If you tend to vote conservative can I ask a few questions - let’s keep it light and respectful!

[Holidayhavanas]

Full disclosure I tend to vote Labour, but I’m really interested to know if you tend to vote for the tories, what is your reasoning behind. the real shortage of qualified public sector workers for example teachers, social workers, police. A health service and education system on it’s knees. Police forces like Manchester and Met in special forces. I think that it’s symptomatic of years of underfunding. I work in the public sector and feel on a daily basis that the country is absolutely screwed. I assume most tory supporters would say it’s down to austerity but I feel it’s ideological cutting back on public funding. I’mgenuinely open to hear other views as I find it so depressing and just hope that it’s something I am missing. Let’s try and keep this respectful 😊

[TeenDivided]

I'm a floating voter.
I agree there is underfunding.
But I think the following also have something to do with things:

• Brexit which the country voted for. The Tories were divided by JC seemed to stand back and do nothing to explain to Labour voters why the EU was on balance beneficial. This encouraged foreign workers to return home and has introduced more issues with cross board trade
• The pandemic & war in Ukraine have produced massive extra costs and strain on services
• Stonewall for encouraging the civil service, NHS etc to seem to put more energy into removing the word women from things like maternity or cervical screening rather than getting their own house in order. Maybe less significant but a very visible symptom of the fact that public services aren't always great at keeping their eye on what is really important (delivering the services they are funded for effectively and efficiently).

[PipinwasAuntieMabelsdog]

I voted Labour, (Until and since they had such a lack lustre response to Antisemitism) but I think the reason some people are wary can be summed up in one name: Tony Blair. The war in Iraq and his irresponsible spending (all of the gold reserves) cast a long shadow. Now I feel politically homeless and the Tories currently feel like the only viable option to me. Gender Identity is a big concern to me.

[TeenDivided]

The Tories do seem to interfere too much in Education. The GCSEs needed reform but it is hard now for less academic kids to achieve anything much. Similarly the T-levels again are a mess. Giving teachers pay rises without funding is just counter productive.

[rookiemere]

I live in Scotland and I will vote for whatever party has the best chance of keeping out the SNP as I do not believe that the case for Scottish independence adds up from a financial perspective.

Often that is Conservative, sometimes it's Labour.

[TalbotAMan]

A few reasons for voting conservative:

1945-1951:
Partition of India
Nationalising everything
Rationing for the sake of rationing
Very high taxation

1964 - 1970
Devaluation
Managed decline

1974-1979
Inflation 26.9%
Winter of discontent

1997-2010
Iraq War
Devolution disaster
Lords reform disaster
House Prices

The conservatives are far from great but the alternative is much, much worse.

[Franca123]

Self ID. I think prisons, sports, changing rooms, loos etc..... should be single sex. The anti semitism thing was also horrible. I'm not a socialist but used to lean left. I don't anymore!

[Holidayhavanas]

Thank you all for responding and interesting food for thought. Do you think public services were better under Labour though? Teacher and police shortage dealt with, cut in NHS waiting times, more children able to go to uni (I know they brought in tuition fees). Why has the war in Ukraine impacted us so much when other wars in Afghan / Iraq didn’t- sorry if dumb question! Thanks

[briancormorant]

I always vote Tory in GE but it has varied in local ones.
Looking back The Left Wing destroyed Edward Heaths attempt to control Unions especially Coal production. 3 day week and power cuts in winter.
When Mrs T finally closed the hopelessly inefficient mines the Left organised riots and attacks on police and workers.
Mrs T did good work on expanding Comprehensive Schools some times that was better than Labour had done
Looking forward, I despair at overall quality of politicians throughout UK.
But I dread the return of Union power which we see now on railways.
We could be back to 3 day week and queues at shops.

[AndreaC74]

@TalbotAMan
I'll stick to post 1970... as i don't want to mention Antony Eden & Suez! possibly the most embarrassing thing the UK ever did..

a few reasons to vote Labour.

1970 to 74
3 day week, power cuts, national strikes, throwing money at Leyland.

1979 to 97
Decimation of mining communities, sell of many publicly owned utilities, removal of worker rights, sell of of UK manufacturing, Poll tax.

2010 to present.
Libya & and Afghanistan wars, Austerity plus plus, under funding public services, tuition fees to £9k (highest in world) cut council grants and place the tax burden on home owners, support for Donald Trump, lying to Parliament, highest Covid death toll in europe, Brexit and the 5% drop in GDP.

In the interests of fairness, the Tories did well on funding for AZ but pushed it out too fast, with no alternative for when it had to withdrawn for younger age groups.

