I think I have to agree, if C&N is lost, then the 42 Days it's entirely likely we'll see a genuine period of drift where the lights are on but nobody is at the helm. I also don't feel Miliband has any real drive to work as a leader of the party, as much as his PR people bang the drum on that regard I just cannot see it in his eyes or in the way he speaks.

James Purnell and Alexander Douglas seem to be more firebrand leaders to me, but that's a personal opinion 

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So the Tories show their true colours, the 10p tax and was for Labour voters only and the Tories don't care abour it.

As for the maths, do us a favour, the governments finances are in reasonable shape and this "Labour have run out of money" line you lot are trying to spin is pure BS. 

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Really? Obvious?

Anyone can rattle off a stream of numbers with a little indignation at appropriate points. It's what those numbers mean that's important.

 I submit the following meaning:

The government has overspent a little in this years budget, however this is nothing amazingly exceptional and the economy is basically still on a firm footing.

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1. How interesting, because I've heard plenty of tories who say that our economic legacy was due to all your hard work since black wednesday. But in 1997 the figure for public sector debt was 43odd percent. Rather than repeat one of Gideon's rather lame criticisms, how about offering a litle analysis as to why this rather dull figure means the end of the world.

2. That's none of your bloody business. 

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"1) Break Murdoch's newspaper monopoly."

 I beleive it was the Left-leaning Guardian who recently stated that most people buy whatever newspaper best fits their world view, The Sun had previously been Tory-Loyal for ages, but switched to Blair because he was a sort of "Labour-lite" candidate, making the noises both sides wanted to hear. So I disagree with breaking Murdoch's Monopoly, that is attacking those who are successfull, which as far as I can tell, people have tired of seeing, loony left suggestion or not, it is one that it easily attributed to the left-wing cause.

 "2) On the matter of competition, review water privatisation. "

Don't know why, can't really comment. My water bill is cheap and that's that. 

3) End the tax exemption status for private schools (and churches for that matter).

Why? They offer a public service, and taxing the Church is just a terrible idea, the CoE and various other religious sections are actually short of money, they maintain their properties and give solace to people who are still of a religious persuasion, this would just annoy the religious vote immensly, not to mention the thousands of people [many of whom in New Labour, no less] would go ape at the private schools, like it or not, Private education is better because the schools spend the money straight onto the staff instead of new equality initiatives, or gigantic comupter labs that are barely used [I say this having been in both Private and Public systems]

4) Abolish the Lords, and reform the system for the Commons.

Abolishing the Lords would turn the majority of the Public against you, Tony Blair I beleive once said that "people weren't bothered about the Monarchy and the gentry any more" before around 60% of the British Public turned out onto the streets and at various events to celebrate HRH's Golden Jubilee. Plus people know the value of the Lords during their Titanic sitting in regards to the Anti-Terror bill which was the talk of my school and around my hometown at the time, and it wasn't about how the Lords were a bunch of doddering establishment people and should be abolished, it was about their role as the gatekeepers of policy and protectors of the country's rights.

5) Introduce state funding of political parties.

This is far too slippy a slope, and in countries where it has been introduced it sees a lot more fiddling of books, I think you have to try to hit a more americanized approach where you try to get thousands of smaller donations rather than rely on several larger ones.

The other problem is of course that you think that people in the country naturally fall to the left-wing of things. If anything the New Labour decade should tell you they are anything but, when the two largest newspapers are The Sun and The Daily Mail, both of which fall into the "right wing" category. You see the UK as a whole, is more right wing than you realise.

Another problem is many of the statistics that you quote aren't strictly accurate, I beleive Midlands Today did this when official figures said there were only 12 or so people homeless in Birmingham, they came across 12 within half an hour, and in a couple of hours nearly 30 people who were homeless. Bean Counters quoting numbers do not equate to people's perceptions, or their experiences. Another thing has been the near vanishment of our Police Force, this is especially accute in places such as Semi-Rural locations where I live, and bizarrely, the "Toff Tories" seem to be going down well with the traditionally labour voters because they're getting things done, and getting them done cheaper than the previous Labour Administration by employing typists to fill in the police forms and freeing up their time by employing Civil Enforcement Officers.

Not trolling or anything, but Labour has to modernize and sharpen up significantly to take on the revitalized Tory Juggernaught, it has to streamline quickly and look into where it can genuinely cut down costs while it is in government, because a lot of people are realising that despite the high levels of public money in the tin, its being mismanaged and not spent properly on the frontline where it's always been needed. 

This is where the Tories have found the achilles heel and are mercilessly exploiting it, they're not proposing the cutting down of front line services as Labour keeps decrying. Muggings won't suddenly leap up because the Tories are in power and they stop giving junkies fixes, they're going to cut back on Police paperwork to put officers onto the streets.

It's talking about cutting back on the literal army of health and safety inspectors, equality staff and all sorts of other nonsensical jobs that I still struggle to see what they do, and wonder why it's a full time job when a lot of it seems to be based around common sense ideas and stuff many folks in my town do anyway out of force of habit, rather than because somebody in the H&S ministry told us to do so.

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