But in terms of practical political priorities, when it comes to considering manifestos, I think the order is significantly different.  This is my analysis. 

C  Fear of unemployment comes first, closely related to the fear of poverty generally – fear among the employed that they will lose their source of income, fear among the unemployed that they will not find employment again, fear of benefit-dependents that benefits will be withdrawn, fear of declining earnings among the middle-aged, fear among pensioners that they will simply not make ends meet next winter – these are all powerful elements in the political cocktail – they always have been, and in my view they remain so - Governments must address them - Berlusconi is currently in trouble in Italy because he is not addressing this primal fear.

A   Fear of civil disorder and crime comes next, affecting many - including the old, the vulnerable and the young - that's why the Government is majoring on this subject, for May’s local government elections – this is now compounded by fears of domestic terrorism, and anxieties arising from the reporting of overseas disorder, in the Middle East and Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. 

D  Fear of parenthood is rising up the agenda, perhaps to be seen rather as an all-adult fear of younger people, a fear of the unknown, of teenagers out of control, fear among adults that their children are breaking the mould of "their" established society, fear of drug-consumption, anxiety about the young’s more informal bonding patterns  – voters’ concern with Education is to be seen as part of this, because most people look to state schools merely to provide a child-minding service for the under-16s.  Whereas for social philosophers, politicians and activists, the “philosophy” of education is of key importance (it certainly is for me, for example), I see no evidence whatever that such substantive concerns are shared by the electorate at large. 

B  Fear of ill-health.  For most people most of the time, ill-health is simply not an issue of subjective or personal importance  – it does not enter their personal world - in any typical year, only a small minority of the population consults a doctor – ill-health is something that affects somebody else -  we are all remarkably selfish in our perception of ill-health – indeed, it is remarkable how quickly people forget even about their own episodes of ill-health.  It may even be that our instincts subconsciously protect us against a preoccupation with ill-health, to the extent that we have formulated a special word for someone who becomes so preoccupied (“hypochondria” = a chronic abnormal anxiety concerning the state of ones health).  

Even now, when there are good reasons for real anxiety about the adverse health-effects of environmental degradation and pollution, voters seem impervious to them, and remain stubbornly unworried.  And if an issue does not appear on a voter’s personal radar, I do not believe it can become an Election issue of primary significance. 

E  Fear of old age, which is a subtle and complex phenomenon that remains a low priority in political terms - which explains why Thatcher, Major and Blair-to-date have all “got away with” the prolonged abandonment of the State Old Age Pension..  Nothing, it seems, will persuade the younger generations (before their critical mid-Forties) to take pension provision seriously.  Such provision must therefore be made coercively, by the State, through the taxation system.  I remain convinced that a State “pension promise” will have to be deployed in future to allay people’s anxieties – but we hardened pensions campaigners must also recognise that, for an overwhelming majority of voters of all ages, this ranks low on their worry-bead agenda.

So: I am a CADBE man, by way of re-arranging my own priorities, not ABCDE (which I now realise is the origin of Abracadabra - did you realise?)   If I am right, that's bad news for the Government, because Education and Health come so far down my CADBE political agenda.   Labour risks winning some "key battles", only to find that they were marginal after all, and that the war is being lost...

Where do you stand? Do you disagree?  Or do you think my priorities are right? Let me know

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Losing Weight: the obsessive self-examination of alcoholics is bo-ring, for most people.  So is weight-loss talk, among fatties.  So I have shunted my current Obesity Report off onto another page (but just to say - I have lost 12% of my body-weight since 1 January – that’s 32 lbs - impressive, or what?