Mumsnet Talk

Female voters like the Tory leader less than men do - and the battle for their support at the next election is in full swing

This is a pretty good analysis of why all the shenanigans at the moment might really matter. The scenario described with the Tories getting just a small majority (24) seems quite possible to me. I think too much anti-Brown stuff will backfire and the Tories need to be doing more to explain their policies, not just rely on attacking Labour's - not that I want to help them you understand.

And here's JS-P: Editor-At-Large: The internet is no place to fight a general election

Agree with the bit at the end about depth; DC didn't show any imo which surprised me.

Anyone want to chat about if/whether/why we are an important demographic?

I honestly think its because they actually don;t have a clue right now. Labour has made so many bad policy decisions that people like [with fabulous labour MP and MSP] are thinking twice about voting for them but the Conservatives apparently have no policy.

They are in full-blown panic mode and are simply desperate. Both clearly think that women will be easier to sway since traditionally [and across Europe] women tend to vote more conservatively than men. I think women should be an important demographic because of the types of issues that fall onto us because of mainstream misogyny but I don't think this is why the major parties are courting our vote. I think the mainstream misogyny assumes we will be the easiest voting block to bedazzle.

[Will come back to this later but StewieGriffin is ill and demanding attention]

I agree none of them seem to have much of a strategy.

I read that when women become parents they become more left-leaning as issues of equal pay, flexible working, childcare and education come into play whereas men who become parents become more right-leaning due to tax issues. Seems a bit of a simplification to me but maybe there is something in it.

Stand at any polling station and you will find that there are more women who vote than men and more 'greys' who vote than anyone else, you'd be hard pressed to find more than a handful of teenagers voting , so near to an election they aim their bows at the grey vote and the nappy vote.

From the doorsteps I constantly hear that they do not particually like Cameron or Osbourne, but that they can not stand Brown, Harman and Milliband.

I'm told they do not care for the way this country has gone down hill in the last 12 years and particually since Brown has been PM.
( quotes for the grey vote include; immigration, hearing a mixture of unknown languages instead of english, hoodies, yobs and teenagers hanging around on corners, crime and jail sentences (or the lack of them) undervaluing grannies ( ie; childcare arrangements, ss, cafcass ), broken Britain,24 hour drinking, snooping and cctv and everyones favourite bin collections.)

( quotes for the nappy brigade include; the state of the education system, the state of the nhs and hospital closures, immigration, crime and punishment, car parking !!, the economy, green taxes and yes bin collections.)

( whilst men moan about; the price of petrol, the price of shopping, immigration, crime and punishment and bin collections)

What does come across on the doorsteps however is that people are saying the conservatives are tougher on crime, tougher on immigration and will bring back the education standards that parents expect (none of the P.C lessons, more english, math, science, geography, history etc, making sure kids can read and add up)
that they will cut the snooping and databases and that they trust the conservatives more than labour to get the country out of financial trouble, they understand that labour have spent all the money in the banks and that whichever party gets in there will be some deep cuts ahead, but they trust the conservatives to make them in the right places.

Labour think the conservatives will be the next government, but the question is do the conservatives really want to be the next government considering the mess that the books are in?

Cameron didn't really have much to say when he came on here. I don't think Brown did either. They appear to be avoiding making any political commitments whatsoever, so all that's left is a personality contest.

The other problem is that Labour are so right wing now, it's hard to distinguish them from their Tory opponents.

Women have historically supported the Tories more than men.

I think drawing conclusions based on that mumsnet thread about the way women will vote is a lot of column-filling bollocks, the tenor of the thread was set by a tiny number of people, whose political views are well-established anyway. In particular, saying "there were signs of doubt among the women – newly dubbed cybermums – over his policies on child tax credits, inheritance tax and the married couple's allowance" is rather misleading, given the questioners were not exactly wavering Tory voters in most cases.

Dave misjudged what was wanted out of a 'chat', perhaps assuming it had something to do with biscuits and childcare duties, rather than highly motivated people asking political questions of the likely next PM.

