Has the Party of Failure created a big enough 'client state' to win the election?

If one puts one's tribal political views to one side for a moment and looks instead at what's really happening in our country in terms of the economy, employment, prosperity and, at the heart of things, the motivation of the two main parties, it's difficult to see how Labour is still ahead in the polls.

Far be it from me to suggest that Dave and George have been great, but they did face a huge problem when they came in and despite Mr Clegg trying to fuck everything up along the way, they have got the country pointing in the right direction at last. Yes the debt has increased; yes some of the welfare reforms have caused pain and suffering (but has also got many people out of the poverty trap), but it's not all been great. It was never going to be given the problems we faced.

But at the heart of things the Tories have been trying to make things better: Encouraging entrepreneurship and the creation of enterprising small businesses, whereas Labour has also been trying (forever it seems to me) to create small businesses out of former big businesses. Instead of brushing NHS failures under the carpet the Tories have been trying to expose the problem and address it. Instead of lowering the bar to achieve good stats in education, they have been trying to raise standards.

Anyway the thing is this.

I think the Labour party is the party of failure. It does not represent or even respect people who work hard. It has deliberately created a client state where 'entitlement' to money has become the norm. Where you have the 'right' to a lifestyle of some considerable comfort, without having to work for it. The Welfare state used to - and should now - be a safety net to help people until they can get back on their feet.

It has now morphed into an entitlement and a lifestyle choice. And when you have a significant percentage of people working full-time but who need a top up from government in terms of benefits in order to have enough to live on, then the whole system is essentially fucked.

My overriding concern is that Labour has created a big enough 'client state' - which inevitably means a lack of ambition or preparedness to work - that can actually secure it (the Labour Party) an election victory.

In other words, that there are now enough people who are dependent upon the state for their income - and who will obviously vote Labour in order to perpetuate their non-contributory, I-can-live-quite-comfortably-thank-you-without-working lifestyle, to return Labour to office. And so to perpetuate the downwardly spiralling problem of a government that is anti business and therefore anti the very means by which we create the wealth and money that pays for everything else.

Just think about that for a moment.

Socialism has some great fundamental values but they just don't work in reality if one doesn't have the means to pay for them. It has always been something of a drag on run-away prosperity and has, valuably I would argue, meant that those who are less able, less lucky or less corrupt are not discarded.

But when one gets to the point where the less productive are running the show and can secure electoral success not by their beliefs and ambitions such as they are, but just by the numbers, we're in a downward spiral.

And that's a terrifying prospect.

Because it means that our government will be about what's in your unemployment package this week, rather than where the country and our kids will be in 10, 20, 50 year's time.

And if we go down this route, that will be precisely nowhere.

Thanks for reading.