Some choice!

The manifesti of the three major parties have now been released, and pretty dispiriting stuff they are. Just on the tax side, for example...Labour is promising not to raise income tax rates, a pledge which is just a tad cynical considering that they just introduced a 50% rate and have been enthusiastically benefitting from "bracket creep" for the past decade and more. The LibDems want to make the tax system fairer, but it turns out that their key measure -- exempting the first £10,000 of personal income from taxation -- would apply right up the income scale, so those earning £10,000 and those earning £100,000 would both be £700 a year better off. And the Tories want to make the stamp duty exemption on first home purchases "permanent", a promise no more meaningful than a guarantee of everlasting good summer weather.

To help me to choose, then, I've been taking a look at my local candidates. Oh dear. The incumbent Tory has been a good constituency member but has also been an enthusiastic and largely unrepentant abuser of the expenses system. She doesn't live in the constituency. The LibDem has been remorselessly building his profile in the constituency for years, but by getting himself photographed beside every pothole, delayed train and threatened library for miles around, has come across as an irritating busybody. He doesn't live in the constituency either, though he tries hard to conceal that fact. The Labour candidate is a local resident, but doesn't stand much of a chance around here anyway, has no experience at the national level and looks a bit like a gerbil. And there's a stereotypical old Bufton Tufton type running for UKIP.

I wonder if Arthur Scargill is planning to run someone in this area.