A Hung Parliament ?

It’s looking increasingly likely that there will be no overall majority when the election runs its course in May. From a position of absolute strength a couple of months ago, the Tories are now struggling to keep ahead in the polls.

How has it come to this?

Who would vote those lying, incompetent Labourites back into power when they’ve virtually destroyed Britain? They’ve turned, what was a very strong economy, in 1997 when they took power, into that of a third world country. Probably the best measure of how well a country is run is not the amount of debt the country has run up (a lot of that is due to the bailout of the banks which ultimately will turn out to be a necessary and profitable move) but the amount a country spends on running itself.

In 1997 the proportion of GDP spent on running the UK was 36% - a world beating figure. Now it is 52%. This has been caused by Labour’s ‘interventionist’ policies and outrageous spending, much of which has been expended on so-called ‘managers’ running the NHS, education and other public facing departments.

Let’s put it very simply. When I was a manager at IBM and BT, I was virtually left alone to run my department. A meeting once a month to check my sales figures and that was it. If I was in the NHS (to take the popular example), I would have had several managers checking my figures daily and would have been involved in interminable meetings, all taking invaluable time from my real job – to sell things.

Anyway, getting back to the election battle - the Tories have messed it up big time. Only latterly are they attacking Gordon Brown’s disastrous mistakes when he was Chancellor; selling Britain’s stockpile of Gold at the absolute bottom of the market, raiding the pensions funds of dividend tax credits which took something approaching £100 billion out of the funds of pensioners (like me) and completely destroyed probably the world’s best pension system. I wouldn’t have cared if Brown had used that £100 billion to improve the nation but it was just squandered away. He’s screwed the armed forces at a time when they need maximum support and filled the country with immigrants soaking up every cent (sorry, penny) the country throws at them.

Last weekend Labour started attacking George Osborne, the Tories man for Chancellor as weak, ineffective and ‘shrill’. True, he doesn’t come across well but does Brown? Did Brown fill the country with hope when he became Chancellor in 1997? I’m afraid we’re down to personalities again but if the country chooses Labour ahead of the Tories on personality alone, it’ll reap what it sowed.

So what of a hung Parliament? The pound will sink against all major currencies, the stock market will fall and the wider financial markets will take a dim view that the UK cannot sort itself out and the three parties will argue about what policies to introduce – it’ll be the UK managed by committee and we all know what happens when committees get involved – nothing! If you are a non-UK taxpayer it’ll be interesting however because we’ve not had a ‘coalition’ government for decades and the Liberals will finally get a say. Will they help or hinder? Will they get caught in the headlights like frightened bunnies? Only time will tell.