I'm just a working person!

Dear Ed,

Thank you for saying you will stand up for "working people"; very noble of you. As a working person ie someone who gets out of bed every morning to do something that generates income out of which I (a) pay taxes that politicians then largely waste, and (b) look after my family with what's left, I know you will value my thoughts.

1 The electorate is 46m people; 31m of those are "working people". Current polls say that around one third of the electorate (c15m) intends to vote for you which suggests either that only half of  "working people" believe that your policies are right for them or that most of your supporters aren't in work. Probably the position is somewhere in the middle and in reality you only have the support of one third of the working population - not much of an endorsement is it?

2 We all make mistakes. The key is recognising when you've got something wrong, putting it right and learning from it. I don't think the UK electorate can trust you when you won't recognise the mistakes you and your colleagues made before 2010 let alone convince us that you have learnt from them.

3 Nicola Sturgeon is smarter than you - and we can all see that. If you allow her to do so, she will run rings around you and you will look out of control and a complete chump. Personally, that wouldn't worry me but if 15m of my fellow citizens intend to put their future in your hands I think they deserve an honest account of how you intend to form a government without wee Jimmy Krankie.

4 What is your beef with non-doms? They pay full UK taxes on their UK income, as you and I do, and pay a "fee" every year to keep their non UK income taxed elsewhere. They also pay: VAT, Council Tax, Stamp Duty etc so please stop suggesting that they are in some way "scrounging" off the UK taxpayer. They are major contributors to our finances: you know that, and it does you no credit to treat them as an underclass.

So, from one "working person" to another, please get real. We are still in crisis and now is not the time to preach ideology. We need pragmatism, firm economic management and strong leadership. Maybe another "working person", David Cameron, can continue to show you how it should be done.

Heart v Head

Nine days to go and now it is getting serious. The week-end's poll showing the Yes camp in the lead has certainly galvanised the Unionist camp and, many would say, not before time. The leaders of the Westminster political parties have finally realised that we may be facing the break up of a Union that has survived for over 300 years, to all our benefit, and are hot footing it north of the border to try and save the day. Good luck to them - Salmond is proving to be as formidable a nationalist as The Bruce himself!

Of course, none of us below the line of Hadrian's Wall have a vote - but we certainly have opinions. And they seem to divide into two distinct camps: heart and head. I'm absolutely torn.

It's a simple choice!

The apparent plethora of televised debates seems to have caused more confusion than clarity. Never before has the electorate been given such choice. But the reality is that the decision about who should run the country for the next five years is simple.

A change of government is akin to the handing over of the baton in a relay race. In this instance we got off to a shaky start but thanks to a solid second leg and an impressive third, we are coming to the hand over point with a slight lead over our rivals and it seems that the runner of the final leg needs only to get hold of the baton and keep our momentum in order for us to win the race. So who do we have to run that final leg?

Ignore some of the candidates. UKIP were thought to have potential but spent so long arguing about the entry criteria that their man has fallen too far behind. Plaid Cymru and the SNP are too intent on worrying about whether these are national or international championships and the Greens have stopped running because of the damage it causes to the track. We're pretty sure that the LibDems started but they seem to have disappeared so we have only two candidates: the Tories and Labour. How to choose?

Just look at the form. When the Labour runner was last handed the baton by the Tories in 1997, against the background of a stable and growing economy and sound fiscal constraint, what happened? They didn't simply lose the race; they ended up going backwards and dropping the baton before rounding the final bend. By contrast when the Tories were given the baton in 2010 in a desperate position with no real hope of victory, they not only grasped it but ran past the opposition and achieved the most unlikely of victories.

So on May 7th think only of who you trust to carry the baton home and win the race. The Labour runner may claim to have learned from his past mistakes and plead to be given another chance, and you may think that the Tory is a touch too smooth for his own good, but look at their past performance. On that basis, I suggest, there is really only one choice if you want to win the race.