2015 UK General Election - Party Manifesto's

On the 7th May 2015 the UK will hold their General Election. This year seems to be a tough one, it's really hard to see if there is a majority to any party, unfortunately I think we will end up with a coalition again but it could be anyone's guess. 

Every time I have the opportunity to vote, whether in a general, local or European election, I have a nosey at the main parties manifestos and also have a look at the underdog too. So this year I thought I would do a blog post about what I was able to find. 

The main parties that seem to be appearing in the news a lot are the one's I will look into. 

We have;

The Conservatives

UKIP

Liberal Democrats 

Labour

Green Party

I am aware there are others but these seem to be the popular ones so will just stick to having a look at their manifestos. 

Okay so lets start with the Conservatives and what they are offering to us. 

The Conservatives

• Increase spending on the NHS
• Make GP's available 7 days a week.
• Keep NHS free (not saying if that is buy selling it or keeping it)
• Lift the cap on University places (this one sounds a tad odd, hope they don't over fill classes)
• Create 3 million more apprenticeships (nice way of having more people on less than minimum wage)
• Anyone earning less than £12,500 will be taken out of Income Tax (You only have to pay tax on the £2,500 after your £10,000 tax free money each year, so not a huge bonus)
• Tax free minimum wage (an increase in it would be nicer) 
• Continue to cap benefits 
• Extend Right to Buy to Housing Association properties
• Build 200,000 start up homes. (Maybe more social housing should be built considering 1.8million households are on the housing waiting list.)
• 30 hours free childcare to working parents of 3 and 4 year olds.
• Will not raise VAT, National Insurance or Income Tax.
• Raise the 40p Income Tax threshold to £50,000.
• Increase Inheritance Tax threshold for married couples to £1 million.
• Increase Basic State Pension by 2.5 percent. 
• Cap the amount you can be charged for residential care.

So that's the Conservative manifesto in a bullet points. Here is the link to the complete manifesto. 

Click here for Conservative Manifesto 2015

UKIP

• Invest an extra £12 billion into the NHS.
• £5.2 billion more into social care.
• Build a dedicated military hospital.
• Scrap hospital parking charges.
• End income tax on minimum wage
• Cut income tax on middle earners
• Scrap inheritance tax
• Abolish the 'bedroom tax'
• Increase the transferable personal tax allowance for married couples and civil partners
• Fund 6,000 more posts spread between the Police, Prison service and the Border Agency.
• Cut business rates for small businesses.
• Remove tuition fees for students taking degrees in science, technology, engineering, maths or medicine.
• Increase defence spending by 2 percent to meet NATO obligations. 
• Invest £1.5 billion into mental health and dementia services.
• Pay carers an extra £572 a year (this is by increasing the current carers money to match job seekers allowance.)
• Build 500 affordable rent homes each year and eight halfway house hostels for homeless veterans.
• Remove stamp duty on the first £250,000 for new homes built on brownfield sites. 
• Introduce a points based system for immigration similar to the one Australia has in place.
• No entry for immigrants who have criminal convictions from other countries. 
• Fund 8,000 more GP's.
• Fund 20,000 more nurses and 3,000 more midwives.
• End ATOS style work capability assessments and return the assessments to GP's.
• Sex Education to be only for secondary school age. (I personally agree with this.)
• Support Right to Buy social housing homes.
• Zero hour contracts, worker must be offer full or part time contract after a year. (Unfortunately I think this may result in employers just letting people go before the year is up and getting someone else in).
• Increase funding and support for Food Banks.

Manifesto's go into more detail about their other promises, each party has many of them.

Here is the link to the complete manifesto. 

Click here for the UKIP 2015 Manifesto.

