Fantasy Island.

[Workingman]

All three major manifestos are now out and I do not know whether to laugh or cry.

We are no longer the "common working man and woman" we are now the "mainstream" but should we try to take anything with us when our time is up they will raid our estates. To death and beyond!

Or we can have State run jam, tomorrow, possibly. It all depends on how the numbers add up and if we can borrow enough. They don't and we can't, but why spoil things. Dream!

Or we can have endless referendums until we get the right answer while we smoke our newly legalised spliffs to remove ourselves from reality.

Choices, choices.

[TheOstrich]

If you think the manifestoes are bad, wait until you get your personalised letter from the Rt. Hon Theresa May (mine came today).
It has been written by the Borg, for the Borg, with your name and constituency computer-generated throughout

"Dear Oswald Ostrich,
MAKING BREXIT A SUCCESS IS CENTRAL TO OUR NATIONAL INTEREST
[wiffle, wiffle]
.... but with your help, Oswald Ostrich, together we can get it right.

The rest of it is an undisguised, personal attack on Jeremy Corbyn.

"Strong and stable" only appears four times. Mind you, so does "Coalition of chaos".

And a veiled threat to conclude:

"Some people say .... it does not matter who you vote for in Ostrich Central constituency.
[wiffle, wiffle]
The simple fact is Jeremy Corbyn will claim each and every vote for the Labour candidate in Ostrich Central constituency as a vote for him, and as a vote for his nonsensical and dangerous ideas.
A vote for anyone but my candidate is still a vote for Jeremy Corbyn and we will get 5 years of his coalition of chaos."

It's not far off "we know where you live" ....

I think, on reflection, I'm going to vote for the party with the policies I most identify with, and that means Labour.

It will not make a blind bit of difference in Ostrich Central, but to be honest I haven't received such a dusty missive since my fourth year end of school term report: "Ostrich would be of far greater use to the House if he stopped playing the buffoon."

I hate being lectured!

[Kaz]

That does sound slightly threatening Ossie

I think TM has lost the plot rather, going after pensioners with this social care stuff, and means testing the WF payment. My mother in law is furious, and until now was staunchly behind TM

[Diflower]

She doesn't even seem to know what would be a popular empty promise

[Suff]

I thought people didn't understand the whole care thing.

She's increased the threshold from the mid £20k to £100k then deferred the payment until the person in care dies. This allows the property to be used for rental or other income generating or just for someone in the family to live in.

If the cost of care only comes to £100k, then the entire value of the assets are retained. Thus protecting the council house buyers who want to give some of their wealth to their family when they die even if they have to go into care, so long as it's only for a shorter time.

May, at this election, needs to appeal to those Labour voters who voted for Brexit. Hence the means testing for free handouts that people can afford.

It is very cynical, yes, it's not a traditional Tory manifesto but it is in line with May's objectives she set out when she took over as PM.

[Kaz]

I do understand, still don't like it, and neither will a lot of the grey voters. Not a clever move by TM. Suff care is often around the 1k per week mark, at that rate it would take less than two years to pass 100k.....

Di, you are so right!

[Workingman]

The odd thing for me is the way the manifestos have been received by commentators and analysts. Their reception can best be described as underwhelming - no strong criticism, but no ringing endorsement.

Yet if you step off the media highway and into the goat tracks that are the comments sections of the Telegraph, Guardian, and others, a different story emerges. There you will find that the Labour manifesto has gained most interest, and not all of it negative.

The LibDem's is ridiculed as more Brexit delaying and a lack of acceptance of democracy. The Tory's is as expected... more Conservatism, but with an attempt to capture votes from other parties. Labour's, on the other hand, is questioned and tried to made sense of.

I am not saying that the Tories will not win the upcoming election, they will, and with a large majority, but it seems to me that people are now becoming more questioning of what the political parties stand for, and that cannot be a bad thing.

[Suff]

Kaz, as it stands today if care exceeds 3 months and the person is the sole owner of a property, then they have to sell it. Even if the care is, say, only for 6 months or a year to get over a serious operation or to deal with other issues. Meaning that a lot of older people with minimum pension and a home are faced with sale and most of the equity consumed then having to spend the rest of their life living in rented accommodation paying for it with the proceeds of their home for no material benefit and living a life significantly less comfortable.

There are a _lot_ of people in that bracket and they don’t come from the wealthy. Faced with a choice of not going into care at all and being a huge burden on the family, or going into care and staying there even if they don’t need to, because there will be no home to come out to, this manifesto promise would be a lifeline.

I don’t see it as an empty promise at all.

[Workingman]

Suff, what you say might be true, but unfortunately for May her "vision" is being questioned, especially over costing, borrowing and timing, and in major policy areas such as Health, Defence, Welfare, Education, Immigration

There is a lot of vagueness in the Tory manifesto with things like: "It is our firm intention"; "Our ambition"; "Our aim"; "It is our objective" and so on.

The only clear thing is Brexit, well sort of. It is still "no deal is better than a bad deal" but it is now clear that we will exit the single market and customs union.

Now to be fair all the manifestos are are wish lists, but if the Tories thought they would be getting a free ride they were very much mistaken.

[Suff]

Very true WM. However government is all about direction and aspiration and goals. It is never about concrete guarantees, or should not be, because we are not an island unto ourselves only; we are a part of the global economy and have to respond to it.

Labour is in the dock because the last experience with Labour was a catastrophic mess of uncontrolled spending driving the Government and the country, into huge debt. Their Manifesto? We're going to borrow money so we can spend. Now I don't know about anyone else but I remember the Pontificating prat Brown going on about "We are Borrowing to Invest". Sounds like more of the same to me and we've already had a crystal clear view of where that goes. The main difference is we are sitting on 13 years of Labour fiscal incompetence, barely healed by coalition and Tory policies; rather than sitting on 19 years of Tory fiscal governance.

May will benefit from the "known quantity" effect. Corbyn will fail because of Blair and Brown and the Labour position on Brexit. At least when they threw the Tories out it wasn't because they couldn't run the country, it was who they were running the country FOR which was in question. It will take a while before people begin to believe the fairy story of Labour again. Namely that you can go on borrowing money forever and never pay it back. Just one more credit card sir? Certainly!