Years after the final episode of the Third Man can it be that next week Gordon Brown will still be in power from third position. After putting in a solid display in the third leaders debate it was widely said he was third after David Cameron and Nick Clegg. After the incident with Mrs Duffy and a car crash at his meeting we await the third incident. The stars seem to be giving a message that three is the number. But for who?
The Nick Clegg effect has made this election a lot more interesting and it would be good for the Lib Dems to get more seats and for there to be a change in the voting system. As far as policy goes though it isn’t so clear. Seems like they were selected based on being different from the other parties whether they were good ideas or not. Do we really want the jails emptying, an amnesty for illegal immigrants, join the Euro, defended less securely. Have we thought through the effect of having no nuclear power and no university fees. They slip off the tongue easily but all these things have uncertain outcomes and might cause a big and very expensive mess.
Labour have done a lot of good things particularly in new buildings for schools and hospitals, not at the RPH though. There has been a lot of social change and some of this is less comfortable for many. Their worse performance has been in spending too much so there were no reserves for the bad times and selling off gold at low prices to make it worse and whether you say banking regulation would have been different under any other leader. Also there seem to be a lot of processes creating red tape and an official excuse culture, excessive surveillance, a return of sleeze, and a form of denial about immigration as exemplified by Mrs Duffy.
The Conservatives seem to be offering to reduce the processes and blame culture and to stop red tape. Also David Cameron is a more mellow leader than previous ones in terms of social, education, health, environment and the EU. The downside is that the inheritance tax threshold increase is too generous and the school creation policy might be at the expense of other schools. Their message seems to be that they are a change from Labour.
No party offers you everything you want and they are always have policies you don’t like. Who-ever wins it’s going to be tough with the massive financial deficit. In conclusion if I had a say, on balance, Nick Clegg would be the third man. Who would be the first man – posted the vote last week.