Tonight on TV, the parties meet for their final showdown; the subject is the economy and I predict they will not tell us the truth. At the very start of my campaign I forecast that the parties will try to avoid the difficult questions. I said that if they avoided the question of debt then it will be our children who will suffer in the future. I cannot stand the thought of this happening, because there will be enough for the next generation to contend with. An aging population, paying for OUR pensions, new energy and the environment will be huge challenges without them also inheriting our debt. I hate watching the parties bickering instead of facing the real issues. More than ever we need to stand together and handle these challenges together. This is a time when we should be united. I believe we as a people are ready for the challenge and I am angry that the parties are not. They are completely disconnected from us. I just want the chance to get amongst them and shake them out of their party obsessions and pathetic cheap shots. Given the chance, I will go to Westminster and call for them to all focus on the challenges ahead.

I can understand why they don’t want to talk about the economy, because it involves pain. This election is so balanced that they will not take the risk of creating any image of people suffering. I understand this, no one wants to see anyone in difficulty. Remember John Major saying ‘no pain no gain’ – he was right about the pain, but it was the glib sound bite that stuck with us, just as did Norman Tebbit’s response to unemployment in the northern towns “Get on yer bike”. People from their bankrupted towns did get on their bikes, looked for work and lived in cardboard boxes around the streets of London as a result. We’ve been here before and this happened not long ago.

I want to go through some basic numbers which I am more happy for anyone to challenge. They will show the severity of the issue:

We as a country make about £1,400 billion a year and the Government picks up about £6oo billion in tax revenue. It will need to use some that money to pay the debt (cuts) and also raise additional tax. Our debt is £850 billion and this year alone we borrowed about £170 billion. In five years our debt will rise to £1,500 billion unless we get a grip. Government interest payments will top £40 billion per annum, which is larger than what we spend on Defence.  Let’s go back to the £600 billion the Government raise from us – can you see how much more tax we would need to raise? Let’s also look at the borrowing forecast for the next five years, which is about £130 billion a year. Can you see the enormity of the task ?  Governments and lenders tend to judge debt by relating it to national product called GDP. Our debt in 2002 was 29% of GDP, comfortably below the Government’s own upper limit of 40% (the point at which even they get worried). It is now 60% and it is forecast to be 100% in five years. We have been here before. In 1976, the world’s lenders of debt to the UK became worried about our ability to pay back the loans (as in Greece and now Spain and Portugal) and we as a country had to go to the International Monetary Fund for a loan. The IMF lend money on the condition it is paid back at a given level. Paying back the loan sent the country into a tail spin of cuts and tax increases. This is the point – our debt to GDP ratio was 40% and as said it is now 60% and threatening to go to 100% in five years. Consumer debt is £1600 billion. Consumers (that’s us) will be responsible for clearing their own debt and this will be a challenge in the environment we are now in.

If you watch tonight, look for someone saying we need to find over £100 billion a year, not the 3 or 4 billion they talk about. After we define the repayment figure, we need to look at how it is to be raised (tax and cuts) and then we will come to the crux of the election. When will the repayment of the debt start and where will the money be found from?

Mismanagement in our political system in endemic. We need to sort out our economic problems now and not leave it for our children to grow up and inherit. Politicians have disengaged from the real people as we see in today’s newspapers. I will continue to engage with my community and I will not let this and other issues be swept under the carpet. I will also be a Reforming MP and demand that local parties are allowed to have at least one local person on their list of candidates. This did not happen in Bracknell, the local party had six candidates to choose from, but all nominated by central office. I will also demand  MP’s have a maximum of only two terms in office. These two changes will give people the chance to choose a local person and also take away the scourge of inexperienced career politicians who mess up our future and the future of our children. ONLY an Independent candidate will call for these changes because the club culture of the political parties will refuse to do so. I will be your Independent, Community and Reforming MP.  I’m up for this amazing challenge – are you ?