But all in all it means very little. I think the comment from J S-P about Phony Tony being more charismatic/easy than Dave is rather more relevant. Dave is trying to do be son-of-Blair, and while he's much better at it than Crappy Clegg (who in turn is modelling himself on Dave), he's not a 1997-era Tony.

The most popular person in politics at the moment is nigel ferarge I wonder how UKIP are doing in the polls?

is farage actually popular? He seems rather an oik to me. UKIP did fairly well at the last Euro election though.

Lenin: That is interesting about women becoming more left-wing

The Tories do seem to lack policies, which is rather worrying when I suspect this means that their policies will involve bulldozing Sure Start/the NHS/education/tax credits/child benefit

I think they will get in, then do a budget, then say "Ooh, dear, we can't afford Sure Start/Child Benefit/Tax credits for anyone over 30k, sorry about that" and everyone will say "AAARGHHHH IF ONLY I'D KNOWN THAT BEFORE THE ELECTION..."

Someguy,

Yes he is an oik, but yes he is popular, his stance over the EU makes people look at him in a different light, it's 'nig is fighting for our best interests', 'nig will stop the EU' - for which I couldn't agree more, the EU needs stopping and Mr Farage is the only one who would do that.

Just look at the polls today, since the announcement that the conservatives will not hold a referendum on the treaty (and rightly so, it would be a waste of money now - but should hold one on the EU)the conservatives have dropped in the polls, people on the doorsteps want a say on europe and 'our nigel' will give it to them.

nah, Mr. Farage's policies are popularist, but that doesn't make him appealing. It doesn't matter who's in charge of UKIP, because they have a distinctive policy agenda, whereas the bland main parties rely much more on branding.

Morningpaper,

I think whomever gets in at the next election will bulldoze through everything they possibly can to save money before we go bankrupt, nothing is sacred.

Labour only did a u-turn on vouchers until the next election then if they win they will scrap them.

Right now you can't believe a word that comes out of any polititians mouth, least of all a labour one.

Someguy,

If you remember when RKS was in ukip they did not recieve as much attention or votes as they do under Farage, look at his approval figures after he's been on question time and boy do they sky rocket.

Hague and Davis need to take Cameron aside and tell him to suck it up on the eu and give the people what they want because right now he looks as bad as Brown for promises.

I don't think that's his glowing personality so much as people realising that a right-wing option actually exists when he speaks.

Kilroy was never leader, but in 2004 when he was making some noise under Roger Knapman, while the Tories were more right-wing and Labour still popular, UKIP scored 16.1% at the Euro election, against 16.5% at the 2099 election. Basically the same performance.

The 2004 election was far more notable really, because they had done only 7% the time before, so that was a major breakthrough.

"Sample chat last Friday morning – "Is Adrian Chiles really attractive?" followed by "Is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall really attractive?"

lolol. i really don't imagine jsp stops typing when she starts, i think it all just spills out of her head. i'm such a fan, she walks it like she talks it.

Are you a UKIP activist Someguy?

JSP would be a great webchat.

No I'm a Conservative member. Looks like atlantis might be though....

No, i'm also a conservative member and am just responding to what's being said on the doorsteps since Cameron confirmed there would be no point now in holding the referendum.

I think if UKIP managed to get some decent policies on other issues they might give Labour and the Lib Dems a run for their money if not the Conservatives.

Hm. Very interesting. I think to an extent the media and the parties have underestimated the power of a website like MN, its users and their political prowess/impact. All the stuff that came out of biscuit-gate was INCREDIBLY patronising (completely neglecting the fact that tons of highly intelligent, pointed a critical questions were asked, only focusing on confectionary related issues). I think, until recently, the media and the parties kind of viewed things like MN webchats as a bit like going on a daytime/morning chat show. Not too challenging, showing a nice smiley face to win over Gladys in Tunbridge Wells and Charlotte in Islington, score a few votes based on personality alone. I genuinely think they didn't quite get how fierce MN can be (which is daft on their part; DC and GB should have hung around AIBU for a couple of weeks before to see what MN is capable of).

OOOPs saw the headlline and I thought it was about Dave the tv channel which is compulsive viewing with DS1 and DS2.
I'm in agreement with the headlline though -it's a pretty crap channel