Odd, very odd! I think it is perhaps a bit sophisticated for the average person.

Comes to something doesn't it Gumblina when the children have more common sense and insight, than the err teachers, they are supposed to be being taught by??!

According to ITV News @ 6.30pm, he was once a Tory voter, and now he is a floating voter!! Personally, I would still doubt that he is just an 'ordinary' Jo public voter, in fact as a non-gambler I would put money on it!!! I also think that the part of the Manifesto that was quoted at lunchtime was perfectly clear. I also happen to have a close friend, who would love to have had the opportunity to send HER child to a specialist school, since HE suffered from bad treatment - not from other children, but from a teacher!!!!

On the lunchtime ITN news Gordon Brown was 'doing his usual job' on the Conservatives, I didn't pay much attention to where he was - a primary school perhaps, but I did pick up his comment that the 'Tories are discouraging saving.....'. I didn't make a note of the rest since I was so enraged!! The ex-Chancellor who was SOO NOT prudent that he has run up debts that everybody will be paying off for years, and added to that the man who raided OTHER PEOPLE'S SAVINGS, without a second thought, is now accusing the Opposition, of 'not being interested in savings'..... And while Mr. Brown was occupied this way, he must have wondered how well another little 'plan' was being 'played out'! Mr. Cameron was (I can't remember) and accessible to anybody, so along comes this good-looking young man in a light blue sweater (take note of that!), and he begins to accuse Mr. Cameron of not being sufficiently kind and considerate to disabled children errr!!!! A good line that to get the press involved in the circs: Mr. Cameron took the accusations in his stride, and endeavoured to say that he wished to 'give disabled children and their parents CHOICE'. The personable young man obviously hoped to make more of a hit, and when the ITN reporter was asked what he thought of the yoiung man's contention, the reporter said that I thought the Manifesto's stated intention seemed clearcut and young man perhaps hadn't quite understood it. Much later in the newcast, the news reader had a chance to question the young man directly - without a crowd around him. Blue sweater much in evidence, the young man was remarkably at ease with the camera - for an 'ordinary' member of the public!!' he also used words and phrases that you would expect to hear from a Labour activist rather than a bonafide member of the public!!! Could this be another scraping the barrel type of Labour tactic?? It would not surprise me at all!!!

Are you suggesting that a Labour government is a 'strong' government?

Spot on Dorothy! And I would call Huhne the same errr phrase!

I think that you are both right Alistair and Mark!! It is obviously not appropriate in a ?democracy, to have a national broadcaster (so-called) that is biased to the extent of facilitating one party in telling provable lies, in pursuit of votes, and even more especially if that is the party in power! But I do agree that it is about time that Conservative MP's tried a bit harder (at least), to be more media-savvy, that is, to try realise that EVERYTHING the BBC and interviewers on other stations as well, will say, will have an angle, and that the MP is not being interviewed to give a nice straightforward description of Conservative party policies. As Dorothy has indicated in her comment at 12.48, the BBC have an agenda, THEIR POLITICAL AGENDA, and NOTHING is going to stop them hammering away at it (at least at the moment!).

And your party RedRag have had 13 years to convince the voting public that you have their best interests at heart, that you will get-to-grips with, and remotivate, the disadvantaged, that you will achieve a 50% university intake for school-leavers, that there will be jobs for them when they graduate, that the estates where your core voters live will be safer places, and that state schools will be places that children want to go to, instead of institutions that even teachers don't really want to go anymore. Where did it all go wrong????

Again I more OR less agree with you RL! I think I understand what is motivating DC and IDS and others. I am sure that you would also agree that it is not economically feasible to continue supplying a burgeoning benefit/client state indefinitely, common sense dictates that. So somehow or other people who have perhaps never worked, have to be encouraged to believe they CAN work, and then of course some sort of work has to be found for them. And it has to be work which doesn't destroy self-respect, while at the same time it cannot pragmatically, provide enormous returns1 Not in a recession at least. It also may need wider society to be involved - I would like to say - instead of concentrating on expensive shoes and handbags! For instance, I am old, but I would be quite willing to help in some capacity or other on a voluntary basis, to get people working again! I don't view 'Thatcherism' in the same way as you I am sure, although during that period I didn't get very involved with politics, because like my children now, I concentrated on bringing them up.

lol!

Being serious rather than cutesy - yuk, I will surprise you by saying that I found your comment interesting, and not just because it basically said what I would like to hear! As you have undoubtedly read on this site over the months, the general opinion of quite a few analysts, has always been that people, when questioned have preferred Tories only as a protest because they feel Labour has mucked up so much. Although you have not mentioned this particular phenomenon, I would agree with the points that you are making.

