Despite saying they are cutting spending, there is a ridiculous amount of waste that would seem to be completely immune to these cuts.
One example is "bed blocking" in hospitals, which is actually MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE per person than swiftly removing them with a care package into the community, yet the "cuts" mean that they stay in hospital for weeks and months at £2000 per DAY because "we can't afford the care package". This kind of BS has been immune from all the various schemes designed to bring down reckless spending by ALL flavours of government for decades.
Another example is the PFI where a hospital that should cost the NHS 1 Billion pounds ends up costing them 10 Billion pounds "in order to save money".
Far from "being in it together", the various government departments and statutory bodies are vigorously defending their own empires and their bosses feathering their own nests. This is where a monumental quantity of waste is to be found, yet all we have it a little light tinkering at the edges.
Even those measures that one might think will save money will actually COST money overall. For example, the welfare cuts will save money, but they will drive people into deeper levels of poverty, which will significantly increase levels of ill health, and this will COST various services like the NHS a fortune, more money than is saved from the welfare budget.
We also have contradicting arguments over immigration. On the one hand, immigrants "pay more in tax than they cost in benefits", yet on the other "immigration is a drain on the country's finances". We are also told that "health tourism" costs the NHS £300 million per year, and is the cause of the NHS being unable to manage. Now, if this cost is ONLY £300 Million, then it means that "health tourism" is NOT the main reason for NHS failures.
The SNP are gaining seats mostly at the expense of Labour, so overall this should not lead to an increase in the total quantity of MPs available to them as a coalition. UKIP are not going to get an overall majority, but they could well hold the balance of power, and any party wanting to form a government will have to cut a deal with them. Lib Dem is a dying force it seems, but does not come with the negative "baggage" that still haunts UKIP, even though they have expelled the more obvious "nutters" from the ranks.
The main redeeming feature for me with the current government is that they did follow through with the promise to substantially raise the personal allowance, making this the first year EVER since starting my first full time job that my tax has been zero. It is zero now because I was retired on medical grounds in 2000, but until now the pension that came with it was higher than the personal allowance. The other reason is that gambling wins are not taxed here in the UK