Liberal Democrats

• Secure economy 
• Increase tax free earnings allowance to £12,500 instead of the current £10,000
• Spend £8 billion on improving the NHS (just like the Conservatives I don't know why they are saying this when both of them cut it whilst in government)
• Reduce the amount of money the government borrows.
• Make banks pay their taxes.
• Reduce transport prices.
• Increase tax for homes that cost more than £2 million (don't think this will effect most of us haha)
• Make sure all children can read before going to secondary school (love this one, too many children are leaving school unable to read properly)
• Spend £500 million a year on metal health care.
• Give carers a £250 a year bonus (I think maybe increasing the amount carers get would be better but hey just my opinion)
• Reduce council tax for homes that are insulated.
• Increase minimum wage and pay people who work for the government the Living Wage (personally think this shouldn't be limited to people who work for the government, everyone should be earning the Living Wage)
• Increase paternity leave for fathers. (As far as I'm aware it currently stands at 2 weeks)
• Double the amount of businesses who take on apprentices (Personal opinion but again I really don't agree with apprenticeships considering they are paid less than minimum wage in majority of roles.)
• Make sure 9 million people join the workplace pensions scheme.
• Build 300,000 energy efficient homes a year. 
• Give more black, Asian and ethnic minority people police officer jobs. (I think it should be how well you will do the job, not the colour of your skin!) 
• Make sure migrants learn English if they claim benefits (not saying if it's before they can claim them or they will fund them learning English whilst claiming)
• Lower the age of voting from 18 to 16.

That's the Lib Dems in a nutshell. I will provide the links to their 'Easy Read' manifesto and original manifesto below.

Click here for Liberal Democrat's Easy Read 2015 Manifesto

Click Here for Liberal Democrats complete 2015 Manifesto

Labour

• Increase minimum wage to £8 per hour by October 2019 (cost of living will have shot up by then, too little, too late)
• Cutting the deficit every year (not saying by how much)
• Incomes of over £150,000 increase rate of tax to 50p.
• Ban zero contracts and promoting the Living Wage.
• Increasing free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds with working parents from 15 hours per week to 25 hours per week.
• Double paternity leave taking it to 4 weeks instead of 2. 
• Build at least 200,000 new homes each year.
• Abolish 'bedroom tax'.
• Fund 8,000 more GP's, 20,000 nurses and 3,000 midwives (same as UKIP)
• Smaller class sizes for children ages 5, 6 and 7.
• Migrants from the EU will not be allowed to claim benefits until they have lived here 2 years.
• Everyone who works in the public services will have to speak English.
• Build alliances in Europe.
• Create a more equal country that is open to the world (their words not mine).
• Cap child benefit rises for 2 years.
• Stop Winter Fuel payments for the richest 5% of pensioners. (Not saying what is classed as rich)
• Middle and lower income will pay a lower starting tax rate of 10p.
• Will not increase VAT.
• Tackle tax avoidance.
• Will put small businesses first in line for tax cuts (clever use of words there don't you think haha).
• Cut tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000 (don't forget it was only £3,000 before it jumped to £9,000)
• Pay for a starter job for every young person who has been unemployed for over a year. They will have to take it or will lose benefits. 
• Create more apprenticeships (they all keep saying this but nothing about increasing the apprentice wage which is less than minimum wage in majority of businesses).
• Freeze energy bills til 2017
• Freeze the cost of rail fares for a year.

Please see below link for Labour's complete manifesto. Head's up though it is a pain in the bum to read compared to the other parties. 

Click Here for Labour's Complete 2015 Manifesto. 

Green Party

• Create over 1 million more jobs that provide the Living Wage.
• New wealth tax on the 1% top richest. 
• Increase minimum to £10 per hour by 2020 (unfortunately I think this is similar to Labour not taking into account the increase in cost of living, we will still be at pretty much the same level, the increase is good but think about it before you get too excited.)
• End the creeping privatisation of the NHS.
• Take action on climate change.
• Ban fracking (I personally love this one!)
• Phase out coal power stations and say no new nuclear.
• Scrap university fees.
• Bring academies and free schools back to the local authority. (In my case the change from local authority to academy for my children's school has been fantastic.) 
• Abolish 'Bedroom Tax'
• Provide 500,000 social rented homes by 2020. (This one I am unsure if they mean 500,000 more or include current ones?)
• Bring empty homes back into use to help provide people with affordable homes.
• Cap rent (guessing this includes private rent)
• Introduce longer tenancies. (Currently the average seems to be 6 months in private rent, which leaves many people feeling on edge not knowing if they will have to move or not in 6 months time.)
• Return railways to public hands (I think this one would be very difficult for them to do.)
• Cut public transport fares by 10%
• Promote walking and cycling. (I personally love walking but can't stand cyclists almost running me over, happens a lot!)

Below I will provide the links to the Green Party's mini manifesto and complete manifesto.

Click here for the Green Party's Complete 2015 Manifesto.

Click here for the Green Party's Mini Manifesto 2015.

