Labour Party after the General Election

I cannot begin to express how upset I am about the current state of the Labour Party. I am not impressed with any of them standing for leadership of the Labour Party. 

Quite frankly I can the imagine the Tories are loving every minute of this debacle. None of them in my opinion has any realistic chance of becoming Prime Minister. 

What's more concerning is that Labour becoming more left wing than ever which seriously reduces any realistic chance they have of becoming elected to into power. 

So right now I am boycotting all UK political news because when I read about the Labour leadership battle does not really seemed to be going well. 

Once the Labour leader is selected we can look that person realistic chances of becoming Prime Minister. 

General Election - A Conservative majority

Well I am still getting over the shock of the Conservatives winning the General Election and getting majority. The shock started on the 7th May when the BBC exit poll predicted that the Conservatives would win 316 seats. 

At first I thought this had to be a mistake but as the night unfolded true the Conservatives ended up getting 332 seats. 

How did they do this? 

Now this was the big question because all the polling companies predicted a hung parliament. Labour won most of the seats in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. 

However the conservatives managed to win six seats from Labour and over twenty five seats from the Liberal Democrats. 

The Tories targeted their coalition partners knowing that their seats would be vulnerable and they were right and Liberal Democrats now only have eight MPs and I was not too surprised by this as I expected them to be punished for going to partnership with the Tories. 

So this was a thoroughly unexpected result and now the Tories now have the mandate to carry on making cuts to public services. 

It's not the result I expected or wanted but Labour now have this result behind them and work on winning those middle class votes in 2020. 

UK General Election - 8th April

So by this time next month we will know who is to govern the UK for the next five years. I was incredibly lifted by Ed Miliband plan to ban the "non dom" tax status. 

This is when a person who was born and lives the UK claims tax concessions..i.e. Pay no tax on on their incomes outside of the UK due to their father or grandfather being born abroad.  

This tax law has existed for over two hundred years and it's great that Ed Miliband wants everybody living in the UK to pay their fair share. 

The Tory response to Labour announcement was embarrassing, as they tried to pick holes in what Ed Balls said about non doms three months ago and tried to make out they are making up policy on the hoof instead addressing inequalities in the tax law. 

Judging by the political commentary and the Tory response, I think this will really help Ed and he just now needs to consolidate his message. 

Tories launched their Education policy yesterday and it was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster and which culminated into little girl having her head on the desk as David Cameron was trying to read to her! 

So Ed Miliband is doing well without trying to play it safe and being true to himself. 

Prime Minister Questions - 4th March 2015

Last weeks Prime Minister Questions was all about immigration statistics and David Cameron refusal to take part in the General Election debate. Ed Miliband was very good, firstly he asked David Cameron about his promise to get immigration down. 

All David Cameron could respond with his how well the economy was growing and it noticeable that is normal quite loud backbenchers were noticeably quiter. 

It got even more uncomfortable for David Cameron as when Ed Miliband brought up the television debates. David Cameron responses were truly feeble and it would leave one to think of how terrified he is of Ed in the debates.

So Ed Miliband well and truly won this exchange and he just has to keep the pressure up and make the voting public aware of David Cameron failed promises and continue to inform the public of these television debates that David Cameron is soo scared of. 

Prime Minister Questions - 28th January 2015

This weeks Prime Minister Questions was all about the NHS and both David Cameron and Ed Milliband repeated their usual arguments. 

I have to say I didn't find either of them convincing and now they know that the General Election is round the corner both are desparate to not to make that mistake that could cost them election. 

However I do think David Cameron was being more cautious in his delivery than Ed Miliband. Ed is confident and he probably knows were the votes are going to come from to get him over the finishing line. 

However he must still keep up his attacks on David Cameron and not get complacent or before he knows it the election would have come and gone..

So Ed is doing reasonable well he just has to prepare himself for the negative   campaigning the Tories will be doing. 

Prime Minister Questions - 19th November 2014

In last weeks Prime Minister Questions Ed Milliband asked David Cameron various questions about the NHS. David Cameron response was almost embarrassing. 

He was trying to be funny and make fun out of Ed Milliband he only succeeded in making himself look like he was uncomfortable discussing the subject. 

