I really don’t know where to start on that one. The bits I saw showed it to be a real half-arsed affair:

• Gordon Brown infront of a screen of LEDs. Did they not check how such a screen would look on camera? He looks awful. It was a dreadfully poor mistake to make.

• It was held in a half-finished hospital, amongst concerns that it was actually wrong for them to have done so. Labour argue that the hospital has not yet been commissioned, so it is still privately owned and therefore acceptable for use. Why they wanted to launch their manifesto in a building site is anyone’s guess. I bet it was because it was cheap.

• The assembled rabble cheered the good points, and booed questions asked by journalists. BBC’s Nick Robinson complained of this on the Daily Politics last night - his questions were booed.

• Some patronising cartoon was shown to explain the manifesto.

At this point, if Gordon Brown’s toes weren’t curling up in embarrassment and anger at this awfully poor show, he really, really should not be in the job.

It just reinforces my thoughts that Labour are deliberately trying to losing this one.

Don't forget that Gordon Brown said that "Manifestos pledges are not subject to legitimate expectation"

I seriously couldn't stop laughing about that last night when I saw it on the news.
It was like he entered the world of Super Mario.

Mark

That’s just what I thought! Gordon Brown - the 8-Bit Politician!

Leading a 2-bit party.

Cameron wants to make people work for their dole money. Is this going to be my first ever Tory vote?

The Tories broke society in the 1980’s. Now they are bleating about “broken Britain”.

I'm not convinced it's an argument that washes.

If you are talking about re-electing an administration then yes, but it's been over a decade since the Conservatives were in power, a substantial proportion of the senior people involved during that period are no longer present, and as Labour have shown, a party can change it characteristics immensely in that kind of time period.

Not saying they'll get it right, just that saying you cannot vote for them on the basis of 20 year old events seems a bit screwy to me.

I am.
You can't break something, watch somebody else fix it (however badly or botched that 'fix' may be) and then start bleating on about how broken it still is.

Mark

I agree - the damage the Tories did to the nation in the 80s still lingers in the structures of the country, and a whole generation who are now raising children of their own.
If you think there's 'issues' with the state of the youth today, and that the parents are to blame, those parents will have been raised in a Tory culture.
Not to excuse Labour for not dealing with it, and in some instances persisting with some policies.

So every is in agreement that a party cannot change its stance on anything over a decade or so, in spite of Labour having swung wildly from left to right in that time period.

Right. Glad we got that sorted.

Edit: I should point out that I'm probably going to be voting Lib Dem at the election, not Conservative. I just think there are massively better arguments to be made in discussing who is better / worse. I might just have to do some research on how many Conservative MPs that were in power on say Black Wednesday are still in the House today.

Can a leopard change its spots? Sure.

There are plenty of things the Tories are saying that hit all the right buttons. And that's the danger. They're being led by a PR man, who's spent most of the last 20 years in the Westminster bubble. He knows what to say to get the voters to agree with him, and once elected those things go out the window.

Just like every other political party over the years.

I lived through the Thatcher years, and despite Cameron's gushing about "broken Britain" and "stopping Big Government", I simply don't believe that the Tories are going to be any different to what they were then. I am firmly of the opinion that simply switching from Labour to Conservative is not what this country needs right now. We need a proper change in the way this country is governed, and changing one politico for another is not the way to do it.

It's fairly likely Cameron's Eton Rifles will scrape through this election. I sincerely hope it's without a proper working majority so they don't get an easy ride. I fervently wish for a hung parliament, but we'll have to wait until May 7.

That's partly the problem - there was once a politics of ideology, which has apparently vanished in a tidal wave of lobbyists and power games.
When the parties are all simply saying 'vote for us, we're different' rather than saying 'This is what we believe in', we're in trouble.
There should be a ideology at the core of a party, rather than scuttling about and changing policy simply to appear more attractive.

Yes but many of the Tory diehards are still about.

They have also railed against any changes to previous Tory policies like the right to buy in Wales. So where have they changed? Only rhetoric as far as I can see.