We Got Engaged!!

'Remember tonight, for it's the beginning of forever'

- Dante Alighieri

My Little Sister, Rebecca.

Me, the night I met Alex.

I met my now fiance 3 years ago. I was at a ladies night in Stockport. I entered the room and it was full of over 100 excited women and a handful of topless waiters. Now places like this aren't usually my scene but I was helping out with a stall there. Long story short I enjoyed a few drinks with my sister and got chatting to one of the topless waiters, Alex.

(In their defence they were topless waiters as a one off raising money for charity)

One of the waiters having a little too much fun! Haha

The evening was going great and we sat talking for ages, he was a lovely guy and very handsome. I thought this is going great, I think he likes me. The end of the night came and he still hadn't asked for my phone number! I slowly walked out with him, I tried my best to stall hoping it would give him chance to ask for my number and he didn't. We said goodbye and parted. He was staying in the hotel and I was waiting in the reception to go home.

I was gutted! I really thought he liked me, why didn't he ask for my number? 
My sister saw how upset I was and she noticed he had written his details down on a competition the stall I was on was doing. So she gave me his number and told me to text him.

'Hey this is Charlotte, here's my number if you want it.' 

The next minute he comes walking briskly into reception. We spent about 2 hours chatting in reception before I thought I best leave. He walked us to the taxi and gave me a kiss on the cheek. 
Sounds like it worked out right? Well turns out he lived in Ipswich! Over a 4 hour drive from me in Manchester. How do I manage to find an amazing guy not far from home and then it turns out he lives in Ipswich! 
So the odds were against us, no way it was going to work, all you ever here is that long distance relationships completely fail. 

The next morning I woke up to a text message from him, and that was it, we haven't looked back. We didn't go a day without speaking and took turns in visiting each other. 

3 years on and we have a son together but are still in a long distance relationship. How we have kept it up I have no idea. The career he has has made it quite difficult for him to come up here but thankfully he can apply for transfer next year!

Because of his job and the distance, we were unable to celebrate Valentine's Day this year, so we agreed to celebrate on the 26th February. 

Us at the James Martin Restaurant, Manchester

He planned a wonderful evening, we were visiting the James Martin Restaurant in Manchester and then off to Cloud 23 in the Hilton for a few cocktails. Sounded like the perfect evening and to be honest a tiny, tiny part of me thought, 'this is a bit fancy for us, I wonder if he is going to propose?'

Us at Cloud 23 in the Hilton, Manchester

The evening went amazing, Alex looked very handsome, the food was gorgeous and the view from the Hilton was beautiful. There were so many opportunities for a guy to propose and it would of been perfect! The conversation flowed as well as a couple of cocktails. Then our evening finished and it was time to go home to our baby boy. 

No ring on my finger. It wasn't happening. But I knew, only a tiny part of me thought maybe he will? 

It didn't ruin the night though, I still enjoyed every minute with him, as I always do and it was a wonderful, rare, date night. 
We arrived home, changed out of our clothes and into pajamas and I climbed into bed with my son for cuddles. 

Our son, baby Joseph

The next minute Alex wanders into the room in his topless waiter outfit from 3 years ago. I couldn't stop laughing, it brought back great memories and I never thought I'd see him in it again. What a perfect way to top the evening off. 
Time to exchange Valentines presents. We agreed cheesy, lovey, dovey things for Valentines as we always do. So I gave him a few little bits and a card. 

My gift to Alex, I guess you could say it's our song.

His turn.

He handed me a beautiful bouquet of red roses, a lovely Valentine's card (all while still wearing his topless waiter outfit) and then got down on one knee! 

I thought my face was going to break I was smiling so much. I couldn't believe the love of my life was down on one knee. The odds were against us from the beginning and here he was about to ask me to marry him.

He told me he loved me and that he misses me whenever we are apart and would I marry him?

Of course I said yes!! My very own topless waiter asking me to spend the rest of my life with him! How could I refuse. I couldn't stop smiling or kissing him, I was so happy. Everything I ever wanted.

Two people from other ends of the country beating the odds of a long distance relationship and the very odd meeting at a ladies night, finally engaged and looking forward to our future together and hopefully no longer long distance! 

Me, Alex and my youngest son.