So Ed performed well today but he focused little too much on statistics and I worry that if he did regularly it would lose the effect it had today.

Considering the daily attacks that Ed faces from the right wing media he keeping himself composed and is performing remarkably well under pressure. 

David Cameron is beginning to feel the pressure therefore he has become heavily reliant using tabloid headlines to attack Ed which smacks of desperation. 

So if Ed can keep this up and not get distracted it will help get closer to winning the election in less than six months. 

A year to the next UK General Election 2015

It's now officially a year to the next General Election in the UK and the polls have started to narrow. 

Labour have had a consistent five point lead but now only have a one point lead. This could be because more people are feeling optimistic about Britan's economic future and may want to stick with the Tories. 

Labour need make the choice clear by  highlighting the problems in employment like the zero hour contracts and the rise in foodbanks. 

The Tories will continue to promote and hope GDP figures go up and I suspect promising more growth post 2015.

UKIP are doing well in the polls and they could very much decide who wins the next General Election. 

It's time that both the Tories and Labour took UKIP seriously or they will find out the dire consequence of ignoring them.   

Spring Budget 2014 - Review

What stood out to me in George Osborne's budget speech was the parts on childcare, savings and personal tax allowances.  

This is George Osborne's  penultimate budget before the next General Election and to me everything he was offering today was about securing vital votes for the next General Election. 

George Osborne's  childcare proposals are welcome but for me and I am sure many families up and down this country it has come two years too late and do not really go far enough to alleviate the financial burden of childcare. 

Most economic commentators have described George Osbourne's increase of ISA annual limit to 15K as the 'rabbit in the hat'. 

Again I think it is a great initiative but stats show that people have started to save considerable less so raising the annual limit to 15k is great but not many people will benefit from it. 

Raising the personal tax free allowance  to £10,500 is also welcome and it means that very low income will get some additional financial help. 

But what George Osbourne's budget fails to address is the squeezed who are getting by on food banks and not much else. 

So the rather cynical side of me says that George Osbourne's will have mass appeal in the right demographic Tory voting areas. Only time will tell whether this appeal can be translated to votes on Election Day. 

Working women and childcare

One the first policies the Coalition government put into place was to cut the child tax credit.

 This has meant many families up and down country have both parents working but are struggling to cover childcare cost. 

The childcare in the UK is expensive and the average nursery in London charge about £50 day which can work out to be over £1000 a month. 

The changes in child tax credit has meant that two parent with a joint income of over £32,000 are unable to claim tax credit. 

In London £32,000 is over the average earnings and this meant some parents are staying home unable to work due to these cost. 

Historical records have shown that with each general election the female vote is increasing. 

I think there be will women up and down the country who will be thinking about the cost of childcare before they decide whom to elect. 

As families up and down the country know that affordable and trustworthy childcare is a must before either parent can even consider going back to work. 

UK politics review 2013

Politics in the UK evolved over the year and by the end of year we had a better idea of where each of the political parties stood.

Ed Miliband

In my opinion Ed had a very strong 2013, at the beginning some political pundits where making predictions that Ed would not survive to end of the year. 

However Ed had a good year and towards the end of year, Ed's political opponents started taking him more seriously.

Ed has been able to connect better with the British people and he comes across has someone who cares about their concerns. 

David Cameron

David Cameron started off 2013 in a very strong position however it started to change and his own backbenchers seem unhappy with his leadership. 

The Tories spent the year obsessing over Europe and demanding a referendum. David Cameron has now promised them a referendum after the next general election. 

According to the various opinion polls, David Cameron is still seen has the right person to get us out of the recession but is opinion poll numbers have been going down. 

Economy 

At the beginning of the year the UK economy was in bad shape. However now the UK economy has started to grow again. This primarily to due the housing bubble and manufacturing growth. 

Health 

NHS was under real pressure in 2013 and the government response was to cut frontline staff. So NHS is under more pressure  than ever even though cuts to its service have been ring fenced.

Crime

The crime rate has remains steady from the start to the end of 2013. This has been a suprise to me as I thought because of the recession crime would go up but this has not happened.

Nutshell

So in a nutshell even though the economy has started to grow most people are not seeing the growth. 

Staff cuts to the NHS has put it under considerable strain. 

However the crime has not increased which I was quite surprised about.