Voters' views: Bob Crozier

MEET THE PANEL Name: Bob Crozier Age: 28 Lives: Larbert Job: Financial modelling analyst Current voting intention: Conservative

There are four big issues which are important to me.

The trustworthiness of the Prime Minister Tony Blair - If this country needed to go to war again I couldn't trust a word he says. I backed the government's decision to go to war (on humanitarian grounds).

The whole WMD fiasco was entirely needless, and the way it was put by Mr Blair irrevocably damaged his credibility to lead this country.

Tax - New EU countries are setting up low tax economies (eg flat tax regimes at about 20 - 25%). Prospective tax rises under Labour would damage this country's competitiveness in international trade.

VOTERS' PANEL INTRODUCTIONS Jim Monaghan Michael Marley David Hamilton Stephen Edenborough Jennifer Mackay Bob Crozier Michelle Hunt Duncan King Olivia Drennan Keith Brockie George Whillans

Red Tape - Working in the private sector, I am concerned about the amount of bureaucracy that is damaging my firms' prospects and its ability to grow, thus affecting my job security.

Health - What is wrong with letting the better off pay for (half of?) their own treatment? This will free up NHS resources for those less well off. In Scotland, Labour is guilty of economic mismanagement in the NHS. Again too much red tape. When I (or any of my family) has eventually received treatment, it has been 1st class.

Given my personal views on most issues, I would see myself as a natural Conservative voter but I may be persuaded to vote tactically in order to remove the Labour incumbent.

Return to the top

Send us your comments on Bob's views using the form on the right.

---

Whilst I am not particularly advocating tax rises, Bob Crozier's comment regarding them being damaging to competitiveness in international trade is one of the most common misconceptions, there is no such thing as ¿international competitiveness on a macro economic nation level.
Moray Stewart, Slough

There is one very big problem with forcing the better off to pay for NHS treatment - that being that they already pay for the treatment that they receive through the 40% tax that they pay to the government in order to fund public services. I feel it is time that the buck stopped being passed to those who are fortunate enough to be well off financially. Very often this is through their own hard work and efforts - why should this be penalised by a double charge to use the health service? What sort of incentive does this send out to the workforce? Slack off and you will get everything on a plate, but dare to do well and you will be charged double?
Claire Gillean Kennedy, Helensburgh, Scotland

I would be inclined to vote SNP, not because I want an independent Scotland but because they seem to be the only one you can trust, also Scotland's oil money would stay in Scotland providing the government could give some kind of incentive for the big oil companies to stay Scotland based. I do not trust Blair, the Conservatives have done nothing good for Scotland and the Liberal Democrats just pussyfoot around. Honestly I might not even vote at all because will it actually make a real difference to me, I doubt it very much!
Ryan Christie, Aberdeen, UK

Agree with Bob - apart from NHS. The service is so bad that I already go private anyway to get decent service. However, making the rich pay for health cover as well as paying tax for NHS is not on. NHS should be scrapped as it's now totally beyond repair. The service will never improve because there is no incentive to - if the government will keep throwing money at you, why improve? Save yourself the bother and effort of changing and just keep providing the same crap service as before. Only competition improves service - keeping the NHS insulated from real competition will only make it worse.
AR, Dunfermline

Bob must be rewriting history if he thinks we went to war on humanitarian grounds. That was just an excuse given later on. The Tories lost any sympathy from me when they refused to stand against the war in Iraq when they (as everyone did) clearly knew that the WMD argument was just a flimsy excuse. After all why are we not now invading Sudan for humanitarian reasons?
Alan, Dunfermline

I don't agree with the better paid having to pay privately for health care, after all if you work you all pay tax which funds the NHS, as for the private health sector in Scotland it does not cover the full range of health care needs, also with insurance if you have a chronic complaint they will not give you cover. You would have to be very rich to privately cover the cost of cancer treatment or pay for intensive care. Do the people advocating private treatment have any idea how much health care costs? Perhaps they should read what happens in the U.S.A.
Margaret Robb, Edinburgh Scotland

Just because you give people 50% to go private doesn't mean there will be more doctors. The problem is that more health care professionals are needed to catch up with the demand of the population.
Elisia, Nottingham, England

Does anybody seriously trust Howard to do a better job on the economy? Bob claims Labour is guilty of economic mismanagement in the NHS, but the Tories were guilty of economic mismanagement on a monumental scale, three million on the dole! How's that for job security?
Paul, Edinburgh

Your opinions on health care confuse me a little. You seem to be against the NHS yet say that it gives 1st class treatment! However, with regards to your point about what is wrong with the better off paying for half of their own treatment? Do you know how much treatment actually costs? How well off would one have to pay to pay for half? Do you think that will cut waiting lists? The answers are, very expensive. I've known of people in the US who've had to take out a second mortgage on their house to get their granny a new heart. These are upper middle class people. Basically because health care wouldn't cover it all. Therefore, one would have to be very well off to afford to pay for treatment. Even half. Here in Japan, people pay 30% of the cost, for everything. Including chemo etc, which at 30% can cause the most comfortable middle class individual to go into debt. However, you may ask, "do they have waiting lists?" The answer is yes, as long as the NHS. Same as in most countries. The difference between us and them is that they pay for the privilege to wait, we don't. Well not directly! Having received health care in a few countries I'd be damned if anyone made any changes to the NHS. It's a source of envy for many countries and the biggest asset to the welfare state that we still have. Paying for health care is nonsense, unequal and wrong and generally only changes things for the very rich amongst us. I don't believe the general population would see any great benefit in private health care.
Alan McKissock, Yokohama, Japan (reg. UK Voter from Scotland)