To be finished with voting Tory

In its own way, your life sounds pretty grim, @Emotionalstorm .

@Emotionalstorm your and your husband own two houses in London! Methinks you can spare a little compassion for others.

As for voting the way your husband wants you to - that is just weak and pathetic.

I don't think voting labour would fix the NHS, broken education system or bring our Gini coefficient

I don’t understand the last one but could Labour make the NHS or education any worse? Both improved immeasurably in their last term.

I really cannot get my head round anyone voting the way their husband tells them. That was one of the reasons given for opposing votes for women - that essentially it would be giving married men two votes. Woman up, vote the way YOU want to.

It took you until now? Better late than never.

For those saying the Tories are the only party standing up for women's rights or other such nonsense, check out the Communist Party's statement - Gender as an ideological construct should not be confused or conflated with the material reality of biological sex. Gender is the vehicle through which misogyny is enacted and normalised.

The fact is, under a proportional voting system a vote that is not for labour or the conservatives is a vote wasted. Until we have proportional representation, I only really have two choices.

My husband expects me to vote in a way that doesn't make his life more difficult. He would be very annoyed if I did otherwise. I do understand that. Coupled with the fact that I don't think voting labour would fix the NHS, broken education system or bring our Gini coefficient I just don't feel that motivated to do otherwise.

My husband's net pay should increased as a result of the last budget whereas there is a high chance it would decrease under labour is what I mean.

It took me to A and E and I was seen within 7 hours. The local hospitals can't tell the difference. The NHS sold their fleets of ambulances years ago and they pay the same private providers I used to pick up patients. So it's the same vehicle, the same paramedics and the same equipment. At least this was what the paramedic told me. Except they arrived within 10 minutes whereas if I called 999 it could have been 10 hours.

YANBU, but if you don't want things "decided by a multi millionaire" then that rules Labour and the Lib Dems out too.

Well I dare say a lot of that money belongs to the taxpayers of other jurisdictions.

But , if even $ 1 trillion of it is British , that's lot of money. How can politicians sit there with a straight face and say things like :
' Of course we'd all like to spend more on schools and hospitals but there simply isn't enough in the kitty.'

I judge the Tories on their record: austerity, Brexit, Windrush, food banks, Universal Credit, bedroom tax, hungry kids, Grenfell, Rwanda, fracking, partygate, Trussonomics, double-digit inflation, mass homelessness, the cost of living crisis, sewage in our rivers and record NHS waiting lists due to massive underfunding between 2010-2019, particularly estate and repairs. Rank dishonesty. Practically legalised rape, schools estates repair bills off the scale, more in danger of collapse. Same for the court estate. Roads in a bad state. Reduced tax on inland flights, exorbitant train fares and rubbish services.

I had no idea. $18 trillion. I can’t even get my head round a number that big.

Like societal collapse isn't happening now.

Mind you , Labour is partly responsible. Gordon Brown promised to shut down the tax havens in British Crown dependencies , which is about 90 % of them.
That was when he was still in Opposition. Nothing happened when he took office. According to tax expert Nicholas Shaxon there is $ 18 trillion lying in offshore accounts. Probably a lot more as his book , Treasure Islands , is about ten years old now.

$18 trillion ....you could fill a lot of potholes.

@Emotionalstorm Impoverish him? How? Cause great friction? wtf!!!

Do you know we now have the highest taxes in 75 years? with workers experiencing the largest fall in living standards since the 1970s.

However, if you discuss these things and it would affect your marriage, then fair enough, its a shame your husband wont respect your choice and he controls you so much.

Unlike the absolute mess that the Tories have done to the economy, the police, poverty, schools, NHS, all the while lining their and their mates pockets with pure corruption. Anyone that votes for the Tories are either stupid or very rich and selfish.

Or injured going over a pothole (yes I know it's the local authorities, but underfunding).

It will cause immense friction in our marriage if I vote for a party that impoverishes him.

You do know it’s a secret ballot? He’s not going to be “impoverished”, is he? I’ve read your posts and you’re pretty well off, you’re not going to be on the streets if we have a government that spreads wealth a little more equitably.

Never voted Tory. I can’t vote for any political party recently, I’ve just been spoiling my ballots in protest at how much none of them represent my views.

I have voted Conservative previously, in national and local elections.

I will never vote Conservative again.

The word "conserve" means to protect from harm, to maintain, to avoid waste and at one point these values were followed by the party.

However, the last 13 years have seen the country irreparably harmed and our reputation and status in the world trashed, its once-great institutions such as the NHS and the BBC irrevocably damaged, and literally billions of pounds "wasted" which I write in inverted commas because I honestly don't think it is natural waste, I think it is pure corruption with bungs to Tory cronies and donors such as Michelle Mone, the list of examples of these cases is almost endless.

The Conservative party today stands for corruption. They only look after themselves, and the people who fund them. They don't give a toss about the vast majority of people in the country.

People will say that "all politicians are like this" but they are not. None are perfect, but the Conservative party over the last 13 years have been an absolute disaster for this country.

Yes my mum is a good person but very idealistic. She constantly gets scammed. She's the sort of person who will buy wilted flowers off an old lady on the motorway on 24 December because she feels sorry for her and wants her to go home and not be in the cold. I would like to have the capacity to worry about every other person like that but I have to put my husband first. It will cause immense friction in our marriage if I vote for a party that impoverishes him.

Bearing in mind, mum also used to vote Tory when we were growing up (and my dad still owned his business).

I've never experienced what you mentioned. Everything is either within walking distance or I just order a taxi. I don't like driving.

You are joking. Have you seen how much money the government’s spending? It’s given billions to its mates. We weren’t like Greece with the last Labour government, we were financially stable with effective public services.

In fact I think societal collapse is more likely to happen under labour. They will spend too much money and we will end up like Greece.

But your mum is voting Labour, so you said? ...& this has led to family arguments.

When you have a serious accident and are not in position to pay for a private ambulance.... you may not be quite so sanguine.

TBH People voting for their perceived best interests, is exactly what is wrong with this country, some of the most vocal Tories i know, also moan the loudest when they have to pay out £100s in car repairs because they wreck a wheel or tyre in a pot hole, they are too thick to realise that slashing council funding means the choice is Child Social work VS fix a Pot hole.

But I don't think the Tories are as bad as you say. I don't think another decade of the Tory government will lead to societal collapse. I've not noticed any of what you have described in the areas where I have homes (Wimbledon and the City of London). I think the surrounding areas have actually gotten nicer in the last decade because they have gentrified. I don't think things would be better under labour and that's the only alternative under the first past the post system.