinge the Tory government. Adonis even went as far as to continually emphasise similarities on key issues such as democratic reform (ie. electoral reform, power of recall and parliamentary reform) as well as tax and how to treat the economy to ensure a swift and safe recovery. During the leaders debate the similarities between Liberal Democrats and Labour was again very astounding.

Leaders Debate Numero Uno!

Well.
I think it's clear that Clegg came out on top.

But this isn't a terrible thing. Let's face it, there's going to a be a hung parliament - and that leaves us with 2 options; another election where almost nobody votes Lib-Dem and we see a clear winner Tory or Labour, OR a coalition government (so that's most likely Lib-Lab).
It felt like Brown was courting the Liberal Democrats from the start. I'm surprised there was no cheesy chat up line in his opening statement 'So Clegg, what's a liberal like you doing in a capitalist market economy like this?' .... *tumble weed*
I honestly felt Brown did his best, and came out second. As the incumbent PM he had the most to lose from the debate and the hardest point to argue, and he laid down down the core principles of the campaign - but more importantly, let's not forget that Gordon is very happy about the Tories campaign posters as they showed him smiling, doing more than any editor had done so he's very pleased the Conservatives and even more with Lord Ashcroft for buying it.
Cameron was weak I thought. He seemed very keen on electioneering, he time and time again repeated himself word for word in responses. People apparently supported Cameron's quota system drastically? I honestly couldn't believe this...mostly because it's the third most ridiculous thing the Tories have said (coming behind 'Broken Britain' and the married couples issue).
Although to 'the mob' (ie. the part of the general public that hears one thing, and interprets it as something else) seemed to think that Mr. Brown did terrible (though I agree Nick Clegg came out on top), anyone with eyes can see he flirted his Scottish arse off. Brown knows that what we're facing is a hung parliament, and he knows he can stay PM if he makes a joint Labour-Liberal Democrat cabinet. Nick pushed back a few advances... but come on, after the mediator handed over the issue of reform over to him Nick blushed, and looked a little caught off guard by such advances.

But this has been massively written about, dozens of bloggers have had a field day dissecting each statement, so I saw little point in analysing each of the question answers here on my blog ( I kind of did that as it went along...although this mostly consisted of 'I'd like you to back up that statement Cameron!' or 'Oh suuure Nick, you say that but really? REALLY?!' As I sometimes get over involved in TV debates...I'm terrible at watching Question Time, I always end up turning on the audience more than anything).

But my conclusion is that polls may give Clegg a temporary boost, but I highly doubt that it will affect to actual polls as much as the panels and 'the mob' seemed to indicate.
I had a half hour long talk with a 'hardcore' floating voter, the minority of the population who a) give a toss and b) know anything of substance about politics. Those kinds of voters are too few and far between though for major politicians to care about - so they fight for the marginals.

We need electoral reform yes? We need a political overhaul yes? Then you can't go Tory, Cameron threw the old "you've had 13 years!" at Brown, but just remember, the Tories had a lot longer, opposed it when Labour goes for it and made no indication they'll support it should they win.
The Liberal Democrats are flawed, it's in their very base code to not actually work... they can't make things add up and they fail to have a single cohesive party, saying one thing on a national level and then another on a local level.
Labour is not just your only real choice, it's also the right choice.

Caught red (or should i say blue) handed.

So the Conservatives have given us their manifesto.
I'm not going to give you a full commentary and examination, as I promise you countless others have at almost every major newspaper (the sun, mirror and daily mail don't count as newspapers - they're what we call b*ll sh*t) in the country.
Now, what I am going to do is do a very very quick bit on some of their statistics.

You know an election has started when politicians produce huge amounts of statistics. It seems David Cameron is no exception.
As you can see in this graph, it appears Labour have failed on their promise to recycle more and we're the laughing stock of Europe with our poor recycling statistics. However they left out a little bit of information...
That there is the original document the Tory party quoted from. They decided that composting doesn't count as recycling, however it is recognised defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs).

On top of this, the conservatives also failed to mention their statistics were old statistics. Compared to the new official ones we actually measure up quite well. Total waste cut, waste recycled increased, and waste per head decreased. We're constantly improving when the tories would paint the picture we're failing.
And let's not forget that world wide we measure up very well.

If they're prepared to take things drastically out of context in their manifesto - how can we expect any better if they form a government?

Same old song and dance

First I need to apologise for having failed to update my blog in almost a week, but truth be told there wasn't that much I could write about that hadn't already been over written about...
However I felt it was time to look at some of the key aspects of Cameron's campaign.

Cameron calls himself a "progressive'', Mr Compassionate Conservative....like George Bush....But the problem is, that by definition a conservative cannot be a progressive. Cameron claims the title "progressive" because he's a master of PR, he knows whenever one party stays in power for an extended amount of time, that it' easy to offer people the one, massively broad concept of 'change'.
Anyone can offer it, but on it's own it's nothing more than a promise of 'anything that you don't already have'.

