The political world is buzzing with the announcement today that the general election will take place on 6th May. Prime Minister Gordon Brown held a meeting with his cabinet before visiting Buckingham Palace to officially ask HM Queen to dissolve parliament.
Mr Brown claimed that Labour had already got the “big decisions” right during the current financial plight of the world recession, and that he would continue to do so in order to avert the risk of a “double-dip recession”.
He promised to protect front-line public services and offer continued support to the armed forces.
Conservative leader David Cameron insists the country needs a change and that successive Labour governments have virtually brought the country to its knees. I have to say, although Gordon Brown does seem to be handling the current financial problems with relative success (lower than expected unemployment; slightly higher than anticipated economic growth), there are many decisions that should be questioned, not least why our financial institutions were encouraged by Labour (with Brown as the Chancellor or the Exchequer) to gamble more and more money on foreign markets for increased profits, and peculiar actions such as selling huge quantities of the UK’s gold reserves for rock-bottom prices (I’m sure there must have been some thinking behind this but I honestly don’t know what).
Cozibag Bean Bags was set up towards the end of the Blair years and we have gone from strength to strength selling high quality bean bag furniture in leather and faux leather materials. However, I’d say it was more down to hard work than the political environment, and we’re certainly a little concerned about a possible increase in Employers’ National Insurance contributions. In all honesty, I don’t see why a small (1p in the pound perhaps?) rise in income tax wouldn’t be a fairer option, particularly if it were only applied to those earning a reasonable living wage; surely that would be a fairer way to increase public revenues without hitting people too hard?
However, Labour have also worked very hard on improving and increasing public services, particularly in areas such as health care. I don’t know, it remains to be seen whether to public will remember the good or the bad; I suspect I know which but wouldn’t like to comment either way. Only 6 months ago it seemed odds-on that the Conservatives would win by a landslide, but things have swung back towards Labour a little and, although still in the Tory’s favour, the polls seem to suggest this one will be a very close call indeed.
Thanks for reading
I think that Labour stood a chance up until GB made that on-air microphone gaff