The election is now just around the corner and many people will have already made their mind up about how they are voting. The press are behaving as though every vote is still up for grabs, and by the end of the week The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, Sun and The Times will probably have a collective headline shouting “JUST VOTE TORY YOU BASTARDS”. The time for sensible debate has gone and all that is left is the rabid corpse of democracy, still twitching but very much hydrophobic by now.

I am one of those who knows which way he is voting; I am voting tactically to rid my constituency of the MP who has served the area so poorly in the last five years. He is a Tory, and quite aside from this the Tories said that when the next, i.e. this, election comes around they should be judged on their record so I’m going to take a moment to reflect on the last five years of Tory led, Lib Dem assisted administration.

The Economy:

This is the big one for the Tories. They have always seen themselves as a safe hand on the tiller compared with Labour’s apparently profligacy and this above all else was where they wanted to be judged and where they continually try and convince the public they have done a good job. The facts tell a different story. George Osborne said the books would be balanced by 2015 and in fact there is still an £80billion deficit and a half trillion pound added to the national debt which now stands at £1.4trillion[1] – I’m not even sure how many zeros that is, hence writing it out. The Tories have also borrowed more in five years than Labour did in 13 while the government overspend is around £200bn[2]. They are very quick hand ownership of the global financial collapse in 2008 to Labour, they are less keen to admit their own inadequacies in getting to grips with something they said they would through years of austerity. We’ve had the austerity but not the solving of the crisis and as growth has slowed to 0.3% this week with deflation looking probable it is absolutely the case that the government has failed on this most basic of fundamental tests[3].

Productivity has dropped to 21% less than comparative economies despite more people being in work[4]; how does this happen? By people being employed in zero hours or part time, fixed term contracts with no security and being underemployed. Underemployment is where someone is officially classed as “in work” but still looking for more work as the work they are in does not pay them enough to survive with. 530,000 people[5] in the UK are on zero hours contracts while the number classed as under employed stands at 1 in 10 workers; higher than any other EU nation[6]. People on zero hours contracts earn on average £300 a week less than their colleagues[7].

On tax the treasury is missing an estimated £34billion a year through tax avoidance and this is suspected to be a very conservative estimate of the true figure[8]. At the same time the Tories managed to give a minimum £150,000 tax cut to the millionaires who are the ones avoiding tax in the first place[9]; not only do they avoid paying their share, they are rewarded for it too!

House prices are now seven times the average wage. In 1971 the average house price was £5,632. Had this risen in line with wages and inflation then the average house price should now be £67,483 whereas it actually costs £247,000. If a loaf of bread has risen in price at the same rate it would now cost £4.38[10]. The Tories right to buy scheme is just a throwback to 1980s individualism and has opened up the market further to abusive landlords and made it easier for them to buy-to-let at vast expense to the renter. Rent costs on average in 2010 were £659 and are now £768 per month and over £1100 in London[11]. In a totally unrelated fact, 76 Tory MPs are buy-to-let landlords.

If only wages had kept pace with all these rising prices too. Some people have done very well out of the recession; The Sunday Times Rich List recently announced that the richest people in the country had doubled their wealth since the recession began[12]. Meanwhile the average family have lost £1600 in real terms since 2010[13]. Growth has been non-existent or very slow depending on which quartile you look at, this means there has been a finite amount of money in the economy and the already wealthy have grabbed more of it. There has been wealth redistribution from the poor to the rich on a massive scale. A part of that hammering of the poor was an increase in VAT to 20%; a regressive tax which hits the poorest the hardest, which David Cameron promised not to increase before the last election[14]. So, in five years VAT increased, energy bills up by a third[15], rent up by 13%, water bills up by 12.5%[16], rail fairs up 25%[17]; this all adds up to the first parliament since the 1920s[18] where living standards fell rather than rose and the biggest fall in wages for 159 years[19].

