2010 General Elections in Surrey
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Thanks for the opportunity to post on this election forum.
I was thinking about how people decide on which way to vote. In the past, when we were not in the middle of a recession, we would perhaps consider what was in it for us. Maybe one party would be likely to change income tax, or one spend more or less on services like health or the police. One may be strong on law and order and that may appeal to ones personal circumstances. Or raise pensions, or not.

This time round, with all parties looking to reduce government spending, finding policies like these which might benefit the individual will be hard. Instead, we are increasingly being asked to judge which party will be best at pulling the economy out of recession, or least bad at wrecking the threads of recovery. How we can possibly judge that is a mystery. Labour tell us they have the experience, the Tories say Labour are in danger of bankrupting the country. What no party is daring to say in public is that the economy may be beyond recovery, because if they say it, it will probably be the result!

So if we can't decide that way, maybe people will fall back on deciding who would make the best leader. And the possibility of a hung parliament allows us to consider the qualities of Nick Clegg too. The series of televised debates will figure strongly here, with people able to choose how to vote along presidential lines, who actually sounds most sensible or believable.

Next, we can decide by evaluating the local candidates. I think this is a very reasonable idea, as long as we can get at the truth. Perhaps through this forum, we can start to hear some serious viewpoints and not just 'us and them' politics.

The other way to decide on your vote is on political dogma or principle. This way allows one to ignore all the imponderable nonsense of the above, and just to vote for the party which in theory supports your main viewpoint. This is quite an attractive solution, in that we can forget about short term cock-ups caused by individual failings and vote for the long term. Here we have to look at what really gets our goat and makes us want to go outside and saw our head of with a blunt instrument. I will come clean here and nail my colours to the mast. To get this country on its feet, people need to work for a living. Now ignoring the sick (in mind and body) and those who desperately want work but can't find it, we must stop taking the taxes from the hardest working of people and handing it to those who want to avoid work at all cost. Once people find they can sit at home watching daytime television and get accommodation and cash to do so, they will grab it. And the rest of us who believe it is our duty to work hard and create our income are working to pay for them too! So I will vote for whichever party is willing to tell these folk that they are not getting 20% of the money I earn. Even if it takes a decade for the truth to sink in!

Who's with me? Or who's happy to dish out cash to the terminally idle?

It would have saved a great deal of space if you had just come out as a Die-Hard Tory from the first. But, the time spent in reading all that you have said was not entirely wasted.
One point you may have missed, however, is the state of Democracy now and in the future, our future that is on the cards dealt by each of the candidates for the top-job. The present system has failed us all again and perhaps for the last time. Yet, which of the Partys offers anything concrete on this front? Who amongst them is willing to declare that it is they and the others who sat in Parliament these past years who were at fault?
To cut a long story short.
Which Manifesto offers to redress the Democratic deficit?
What I lay out below is what I would have offered the electorate...

Day ONE.

Item 1.
Date of next election + that such election will NOT be under FPTP
Item 2.
Downward reappraisal of Salary and benefits of upper echelon of those paid by the public purse.
Item 3.
Immediate abolition of The House of Lords.
Item 4.
All bonuses to be taxed in excess of %100.
Item 5.
Banking split;hight street, other.

[P.S. I am sorely tempted to apply the Gaming Act (2005) to ALL who profit by speculation]

I feel better.

So much is expected from the populace, the vast majority of which played no part in the destruction of our economy. Yet none offer to hand back any of those powers that have been so abused lately.
Business as usual on all fronts. I do not think that is right.

The Floater Comes To Ground.

I care more than I matter
for me, this is my shame
over all the fluff and chatter
it's "party before people" that I blame

The system works against me
I see red and am oh so blue
the unfairness will not beat me
I know what I must do

I care more than I matter
yet now I have to choose
I do not choose to flatter
for then Democracy shall lose

These are my final words...
I matter-my shame. Chatter-I blame. Me-so blue. Me-must do. I matter-choose. To flatter-Democracyshall lose.