Good post Mike!

And one more: Clegg wants to be Prime Minister - urgently - he wants it NOW! THAT is foremost in his mind. And everything else is geared to that. He has been trying to appeal to the young vote, by adopting youthful mannerisms, and sound-bites - nothing wrong in that, necessarily. However, 'BEING Prime Minsiter' requires a great deal more than just 'wanting', OR even being convinced, that YOU are THE ONE who SHOULD be PM. I think we have one of those already!!

David Cameron has repeatedly assured voters that the 'frontline staff' of the NHS would be protected under the Conservatives, because he understands the importance of their jobs! Nevertheless, Labour have sort to 'rubbish' Mr. Cameron's claims one way or another. Of course their slurs are NOT based on fact. However..... Over the last ten days or so there have been two reports in the newspapers which indicate that, while slurring their Conservative opponents, Labour is in fact planning to sack 'thousands of doctors and nurses' after the election 'under devasting cuts being planned by NHS bureaucrats, according to two studies.' 'A report from the Royal College of Nursing has identified 5,600 jobs which are under threat, and that is in just 26 hospital trusts. 'Dr. Peter Carter, RCN general secretary, said it was 'disingenuous' to suggest £20 billion could be removed from the NHS budget and 'nothing changes'. 'Despite assurances that the NHS budget will be protected, the reality is that locally, trusts are making deep and dangerous cuts to staff numbers NOW, with further cuts planned for the future.' 'Howard Catton, head of policy at the RCN, said: 'There is clear evidence that front-line staff are being targeted by savings. It is creating a perception among nurses that they are being pushed to the front of the queue while managers appear to be much further down the line. If you take away front-line staff you reduce quality of service. In the very worst case scenario this can cost lives.' This report is in the Mail today. But it is Labour that is leafletting elderly and vulnerable people, telling them that the Tories will stop their winter fuel allowance! I think I would prefer to believe what is taking place right NOW under our noses, rather than the lying threats of this dishonest government!

'Gordon's election strategy is to try to scare those people using distortiona, deceit and fabrication.' Ermm, would that be his own party - the Labour Party? Phil, because THEY are 'those people using distortions, deceit and fabrication.'

Brilliant Cazzy!

Well he never has been one for fast action, has he m.!

Nicholas I would go along with your comment. People like Mr. Huxley like to second-guess what DC is going to do when PM, because it suits their political perspective! They have no definitive proof that he will just toe the line regarding the EU. And regarding Mr. Clarke, he has a lot more to offer than just approval of the EU!

Oswald, there is no way that Mr. Huxley is going to give Cameron a chance! And from the way he speaks (regularly), he would rather have Brown back, than trust that Cameron is anything other than an arch europhile!

Paul, Mr. Huxley is Ukip, as you probably know. I should have bracketed the Ukip with the LibDems in my post above, not I hasten to add that they have the same views, but because they have both joined together on the issue I was commenting on, to bully so many people on this site!

'At least the Lib Dems want a referendum on EU membership'. So they say! And OF COURSE you would believe them over the Conservatives any day! It seems to have escaped your notice that Mr. Clegg WANTS us to join the Euro! I hardly think that joining the Euro is something tht you would do if you planned to leave the European Union. Also you conveniently forget that Mr. Clegg has spent the major part of his adult life, working in Europe and involved one way or another with the European Parliament, and he speaks enough languages to feel entirely at home there, plus of course, a Spanish wife. But of course you will believe him over Mr. Cameron!

Yes, this should be shouted from the rooftops!! I didn't know the LibDems and Clegg's role in the Lisbon pantomime. We have had the LD's visitors to this site pursuing the Conservative role with nauseating regularity for months and months, well, well, NOW WE KNOW WHY!

O my God Mr. Paxman! Can't you think of anything better than to slur someone because of their education! Ermmm Mr. Clegg?, Mr. Paxman - privileged education??? Westminster! Give it a rest.

That should be - 'Mr. Paxman a person is NOT BORN with beliefs!!'

Mr. Paxman a person is NOT with beliefs!! Beliefs are developed over time, and often according to ones experiences in life. Right! Mr. Paxman! So Mr. Paxman YOU expect Mr. Cameron to be totally incapable of making a mis-judgement of timing - WHEN IN opposition, ermmmm, it might have been more productive if you had directed your 'incisiveness' towards the then Chancellor!!