The NHS

David Cameron has always made a big deal of his love for the NHS. He is quick to point out the excellent service he received when his son was in dire need of care, a situation no parent would want to find themselves in. Because of this experience, he claims, the NHS is dear to him, but as we know, actions speak louder than mere words.

The biggest broken promise by the Tories from their last election campaign was “no top-down reorganisation of the NHS” and yet that is exactly what they did, almost from day one. Andrew Lansley’s (remember him?) Health and Social Care Bill was forced through parliament and changes the fundamental structure of the health service, opening it up to more competition, making 50% of NHS beds available for private use[20] and crucially removing the responsibility from the Secretary of State for the health and wellbeing of the nation[21]. Latest research shows that 65% of clinical contracts up for tender in the NHS were awarded to private bidders[22].

Waiting times for cancer diagnostics is at a six year high while one in five patients are waiting longer than four hours in accident and emergency departments – some Tories have even tried to spin this as a good thing as it will keep away the people who don’t really need to be there. Perhaps there are some who shouldn’t be there but the proportion of people who can see a GP within 48 hours has slumped from 80% to just 40% during the last five years, so A&E is sometimes their only option. Ambulance response times are 25% slower than in 2010 as they cope with cuts to their service, 3 million people are currently waiting for an operation – again up 25% which is perhaps something to do with 10,000 beds being axed from the NHS in the last five years. No wonder the number of NHS staff off sick with stress related illnesses has risen by 40% since 2010[23].

Annualised growth in real terms in NHS spending in the Labour years was over 6%, during Margaret Thatcher’s reign it was over 3% and in the years since the NHS came in to existence annual growth in spending has been around 4%. The current government, now seeking re-election have spent just 0.5% extra on the NHS – way down on previous governments and even on Margaret Thatcher and her slash and burn cabal.

Education

Michael Gove, so we hear, has been using the Department of Education as his personal fiefdom[24]. A man with ambition for even higher office; if he’d have paid as much attention to the nation’s youth as to climbing the greasy pole then perhaps education, at all levels, wouldn’t be in the perilous state it is.

Since 2010 primary school class sizes have risen on average by a massive 200% to over 30 pupils per classroom[25]. The last time it was this high was…. under the last Tory government. More than 13,000 of the most disadvantaged children are now regularly taught in class sizes of over 40 pupils[26]. I’ve not done the background on this but I can take a fair guess that this isn’t the case with the privileged prep schools that most of the Tory front bench attended.

For those students looking at further education, one of the first things the government did was to cut the Education Maintenance Allowance in England. This led to half of all colleges in England taking on fewer students[27]. While £30 a week doesn’t mean a lot to the trust fund brigade in the Cabinet, it meant the difference between further, better education for the poor or the Job Centre and the dole queue. The £560m EMA scheme was replaced by a much poorer £180m bursary scheme which has proved ineffective at keeping the most disadvantaged students in education[28].

The much reported increase in tuition fees to £9000 was seen largely as a broken promise by the Liberal Democrats, which it was, but it is the Tories who led the policy. This has deterred so many young people from a degree level education. Students leaving university will now have a minimum of £27,000 student debt before any account has been taken of loans for rent, food, socialising and other living costs in a bid to get people in to a cycle of servitude to create obedient citizens. The Tories have ever been afraid of the educated masses; educated people think critically and ask questions of their masters. Further plans to privatise the student loan book were shelved after an outcry over the marketization of student debt[29].

At the same time Michael Gove’s pet project of Free Schools has seen money diverted away from poorer areas in to these new schools to the tune of £1.7bn in 2014/15. According to the NUT, free schools are three times more likely to employ unqualified teachers and just 67% were rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, compared to 80% of state schools[30]. Free schools can also have lessons that move away from the national curriculum with some creationist schools teaching the Bible as science[31].

In an age of childhood obesity and more focus on disease prevention at an earlier age, the Tories thought the best thing to do was to cut the school sports fund by £100m and continue selling off playing fields to property developers as though they were the Royal Mail (more on that later)[32]. In more Thatcherite posturing the Tories also tried to take away free milk for the under 5’s, but public outcry made them do one of their many U-turns over the last five years[33].