Quick note - The 'Living Wage' has been mentioned a lot throughout this, just for people unaware of what that is I thought I best explain. 

The living wage is now set at £9.15 an hour in London and £7.85 an hour in the rest of the UK. By comparison, the national minimum wage is significantly lower.

Right so I think I have covered the main parties, I am from England so haven't actually put SNP down but if anyone would like me to cover them please leave a comment! 

I am aware there are other parties you will be able to vote for but I could be here forever going through them all so just provided simple bullet points for the main parties in this general election. 

I hope this article has been able to help some people with knowing what each party is offering the country. Please PLEASE go out and vote if you are of voting age. It is so important. All the people who haven't voted in the past do you not realise what a difference your votes could make. Also just my personal opinion but I think you have no right to rant and complain about how the country is run if you can't even be bothered to get up and vote.

General Elections 2015 are being held on the 7th May!! Please get your bottoms down to the polling station! Your vote does count! 

Meghan Trainor - Dear Future Husband Lyrics Rant

  I enjoy putting the music channel on the tele when I am cleaning so hear majority of the new pop music that is released. Anyway over the past few weeks I have heard this Meghan Trainor song 'Dear Future Husband' being played and it made me feel uncomfortable. At first I wasn't paying attention to the lyrics but just something about it made me think, 'what is this rubbish I am hearing?!' 

Now as it has bugged me for weeks, I thought I would finally pull up the lyrics and see what they are saying. And personally I think it's another attack on men and how women should get whatever the hell they like and will return the favor with spending men's money and having sex with them. Now last I heard from feminist's they were after equality, treating each sex with the same respect as the other, so why is it okay for a female to make out a male is simply a slave to his desire for sex? If it was the other way round there would be an uproar from the feminist community. 

But then at the same time this song is pretty offensive to women too don't you think? Your only uses are going to work (doesn't specify what job), spending money and providing sex? Does that not make females mad too? 

Now lets have a nosey at some of the lyrics. They aren't very creative to say the least, it's a pretty rubbish song in my opinion anyway but hey lets have a look anyway.

Dear future husband,
Here's a few things
You'll need to know if you wanna be
My one and only all my life

So to start with you men NEED to know a few things if you want to be her one and only. You should feel so special that she is even considering you, after all she will provide you with soooo much (sarcasm if you missed it)

Take me on a date
I deserve it, babe
And don't forget the flowers every anniversary
'Cause if you'll treat me right
I'll be the perfect wife
Buying groceries
Buy-buying what you need

Take her on a date and don't forget flowers because she will be the perfect wife by spending the money. How kind of her. Now I know they both need groceries but how is going spending the money making the perfect wife? Last I heard majority of couples argue over money or the lack of it. Unless you twist it the other way and say she is spending the money to buy things for the male. How nice of her, treat her and she will give you gifts as a nice little reward for behaving? Don't you feel all special and worthy now? 

You got that 9 to 5
But, baby, so do I
So don't be thinking I'll be home and baking apple pies
I never learned to cook
But I can write a hook
Sing along with me
Sing-sing along with me (hey)

Now Mr Future Husband you have a 9-5 job, well done you. Just like majority of other people in the world, but so does she. Totally respect that, some women are happy to have a career outside of the home but remember being a stay at home Mother or a housewife is just as important. But she can't cook. Because she has a job why should she need to know how to cook. Sod that, men you can cook because she can't, even though you have a 9-5 job, but hey she can write you a song, not a very good one mind but she can write a song, as that is such an important trait when it comes to being a perfect wife? So Mr Husband you are so far expected to work, cook, take her on dates and buy her flowers and at this stage of the song all you get in return is her going shopping. Yay! Sounding like an awesome marriage so far. 

You gotta know how to treat me like a lady
Even when I'm acting crazy
Tell me everything's alright

Okay I get this bit, but don't push it ladies with the crazy stuff. It's just mean. 

After every fight
Just apologize
And maybe then I'll let you try and rock my body right
Even if I was wrong
You know I'm never wrong
Why disagree?
Why, why disagree?

I hate being wrong, always have but I will apologize if I am wrong. This isn't painting a good image at all. The amount of young women and girls this woman will influence and she is teaching them a man should say sorry even if they mean it or not and that no matter what they can't do no wrong. It's also teaching men to say sorry even if they have nothing to be sorry for, how will you know if it's a sincere apology? But if you do these thing, she may, MAY let you sleep with her.

