Election: Wear a ring for tax breaks.

Time for election update. I heard the other day two things from the Tories, one seemed a reasonable idea, the other was utterly terrible.
To start with the positive, they announced their National Citizen Service scheme. Now this isn't as terrible as it sounds, its dangerously close to sounding like National Service, but rather is a voluntary experience where teenagers get to go away, work as a team and come up with ideas to help the community. I like this idea purely because it looked like a lot of fun for the most part. I'd be up for going climbing and canoeing if it was coming courtesy of the government. :) Boris Johnson (how the hell he got into a position of power I'll never know) didn't help the cause when he suggested it should be compulsory, that would be completely the wrong way to go about it. If you make it fun then people will want to go, and in turn that will mean the community will benefit from the various schemes that come as a result of it. All in all, I'd say this was one of the better ideas to come from the conservative's in a very long time.

But then they ruin all their good work in making me like one of their ideas by coming out with this calamity. Tax breaks for married couples. It might not immediately seem like a terrible idea, but I think it shows a deeper thought process that people thought was gone from the 'new' conservatives. They still think society should run how they want it to, single parents and unmarried people in long-term relationships, they don't quite fit the Tory ideal. It harps back to days gone by and has no place in modern society. Why should government be interfering in people's private decision to get married, many people choose not to and should they be punished? I hardly think that any (assuming there are any, which I doubt) couples that stick together where they may otherwise be separated, purely for the incentive of a bit of extra cash, will be an ideal place to raise a child. Widows also miss out on this nice tax break, after all, they're not married any more. This is blatant electioneering to get the middle class vote on board but I think it could seriously backfire. Get into the modern age please David.