Disabled / Vulnerable People

While no one really expected the Tories to use the backs of the wealthy to solve the deficit / debt issues, no one quite realised the pernicious way in which they would go on to attack the most vulnerable in our society time after time after time. The most high profile area is the Tories’ cruel and vindictive Bedroom Tax, which is costing 500,000 households an average £700 extra a year. One in three victims are disabled and 60,000 are carers[34]. Sixty per cent were in rent arrears as a result and the stress and mental health issues brought on as a result is as yet unquantified but no doubt huge. The Tories only seemed to care about the semantics of this issue trying to make sure people called the tax the “spare room subsidy” – if you remember the Poll Tax was also really called the community charge, but there’s only one name we remember it by.

Disabled people have also faced punishing fitness-to-work tests by the now discredited government employed ATOS. Over 40% of appeals against their findings were successful[35] but Ian Duncan Smith remains proud of his record as DWP Secretary – despite being caught using misleading statistics on more than one occasion[36]. The abysmal performance of ATOS hasn’t dented their profits too much though with their revenue rising 17.6% in the last year despite being found time and again to be in breach of their remit in a variety of areas[37]. The government is happy to maintain ties with a company who have caused people to attempt and in many cases succeed in suicide after having their benefits took from them.

Benefits rises have been tagged below inflation[38] and people on Job Seeker’s Allowance have variously been sanctioned for completely trivial things and forced to do voluntary work for their benefits which has been anything from picking up litter to stacking shelves in Poundland. The Trussell Trust has submitted an excellent document to Parliament highlighting some of the ways in which the sanctions are being carried out against people on various benefits. Benefit sanctions, delays and changes are the main reasons the majority of people cite when visiting the Trussell Trust food banks – now 1 million people in a year have visited a food bank, 330,000 of these people were children[39]. This happens in Britain, a Britain where at the same time the average house price in one street in London is over £40m[40]. Ian Duncan Smith claimed his new Universal Credit Scheme would aid over one million people by April 2014, the number it actually helped was 11,070[41].

Councils have been forced to slash funding for elderly care after losing a quarter of their own budgets since 201[42]0. Cuts of £1.1bn mean the number of elderly people receiving care fell by nearly 30% from 1,230,625 under Labour to 849,280 now[43]. At the other end of the age spectrum 300,000 more children are living in poverty by the government’s own calculations, or 1 in 6 of them in total[44]. And in the middle, the number of people claiming housing benefit rose by 60% in the five years to 2015[45].

Public Services

The cornerstone of many communities are the public services and amenities that bind people together. With this in mind…. The Tories have closed 500 public libraryes, or abandoned them to the voluntary sector who do their best but libraries are now viewed as a de-skilled form of employment it seems[46]. House building is at its lowest since the 1920s[47]. More than 3.3 million young people aged 20-34 are being forced to live with their parents due to a lack of housing and accommodation – up 16% on 2010[48].Twenty nine pubs are closing each week[49], moreso in rural areas; the church, post office and pub were the hub of many small villages and now many don’t even have one of these outlets for social engagement.

The much loved Sure Start Centres started under Labour have lost 500 centres under the Tories, despite them saying they wouldn’t close a single one[50]. Over 200 youth workers have been cut and 350 youth centres and youth clubs have been closed[51]. Some bus services, again in rural areas have been cut back by up to 50%[52]; the so called greenest government we’ve ever had is doing nothing to make traveling by public transport any easier. Lollipop ladies who earn only £3000 a year have been cut back to the tune of 1000 posts, a grave risk to the nation’s children travelling too and from schools on ever busier roads[53].

