[danielf]

Originally Posted by DaiNasty

I rather thought that *was* a fair assessment of the two. Personally I'd rather see a party in power that managed to find a halfway path between the two extremes. At the moment we're treading a path that cannot continue, simply because a country is no different to any family. You basically can't spend more than you earn. It's nice to have all the extra services but eventually it has to end in tears when the bills have to be paid.

As I said, a central path that could combine caring and financial responsibility would be the ideal but I fear that is too sensible for either party to ever embrace.

I think it's more a question of unwilling than unable. Many continental countries manage better public services than the UK without being much richer. It does mean higher taxation particularly for higher earners. That will never happen in the UK though.