128 days to go?

I'm sure Eddie Mair just said on Radio 4 it was 128 days till the next general election. I shouted obscenities at the radio, the least offensive of them being 'bollocks!', and I then listened to a few minutes of lies and denial from various politicians before I switched off.

The trouble is I know the Tories are lying in their teeth not just in what they claim they are doing but in what they claim Labour are planning to do if they win the next election. So the Tories have not reduced the UK deficit 'by half'. They have somehow rounded up the correct figure (as stated by the Treasury) of about 35% to 50% so blatantly that even their pal Fraser Nelson on the Economist has noticed it and cried foul. And I know what they are trying to do with Labour is keep on talking about the economy because their spin doctors think Labour are weak in that area and will go on the defensive, as they did tonight on Radio 4.

The clever thing the Tories are doing is ignoring what people express worry about in the polls: jobs (job insecurity especially), the NHS and immigration (although immigration is only a problem because the Tories and UKIP say so). And these subjects are not getting much of an airing - and won't be heard of much before May if the Tories have anything to do with it.

However, my problem is this: I am very interested in politics and I think we have shown in Scotland that politics can get people passionate. I think politics in Scotland has changed for the better since the referendum. But the shake-up politicians got in Scotland hasn't reached the rest of the UK. The UK election is a complete turn-off: the Tories, Labour and UKIP are still 'fighting' - and man, I wish we could stop using battlefield terms in politics - as they would have done 40 years ago. It's like politics exists mainly for politicians and journalists. The public are only needed to cast their votes and only some of the public, like old people, need bother turning up at the polling station. We're not going to try to involve young people - well, we don't actually know how.

Some of my Labour friends still talk about 'the proletariat', heaven help us. Others are still banging on about New Labour. There are electors now who don't remember Tony Blair.

Some of the Tory Party obviously still think the electors will believe anything. I hear stories about the Tories wanting to turn the clock back to 1945 and do away with the Welfare State. In fact, I suspect there are quite a lot of them who would like to go back to the Victorian era and do away with legal aid (nearly there!), health and safety (access to industrial tribunals is already limited to those that can afford to pay upfront), social security, pensions (keep raising the retirement age and watch the lifespan of working people go down). In fact, as a taxpayer for 50 years (and still paying tax on my pension, remember) I'm starting to think maybe the Tories have forgotten that people who pay out expect to get something in return.

And there's 128 days of this stuff still to go...