Lucy Lyon: What voters want... and politicians don't have

With the faith of the electorate at an all-time low, you would imagine politicians would realise we do not want to listen to sniping,

bickering and blatantly empty promises. We want – in fact, need – a display of common sense, integrity and honesty that have, apparently, been so sadly lacking in recent years.

Surely an election has never been held in the UK with an electorate

so disillusioned with the entire political body?

It may just be one of the reasons the Tories are finding it so

difficult to forge ahead convincingly in the polls against a tired and defeated Government that, by rights, should already be packing its bags in readiness to go.

For rather than turning their backs on a single party, it seems as though voters are so disenchanted with the political class as a whole that they are finding it hard to choose between what they view as the lesser of two evils.

While the parties almost obliviously continue to attempt to score points off one other, it becomes clear we don't actually care about which party leader belongs to what class. In a world where acceptance of every sort of relationship and family life is ever growing, we are not all that bothered about ill-conceived tax breaks for married people. And, it is fair to say, we definitely don't want hastily put-together proposals for electoral reforms which are so badly needed they deserve the utmost thought and consideration from members of all parties.

But, then, just what is it we do want? Well, how about MPs who do not try to use ancient laws to avoid justice for their alleged fraudulent behaviour?

Or how about political leaders who are immediately willing – and able – to show us that anything less than absolute candour will not be tolerated in their party?

And, at a time when our trust in public life has reached a nadir,

surely we are looking for reassurance that MPs are standing for Parliament to serve their constituency rather than shoddily lining their pockets while we all foot the bill?

We want hospitals we are not worried to enter for fear of contracting something worse than our original illness. We want GPs who don't sign over their duties to locums so they don't miss a weekend round of golf but are available to provide care when we need it – around the clock. We want nurses who are paid enough to care and given the time to actually nurse.

We want our children to enjoy a varied and well-rounded education that is not focused on squeezing as many children as possible into a quantifiable pigeon hole just because it makes collating arbitrary statistics easier.

We want our teenage girls to have enough self-esteem that their aspirations lie beyond producing a baby as early as possible; and we

want teachers who feel confident about disciplining the most unruly pupils without worrying about ending up in court.

We want streets that feel safe to walk on, no matter what time of day or night. We want Saturday nights in our city centres to no longer be awash with gaggles of youngsters stumbling from one cheap bar to the next; and we want an actual real-live policeman to be there immediately should we ever be in a position to believe we need one.

Unfortunately for the parties charged with resolving these, and all the other pressing issues on our behalf, the election will take place before voters have begun to either forgive or forget the transgressions that have left our trust so badly shaken.

The personal attacks, teary emotional interviews and smarmy attempts to show us their softer side that always take place in the run-up to an election, will do nothing to restore our faith. Quite the reverse, in fact.

The expenses scandal has brought to a head the public's traditional mistrust and scepticism of those involved in public life, and both Labour and the Conservatives need to get their own houses in order before we can even begin to decide who can be relied on to steer the country with integrity for the next few years.

With so little time left in which to prove themselves, it is hard to

predict what may happen once the election is called.

So many voters – myself included – will be going in to the polling booth with a heavy heart and not knowing who we can trust with our vote.

Lucy Lyon is a writer and mother-of-three from Hull.