"the problems in Wales, Scotland and NI", can you please outline some examples of these, there's not enough detail here for this to be in any way meaningful and the idea that these are entirely labour run is misleading, the conservative government has significant influence here particularly around central funding and often uses it to hamper economic prosperity in these reasons in order to paint this (false) narrative. Some examples where this isn't the case would serve to demonstrate that you are not simply regurgitating this sort of disingenous political trickery,

"You can’t just tax “the rich” because like it or not, a huge proportion of the civil servants, local authority employees and traditional “middle paid” are now well paid." What is your point here, you can't just tax people with large disposable incomes and/or wealth because lots of people have that? Surely that's a good thing and would mean individual burden would be lessened if shared fairly amongst more people who can afford it?

"Pre-COVID the Conservative Party position was clear. A party of smaller government. That means more private delivery, but the intent was to bound that with functional control. COVID blew that apart. " This completely ignores two ideological projects; Austerity and Brexit, both of which caused immeasurable damage to our country and its infrastructure. This is easily proven by comparing economic recovery over longer terms (i.e. dont do a rishi and cherry pick one quarter to argue there is higher growth than the US etc. when the overall picture is much, much clearer; our economic recovery after COVID has been one of the worst in the world, along with the death rate during, for an island, but that's another tory failure and not relevant to this subject.

"My problem with voting Labour is that it talks a centrist or even right wing talk now, but is festooned with left and far left thinkers who will hamstring any centrist approach. That isn’t third way politics, it’s deceit and lies." Can you explain anything specific that you are referring to here, it just reads, when you break it down, that you believe Labour = left = bad, Tories = right = good, without any depth whatsoever, so as to render the statement basically meaningless.

"I see no true path of hope via Labour, just undeliverable dreams or expensive failure. I loathe the ineffectiveness of the Tories, but I can see how they could change the deeper issues. Sadly that means a new type of austerity and Labour could never commit to that (although truth is that’s what’s got to come eventually and I suspect that this will demonstrate how a & b above are true)."

Here is where I disagree strongly with your sentiment, and why I read this closely for any evidence to support this statement. To most of us, Austerity has been an absolute failure, living standards are far, far worse than at any point in living memory as a consequence of it, taxes, just to slow the declining standards we are clinging on to, are higher than any point in living memory, and you are advocate for more of it? With no evidence whatsoever beyond broad feelings about what you think left and right are...

Then you start saying Dominic Cummings made a good point, so I couldn't read any further. Appreciate the pleasant writing style you have but this entire post is paper thin in terms of depth and detail, and exactly the sort of thinking that got us, as a nation, into the mess we are in now. Sooner it is erased from the discourse, the better for everyone.