I hate this government

'Hate' isn't a word I throw about a lot. I usually tell people hating is bad for you: gives you frown lines, not to mention indigestion.

But I hate this government. I hate Cameron and Osborne for the way they've demonised the poor and the disabled; for their lies about the welfare state; for their openly Tea Party approach to economics; for secretly letting the ministry of education take over schools in England. I especially hate how they personify the gulf between trust fund Britain and those who are just getting by on low wages - or not.

I'm also starting to hate the Lib Dems, for whom I've always had great respect - in fact, I've voted for them in local elections. But they're not standing up to the Tories, except in token ways that I don't find convincing. What difference will it make to voters if Parliamentary boundaries are not re-drawn, as the Lib Dems have threatened? How will it matter to the vast majority of us if the mad May woman fails to get the power to read our emails and texts?

Maybe the Lib Dems - who are supposed to be full partners in the Coalition - are doing lots of stuff on our behalf on the quiet in Cabinet or in committees. Maybe they really do stop the Tories doing worse things to us than the list I gave you at the top. If they are, it's time they told us about it.

Not that I'm convinced by the Labour Party, of which I've been a member for 40-odd years off and on. Ed Milliband is still burbling on in Parliament about Cameron and his mates wrecking restaurants in their student days and Ed Balls is still heckling them, even though the Tories have managed to turn his yapping to their advantage. Who stands out in the Shadow Cabinet? Name 3. I can name two: Andy Burnham and Chuka Umunna.

It's enough to make me vote for Scottish independence.