That will be two goats and a turnip please

And so election time is upon us. Given that we are currently staggering out from one of the worst recessions in living memory, economic policy is at the top of most voters and politician’s agenda. The next government and their fiscal policies will be absolutely critical in deciding whether we continue to steadily recover or go into freefall and make Greece look like a lottery winner.

To help us assess their economic credentials we’ve even had an American style live debate involving the three potential chancellors, Alistair Darling, George Osbourne and Vince Cable.

You would suspect that given the precarious state of the economy and the knock on effect for the jobs market as a whole, that this would be of great interest to the country. Well apparently it was for the 2 million people who tuned in. Unfortunately that meant that 58 million of us didn’t really care.

More worryingly, 9 million of those chose to watch East Enders on the other side instead. In mitigation apparently someone was being shot, which made it a bit more exciting. This does raise the prospect, and I am sure the TV executives have investigated the possibility already, that the chancellor’s debate would have been more appealing to the viewer if gunplay had been involved. Perhaps a Krypton Factor meets Deliverance type affair.

In any event, this election is looking more and more likely of producing a hung parliament. This is not, unfortunately, where we get to hang all of the MP’s but is the situation where one party does not have an overall majority in the House of Commons. The consequence of this is that in order to pass any legislation through parliament, they need to garner support from another party.

Initially this may sound like a very lovely idea. All the politicians could sit around a table and make decisions in the best interests of the county as a whole. In politics however, nothing is ever given away for free. In return for their support, the smaller party will want to either put their stamp on the legislation in question, or insist on their way in some other policy area.

This means that deals have to be constantly negotiated and compromises made in order to take any action. The legislation becomes so watered down in order for it to be all things to all men, that it often doesn’t serve the purpose for which it was intended. After all, a camel is a horse designed by a committee.

Imagine the scenario in the summer of 2008 if a hung parliament was in operation. Whilst the banking system collapsed around our ears, decisions were being made in government on an hour by hour basis as to whether to bail out the banks. Putting aside the moral rights or wrongs of those decisions, it was imperative that they were made. Yes, it was a bitter pill to swallow to put taxpayers money into private companies, but if we hadn’t then it is likely that our banking system would have collapsed, Sterling would have become worthless and vegetables and cattle would once again have been the legal tender.

Interestingly, if there were a hung parliament then the Lib Dems will become the most powerful party in the land. They won’t be the biggest, but they will hold the most sway as they decide on whom they want to get into bed with to create a coalition.

The two million people who watched the debate will tell you that the potential chancellor who talked the most sense was the Liberal Democrat, Vince Cable.

This isn’t a particular surprise as he has a track record of talking sense when it comes to the economy. He also predicted the downturn in part. Furthermore he is the only candidate with high level corporate financial experience, having been Chief Economist for Shell. Compare this to George Osborne whose previous commercial experience includes working at Selfridges or Alistair Darling who was a solicitor.

So if you want advice on a new Sofa, George can surely help. Tripped over a pavement? Alistair can do you a No Win - No Fee claim. Run the countries economy? We’d put our last turnip on Vince Cable.

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