Ah, the nature of politics is that not everyone will agree! And you will be surprised that I don’t agree.

The biggest problem this country faces is the economy, we can argue endless about the cause of the recession. While the prime minister likes to blame America (when President Obama isn’t in earshot) I think the real problem is that we’ve had a government that, for the past 10 years, has tried to pretend they’ve re-written the economic rulebook and, in doing so, encouraged people to live way beyond their means. I don’t think the person with the biggest responsibility for that, as Chancellor and then Prime Minister, is the best person to clean it up.

More fundamentally, I think some of the things David Cameron has promoted and talked about are, actually, fundamental to the future success of this country. For example, he was mocked by some when he suggested that a ‘gross national happiness’ might be more important than GDP back in 2006. Actually, I think he was bang on – the fact that people felt happiness could be gained by more material possessions than in what they already had was a key driver in increasing personal debt. Many issues that people perceive to be ‘problems’ in this country are actually part of that unmeasurable mass of quality of life issues, not hard economic indicators, and I feel a Cameron-led Conservative government would be able to start addressing those issues far more effectively than the current Labour administration, Brown-led or not.

And on local authorities, I don’t think the political complexion of the government has any impact on the pessimistic outlook of local authorities. In Wandsworth we have been on the floor for many years now, meaning we’ve been getting a bare minimum in funding increases – a situation shared by many councils across the country and particularly in south. We all know (and it’s a subject of discussion with colleagues from other councils of each party) that whoever wins the election it’s going to be hard on us afterwards. Alistair Darling’s spending spree will have to be paid for eventually, there is no getting away from that.

A man born of privilege and wealth, who has never had to earn a living, never known the hardships that ordinary people face, who has never evinced the slightest evidence of economic understanding or competence; who in fact served in the Treasury under Lamont at the time of Black Wednesday, followed by a time working for Howard in the Home Office (where he showed not the slightest interest in, or compassion for the Gurkhas).

Local authorities across the country are already bracing themselves for possible Conservative victory and the inevitable budgetary cuts that will follow, in education, in social services other vital areas that can barely cope with their existing workloads.

As Gordon Brown says, the very last thing the country needs is to cut it’s way out of a recession.

Cameron and the Conservatives are a catastrophe waiting to happen.