IN the coming election, gymnastics of untruths, negative messages, image and vilification of opponents will be the norm.

Alternatively consider that only good things are achieved if they last beyond the politicians' lives?

Take the maternity rights scheme. Millions of women have positively benefited since the 1970s. The Bill was guided through parliament by the maligned Michael Foot. Which politician would dare abolish it now? So much for negative image.

We also have the ignorance, on which many feed, of the banks' misdeeds worldwide. Who understands the concept of the billions that they lost? Let's take a sporting event, 25,000 people attending. Imagine that each person receives a cheque for a million pounds as they leave. Twenty five thousand million pounds — equals £25 billion! One bank's losses. Even the Bank of England didn't spot what was going on.

Contrast this to a pensioner losing £10 during her shopping. A personal disaster for some. In the real world ordinary people have paid the price in cuts once the game of 'monopoly' stopped.The poor have lined the happiness of the wealthy. We are not all in it together. Nothing can equal the elegant impertinence of hands which never work.

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