1. I have no power to edit or delete comments from these forums.
2. I didn't ask you to go away, I asked to to accept, as I do, that you can't speak for the other 66 million people in the country.
3. I wasn't actually talking about the government, or the EU, in that post.

In the 2005 general election, 9.56 million people voted Labour, 8.77 million voted Conservative, 5.98 million voted Lib Dem, and 2.8 million voted for small parties and independents. That's 35.3% of the vote in the UK, and resulted in taking 55.2% of the seats in Parliament, compared with the Tories 32.3% of the vote taking 30.7% of the seats. This is perhaps unfair in terms of majority, but it is important to note that even in raw numbers, with Tony Blair a very unpopular PM, Labour took more of the popular vote than any other party.
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2005#Total_seats_for_each_party

What I think happened in this election is that the tories took a line which appealed to their core, true blue supporters. When either of the main parties does this, they tend to be able to take about a third of the vote, and all their natural seats but very few marginals.

Those who didn't vote Labour have to make do, I'm afraid. Democracy is not about parties making unanimous wins at election, it's about determining the best compromise of the country's views through a majority vote, and the party which wins the vote rightly enacts legislation according to the values it stood on. 40% of the country didn't bother to stroll down the road and put an X in a box, or at least spoil a ballot in the time honoured method of drawing a...on it. If they did vote, they'd have had their say and the government at the moment could be very different - but at the end of the day, they chose not to, so must put up with the government we have.

Write what you think - I have no problem with that, as long as you don't try to say that your opinion is by extension the opinion of the rest of the country: it isn't.

I've told you my point of view on all of the above, and I'm not going to go through the same things over and over.

No, I don't do that, my views are my own and portrayed as such (if you disagree, show me where I have and I'll apologise). All I've done is comment on current support for Labour as is being shown in the various independent polls, but even that isn't always the best indicator.

Labour, or more importantly, our elected politicians (including the Tories and Lib Dems), do, on the other hand, have a right to speak for the people at some level. In a representative democracy like ours (injustices in the electoral system aside), they are given that right by getting elected. It's not politically correct rubbish, it's a fundamental tenet of freedom of speech.

In what way are we not doing a lot at home? We only spend 0.5% of our Gross National Income (GNI) on international development. The problems we seek to address abroad with that money are far worse than those we have at home. For example:

• every day 30,000 children die because of preventable diseases;
• average life expectancy in Africa is 46 and falling;
• by 2015, nine out of ten of the world’s poorest people will live in Africa and South Asia;
• and around half of this number will live in countries without effective governments.

There are problems at home, but we spend 99.5% of GNI on ourselves, and dealing with those problems.

Regarding our aging population, we spend an average of 6 times as much on each over 65-year-old than on each 16-44 year old. The Labour government has brought in free local bus travel for the retired, extending to nationwide bus travel from 2008, and a winter fuel allowance to avoid the awful situation we had in the past of some OAPs needing to choose between food and warmth. We have a guaranteed level of free state pension, and a health service free at the point of need - used far more by the over 65s than the average citizen, as it should be.

I'm not trying to say that these things are wrong, indeed they're exactly what we should be doing, but saying that we shouldn't be spending just 0.5% of our GNI on the welfare of other nations is incredibly selfish and short-sighted. Like it or not, we're in a global economy and community, and we do have a responsibility to our neighbours, which we can't meet with private charity alone.

Please, the country is not on the verge of bankruptcy as you keep claiming. Ever struggle to afford food and shelter for yourself and your family? I thought not. Africa is our concern, the people there are worth just as much as we are, and if the positions were reversed, wouldn't you expect help from Africa?

Yes, we need to look after our own, and that's what we spend almost all of our time and resources doing - our spending on international development is currently far too low and needs to continue to be moved up the agenda.