The Royal Mail was ridiculously undervalued and flogged off to spivs in the City of London at a fraction of what it should have been[54]. The fact is though, the Royal Mail is an institution that should never have been sold in the first place, like the public transport infrastructure; David Cameron couldn’t wait to re-sell the East Coast Mainline operations despite satisfaction and efficiency ratings with the nationalised service being higher than ever[55]. So much our public infrastructure has been nationalised, but nationalised by foreign states – our rail benefits German and French government companies, while our post is increasingly coming under control of the Dutch.

Fees were introduced for employment tribunals leading to an 81% drop in claims being made against employers[56]. Further access to justice was denied to the poor through cuts to legal aid which saw solicitors and barristers go on strike for fir the very first time in most individual cases[57]. Miscarriages of justice have taken place in areas as serious as marital rape, domestic violence, forced marriage and abduction as the government says there must be “proof” before legal aid can be granted, but how do you get proof without legal representation?[58]

Perhaps most cynically councils in the poorest areas have seen more brutal cuts to their budgets while some wealth Tory councils have received extra cash[59].

Environment

David Cameron was photographed hugging Huskies in his election campaign before the 2010 election but once in power promised to cut green taxes for his business chums[60]. His appointment of Owen Paterson, an open climate change denier to the post of Environment Secretary shows his true colours, and they’re not green[61]. He went on to butcher badgers at the expense of over £3000 a head, £6.3million in all, which scientists said over and again that it would not have the desired effect[62] – somehow Cameron can only get his kicks by murdering furry animals and he wasn’t allowed to go on a fox hunt. They even tried to privatise British forests in an amazingly short sighted and idiotic move[63]. Government support for installing solar panels was cut by half leading to a 90% drop in the process[64] while massive cuts to flood defences and emergency relief funds have left huge areas of inhabited flood plains and coastal areas at risk[65].

Defence

The British Army, once thought of as the best trained military in the world has a standing force now of 80,000 – its lowest level for 200 years[66]. Soldiers on active duty received their P45 and their army barracks at home were shut down and sold[67] off while 300-year-old heritage units were disbanded in the biggest Army cuts in decades[68]. Over £100m was spent on new aircraft fighters without the government realising that the aircraft carrier required for them to launch from wasn’t to be built for a long time[69].

The police have been cut to the tune of 15,000 staff since 2010[70], the biggest cuts of any country in Europe and some key roles are now being carried out by volunteers[71]. Meanwhile the laughable white elephant of Police and Crime Commissioners attracted just 15% of potential voters leading to some truly strange people being employed in positions of power in the police force[72].

British prisons are falling to pieces, overcrowded and caught in a vicious tug of war between the private and public sector. Assaults on staff and prisoners[73], suicides[74], and escapes[75] are all rising under Chris Grayling while the Probation Service has been cut to within an inch of its life leading to dangerous criminals being unsupervised and the private sector being invited in to drive down wages and terms and conditions of staff, despite the effectiveness of the probation service going up and up before 2010[76].

Scandals

On top of all this the incompetence and greed of the coalition government has been on show at every turn. David Laws[77] and Chris Huhne[78] were both forced to quite the cabinet in unrelated scandals, Huhne ending up in prison for his. Tory backbenchers blocked reform of the House of Lords since that’s where they all want to end up[79]. Maria Miller was forced to resign over her expenses and her attempted blocking of the enquiry in to her conduct[80]. David Cameron has surrounded himself with criminals in the form of Andy Coulson, Charlie and Rebekah Brooks[81]. Peerages continue to be handed out to donors of the Tories (and other parties too). Liam Fox resigned in 2011 over undisclosed links to his lobbyist Adam Werrity[82]. David Cameron has frequently found himself belittling female MPs in the House of Commons, from “calm down dear” to “I know the honourable lady is frustrated”[83]. Peter Cruddas was caught offering access to the PM in exchange for £250,000[84] while Malcolm Rifkind was caught in a similar sting operation[85]. We all remember Plebgate[86] which has almost bankrupted Andrew Mitchell but perhaps the biggest scandal of all Jeremy Hunt is still in the Cabinet after a series of idiotic moments, from blaming Liverpool fans for the Hillsborough disaster[87] to his close links with News Corporation while being in charge of the company’s BskyB bid[88]. These are just a handful of gaffes and evidence of corruption.