I thought I knew what love was before I met him but oh how wrong I was. I have finally met the 'one', my soul mate, my best friend and the most amazing father. I knew from day one I wanted to marry him, I no longer cared about the big wedding, the fancy ring, the presents. All I knew was I would marry this man with string on my finger, in jeans and a t -shirt so long as it meant I would be his. 

So the ring is a huge bonus! ;)

My Engagement Ring

All of us! Me, Alex, Joseph, Joshua and Katelyn. My beautiful family! 

My Home Birth 12th August 2015

It was a very empowering experience for me to give birth that way. It was the most painful thing I've ever experienced, but I lived through it. Now I want to shake every pregnant woman I know and say 'have a home birth!'

-Susanne Scott Rosenfeld

When I was 10 years old my step Mother chose a home birth for my younger brother Benjamin. I don't remember too much of it but what I do remember stayed with me ever since. I was fast asleep in the middle of the night and was shaken awake by her telling me her waters had broke. I was 10 so it didn't really mean much to me but then the next morning I was woken by the sounds of a pregnant lady pushing (I'm sure I don't need to describe that sound haha). It was about 7:15am on the 1st December and all of a sudden myself and my brothers and sister heard a baby crying. 

We all ran upstairs as fast as we could and were all able to meet our new brother, minutes after he had arrived into the world. It was amazing and I honestly feel I have a stronger connection with my little brother because of that. 

Ever since then I always wanted a home birth but unfortunately it took baby number 3 to get my wish.

With my first child I was very young so had to have a hospital birth, I didn't know much about birth and just went along with what every body told me, so it ended in a very painful hospital birth, no pain relief, being cut and then dying afterwards. So yeah, not the nicest experience. I later found out I contracted the thing that killed me from hospital! Surely that's enough to put anyone off having a baby in hospital!

3 years later I became pregnant with my 2nd child, due to the bad experience with my first the doctors refused to allow me to have a home birth. I wasn't a happy bunny but seemed I had no choice. I did choose to stay at home til the very last minute to avoid any medical intervention (I'm sure hospitals get excited about drugging up mothers or cutting them up!). Thankfully this birth went smooth, no pain relief and I was pushing as soon as I arrived at hospital, my daughter was born soon after. 

So that's the back ground of my births but thankfully as my 2nd birth went so well, this time I was able to have the home birth I wanted! :) 

Guess it's time to jump forward 6 years! I'll be totally honest, this pregnancy was unplanned. I sobbed for over an hour when I found out I was pregnant, I had no idea what I was going to do, how I was going to handle it. I was just getting on with life, back in work, children both in school, finishing my studies and then I get this little surprise.

Now I know I will be hated for some of my comments on this pregnancy but I feel it's probably best to be honest. 

So I cried for over an hour, and I hate to say it but for a split second abortion crossed my mind. I had always been against abortion (except in extreme circumstances) and the guilt still eats me up that it even crossed my mind but no I was going to handle this. I already have two, I can do this with a 3rd child. 

Time to tell the family I guess. I walked round to my Dad's house to talk to him and his wife and tell them the news. I was in tears, cried as I announced, 'I'm pregnant.'

I didn't get the reaction I expected, my Dad just started laughing. I was shocked. He said he had received a fine over his motorbike the day before but now it didn't seem like anything compared to this. Thankfully he was supportive, both him and his wife comforted me and said I can do this. 

I was still coming to terms with the idea of being pregnant. I know I should be so grateful I am able to have children as so many can't, but hey we are human and can sometimes be selfish. I had accepted I was going to have another child but I wasn't happy about the idea.

10 weeks into my pregnancy I started heavily bleeding, completely out of no where. I thought this is it, I've lost the baby. I was heart broken. It took losing the baby to make me realise how much I wanted him. At the end of the day he was my child and I was his Mother, it was my job to care and protect him.

I thought that was it, he had gone. I was just going to leave it at that but thankfully my Dad's wife Audrey repeatedly told me to go to the hospital just to check. I gave in the next day and went.

And there he was on the screen. My very own little jelly baby, wriggling around inside me with a strong heartbeat. I was so happy to see he was hanging in there. 

  10 week scan.

Both of my children witnessed me bleeding so they thought they had lost their baby brother so it was wonderful to pick them up from school and show them he was still hanging in there. 

