With just over a year to go before the next general election in the UK, it is in the back of the minds of many of the British public- including me. When I consider the key election issues, I am concerned with the perception of the Government's approach, and the impact this could have on next year's vote.
To me, the most important is almost always going to be the economy: after all, it affects everyone's well-being, whilst also having an impact on government spending: if the economy is weak, and the government has barely enough money to spend, then it is limited in the scope of what it can afford to change in a significant way. On the whole, I'm very pleased with the Government's economic record to date: we have growth rates that are impressive compared with elsewhere in the developed world, despite ongoing economic challenges, whilst there is evidence of success and progress across most economic sectors. In addition, the Government's goal to shrink the size of the public sector without exacerbating unemployment seems to have been successful, with the number of new private sector jobs far outweighing the number of public sector jobs cut. A combination of confidence and assertiveness in light of our economic achievements, yet an avoidance of complacency in terms of Government debt (when this would have been a relatively easy stance to take when there has been a lot of good news on the economy), strike me as a very positive approach- and one I fear would be jeopardised by a potential Labour government in 2015, which could return to inflating the public sector once again without a pragmatic approach to funding it, creating another economic mess.
I support the government's ambitions regarding Europe: staying within the European Union, while hoping to steer our membership towards one that involves cooperation on political issues and close trading ties, as well as keeping interference in national affairs to a minimum and avoiding getting sucked into the difficulties being faced by the Eurozone. Having said this, I don't think that a Labour government would deviate too much from this- but implies it would be more reluctant to assert the UK's interests to the same extent as the Conservatives.
In terms of energy, the Government seems to be taking a sensible, balanced approach- introducing green technology, with its inherent positive impact on the environment, as well as pursuing the pragmatism of nuclear power and an openness to new potential sources, such as fracking. Meanwhile, the Government seems to have had an effective foreign policy: maintaining the "special relationship" with the United States; constructively seeking partners in Europe (most noticeably Germany's Angela Merkel) to achieve common goals in the EU; supporting humanitarian efforts globally, while taking a fair approach to crises around the world (such as Libya and Syria); and making more of an effort with our Commonwealth allies, with some seeming as strong as ever (Australia and Canada), while it seems that other relationships need more work (such as with India).
However, there have been some areas where quite radical ideas have been pursued, including the Education Secretary's reforms to education, the proposed HS2 high speed train line, and the Universal Credit benefits system, and is too early say what impact they will have (assuming they are not stopped or reversed by the government elected in 2015). Meanwhile, the government has received a bad press on the NHS (with numerous scandals in health, such as the level of care offered in hospitals, though my personal- albeit brief- uses of the NHS have almost always been positive) while there seems to have been little progress in terms of immigration.
Though areas of the public sector, such as education and healthcare, generally seem stronger under a Labour government, I fear Labour's potentially negative impact on the economy and even less control of immigration. But with government slip-ups in a number of areas, and the controversy surrounding the government's pro-austerity measures, Labour stubbornly clings to the lead in opinion polls (albeit a weak one) and, with disillusioned voters (particularly those usually supporting the Conservatives) likely to back UKIP as an alternative, I fear these ingredients seem to make a Labour victory likely in 2015 unless there are some significant changes- in spite of clear government success with the economy.
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