This is who the Tory Party are, read this if you are even considering giving them your vote.

[Rhubarb]

A few facts about the Conservative Party that you should know if you are being persuaded by their talk of change.

David Cameron was born in London, his father was a stockbroker and his mother the daughter of Sir William Mount. His ancestors from his father?s side hail from bankers and stockbrokers, it?s how they made their fortune. Cameron went to Eton and then Oxford where he was a member of the notorious Bullingdon Club. He has stated publicly that he is a huge fan of Thatcher. Unsurprisingly he voted against the hunting ban, being a hunter himself. He has been criticised by his own party members for being too Etonian and out of touch with reality.

In 1989 Cameron accepted an invite to South Africa paid for by an anti-sanctions lobby. This was whilst Nelson Mandela was still in prison. He was quoted as describing the trip thus: ?it was all terribly relaxed, just a little treat, a perk of the job.?

Cameron?s wife Samantha is the daughter of Sir Reginald Adrian Berkeley Sheffield and the Viscountess Astor. Their combined wealth is estimated at £30m plus.

George Osborne is the eldest son and heir of Sir Peter Osborne and was originally named Gideon. He was educated at Oxford and he too was a member of the Bullingdon Club. He has two children who are privately educated.

He was caught up in the expenses row after he ?flipped? his second home in order to pay less tax, the Lib Dems reckoned he got away with £55,000 by doing this. He also claimed for a mortgage that was paid, chauffeur fares and two copies of a DVD of his own speech on, of all topics, ?value for taxpayers money?. He subsequently paid it back.

He also tried to solicit a £50,000 donation from a Russian multi-billionaire back in 2008.

So there are 3 members of Oxford?s Bullingdon Club in the Tory Party right now, all from the same year. Isn?t that nice for them? A club that was noted for it?s drunken antics, willful destruction of restaurants (run by working class people), bars and windows and it?s arrogance in the face of the law.

Of the Tory Party itself, there are currently 17 Conservative women MPs compared to 95 in the Labour Party.
Of the occupations of MPs, in the 2005 general election there were 35 manual workers in the Labour Party compared to 2 in Conservative. Labour had 32 school teachers, Tories had 6.
In the same election there were 13 non-white Labour MPs and just 2 Conservative MPs.
Of those going to fee-paying schools, in 2005 118 Tory MPs came from fee-paying schools compared to 63 Labour MPs. 43% of Tory MPs were Oxbridge education compared to 16% of Labour.

So whenever anyone tries to tell you that the Conservatives do live in the real world and are all for making ordinary peoples lives better, quote these figures at them.

Me, I might vote Lib Dems.

[CarGirl]

I live in Surrey it really does feel like a wasted vote if you don't want to vote Tory!

I wish we had proportional representation.

On the plus side dh said he may actually vote this time........

[notnowbernard]

I couldn't vote Tory, it simply isn't in my genetic make-up (crap argument, but you know... it just ain't gonna happen - like getting a miner to admit to secretly liking Maggie)

But one of the reasons I object to this lot atm is the Etonian thing. HOW ON EARTH do they think they are in any way 'in touch' with what's going on for the majority of British citizens?

DC and GO have got not a thread of commonality with me or anyone from my familial background. I know we should celebrate our differences and not be segregated by them, but I struggle with how they believe themselves capable of representing me

Rambling rant over. Probably makes no sense but I know what I mean!

[Rhubarb]

That's the trouble, there are really only Labour and the Tories in for the running. If the Lib Dems got a vote they'd probably piss themselves and run off to mummy.

The Greens would be nice but their good intentions would soon backfire cause you need more than that to run a country.

We need someone with BALLS, great big ones, preferably hairy!

[HerHonesty]

CG much the same.

but likewise dh will vote this time... under a small ammt of duress and guilt when i bleat on about dd's future..

[Rhubarb]

Not just Etonians either, 3 of them in the Bullingdon Club together.

It just smacks of all boys together.

[TanyaBranning]

Makes my blood boil every time I see Boris Johnson claiming to 'represent ordinary Londoners'.

As if.

