Bristol: The real issue comes down to health or wealth.
When it comes to the economy, a narrow majority of Britons trust David Cameron and the Conservatives. And if he is to form the next government — with the help of coalition partners from the Liberal-Democrats, Northern Irish Democratic Ulster Unionists, or MPs from the United Kingdom Independence Party — Cameron will be relying on those Britons to vote for him in Thursday’s general election.
Opinion polls show both Cameron’s Conservatives and the Labour Party, led by Ed Miliband, are tied with about 34 per cent each of decided voters. That’s not enough to give either 326 of the 650 seats needed in the House of Commons to form an outright majority government.
The polls show that this is the closed election in the United Kingdom in 40 years — the 1975 general election brought Conservative Margaret Thatcher to power for the first time, an event that resulted in the complete overhaul of Britain’s economy and social thinking.
Miliband has been working hard in recent days, trying to hammer home that Labour can be trusted with the economy and won’t overspend. It’s party manifesto is heavy on details of economic management.
And Miliband, in an attempt to show that he can handle the purse strings, unveiled a granite plinth where his eight pledges on the economy were literally written in stone.
Where Miliband gains on support over Cameron is in Labour’s support to expand and improve service delivery in health care. The National Health Service eats up 32 pence in every pound raised in taxes in Britain.
Cameron has declared protecting the NHS to be “my life’s work,” but is still battling voter distrust. Some 47 per cent of Briton’s rank health care the key issue, five percentage points more than those who ranked the economy as the top issue.
More than 1.6 million are employed in the NHS, which ranks among the world’s top five employers alongside the US Department of Defence, McDonald’s, Wal-Mart and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. So any cuts or increases in spending there will also have an effect on Britain’s economy.
What has changed since 2010 is that wealth was listed first and health second — not surprising given that the UK was still dealing with the effects of the global financial crisis. And on that occasion, Cameron was trusted more with wealth, going on to form a coalition government with the Liberal-Democrats.
