THE televised leadership debates have thrown people into a state of excitement about who may be the next prime minister.

But before voting for the party leader who comes across the slickest on a few TV programmes, we should remember what we are really voting for is the policy behind the face, and how one party, the Conservatives, has some particularly unfair policies.

The whole thrust of the Conservative campaign has been to tell us how we need to urgently cut spending on our public services which, surprise surprise, fits in nicely with Tory policy as far back as I can remember.

By painting a picture of a bleak future, they are trying to prepare people for the axing of public services so they can finance things like the scrapping of inheritance tax for millionaires.

And when funding for things like child tax credits, health and education has been cut, and thousands of public sector workers have been made redundant, David Cameron's trumpeted 'Big Society' will supposedly come to the rescue.

This involves charities and volunteers stepping in to provide the axed services; presumably Cameron believes there will be enough people out of work to fulfil these roles.

Maybe you will be forced to help the Big Society under another Tory plan, the welfare contract, where you can lose benefits for up to three years should you be made redundant and fail to accept a job offered to you.

Another grossly unfair policy is their key education pledge to allow parents to set up their own schools, taking funding away from existing establishments, so schools in trouble will get even less money for those pupils not invited to join the new parent-run organisations.

And then there is the daft idea of letting people elect Police Commissioners to run police forces, making all police decisions subject to short-term political pressure.

And after years of accusing Labour of wasting parliamentary time on banning hunting, the Conservatives have pledged to waste a whole lot more by trying to bring it back should they be elected.

Yes you'll get change if you vote Conservative but it won't be a change that helps many of us.

Rob Harding

(Full address supplied)