Unbiased descriptions of main players

[SO16_Saint]

For those, like me who still dont know who to vote for, here is (hopefully) an unbiased description of the main parties key areas.

 

Conservative

Aim to eliminate "the bulk" of the UK's structural deficit within five years beginning in 2010 with £6bn in cuts

Spending cuts in all areas apart from health and foreign aid

Allow charities, trusts, voluntary groups and co-operatives to set up new Academy schools, independent of local authority control, and to run other public services

Scrap identity card scheme

Recognise marriage in the tax system by allowing adults who are married or in a civil partnership to transfer up to £750 of their tax-free personal allowance to their spouse, as long as the higher-income member of the couple is a basic-rate taxpayer.

 

Labour

"Targeted" increase in public spending over the next year to "sustain the recovery", before cutting the deficit by more than 50% by 2014 and reducing the structural deficit by at least two-thirds over the next parliament

Protect "frontline investment" in childcare, schools, the NHS and policing

Ensure all people who suspect they have cancer get test results within one week

Restore the link between the state pension and earnings from 2012

Guarantee a place in education or training for all 16 and 17 year olds

Guarantee people aged 18-24 a job, work experience or training place if they are unemployed for more than six months

Give parents of one- and two-year-olds an extra £4 a week in Child Tax Credit for each child from 2012

Hold a referendum on adopting the Alternative Vote system for Westminster elections and making the House of Lords fully elected by October 2011.

 

Lib Dem

Identify and cut £15bn of lower priority spending per year to protect front-line services while reducing structural deficit at least as fast as Labour plans, beginning in 2011

Raise the threshold at which people start paying income tax from £6,475 to £10,000

Impose "mansion tax" on the value of properties over £2m and increase capital gains tax to bring it into line with income tax

Introduce a banking levy until such time as banks' retail and investment arms can be separated

Scrap identity card scheme

Provide £2.5bn for a "Pupil Premium" for schools teaching the poorest pupils, allowing average primary school class sizes to be cut to 20

Replace the Council Tax with a Local Income Tax after a pilot phase

Introduce a written constitution and single transferable vote (STV) system for all UK elections

Allow voters to force a by-election for any MP found responsible for "serious wrongdoing".

[Johnny Bognor]

Under the tory summary, you forgot reversing the NI increase which is due to come in next year. This is a key peice of their manifesto which is aimed at reducing the "tax on jobs".

There is also the plan for no employers NI on the first 10 employees for new business start ups. This is a great help to new businesses which will be the wealth creators of the future. China have been doing this for years and they are a bunch of commies.

[SO16_Saint]

JB - this was taken straight off the beeb site, sorry.