Weighing up the Pro's and Con's

....and we're off. Four weeks or more when our political leaders will be alternately meeting the real people in whom they are now taking an uncharacteristic interest; or rallying the faithful at set piece "meetings". And whatever it is they are doing, ensuring that the mass media are watching. The public meanwhile will be trying to assess which party is promising the best hand-outs or at least is offering a commitment not to touch the things that matter to them. On such things will the latest 5-year contract be drawn up between the people and the party fortunate enough to win enough seats to form a government.

The ideas such as they are seem to revolve around "change", "fairness" and - serious expression - "tough choices" (is there any other type of choice?) over taxes and public spending. I will listen to the debates and then I will vote. At this stage (unusually for a life-long centre/leftie) I have a really open mind. I am attracted to some of the Big Society rhetoric of David Cameron and so am really prepared to give the Conservatives my vote. However they have this habit of blowing their credibility with silly stunts like the promise not to reverse the impending National Insurance increases. That's £7bn that will need to be found elsewhere - not a trivial exercise. Labour are the devil we know but they look tired and I am not sure they have the stamina to govern for another five years or to start dismantling the bloated bureaucracy that they have spent 12 years building. The Lib Dems meanwhile have a real asset in Vince Cable but unlike Lionel Messi at the Nou Camp last night I don't think he can win this one on his own.

The best contribution to the debate that I have seen to date have been Choosing the Common Good published last month by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. On a similar theme a new book, 'Red Tory' by Philip Blond, (read about but not read yet) appears to express similar sentiments, arguing that our broken society needs to be repaired by more communitarian solutions rather than, on the one hand, the promotion of unbridled free markets associated with the Tories, or the state sponsored solutions that are Labour's stock in trade. Armed with these two, my choice will be for the party which is at once brave enough to deal honestly about our options for public spending and taxes before being elected and then has the courage to set about rebuilding a country in which people take greater responsibility for contributing to the communities in which they live and the people that live there.