Cameron's only real claim to being a "progressive" is progressing Thatcher's ideals. On the surface he's a family guy, rides a bike to be kind to the environment, wants equality.
In reality he wants to;

• Cut SureStart which has helped nearly 500,000 children out of poverty.
• The bulk of his party don't even acknowledge that humans are causing climate change. 
• His shadow Home Secretary opposed protection for gay people.

On top of this, how is a return to the failed economic policies of the 1980's progress? How is sink or swim progress? How is cutting public services, cutting benefits and letting unemployment run rampant progress?

He's already pledged to cut 40,000 public services jobs...can anyone say closure of the mines?
Cameron has time and time again opposed the education reforms which have recently (as seen in improved GCSE grades on average) come into fruition. And his opposition to sex education in schools, which was introduced to help combat Cameron's proclaimed 'Broken Britain', seems self defeating in my eyes.


And since it's in the news: it's worth mentioning that the 68 companies backing the Tories over National Insurance (Labour preferring a rise, Tory party opposing it) are often referred to as being over a million employees opposing the rise. It's funny, because I was under the impression that all 68 were lead from the top, and were not worker co-operatives...so how can they claim they represent the views of their employees? I thought that was the job of trade unions and the like...the majority of which throw their support behind the Labour Party and not the Conservatives...funny how things work out isn't it?

Singleton Tax

So one of the policies Cameron has been keen to implement is his tax on single people.

Now of course, Cameron doesn't phrase it that way, he says it's a tax cut for married couples (of course the Tories don't recognise same sex marriage).
On the surface it may look like the Tories are trying to hold together traditional family values, a nuclear family, but scratch beneath the surface and yet again we see what the effects of such a tax cut would be; giving money to those already better off.

A married couple is already better off, they have two household incomes.
Married couples account for less than 50 percent of the UK population
Most of those getting married are middle and upper classes, as even ex-Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith pointed out.

And what about those who are single through no fault of their own? 
The 3.3 million widowers
The divorcees from violent marriages
What about those people?

The Tories are yet again favouring the already well off.

And do they really think that offering a tax cut will suddenly solve the constant drops in those getting married? All this would encourage is rash and ill thought out marriages for financial benefit - and the end result of that? Divorce.
Another question - what gives any government the right to say that married people are somehow more deserving of tax cuts and single people not? I wonder how many key people, local heroes and community leaders are single. I really can't see the angle they are coming from.

You'll probably be saying ''Well it's a better environment for children, so it's fair to endorse it''. Well then...
Children born and raised within wedlock are NOT guaranteed to have some amazing upbringing. It's a myth.
Children can be brought up within a nuclear style family, but then prove to be unruly, violent and worse.
Having two parents bringing up a child does not mean that child will be ''good''.

The fact that less and less people are deciding to get married at all (falling by between 100,000 and 150,000 each year in recent years since its peak in 1972 ) the Tories show just how outdated they are. Couple this with the flourishing civil partnerships (that's the gay 'equivalent' of the marriage they're not allowed) the Toy party really needs to look at what's right in front of them.

Overly-favour married couples - Marriage swiftly declining
They oppose gay marriage - Partnerships flourishing

When will the Tories make an accurate and up-to-date call?

Brokeded Britain

So we keep hearing about this ''Broken Britain''.
And by keep hearing, I mean repeated over and over by Tory 'Strategists' (I use the term loosely, after all running back to Saatchi - a strategy? Pff...) of course.

So yes, apparently we're broken. When you see a old woman trying to cross the road during rush hour and the traffic doesn't let up - it's because society is broken.
When passers by don't leap heroically onto the road to help the woman cross - it's because our sense of morality has degraded.
When you skip that red light, because you're in a rush and nobody is crossing - it's because the social impact of having 'hand-outs' has conditioned you into believing that you can do what you want when you want without consequences.

But fear not! David Cameron has a plan!
That's right! That old woman you didn't help across the street? She's gonna bust your ass.
No, but in all seriousness - have you seen the wording used? 'Dormant bank and building society accounts', who makes that decision? 'Payment-by-Results', again, who makes the call? the entire article is laden with phrases that are open to interpretation.

I'd like to challenge whether or not Britain is in fact 'broken'. What evidence do the Tories actually have?
Teenage pregnancies and knife crime are two Tory favourites;

• Teenage Pregnancies have gone down and down since the 1970's, being almost half they were then.
• Knife crime is constantly lowering, lower now than under previous Tory governments.

So yeah, I guess constantly improving must be a sign we're broken....
You go the now famous Glasgow Easterhouse estate, and ask the residence if things are getting worse. Oh wait, people already have; the money being poured into these areas under Labour has benefited so many, creating opportunities such as jobs and better education. A new school has been built in the area alongside a large shopping complex opening up jobs, which combined with education has led to aspirations not just to work there, but to one day manage it.

Before you buy Tory shares, why not actually look at them (No, not the airbrushed for change, I mean their "policies") Which Labour have time and time again exposed as weak and in some cases, plain wrong.

Ok, so multiple people have said they doubted my figures. In fact my figures are deadly accurate backed up by government statistics and in clear view of the public here. 

Got to the title 'Trends in teenage pregnancy' and you'll see the numbers.