To conclude, the Tories have failed by their own standards of appraisal, have failed by any measure the public can put on them and have definitely failed in the areas of basic human concern and decency. I know this piece is biased, and I know Labour made mistakes when they were in office. I know the coalition did some good things, gay marriage among them. Labour are no panacea for the rotten stench at the heart of our politics and our public services. They have no wand to wave that will create a utopia for all. They will disappoint me and everyone else with one statement or another and you can never please everybody. However, Labour are far better placed to assist in the recreation of a compassionate society. One where hope rather than fear is the watchword from the housing estates to the gates communities of the rich. This coalition should be consigned to the dustbin of history and hard work is required to reverse the wicked things they have done to make this country weaker, poorer and afraid. Over to you Ed.

[1] http://falseeconomy.org.uk/cure/what-is-the-deficit

[2] http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2014/05/27/ukip-tax-and-the-200-billion-hole-in-its-budget-for-which-farage-has-to-supply-answers/

[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32493745

[4] http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/20/britain-productivity-gap-widens

[5] http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/contracts-with-no-guaranteed-hours/zero-hour-contracts–2014/index.html

[6] http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/underemployed-workers-in-the-uk/2014/rpt-underemployment-and-overemployment-2014.html

[7] https://www.tuc.org.uk/labour-market/workplace-issues/employment-rights/zero-hours-workers-earn-nearly-%C2%A3300-week-less

[8] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/364009/4382_Measuring_Tax_Gaps_2014_IW_v4B_accessible_20141014.pdf

[9] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17450719

[10] http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2462753/How-items-cost-risen-line-house-prices.html

[11] http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/record-average-rents-hit-761-per-month–or-1160-in-london-9742491.html

[12] http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/26/crisis-what-crisis-britains-richest-double-their-wealth-in-10-years

[13] http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/oct/04/workers-poorer-state-economy-study

[14] http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/oct/04/workers-poorer-state-economy-study

[15] http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/nov/16/energy-prices-rise

[16] http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/mediacentre/speeches/prs_spe20130305jcrae.pdf

[17] http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/aug/19/labour-transport-campaign-fight-rail-fare-price-rises

[18] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8282354/Bank-of-England-chief-Mervyn-King-standard-of-living-to-plunge-at-fastest-rate-since-1920s.html

[19] http://labourlist.org/2014/07/under-the-tories-working-people-will-have-seen-the-biggest-fall-in-wages-since-1874-says-balls/

[20] http://nhap.org/join-us-nhs-fightback/facts-fingertips/

[21] http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/content/NHS-legal-advice/

[22] http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2015/04/new-evidence-nails-the-no-nhs-privatisation-lie/

[23] http://www.qualitywatch.org.uk/sites/files/qualitywatch/field/field_document/QW%20annual%20statement%202014.pdf

[24] http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/07/michael-gove-education-something-out-of-the-thick-of-it-nick-clegg

[25] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-28835509

[26] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/labour-sounds-alarm-on-sharp-rise-in-infant-class-sizes-under-coalition-9674822.html

[27] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15273410

[28] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16911875

[29] http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/privatisation-of-student-loan-book-to-be-scrapped-9617742.html

[30] https://www.teachers.org.uk/edufacts/free-schools

[31] http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/jul/17/creationist-groups-approval-free-schools

[32] http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/dec/05/school-sport-partnerships-protests-michael-gove

[33] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18483742

[34] http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/13/bedroom-tax-figures-august

[35] http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/aug/17/nao-criticises-atos-benefits-contract

[36] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22462265

[37] http://atos.net/content/dam/global/documents/investor-financial-reports/atos-financial-report-2013.pdf

