More Unlikely Election Promises

My weekend in Majorca has meant that you have all had respite from my rants about the election. I can wait no longer; today gave even more ridiculous promises from all of the main party leaders. The utterances centred on future pledges regarding taxation. Both main parties pledged not to increase certain main taxes such as VAT and National Insurance.

This is just fantasy politics unless the leaders have fantastic crystal balls. How do they know what the circumstances are likely to be over the life of the next parliament? There could be a banking crisis as occurred in 2008 when the only way to preserve savings would be to raise taxation, there could be a run on the pound, alternatively there maybe some spending priority that absolutely requires a rise in taxation. What about the spectre of another Falklands war or some Cold War issue?

It is plainly ridiculous to make such assertions now. It is sad to think that the British electorate would fall for this. So the campaign will be all about making absurd promises that cannot be kept. To reiterate previous blogs where is the vision thing?

I am not sure how we overcome this, answers on a post card please. The easy answer is that the electorate seem very gullible. But is this because they are actually being offered no choice, would an honest radical approach work. It would require a brave politician, but you never know.

I will document my own crisis of confidence over the next few weeks. At this moment I know whom I am not going to vote for. However I am waiting to be inspired, it seems terribly negative to vote just to keep a party out rather than casting my vote with gusto. You never know I may get inspired at a local level, oops I have just seen a pig flying past the train window. Whatever happens I will keep you all posted.

PS - I am disappointed that I have seen no policies on dairy farming yet. A real vote grabber.