So i vote Labour because the alternative is far far worse.

[PipinwasAuntieMabelsdog]

I am culturally Jewish and I don't (yet) trust Labour with my children's future.

[PipinwasAuntieMabelsdog]

Ukraine is a major food producer is one of the main reasons why we are feeling this conflict more. We are also more aware since the development of constant media. I don't think services were better run, I think money was wasted in crazy ways, the patient record computer as a prime example. The Millenium was ridiculous too.

[Flapjacker48]

@TalbotAMan you are deluded if you think a conservative government elected in 1945 would have handled the situation any better in India, but give us a laugh - what should have the government of day done?

[TeenDivided]

@Holidayhavanas

Thank you all for responding and interesting food for thought. Do you think public services were better under Labour though? Teacher and police shortage dealt with, cut in NHS waiting times, more children able to go to uni (I know they brought in tuition fees). Why has the war in Ukraine impacted us so much when other wars in Afghan / Iraq didn’t- sorry if dumb question! Thanks

They would be better funded, so should be better.

I'm not convinced that more children should go to uni, I think some are being sold a lie that 3 years at uni will make them more employable, and for certain subjects at certain unis I'm not convinced it is the case.

Ukraine and sanctions against Russia have caused fuel prices to increase (lots of Europe gets fuel from Russia) and also food issues. Ukraine supplies a vast amount of grain.

Obviously more funding for teachers, police, NHS should be a good thing, but recruitment will only be helped if the working conditions are 'good enough' so those need addressing too, and again funding needs to be spent well and not wasted (eg on Stonewall training, or visiting people for 'hate crimes' if they tweet something GC).

You could double funding for the NHS and there would still be room for more. It clearly is in crisis and it is a shame that the Tories are currently infighting rather than attempting to solve these issues.

[PipinwasAuntieMabelsdog]

Also, as an academic. I don't think the 'everyone needs a degree' rhetoric has been positive. I deal with larger numbers of students each year who are anxious and depressed because they are doing courses which they don't enjoy, but feel that this is the only way and they will be viewed as failures if they do not get a degree.

[TeenDivided]

Pipkin The Millenium was ridiculous too.

Um that was bound to happen going from 1999 to 2000.

If you mean the Millennium Bug that was important and it was due to the awareness and diligence of software developers in fixing code upfront that it didn't cause a problem.

If you mean the Dome / O2 arena, I can't comment on that either way.

[PipinwasAuntieMabelsdog]

I meant the stupid spending on the Dome

[BumbleNova]

It's very easy for me - I don't trust labour to run a piss up in a brewery. The wild over spending of Tony Blair and general disdain for business and wealth creation are key issues. Jeremy corbyn although principled, was not v bright and kept demonstrating he didn't actually understand the Brexit/process and legal framework.

I agree public services need proper funding and I'm happy to pay more tax for that to happen. No one is brave enough to suggest it though!

[MolliciousIntent]

My father votes Tory because he worked himself half to death to build a better life for himself and his kids and he doesn't want all our inheritance to be swallowed up by tax when he dies. Also because Tony Blair fucked the NHS, and Corbyn was useless. He didn't vote Tory in the most recent election because he thinks Boris is a dangerous fool, and he has no idea who he'll vote for next. Modern politics is a shitshow.

[manysummersago]

I seem to be saying this constantly at the moment but teaching in the Brown/Blair era was awful for me personally. It always baffles me when teachers hark back to that era longingly.

[TeenDivided]

@manysummersago

I seem to be saying this constantly at the moment but teaching in the Brown/Blair era was awful for me personally. It always baffles me when teachers hark back to that era longingly.

May I ask why?

[BunsyGirl]

I am floating voter, moving between Lib Dem and Tory. I would vote Labour if they decided to abolish the NHS and replace it with something that is fit for purpose. I don’t want a US system. I want a European co-pay system. But they haven’t got the guts to do that. Labour pumped money into the NHS when they were last in power but it still let my family down badly. Unless and until they come up with a better system, I won’t be voting for them.

[Babyroobs]

I am a floating voter too although have never voted conservative in many many years. I worked in the NHS for over 30 years and it was bloody awful and unsafe under both Conservative and labour governments.

[gryilla]

I'm a member of the Conservative Party. My reasons fall into two buckets: 1) I want to be directly involved in a party rather than just voting, and my opinions on gender identity leave only one option if I want to be taken seriously and have influence and friends in the party. (Gender is important to me but not my #1 issue, and I don't want to spend half my life justifying why I'm not a bigot.)

