Surprised that there is no thread on this thus far. The general election was recently called for May 6th, although this was one of the worst kept secrets in Parliament.
Depending on which opinion poll you look at Conservatives are in the lead on about 37-40 with roughly a 5-7 point lead over Labour and the Lib Dems are on about 20 points.
Summary:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/default.stm
The main issue is the economy. Mainly how to protect recovery and maintain public services without letting the deficit run out of control. I believe Labour want to try and halve the deficit in 4 years to 6% of GDP per annum which is still twice the EU's recommended 3%, but no-one has given a damn about this because of the severity of the recession. They also have planned to increase National Insurance by 1% on salaries over £20k which should raise £6bn. National Insurance being a tax paid by both employees and the employer (11% iirc) which goes towards state pensions etc. Many big businesses have protested against this rise and the Conservatives have taken this up (Tories catering to big business lol) and have said that they would finance this using yet as unidentified efficieny savings. They also want to cut public spending sooner, risking perhaps a double-dip recession but saying that early cuts are neccesary to inject confidence into the UK economy that the deficit and borrowing is under control.
Then you have Lib Dems, the third party who seem to be offering the most change, wanting to raise the tax free personal allowance to £10k and offset this by increasing capital gains tax. Quite a few of us are of student age so you might want to know that they've said they're not going to scrap tuition fees immediately, but rather over a period of six years.
On a side note you have the cloud from the MPs' expenses scandal which may have a bit of an influence, but I doubt it will have much.
I hope I've blagged enough about politics, who are you all going to vote for?
Depending on which opinion poll you look at Conservatives are in the lead on about 37-40 with roughly a 5-7 point lead over Labour and the Lib Dems are on about 20 points.
Summary:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/default.stm
The main issue is the economy. Mainly how to protect recovery and maintain public services without letting the deficit run out of control. I believe Labour want to try and halve the deficit in 4 years to 6% of GDP per annum which is still twice the EU's recommended 3%, but no-one has given a damn about this because of the severity of the recession. They also have planned to increase National Insurance by 1% on salaries over £20k which should raise £6bn. National Insurance being a tax paid by both employees and the employer (11% iirc) which goes towards state pensions etc. Many big businesses have protested against this rise and the Conservatives have taken this up (Tories catering to big business lol) and have said that they would finance this using yet as unidentified efficieny savings. They also want to cut public spending sooner, risking perhaps a double-dip recession but saying that early cuts are neccesary to inject confidence into the UK economy that the deficit and borrowing is under control.
Then you have Lib Dems, the third party who seem to be offering the most change, wanting to raise the tax free personal allowance to £10k and offset this by increasing capital gains tax. Quite a few of us are of student age so you might want to know that they've said they're not going to scrap tuition fees immediately, but rather over a period of six years.
On a side note you have the cloud from the MPs' expenses scandal which may have a bit of an influence, but I doubt it will have much.
I hope I've blagged enough about politics, who are you all going to vote for?