The rest of the pregnancy was the typical boring pregnancy. Lots of morning sickness, SPD, back ache, going off certain foods, craving certain foods, moodiness (which my partner suffered the most for). Just a normal pregnancy I guess.

20 week scan (when I found out baby was a boy)

So fast forward to the end of the pregnancy. I was fat, struggling to walk and just wanted baby out! How majority of pregnant women feel at the end I'm guessing haha.

My due date came and went. I felt like he was never going to come out. For weeks I had been making sure everywhere was clean and tidy in case tonight was the night but nope. He still didn't come. Then on the Tuesday night I was shattered, the pots needed washing but I thought forget it I'll do it in the morning. 

1am on the 12th August. I had been happily snoozing, tucked up in bed. My eldest son Joshua decided to sleep in my bed that night (he is 9). I woke up thinking I had wet myself (Oh best mention, my waters never broke with my others, they had to be popped, my daughter was still in hers when she was being born). Then I realised I hadn't wet myself, my waters had broke!! The water was literally gushing out.

I shook my son to wake him up to help me. My partner was away for work so it was just me and the children. My son woke up not having a clue what was going on. 

"Joshua! My waters have broke, pass me that towel please!"

Half asleep my son grabbed everything I asked for. I cleaned myself up and thought, 'crap! What do I do now?'

My son was awesome, by this point he had woken up properly and talked me through it all. He said, 'Mummy you need to ring the midwife, Nanna, Grandad and Alex! Do you need me to do it?' 9 years old and he was in more control than me! 

While all this was happening my daughter was fast asleep in her room haha. 

I made it down the stairs, let my Dad know, let my Nan know, Alex and then I phoned the hospital. 

Now remember it was 1am this was all happening. I phoned the hospital and told them my waters had broke, I was having contractions, I was having a home birth, so what do I do?! The hospital just sounded like they didn't care. Just told me to come to hospital at 7am and they would check if it was my waters. Seriously!!???!! I told them I was having this baby soon but as usual they didn't believe me.

Nan showed up 20 minutes later. My contractions were very strong and very close together yet the only thing I could think was, I haven't washed the pots! Nan to the rescue.

I rang the hospital back and said I'm having this baby! Send the midwife!

Dad was on his way round, Midwife was on her way and Alex was far away with work and sleeping through all my messages! Haha.

I was bouncing on my birth ball, hot water bottle on my back and my son was running a bath for pain relief for me.

Honestly I couldn't believe at 9 years old how in control he was. I was so proud of him. Unfortunately I never made it to the bath, things were moving too quickly.

My contractions were probably less than a minute apart, the first chance I got between contractions, I ran up the stairs to my room, ready to have this baby.

Unfortunately because of the pain I only remember parts of the birth. The contractions were getting hard to handle by now. My Dad had arrived and the Midwife by now. The Midwife came into my room, informed me another Midwife was on her way too and then asked if I wanted them to send for gas and air. I told them there wasn't time, she just agreed. 

Nan was my birth partner, my Dad was tea lady/photographer for the night and my son was on cat control. The cat kept trying to get into my room so Joshua had to keep getting him out haha. 

Time to push. I went from kneeling on the floor to kneeling on the bed. Any position to try to make it easier. The midwives got everything set up and continuously checked baby's heart beat. Nan would rub my back to try and help with the pain and give me water through out. I couldn't have done it without her, or any of my family in fact! 

The midwives were amazing, so friendly, so in control and really eased my mind that this was all going to be okay. I had planned my home birth for months and knew everything I wanted but these midwives didn't know my plan and I didn't really have chance to explain so during a contraction I just shouted out, 'Oral Vit K, delayed cord clamping and breastfeeding! I'm sorry, I'm not telling you how to do your job, just trying to let you know what I want, I'm sorry.' 

Most of it became a bit of a blur from then, I remember bits but not too much, just the pain. 

I remember Nan telling the midwives that I apologize for breathing. One midwife said she couldn't believe how well I was doing without pain relief, she said I was handling the pain like a woman who had an epidural. Go me! :D 

They continued to check baby's heartbeat. Dad was passing cups of tea through the bedroom door whilst turning away so he didn't see and Nan continued to rub my back.

Then baby's heartbeat dropped. A lot! 