Dear future husband,
Make time for me
Don't leave me lonely
And know we'll never see your family more than mine

Totally agree that couples should make time for each other and attempt to have equal relationships with each side of the family but remember it goes both ways! 

I'll be sleeping on the left side of the bed (hey)
Open doors for me and you might get some kisses
Don't have a dirty mind
Just be a classy guy
Buy me a ring
Buy-buy me a ring, (babe)

She likes to give her orders doesn't she? How can she tell the guy not to have a dirty mind when the only things she has offered in return for him being a good husband and giving into all her demands is sex or things related to sex. Poor guy isn't allowed a dirty mind but all she sees him as is a money making machine that is a slave to his 'only' desire which is sex? Don't forget to buy her a ring lads, need to seal the deal of a life time of being used and worshiping her. After all she has earned it by spending money, and giving kisses? 

Dear future husband,
If you wanna get that special loving
Tell me I'm beautiful each and every night

Another order given by your future wife, you want some loving you have to tell her she is beautiful. Yep, I agree with this but what about the other way. Does a man not need to be told he is handsome and feel loved. Does a guy not want his wife to show him some loving because she wants to, because she wants to show him some affection. Nope he has to earn it by making money, allowing her to spend it, cooking, buying flowers, taking her on dates, opening doors, not allowing her to feel lonely, saying sorry even if he isn't wrong, telling her she is beautiful to receive sex and don't forget the ring. The ring in the important bit, because this way once she is bored of you being her lap dog and she decides she wants an 'equal' she will divorce you and take everything you have! 

How beautiful is this song?! Total classic, teaching young women everywhere they are to be worshiped and teaching men that they are to do as they are told. Nothing like equality is there? 

Now I am not attacking women and I am not attacking men in this post, I am simply attacking who ever the hell decided to write and produce this awful song! And Meghan for singing it and promoting it.

When will we get a decent role model for young people. Music has such an influence on so many peoples lives and yet they decide to promote things like this. If equality is what people want then I think we are stepping backwards a bit, don't you? 

Lyrics taken from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/meghantrainor/dearfuturehusband.html

Breastfeeding! Part One

'I'm not telling you it's going to be easy - I'm telling you it's going to be worth it.'

-Art Williams

I am not attacking anyone who chooses to bottle feed, I am just trying to tell you the benefits, make your own decision after that. 

I am so passionate about breastfeeding. It's a known fact breast is best. Even companies that sell formula milk will tell you this. A popular baby formula in the UK is Aptamil and when you first go onto their website they tell you breast is best before you click continue to find out more information on their brand. 

I am currently pregnant with my 3rd child and will be choosing to breastfeed again but before I go on to tell you about the benefits of breastfeeding I want to take you back 9 and a half years to when I had my son at the age of 16. 

Now yes I know having a baby at 16 sounds so bad! I was a very naive teenager when it came to sex and put my trust in the boyfriend at the time and ended up pregnant. Even though I didn't know much about contraception and sex at the time, one thing I was certain on was I was against abortion. So once I found out I was pregnant it was decided I was keeping the baby, yes it would be hard, yes I would get attacked for being such a young mother and yes it would slow down my studies. I didn't have my own home or a loving husband but hey these things happen you just have to make the most of it.  

With me being so young it meant so were my friends. So to them breastfeeding for just 'totally gross'. I did my research and realised it was for the best so I decided I was going to breastfeed, I didn't really care what others thought. But now I am older I do believe this stigma of breastfeeding being an offensive thing sticks into people's mind. Which is totally stupid, it's what they were made for! 

I gave birth to my son, explained I wanted to try breastfeeding and the midwives helped, giving me tips and advice. It was tough. Then the first night after I had my son I started shaking, I guessed it was just my body completely exhausted for giving birth, then the next day I began to fit and then the day after (or might of been the same day, very bad memory) I had a huge fit and pretty much died. That was fun! (I had contracted an infection from the hospital and it shut all my organs down, doctors had no idea what to do but my Nan brought in two people to give me a blessing and I was back! But that's a story I will have to save for another time).

