Some promises made in Tory manifesto

Apparently. He has to say where the money is coming from for all the manifesto promises, and how he intends to cut the deficit within the next 2 years when we will "Oh how glorious enter the sunny uplands" of surplus whereupon he will give tax breaks to all - don't hold your breath if you are poor though this doesn't mean that he will let you off the hook. You are undeserving and don't work hard enough.

Is there going to be an emergency budget?

Suggestion today that GO will back peddle on the 12bn cuts now that he doesn't have a coalition partner to blame. Must wait for the budget to find out what he intends to do.

So you don't think the Tories are string enough to do that all by themselves Ana

Your income has to be very very low. DD2 struggles but didn't qualify.

There are benefits I knew nothing about. I didn't know that on low income you can get a payment of £500 to buy baby items which you do not have to pay back, only for the first child. But how many people will claim this?

Yes, indeed, I am very pleased to hear that TB's put his oar in - that should keep Labour out for the foreseeable future!

There are no single issue parties, soon. It's impossible. There are parties which stress a particular issue more than others, but no single issue parties, although I am sure you will find one if you look hard enough.

Sorry, Ana. I won't tell anyone else.

Re one of your earlier posts, it's £12 billion, not million.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/08/tories-12bn-welfare-cuts-mythical-scroungers-conservatives

By the way, you'll be pleased to know that Tony Blair has got in on the act again,and has said that Labour needs to adopt his ideas again if they wish to get in to government.

Damn! I was hoping to keep that quiet...

dj - unless you vote for a one issue party[which you may have done], it is highly unlikely that anyone likes all the policies of a party they vote for.

How do you know it will not be retrospective, Ana?
Do you know something Iain Duncan Smith knows but will not tell the rest of us? Are you his wife?

Exactly, vampirequeen. The Tories are the only party which is going to keep the bedroom tax.
Anyone who voted for them thought that was okay.

Same goes for abortion btw. DD1 did ethics as part of her RC theology A level. A woman can abort if the foetus is not viable or she is at risk of serious health problems or death.

RCs who use contraceptives don't break the rules. When I was in the process of converting I told the priest that the one thing stopping me was the contraception rule as I couldn't afford to have more children even though I would have loved to. He said that it was a matter of conscience and if a woman could say in all honesty that her other children would suffer or her health would suffer then there was no reason why she couldn't prevent conception. This wasn't a young modern priest but an 80 year old monseigneur.

There is such a thing as abstinence, whitewave!

Break the 'rules'? Most Catholics in this country do already.

What happens if your religion bans you from using contraception?

I expect they could have special rules for multiple births or pregnancies resulting from rape or contraception failure or domestic abuse. We could set up a special privately run agency that could hear appeals if you felt the child you had produced fell into any of those categories. It would probably make a jolly good TV series as well the profits from which could go to paying the agency for their appeal work.

What is so wrong in limiting the child benefit? When I had my first son ( in 1971) child benefit only applied to the second and subsequent children.

Well I can't see the problem with only paying child benefit for the first two or three children.

It wouldn't be stopped for those already claiming for more, but might make people think about the number of children they can actually afford to have.

That's the problem. He isn't going to ask us. He's got a mandate now to do whatever he wants.

So we're stuck with

the bedroom tax and the ridiculously low housing allowance (£69 a week for a two bedroom house where I live)

and

the pressure on disabled and sick people to come off long term benefits and go onto return to work benefits with all the stress of ATOS/it's successor inquisitions and subsequent appeals to tribunals.

Then what about child benefit? They've mooted that they'll only pay it out on the first two or three children.

What will happen to pensioners free bus passes? They've already reduced the funding available and put the onus on the local councils to make up the shortfall.

Spending on Children's Mental Health has been reduced reorganised. Children from Hull who need residential care are sent to Sheffield. How does sending them 70 miles from home help their recovery?

I could go on but I'm sure you get my drift.

I think that people are fearful. Even if they are ok, they may have vulnerable family members and friends.

Where I disagree,is the thinking that a Labour government makes everything ok.
It doesnt by a long way.

I actually think that the electorate, this time around, was partly swayed by job creation, and the economy. Not that a job is the answer to everything, but it can be a start for some.
If you want a full time job though, zero hours contracts may not be the way to go, if there are alternatives.

You don't know that's what will happen. You're just trying to stir things up for the sake of it.

No, but lots of people did actually vote for it, despite the fact that the government did not tell them what they would cut. We shouldn't have to wait and see. They accused Labour of having a magic money tree. Cutting money from the poor is their magic money tree.

When child tax credits get cut again, who will be getting in a lather? The hard working families who voted for him.