Lies, lies, lies

The three main parties have fought the UK General Election on a huge lie. That is that Britain has a massive and growing public debt and this can only be dealt with by huge cuts. Cuts that are so large they cannot be mentioned in polite society.

Of course there is a growing debt. However it is not particularly large by comparison with other rich countries. Its cause is obviously not an over-delivery of public services. Our pensions, social welfare, education and even our much-praised health service are below many European countries.

The problem arises because of New Labour's unwillingness to tax the rich and its fanatical commitment to money-wasting privatisation. Brown and Darling have found billions of pounds to bail out the banks but are unwilling to tackle the speculators who nearly wrecked the world economy. All three main parties have held back from supporting European Union initiatives to regulate private equity firms, some of whom have poured money into mainly the Tories but also New Labour.

They have failed to support Obama's and Merkel's call to end tax havens. These failures could have unfortunate consequences.

The Conservatives stole a march on New Labour by supporting the so called "Robin Hood" tax on banks. However the tax Cameron proposes has nothing to do with redistributing wealth. It is a kind of insurance to avoid future state bail-outs of the banks. And, beautifully, we the tax payers will pay for it -- because the Tories plan to reduce corporation tax from 28% to 25% which easily pays for the transaction tax.

The 6% drop in the GDP combined with the proposed cuts by all three parties will take the level spent on public services back to the days of John Major and the Tories. The continued speculation by the bankers is driving us towards another financial crisis. This is the reality facing voters. And yet the Alliance for Green Socialism have occasionally (not that often actually) met "sophisticated" voters who argue that the most important question is keeping the Tories out. New Labour have promised to carry on building Trident, attacking the unemployed, introducing ID cards, fighting the war in Afghanistan, ignoring the environmental crisis, semi-privatising the schools and cutting public services. They actually will do what they say.

George Monbiot in his Guardian article has a similar take: "New Labour is a parasite. A vote for them is born of fear, not hope."

The alternative is to vote for green and socialist alternatives and to prepare to fight the cuts. Voting for New Labour is voting for cuts and wars.

The last days of the campaign in Leeds North East

At two large hustings at the Roundhay United Reform Church, Celia Foote, the AGS candidate, gave assured and knowledgeable performances. The New Labour and Tory candidates ended up squabbling like small schoolboys. This reflects her growing political strength. She won these debates decisively. Perhaps this explains that when she turned up to hustings to be held at the Chapel Allerton Methodist Centre none of the other candidates came, although members of the public turned up to talk to her.

Celia took part in the Leeds May Day Parade which seemed to have been boycotted by the New Labour candidates and she enjoyed the Leeds West Indian Centre Women's Committee May Fair.