To feel like I'm not sure where I sit politically anymore, and to worry about it.

If we wasn't over populated there wouldn't be a housing crisis. I'm not against immigration as I'm first generation here but I am against baby boomer bashing. A lot of legal....repeat...legal immigrants came to the UK in the 50"s and 60"s. They had good work ethics. Didn't automatcally get benefits. Worked hard to pay their mortgages. Some of them could barely speak a word of English but they were appreciative of the opportunity this country gave them..I believe there's a falicy going around that baby boomers are all white middle class. No. They're a mixture of all nationalities and classes. They worked hard to rebuild this country after the war.They have children too. Why should they deprive their own so other people's can have somewhere to live. It's the government policies you need to blame. They want everyone equally poor. Have you not heard of the WEF? You will own nothing and be happy.

Rejoin for me rather. If you're talking about restoring anything, it has to start with trade. We've cut off so much oxygen supply and then wonder why there's no money to keep things running properly.

So you’re waking up to the fact that illegal immigration isn’t good for the country and that socialism doesn’t work.

Better late than never I guess.

Who are the working class now.
Nurses have degrees now, factories have moved to China, so many people aren't working, plumbers are self employed and run their own business. Not really working for anyone,

That starkly sums it up and it's very concerning.

There was a very interesting column by James Kanagasooriam in the Times today that I thought was quite close to grasping the situation accurately. His view, over-simplified massively here for brevity, posited a new paradigm. The competent trained trades are weighing in behind Reform as are SME businesses.They object to migration because it brings down the value of their labour. Meanwhile only the university educated rally to the Labour flag. But graduates from anything less than really hard technical science degrees are fundamentally unemployable at entry level even at NMW.

I have skin in this game before you dismiss my anecdote. DC has just said goodbye to one career plan, and made new plans. They are working 39 hrs pw in horticulture. The carrot is 2 years training on a day release scheme. It is well below the three academic A levels DC already has, and the HND too. But there's no openings in TV camera right now, and DC likes plants and gardens, and wants to earn progress.

I think it's the toxic combination of having become an 'anything for money' economy and an 'anything goes' society.

Same here, OP.

I come from a very Labour background, but I will not be voting for them again. Since having children I have gone from being liberal to rather conservative, with a small 'c', but I wouldn't vote for the Torys either - look at the 14 years of hell they've put us through. Reform are a complete joke now. I'm politically isolated, due to a lack of backbone from anyone.

I've joined Restore Britain. Not a party, but a movement. Maybe that'll get us somewhere?

I've never had the comfort of feeling that a political party reflected my views. I've been a floating voter and I think that's why very dogmatic, politically committed people put me off. I don't know how anyone can completely subscribe to the views of one party. I know why it is: in a democracy parties need to get elected so they have to water down their policies to be acceptable to as many people as possible. There are lots of issues on which politicians know what the 'right' course of action would be, but they'd never get elected. It's the 'problem of democracy'.

On some matters I'm left of Jeremy Corbyn and in other ways I'm very conservative. I don't think the CEO of any organisation should earn more than a reasonable multiple of the wage of the lowest paid worker. I think the minimum wage should be higher than it is and benefits more closely regulated. But I also believe in selective education - with a number of caveats, protections and safety nets. Just some examples of my political confusion!

I think that over simplifies things. Being socially liberal or conservative (with a small c) isn't necessarily linked to a person's views on social justice, public services , distribution of wealth etc. There is no longer a package which reflects left wing or right wing views.

Politics is easy;
Labour, in for themselves.
Conservative, in it for themselves.
Reform, in it for themselves.
Lib dems, in it for themselves.

As soon as you realise none of them do it for us serps, you stop caring.

Biden's open borders policy was massively irresponsible as well though.

You need sensible policy.

As I say though the equilibrium got ruined because we had 13 years of liberalism and neoliberalism with New Labour in government. Then 14 years of it with a 'conservate' party. Now we've got the ultra liberal globalist in Starmer.

Its far too long a period of liberalism. Now we need 10-15 years of conservative policies just to reset the equilibrium back.

BULLSHIT.
You can retain progressive values - as in a belief in bettering society for everyone - and not fall into those ridiculous buckets. I don't believe in open borders as that's too chaotic. Things must be managed, but I also believe in the rule of law - not in a kleptocratic free for all in which a tinpot dictator can throw his country's constitution into the bin without consequences. That is most definitely not conservatism, by the way. It's a weird reactionary revolution which will destroy our societies durably.

I think the mayor is furious because decent people who have paid taxes sometimes for decades are being physically ripped apart from their loved ones. Entire neighbourhoods are traumatised. Nannies have been arrested whilst looking after toddlers ffs. Mums and dads arrested in the presence of their own kids like the worst of the worst, parents not coming home from work (less than 10% caught up in this actually have a criminal record).That's the kind of horrible stuff she's pissed off about. Not the fact that celebs aren't getting their pools cleaned.

The battlegrounds now are liberal v conservative.

Liberalism is now about open borders, lax policing, liberal judges, two tier justice and TWAW. These are not left wing causes. This pushes people to be more conservative who might even be on the traditional left.

The problem is the equilibrium was lost because the 'conservative' party governed as liberals for 14 years which threw everything off.

Nm.

I don't think those on the right care either though. They may say they do, but actions speak louder than words. We live in a society where we are easily led by populist parties which allow them to say one thing and do another. Basically piss on us and then tell us it's raining. We will look back at these times and realise how easily swayed we were.

It feels politicians are working for something else and not us. I think this is true of all parties.