I'll be honest, I started to panic. I wanted him to be safe and healthy. Until this point the midwives had just talked to me and let me get through it how I wanted. They both then explained the baby's heartbeat had dropped and that they needed him out. They were so calm and in control. It helped me relax and trust them.

The Midwife then made me change position and talked me through pushing and breathing. I had never experienced 'The Ring of Fire' as I had heard a lot of Mum's call it but boy did I feel it this time, it stung and was worse than the pain of contractions haha. 

Baby made it out safe and healthy at 3:18am, weighing 8lb, delayed cord clamping, oral Vitamin K, skin to skin and breastfed. Only 2 hours and 18minutes after my waters broke. Not bad timing if I do say so myself. I had done it! I had my first home birth!

I was so happy, finally holding my new child in my arms. The Midwives were even crying. It was so amazing.

They covered me up and proceeded to get the children and my Dad. Nan, Dad, Joshua and Katelyn were all able to meet my new son, their new Grandchild, their new brother, minutes after birth. I can't even describe how fantastic it was. I was so so so so happy.

Joshua and Katelyn meeting their new brother Joseph Stephen.

Out of all 3 of my births this was by far the best. No scary hospitals, my home comforts, as many people as I wished in the home at the time. Amazing support. Totally awesome Midwives and a proper cuppa tea! ;) 

I would encourage anyone who is able to have a home birth to have one! You won't regret it!

 Joseph Stephen, one of his first photos.

Last little note. I want to say a huge thank you to my Nan, my Dad, my children Joshua and Katelyn and of course the truly amazing Midwives that I was so blessed to be able to have.

Oh and also if anyone is wondering and considering a home birth, they do clean up any mess too! I kept telling them to leave it but they insisted, you get the complete package!

Thank you for reading! Hope maybe you will consider a home birth next time?

Also if anyone has any questions about my home birth feel free to ask in the comments section or like my Facebook page and send a private message through that.

Weekend away in Chester UK

'Sometimes, you will never know now the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory'

- Unknown

Sometimes we need to step away from our day to day life and visit somewhere different. It doesn't have to be far, just different. Different faces, different scenery, just somewhere new. 

Little weekends away are so important, we all need a break away from day to day life. Taking a step back from bills, work and drama gives us a fresh look at life. Gives us the energy to jump back in with a new perspective once we arrive back to reality.

I am currently 38 weeks pregnant (I was about 31 weeks when we visited, yes I know, a bit late on writing a post about it), so day to day life is getting harder. This is my 3rd child so I have been there, done that and got the T shirt. But it doesn't make it any less scary or stressful the thought of having another life depend on you. 

Thankfully I have an amazing partner and he was able to provide both myself and him to a weekend away in Chester, a much needed one. It was a mix of celebration and some couple time. 

He spoiled me and treated us to a beautiful hotel that I couldn't rave about enough. The Macdonald New Blossoms Hotel in Chester. The staff were amazing, the hotel was beautiful and the breakfast was awesome too. Also the little toiletries you get were cool. Come on admit it we all love a few freebies! 

Just a few photos of our hotel room so you get the idea. I loved it but the bed was huge! During the night if I wanted a cuddle I would have to roll over a few times to find the other half, it was a massive bed! 

If him getting us a gorgeous hotel room wasn't enough, he also had flowers ordered and delivered to the room for me. Too cute!!

So by this point I'm sure you have all realised that I had pretty much forgotten about home and was finally relaxing and enjoying myself with the company of the best man a girl could ask for!

We stayed for two nights and it was heaven, I was relaxed and happy. De-stressed and building my energy levels back up. We tried to make the most of the short break by shopping, sight seeing and obviously a ghost walk! You can't visit Chester without going on a ghost walk! They say it's the most haunted place in Britain! Unfortunately I didn't see any ghosts though. Ah well, maybe next time haha. 

I'll shut up now and you can just enjoy some of the photos I managed to get. I guess the point to this post was so I would remember what a great time I had and how I felt at the time. But I did mean it in the beginning when I said we all need a little getaway from time to time, whether it's the break away from the daily stresses of life or to have a little couple time to focus on your relationship and remind each other just how much you love one another.

If you do manage a short break, check out Chester. I loved it, maybe you will too. 

P.S Make sure you visit a tea room too! :) 

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!