I don't think folks active on the internet actually understand what the current level of dialogue around the economy and the deficit is.
In one respect, this election was over the minute the economy started to turn around and after Labour made the decision not to challenge the fallacy that the recession was their fault because they had spent too much money. It is utterly, factually incorrect and yet even in this thread you see it repeated a lot - now imagine you don't read online stuff, and every newspaper in the land is telling you the same thing, along with every TV programme.
It doesn't surprise me that people have bought into the idea that labour spent too much and we need cuts to balance the books - it's an easy, simple message, and it's been preached from the hilltop for 5 years now.