And 2) I do feel I'm in some ways conservative by nature. I come from an immigrant background and my home culture is more traditional in many ways, values self-reliance and hard work and providing for your family and close neighbours. So on a lot of issues it naturally doesn't occur to me that the state should by default provide things.

I don't have a concept that anyone has an inborn "right" to anything, not even to life/freedom - everything we have is a consequence of us negotiating it with the people around us, and inheriting the negotiations of people who came before us and grappled with the issues (via institutions).

So Conservative philosophy resonates with me, the idea of us working to conserve and strengthen those institutions, of course building on them as our generation's contribution to society's shared knowledge. But also a sort of pragmatism, that there are no ideological bright lines but rather a set of different constraints we have to work with. (I like Thomas Sowell's writing here - the central idea of A Conflict of Visions.)

Do I agree with everything the Tory party does, no, and that goes back to (1) - I want to be involved in the party on specific policy questions, etc, but I find it easier to do this in a party where people broadly have the same mindset as above.

Long, sorry :)

[Enb76]

I am a floating voter and have voted conservative.

"what is your reasoning behind the real shortage of qualified public sector workers for example teachers, social workers, police."
I accept that there is underfunding but I also think we spend money in the wrong places and there is a tendency to work top down rather than bottom up. We should KISS but we spend millions on consultancy projects and reports and all the related administrative non-jobs. This tends to lead to an excess of people employed in 'middle management' in want of a better word. We should be spending money on boots on the ground and how to make sure they are effective and have good accountable leadership rather than pissing about on the edges with vanity projects which ultimately do nothing for morale, pay packets and retention.

A health service on its knees.
This for me has to do with a lack of joined up thinking and proper centralisation of supply. Some Trusts are doing an amazing job and while there is always going to be a lack of funding (I'm not sure you could ever fund the NHS enough) they seem not to be falling apart. Good management is key. NHS should again work from the bottom up, starting with social care and prevention policies. If we want cradle to grave then pro-active rather than reactive healthcare has to be the way forward and we as a nation need to be more responsible for our own health. I actually think that we should have a cheap insurance system in place for some sorts of healthcare and that this money should go directly back into the NHS. This would be above what is already paid in taxation. I think we should have far more training places available and I think that you should not have to pay for your degree if you stay in the NHS for 7 years once qualified. I also think there should be non-degree practical nursing jobs available.

education system on its knees.
What I hear from teachers is that it's not the teaching that puts them off, it is again bad management, and the amount of paperwork required for tick box exercises. While there should be robust policies in place for getting rid of bad apples, we should leave the vast majority of teachers alone so they can get on with teaching.

I don't think any of the above has to do with who is in power. I also think the standard expected of our politicians and our Civil Service has also dropped. I think the electorate is as to blame as the people we put in power. We focus on ridiculous things, aided and abetted by the media (mainstream and otherwise) which effectively stops us from focussing on anything important. Why did we give a shit about politicians having a drink after work when they've been working with each other all day anyway? Do we really think that Churchill was on the same ration card as everyone else?

Also, we don't pay politicians enough for really good people to be even vaguely interested in the job. We pay Gary Lineker £1.3 million to appear on TV (and we do pay through the license fee) and yet the basic annual salary of a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons is £84,144.

I vote into power the party I think is the best at the time. I have voted for all three main parties. Currently, my single most important issue is women's rights, but who knows come 2024.

[manysummersago]

@TeenDivided in my subject, we had coursework worth 40%, exam 40% and spoken language 20, so in essence students didn’t need to do very well at all in the actual exam as long as they had strong coursework and S&L. So the workload in getting the coursework from students, marking it, then often having them redo it, was immense. This changed to a controlled assessment in 2010, I think, but similar in terms of workload.

I also found behaviour terrible. Now, we have a lot of super strict academies which bring their own problems but behaviour was really shocking for the first seven years of my career.

Then, controversially, but I don’t think the whole life on benefits thing is totally a myth.
I do know a lot of students had no motivation to work; they had seen their own parents have a nice enough life on benefits and weren’t necessarily looking for anything more.

Then some changes are societal rather than government related but better safeguarding, nowhere near as many teenage pregnancies than at the start of my career, ‘gay’ isn’t used as an insult as much.

As I said on a thread yesterday I don’t honestly know what I’d do if a GE was called now. I’d have to look into it. But I really wouldn’t want to go back to the Blair years. Since to have experienced teaching under a different Labour government most teachers would be approaching retirement that’s the only one most of us know. And for me it wasn’t good.