CORBYN OR MAY : I KNOW WHERE MY 'X' IS GOING.

As the General Election campaigns get underway, an assortment of disinformation and downright lies is already being disseminated. Media reporting, particularly by elements of the BBC, is subtly skewed against the evil right wingers and in favour of anything vaguely left wing. However, voters should ignore all of this and remember a few basic facts.

The principal difference between the 2 major parties, Labour and Conservative, is very basic; Labour believes in state control while the Conservatives favour more private enterprise. What this means in practice is that Labour favours higher taxes, more state hand-outs, more state controlled services and industries and, generally, more state interference in the lives of ordinary people. The Conservatives favour lower taxes, less in the way of state hand-outs, less state controlled services and industries and, generally, less interference in the lives of ordinary people. It must be said that, in recent years, these differences have been minimised as both parties have sought the much lauded 'centre ground', whatever that is, and, at times, it has been difficult to tell the parties apart.

However, under Jeremy Corbyn the Labour Party has taken a huge lurch to the left and there are now significant differences between Labour and the Tories. Corbyn has raised the long dead spectre of Keir Hardy, the effective founder of the Labour Party and a man whose principles were forged well over a century ago, in an attempt to reignite a class war that has no place in the modern world. As Prime Minister, Corbyn would reduce the United Kingdom to utter poverty through vast increases in taxation, a massive increase in the size of the state and a huge program of nationalisation that would result in a disastrous collapse in industrial productivity. He would ensure that educational choices are virtually abolished and would destroy innovation; there would be little incentive for anyone to work hard or achieve anything as the state would provide all, until it goes bankrupt. Corbyn lives in an idealised socialist world that doesn't, and never has, existed, though he would make every effort to impose it on us.

In contrast, the Conservatives are more realistic. They know that we still have some way to go to fully recover from the financial crisis of 2008 but they are getting there. They are reducing government borrowing and the UK's economy is in far better shape than most; indeed, only the United States is performing better at present. The Conservatives will continue to support business and will tend to minimize the size of the state. They will provide opportunities for children to achieve their potential through a range of educational routes and they will encourage entrepreneurship. They will allow individuals to keep more of their own money and make their own decisions as to how to spend it. Above all, they will take us out of the European Union and allow the UK to trade freely with the rest of the world.

Forget the headlines and the hype. These are the real differences and this is what voters' choices should be based on. I know where my 'X' is going.