You've written me off as a liberal, but I'm not. On education I'm very right wing (grammar schools are the best solution, Uni should be for the top few per cent, etc.) and I want taxes spending on defence. (I'm liberal only in that I believe in social justice and fairness, want to protect the environment rather than raping it for individual profit, and in that I'm in favour of helping and protecting the weak and vulnerable. I'm even socialist - to the extent that I'm in favour of progressive taxation, and that I'm nervous about letting individual self interest drive our economy, and I do believe that the state should have a role). I guess that might 'put me in the red corner' by your standards! But it actually just makes me an ordinary person - cynical about all the political parties and entirely unable to pin my colours to any particular mast. I'll judge every issue on its merits, and not according to a particular party line, and while I despise the Grinning Tony, distrust the slimy Howard and think that fatty Kennedy's a bit of a joke, I can find elements in all of their manifestos with which I agree!
But I'll vote blue, reluctantly, as I always have done. I have always had an excellent, very wet, very liberal tory local constituency MP, so that sweetens the pill somewhat, and I can always kid myself that I'm just voting for my constituency MP. If the Tory party were still the Party Maggie destroyed (the party of Pym, Gilmour, etc.) I'd probably join it, but the present monetarist, 'no such thing as society', tax-cutting, nest-feathering, selfish bunch seem to be awfully 'nouveau', vulgar and hateful, and they turn me right off.
And I have to say that I fear that their instincts are to 'slash and burn' public spending to fund their all important tax reductions (which aren't all important to me - I'd pay more if it ensured better provision in particular areas), and as such I don't think that defence is 'safe in their hands' at all.
But I am VERY pissed, too....... so my judgemeny may be flawed
But to say that: "Gordon's promised an increase in defence spending in real terms, while Oliver Letwin has promised only to freeze defence spending for two years (a cut in real terms)" is simply pointing out a simple fact, though it's a fact that you card carrying Thatcherite Tories might (or should) find uncomfortable and embarrassing. It'll take more than that to make me vote Labour, however.......