[ianch99]

Labour and the Conservatives are not too far apart at the end of the day. Blair just re-badged Thatcher's policies with a slight socialist tinge. He did this to get into to power. He didn't want to make society a better place for our children (or whatever politicians are really supposed to go into politics for), his goal was power, just power. Same as Dave ..

Labour will not make the fundamental changes that are needed, mores the pity.

No one will address the main issues we face today:

- The ever widening wealth gap

- The ability of corporations to exploit their customers and employees, paying minimum tax in order to "deliver their legal duty to their shareholders".

- The power of the City to blackmail the country: the power and influence of "big business" and the Financial Services sector is so large now that it may no longer be controllable.

-the crumbling NHS*

- the runaway, uncontrolled property market esp. in London where, you have foreign and City money forcing Londoners to leave their communities where their families have lived for generations as they no longer can afford the house prices.

- the rapidly reducing ability of our children affording their own properties

- the skewing of the labour market towards a postition where all the power is in the hands of the employer and very little left for the employee. This leads to exploitation: in the past you may have had vocational opportunities where you were offered a reasonably paid job for 6 months, a year with a prospect of a longer term position at the end. Now you are offered minimum wage (if you are lucky) "internships" with no job prospects at the end. The employer just gets a stream of cheap labour with no obligations on their part

- the promotion of the "Greed is Good" philosophy and the illusion of the "Morality of the Market"

- etc. etc.

Neither Labour or the Tories will really address these issues. They all have vested interests they need to appease first.

It is really very, very depressing


* as a footnote, I spend a number of weeks recently visiting my mother-in-law in hospital and later a hospice. She sadly passed away but while she was in the care of the NHS, I was able to get some insight into the pressures it is under. For example, on one weekend, the entire hospital had 2 doctors on duty. All the staff without exception, including the ones from the EU who I assume would be not welcome if UKIP had their way, were wonderful but so, so over worked. I looked at these Nurses and thought: there are people who say that the workers in the City deserve their salaries of £100,000's and bonuses of £millions. I would say put them alongside these Nurses doing their jobs and then ask the question again.