As I said before it is the press/SM which dictates, and we need to look at ourselves and how reactive we are, and to disengage from things blatantly trying to make us take a particular view without any supporting evidence, before we are going to see real change. Really we are the ones who have the power to change it, by making propaganda not have the desired effect.

I do think Labour have done some good things but also made some terrible decisions, mainly out of cowardice and it being easier to go after vulnerable people than to tax wealth. Again they need to be reminded that they work for us, even if it is only on paper and not real life.

We also need to want a better economical system where someone having a bad day at work and getting upset doesn't send the markets in a spin. How easy is it to game a system like that? That isn't stability. These are people's lives and jobs. It's an utter pisstake. Much of the shit in the world is about money. It is about money above anything else.

I read that as 'Limp Dems' and nearly choked on my tea laughing. In some ways they are.

Like the OP, I also feel politically homeless - no party seems to reflect my values/views. To an extent Reform do, as they're vocally dissatisfied with everyone else - but (like Brexit) there is no policy/substance behind them, plus the racist tropes.

I think this is partly why voter engagement is so low. Certainly I feel no alignment with any party, and that there is so little difference between them on major points, why bother? I was brought up that voting is a duty, part of the social contract. It feels weird to not vote - that's a personal thing BTW, I'm not suggesting anyone else should feel compelled to vote, just that I do & am really struggling with the (logical) idea of not voting in the next GE.

I really liked John Smith when he was Labour leader. I do feel Labour lost their way with Blair onwards, it feels like rebranded Conservatives in many ways. I don't feel I can vote for Labour/Greens/LibDems if they won't protect women. Everything is so underfunded atm, eg schools/police/social care - and this Govt are trying to trim those further. It can't continue, the services are breaking, as we see with classes trying to share one glue stick between 30 kids (personal experience), the increase in criminal behaviour*, ppl unable to access care - some of whom die & aren't found for weeks.

*bit of a tangent here, but I was shocked at the TRA behaviour in Leeds recently - encouraging ppl to mask up, instructing them on how to get away with criminal behaviour if arrested, reading messages of encouragement/solidarity from violent criminals, & statements that would get PREVENT involved if it was any other group. Some of the chants are similar to Dylan Vylan's (but aimed at women, not a race or country), yet no action is taken. If the police/Govt allow one group to act like this with impunity, others will follow, and I'm worried we will see even more violent disorder.

I've always been politically centre left. I believe in social democracy, societies with free market economies to produce growth and a strong fabric of social equality to mitigate as much as possible poverty with a strong public health, education and justice.

The problem is that parties have forgotten the "social" aspect to market economy. Our economies right now have governments incapable to make the policies necessary to change the decline because they sold themselves long ago to arms lobbies, big business (instead of funding local small/medium ones), or short term political deals instead of long term benefits for all.

Democracy only works when I can vote for a party that mostly represents me. Right now, none of them do. They are all awful.

This was me about 9 years ago - looking back, I think Brexit completely changed my opinions more than anything. I now feel like I've found my party but it's taken a long time, and a lot of soul searching, to find them!

There's a war on women in my opinion.

I'd say that all of my 'middle class' friends vote labour, and all of my 'working class' family and friends vote either conservative or reform. And the middle class people look down absolutely scathingly at those who vote reform/conservative.

I used to be staunchly pro-NHS but now I feel we should burn the whole thing to the ground and start again. The amount of waste is unfathomable and the lack of care is criminal imho.

I used to be staunchly pro-immigration, but then when you look at the stats of places like Rochdale, Bradford, Leicester, Birmingham and in particular how women and young girls are treated it's just appalling and I can't fathom how we're seemingly allowing it. One of my closest friends was a nurse (she left about 3 years ago) and said the rates of incest/rape/non-vaxxed children and babies/FGM were too much to bare.

I used to be very "pro-trans" but then my niece who was 13 at the time was told she had to play hockey against a 15 year old boy who identified as a girl and it completely shook me - it was dangerous!!

I find the amount of tax we pay as a family to be absolutely mind boggling, especially when i compare with my friends who live abroad. We're not getting good value for the amount we are spending.

One thing that helped me was I wrote a list of things that were non-negotiable and then found which parties or even individual politicians who my views most aligned with.

We need to stop seeing politics as left vs right. Most people are liberal in some areas and more right wing in others. It depends on your priorities, however we have come to believe that a political party should be a complete match for our needs. It just isn't possible and we should find the best fit.

The problem is the press more than anything as they promote the idea that you can't politically sit in the middle, and if you believe one thing you must be extreme left/right and there is no discussion or compromise to be had. It doesn't serve the public, just tries to persuade them to agree with their agenda. It needs change. That's why we get a political party u-turning or reading the room incorrectly and coming up with policies based on what the press says, not the people on the street. It just creates instability.

It’s good to see a discussion but I’m wondering if it’s been left too late. Especially given some posts still on here.

This is a great discussion..it’s good to have people listening to each other.

I actually must be one of the few who doesn’t care about immigration and it’s not a factor in my voting. (I don’t care that other people care about it - it’s just not an issue I care enough about to vote on.)

I do care that we seem to be paying ever increasing levels in tax with little to show for it and a populace who wants the government to do more and more (well their fellow taxpayer to do more and more) while not taking responsibility for their own lives.

Most of my issues with the UK are nor really something government can fix (the skyrocketing levels of intorelance and hate are what make me feel most uncomfortable. I know a surprising number of people seeking an exit plan for that reason alone.)

There are no main parties who I align with (and I would cut my arms off before voting Reform). Bit the election is a long way away and a lot can change before then.