[Rhubarb]

Erm, I've come across more than a few Tories on Mumsnet. Most of them don't like to admit to it though, it's their dirty little secret , but you get the odd ones like DaftPunk and scaryteacher who are stupid brave enough to not only admit their voting preference, but actually try to convince us that we are wrong and they are right.

[CarGirl]

The problem is that it doesn't matter which party is running the country it's the fact it would take decades to really change the economics that we have the moment and joe public is not that patient (or informed perhaps?) to understand this.

Many people vote for who they think will fix y or z but what we really need fixing is something completely different - the entire economy structure.

[HerHonesty]

"class obssessed leftie land" SWC you are so funny!!

do you care to tell us what other prejudices you attach to labour voters?

[Rhubarb]

That's very astute of you smallwhitecat, how you deduce that I'm calling all Tory voters stupid is beyond me!

After all, my OP is simply facts, true facts about the Conservative Party intended to give voters the chance to discover who the people who lead this party are.

Would you prefer those facts not be mentioned? Like the Bullingdon photo of Cameron, Osborne and Johnson together that they tried to ban?

[HolyBumoley]

Since when should someone's background be held against them?

Roll on the Conservative government.

[Rhubarb]

Blimey, we've got a whole bunch of them now!

Holywhateveryournameis - not to hold their background against them, but to state that they have nothing in common with the majority of people in the UK. The majority of people that are state-educated working people from ordinary homes.

People like yourself, funnily enough, are actually in a minority.

[mosschops30]

rhubarb, youre not helping your argument by calling tory voters 'stupid'.
I will vote tory and have always voted tory and I am certainly not stupid.
Nor am I a middle class idiot with no sense of what happens in the real world.

Not sure what youre hoping to achieve with this thread other than causing bad feeling and being

[silverfrog]

I'm not sure what you're trying to gain by your OP, tbh.

so Cameron et al have money, went to Oxford and joined a club.

and?

is there a reason why we sholdn't have a privately-educated, university educated PM?

[Rhubarb]

"you get the odd ones like DaftPunk and scaryteacher who are stupid brave enough to not only admit their voting preference, but actually try to convince us that we are wrong and they are right."

That equates to calling ALL Tory voters stupid does it?

Fair enough, I do happen to think that people who vote Tory are particularly dense, because they are voting for their own needs and not those of the nation.

My FIL was a Tory councillor for many years and I had many a debate with him over the issue. Very intelligent man but also a tad bigoted.

[HerHonesty]

she didnt actually call them stupid. she said they were stupid to admit they were tory and to try and convince others to vote their way. and rhubarb, holy didnt actually say she was from a similar background.

however i think we can all agree that some of the things our future leaders have done were "interesting"

[policywonk]

CarGirl not sure which constituency you're in, but in mine (Esher and Walton) the Tories are having an open primary to select their candidate for the GE - I'm trying to get as many people as possible to go along - at least that way I'll have SOME say in who represents me at the next Parliament.

[Rhubarb]

"I'm not sure what you're trying to gain by your OP, tbh.

so Cameron et al have money, went to Oxford and joined a club.

and?

is there a reason why we sholdn't have a privately-educated, university educated PM?"

Silverfrog, as I've already stated, the fact that most of the Tory Party members were privately educated, Oxbridge students and 3 of its most well-know members were all in the Bullingdon club together at the very same time, a club that has arrogance at the very heart of it, states to me that these people are not in touch with reality and have no intention of making this country better for the ordinary working person for whom they have no respect.

[Rhubarb]

holy did on another thread, sorry. She states her children are educated privately.

[crumpet]

I don't buy the Eton/Oxbridge argument. You do realise that Tony Blair went to Fettes don't you? And hardly came from the struggling working classes. Didn't stop a lot of people voting for him, and the labour party is stuffed full of Oxbridge graduates and always has been. Labour has always had its share of privileged members, and a number perpetuate this by sending their children to private schools.

[foxinsocks]

what about Blair then?

going on your prejudices against people's backgrounds, as a man who attended private school then Oxford, I take it you never voted Labour when he was in power?

[Rhubarb]

No fox, I didn't vote Blair in.