No Virginia there isn't a Santa Claus

A word of warning. You should believe what each party says about the others but not what they say about themselves. For the truth you have to look behind the lies and the promises to what they’re not telling you. That’s a better guide to what they’ll do if you’re daft enough to vote for them.So here’s what the manifestos don’t say.

First the Liberals. Much the nicest and most promising party because they can promise anything to anyone (except trade unions and Brexiteers) and are filled with good intentions.They’ll never be in power to deliver so they have the purity of unsullied virtue and can be generous, idealistic and almost perfect,. In policy terms they can love the EU, join the Euro, allow in every immigrant who wants to come, spend more on aid, social services , education and the health service, end the class war,Save the environment, reduce taxes, require the regular brushing of teeth and see pie in every sky.

 They can’t pay for it  because they have no economics, don’t know how the economy works or how to get growth or boost production. Indeed they’re keen to close a lot of industry down because its polluting, selling arms to Saudi Arabia, trading with regimes that punish homosexuality or damaging the environment.Niceness and good intentions are more important than economics. All will come right once the Liberals become the government. Until then they’ll promise anything and count the cracks in pavements.

Labour is more generous and more realistic but since they come in after a Tory government has messed things up, they always face  a huge bill to repair the damage as well as making things better for the many and saving the NHS, Education and social services .All that’s an expensive business. So they dare not tell us how they’re going to pay for it because it involves raising taxes, taxing property, increasing rates and boosting borrowing all of which  frightens people.

What the Tories keep from us  s nastier but better sold.They love to cut public spending particularly that going to beneficiaries and the working class whose duty it is to work harder for less. They claim they’ll cut taxes  for two reasons; to let people keep more of their own money and to reward initiative and enterprise. Neither is true. Folk who have no money cant keep it. and  encouraging enterprise gives business people more yachts, Mercs and bigger houses. They’re really useful covers for the real Tory purpose: to give more money to folk who have enough already

Hypocrisy rules. But that’s what good public relations are about.What elections are about is telling people nice things not hard truths, and offering goodies rather than tackling baddies. So all the parties hide the fact that Britain’s economy is underpowered, and cant pay its way in the world. We don’t produce ,we consume, we don’t invest, we gobble As a result we’re living on tick well beyond our  meaner means by selling off everything that moves and a lot that doesn’t. Unless that decline is dealt with by hard measures then we’re heading for hard times . No party can tell us that and still get elected to deal with it.