Anybody getting worried by the prospect of Labour?

It's hard to compare generations because conditions were so different. 

As somebody in their early 30's , I guess I belong to neither, but I can see both points of view. The older generation may have had better pensions, cheaper house prices (relative to income) and free education, but then there were far fewer university places, fewer provisions during unemployment, and getting a mortgage was extremely difficult. 

The youngsters graduating this decade face hefty 5 figure student debts at commercial interest rates, house prices many times their income, and generally poor private/public pension schemes. However, they'll always be protected from poverty meaning the risk of taking a chance (whether that be starting a business, buying a house or moving around the country) is far lower, and access to University and mortgage finance is almost a given should one accept the fees. 

Tricky to compare.

What I would agree with though, is that the young generation (and the successive ones to follow) have been somewhat let down by politicians in recent decades. All 3 parties shoulder some of the blame here (even when in opposition , they should hold the govt to account) , but I principally blame Labour because they were in power 13 years with a strong majority , and could have built a lot more social housing (or made the building of private houses easier) instead of spending the money on tax credits (which was basically a political strategy to bring more people into being clients of the state).

Today's pensions are paid for out of today's taxation.  (there is no secret bucket where the money was hidden)

Inflation varies by class of source and capital.

Poor education within the UK, non-aspirational for the last 40 years has not done the country any favours, the present boom is being enhanced by a significant flood of well educated, hard working, well brought up Eastern Europeans (thank goodness).  The only thing the Labour party did right under TB was to let them in.

The affect of this group on the UK educated cohort has been to make them raise their game, hence we now have services that work, unlike 40 years ago when power stations, railways, motorways, (gosh I used to buy steel then and British Steel never knew when it would be able to deliver within 6 weeks.....), do you remember how bad coffee was etc etc it was all a disaster (if Mrs T hadn't come along I'd have left the country following half of my many siblings).

Labour this time around looks bonking but the Conservatives are trying to look like (mad as a box of frogs) UKIP lite and that leaves people with no one to vote for.

Is it too much to ask for a government to protect the realm, keep its citizens safe and keep financial rules simple and consistent???

You are highlighting the weakness of democracy, which I think is very relevant to us. Democracy is a far superior to any known alternative, for as long as the people are interested and participate in it. If only a subset of the population participate, their interests will naturally take priority over others, and usually to the direct disadvantage to those who don't take part.

The problem is that once democracy raises living standards and rights for its people, which it invariably does, people start to become complacent. Once people like yourself relinquish their right to vote (for which I believe there is no acceptable excuse) or pay little attention to the process, politicians game the system, until it's disadvantages start to erode at its advantages.

I'm not sure that Democracy if far superior to any known alternative, I seem to recall that a few years back researchers found that a benign dictatorship was actually the most superior whilst it lasted.

Confused, can anyone explain the difference, I thought our version of democracy was simply a benign dictatorship with the lead dictator being rotated every 5 years based on their media profile at the time.

There is no predetermined end date to a dictatorship, nor is there an opposition to stall the dictators plans.