Right, so far you have read that my start to breastfeeding wasn't exactly easy but I carried on. A few hours after I died a new midwife came in to introduce herself to me. She was from Liverpool and if you know anyone from Liverpool you know how straight forward they can be. I was crying my eyes out, saying I just can't do it. I can't breastfeed it's too hard. It hurt. It does hurt at the beginning but come on ladies you've just given birth! This is a stroll in the park compared! But this midwife just asked me outright, 'Do you want to breastfeed?' I replied yes and that was it, she became almost a bully! Haha She pushed and pushed me. And boy was I thankful afterwards! 

So now you know how hard my start to breastfeeding was I think most of you don't really have much excuse! Excluding the rare cases where it is physically impossible for the mother to breastfeed.

I will be doing a part two for this article going more in depth but for the time being how about a list. We love lists! Some benefits and facts to breastfeeding. 

• They recommend it! Even the formula companies will tell you that breast is best! Simple.
• Breastfeeding promotes bonding between Mum and baby. This is so true with my children, I have such a connection with them and strongly believe it is partly due to breastfeeding.
• Satisfies baby's emotional needs.The cuddles baby receives when breastfeeding makes a world of difference to the child. I know almost all parents try their best. But it can be tempting as they get older to just prop the bottle up or get baby to hold it themselves. Breastfeeding means baby gets two in one, food and cuddles! What's not to love. 
• Breastfed babies cannot be over fed meaning that it lowers the chance of obesity. Formula babies can be over fed and it's so difficult to know if baby is actually hunger or being greedy sometimes when it comes to formula. 
• Lowers the chance of mother developing breast cancer. Also if baby is a girl it lowers their chance of developing it in later life! Also lowers the chance of developing ovarian cancer too!  
• Higher I.Q! Who doesn't want to increase their child's chances of being brainy! Breastfed babies have a higher I.Q on average by 5 points! My son was breastfed for 14 months and his reading age is more than 3 years above that of the average child. Also he is way above average in Maths. I'll happily take some of the credit for that. Haha. 
• No prepping! Screaming baby, bottle not cool enough, the stress that goes with it. Breastfeed! Milk on tap, right amount and right temperature. Easy life :) 
• Breast milk contains immunities to diseases and aids in the development of baby's immune system. 
• Breast milk is more digestible than formula milk. Also leading to less chance of baby becoming constipated.
• Lowers chance of baby developing asthma.
• Protects against childhood Crohn's disease.
• Lowers chance of child developing diabetes. Chances of it much higher with formula fed babies.
• Breastfeeding lowers chance of child developing allergies. Formula increases it.
• I could go on forever about the things it lowers the chances of, by a lot! 

Okay so I think for the time being I have given a nice little selection of the benefits of breastfeeding for your baby. 

Now just a couple of my favorite 'selfish' benefits to bring the article to a close for the time being while I work on a more in depth part two. 

• MONEY!! You save a fortune breastfeeding, have you seen the price of formula these days?! I don't know how people manage it to be honest. Think of the money! 
• Proven that breastfeeding helps your uterus contract quicker getting it back to it's normal pre pregnancy size! Flatter tummy quicker ladies?!
• Helps you to lose the baby weight you may have gained.
• Big boobs!! If you are like me and were not blessed with a big chest, breastfeeding is like a free boob job! It's awesome. With my son I went from a B cup to a DD. It was awesome! 
• You get a few more calories ;) You are allowed more calories when breastfeeding, but don't over do it! 
• Last but not least, one of my favourites, sleep! I was able to sleep longer simply because I didn't need to mess about in the middle of the night prepping a bottle. At the time co sleeping was allowed and I would simply pop my son onto my breast, lie on the double bed with him and go back to sleep while he fed. Was a life saver. 

Unfortunately I am unable to make a fancy TV advert of me running around with my flat tummy, huge boobs, money in my pocket and a happy baby on my arm to promote breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is simply promoted on health, nobody gets lots of money for selling it. So unfortunately it's all the formula companies that do the fancy adverts that convince you to buy formula. But I promise you BREAST IS BEST!! Please consider it.

One last thing - If you do choose to breastfeed I recently found out hospitals are telling you it's fine to feed baby formula in the beginning and try breastfeeding. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS! Your body makes milk to order! If you are giving formula on the side it will never produce the complete amount your baby needs. Don't lose faith, the first couple of days are hard but baby is getting what he/she needs from your boobies. Just be patient, keep at it and you'll be full of milk in no time.