[38] http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/dec/05/housing-benefit-inflation-autumn-statement

[39] http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/work-and-pensions-committee/benefit-sanctions-policy-beyond-the-oakley-review/written/16465.html

[40] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/news/11055145/The-British-streets-where-house-prices-average-1m-plus.html

[41] http://leftfootforward.org/2014/09/coalition-misses-universal-credit-target-again/

[42] http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/08/care-budget-cuts-put-older-peoples-rights-at-risk

[43] http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/government-cuts-hundereds-thousands-elderly-3211670

[44] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22887005

[45] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-socalled-inwork-poverty-soars-by-59-under-coalition-as-more-people-with-jobs-are-forced-to-claim-housing-benefit-9340907.html

[46] http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/campaigns/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-library-closurescampaigns/

[47] http://blogs.channel4.com/faisal-islam-on-economics/201213-lowest-year-official-uk-housebuilding-1920s/19660

[48] http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/family-demography/young-adults-living-with-parents/2013/sty-young-adults.html

[49] http://www.camra.org.uk/press-releases/-/asset_publisher/R16Ta0pf6w5B/content/camra-urges-swift-action-to-stop-pubs-closing

[50] http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jan/28/sure-start-centres-closed-labour

[51] http://www.unison.org.uk/news/government-cuts-plunge-youth-work-into-crisis-warns-unison-report

[52] http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/18/local-bus-services-council-cuts-labour-hilary-benn

[53] http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/schoolkids-lives-risk-3000-cruel-3567590

[54] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28250963

[55] http://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-protests-on-last-day-of-east-coast-main-line/

[56] http://www.unison.org.uk/new-judicial-review-into-tribunal-fees-to-be-heard-in-high-court

[57] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26472809

[58] http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/sep/25/-sp-legal-aid-forgotten-pillar-welfare-state-special-report-impact-cuts

[59] http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/council-cuts-britains-ten-poorest-3091450

[60] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/10399287/David-Cameron-pledges-to-cut-green-taxes-next-year-despite-Lib-Dem-objections.html

[61] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/owen-patersons-climate-change-scepticism-has-blinded-him-to-future-flooding-risks-9040033.html

[62] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/14/badger-cull-cost-over-3000-for-each-animal-killed

[63] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357793/We-got-wrong-Plan-privatise-Englands-forests-abandoned-Spelman-biggest-government-U-turn-far.html

[64] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/may/24/solar-power-subsidy-cut

[65] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/19/local-authority-flood-defence-funding-cut-by-a-third-next-year

[66] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/8335713/Army-facing-huge-cuts-after-withdrawal-from-Afghanistan.html

[67] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22947436

[68] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18731157

[69] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/10047657/Aircraft-carrier-omnishambles-wastes-100-million.html

[70] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2934814/Chief-constables-accused-looking-s-revealed-15-000-frontline-cops-cut-just-13-officers.html

[71] http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/18/volunteers-in-key-police-roles-hit-by-budget-cuts

[72] http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/154353/PCC-Elections-Report.pdf

[73] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30067669

[74] http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/22/prison-suicide-rate-82-deaths

[75] http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/05/prison-service-cuts-assaults-escapes

[76] https://www.napo.org.uk/news/probation-unions-threaten-strikes-over-job-cuts

[77] http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/29/david-laws-quits-expenses-scandal

[78] http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/mar/11/chris-huhne-vicky-pryce

[79] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/house-of-lords-reform-in-tatters-as-david-cameron-withdraws-support-for-nick-cleggs-ambitious-plan-8005018.html

[80] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26951464

[81] http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/sep/29/cameron-accused-misleading-leveson-brooks-friendship

[82] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15300751

[83] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15141156

[84] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/peter-cruddas-did-offer-access-to-david-cameron-for-donations-court-of-appeal-rules-10114305.html

[85] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31589202

[86] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plebgate

[87] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10434714

[88] http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/jun/11/jeremy-hunt-urged-resign-leveson