He failed to get an overall majority which given the mess Labour and the country was in at the time, was like missing an open goal from a distance of 3 feet. It might have had something to do with the woeful campaign he ran in 2010 and he could not convince the electorate as he swallowed New Labour's big state agenda.

Now he has a number of broken promises to explain such as deficit reduction, immigration targets, NHS reorg etc. as well as unpopular stupid policies to defend (bedroom tax, foreign aid targets, green energy initiates). He nearly destroyed the Union with his cack handed performance in the Scottish referendum negotiations in 2012. We will never get close to a majority with this bumbler in charge.

I despair. Why has this shallow PR man got to be interviewed in his kitchen? He is meant to be our Prime Minister.

He could not even beat Gordon Brown in the midst of a massive recession and now his only pitch to the electorate is that he is less useless than Ed Miliband.

I bet that issue comes up a lot on the doorstep when campaigning! I think the voters are more upset about arrogant, out of touch MPs and government ministers who fiddle their expenses. Or incompetent governments that attempt to introduce state regulation of the press for the first time in 300 years. How do the Conservatives expect to win a majority at the next election?

It might have something to do with the fact that Germany, which is a major exporter, operates with a currency (the Euro) which is significantly undervalued considering the strength of its economy This keeps the cost of its exported products artificially low. If Germany was still operating with the Deutsche Mark and its exports were say 50% more expensive I doubt its economy would be doing nearly as well. They would sell a lot less BMWs or Volkswagens if they were 50% more expensive and most other European countries would import less. Britain would also likely be exporting more to Germany as well. The Euro has created a massive economic distortion.

Dear OceanNeil,
Clearly it is uncomfortable going against convention but government by focus group is no longer an option given the state of our public finances. We must not confuse outputs with inputs and there should be no sacred cows.

Dear Gunnerbear,
I wonder why we have some of the most expensive rail travel in Europe if not the world? Is it perhaps due to our overly complex privatised rail system where there are insufficient cost controls and where the toothless rail regulator waives through above inflation price increases year after year and the traveling public (read voters) get shafted. Look at the shambles of the West Coast Mainline franchise tender last year which tells you that the structure needs to be adapted because even the people who administer it do not understand it. For the avoidance of doubt I am not advocating renationalising it but we ought to look at better ways of running it (fewer layers, better regulation etc) which will make our economy more competitive. I am not in government and do not have all the answers but I do find it frustrating that our government seems not to want to improve these basic things. Their entire rail policy seems to be HS2 - the benefits of which are dubious and will lose votes in many affected areas
If the government is keen on ring fencing why does it not put aside a portion of the fuel duty and road tax on road maintenance and improvements? Although road safety in the UK is very good, our roads are in quite a poor state and overcrowded - yet we have some of the most expensive fuel on the planet. Should we not also consider toll roads to get private investment in?

On your logic if we do not make the case then the debate will always be framed in those terms. Can you honestly not say that there are no economies which can be made in a circa £110bn budget when we have seen monumental waste such as the £12bn NHS computer project which had to be abandoned. We have cut other government departments most notably defence quite savagely. Even the Labour party have not to my knowledge promised to ring fence the NHS. I think the general public understand the need to get value for money from public services and it is condescending to them to assume otherwise.

Why is it then that when the Thatcher government cut marginal income tax rates from 83% to 40% the total income tax paid by the rich subsequently went up? Read the excellent Fraser Nelson.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/03/...

Dear OceanNeil,
Re tax I think our whole tax code needs to be dramatically simplified and there is an argument for lowering corporation tax rates to Irish levels to encourage inward investment which will create other tax revenues (income tax etc.). The last time I looked the UK tax code was over 11,000 pages long having doubled in length under labour. Have you ever heard of the laffer curve where if taxes are lower and simpler then governments collect more as it is cheaper for people and companies to just pay them.

Also it sounds like you have fallen for the Labour trap of measuring the outputs of public services (especially the NHS and Education) by how expensive they are to run (i.e. inputs). Both departments enjoyed massive increases in the previous decade and it is fair to say that economies could be made without significantly affecting outputs. Countries like Canada and Sweden which tackled large deficits successfully did not ring fence big parts of the budget as it makes the cuts elsewhere impossibly large.

So let me see. Our economy is flat lining and our government are borrowing circa 20% (i.e. £120bn pa) more than they are earning despite significant tax increases. - and this is meant to be good news. This is a dire state of affairs. Our country is going bust and we are continuing on with Brown's ruinous policies. Cameron and Osbourne have had three years and have failed to make a dent in the problem.

Where are the big conservative ideas to kick start the economy? infrastructure projects (Boris Island anyone?), reforms to increase competition and make our banking, utility, telecoms and transport sectors more competitive, simplified and flat tax rates, removal of national insurance, big cuts in corporate tax rates etc.etc.

All we have from our Chancellor are small initiatives and a big crazy scheme involving the tax payer pumping the over inflated housing market leaving us potentially with additional liabilities down the road.

Why have we not had sensible cost reduction across the entire public sector? What happened to the bonfire of the quangos? Why is there a ring fence around the NHS and Education two of the bigger departments? Why are we throwing money at Foreign Aid while decimating our proud Armed Forces?