Why would you vote for another conservative government ?

[Katarinablum]

Read some of the threads about voting choices in a forthcoming snap election. I'm no Corbyn supporter but was genuinely surprised that so many people were prepared to vote for the conservatives after the last 3 years of brexit ineptitude/duplicity and more specifically the last 10 of austerity.
As a mum of two I've seen cuts to educational provision, as a health care professional and as a patient experienced personally the huge pressures affecting the NHS due to government policies. I also live in an area with extremely high levels of chronic socioeconomic deprivation and underinvestment - the prosperity of the last few years seems to have passed us by and probably explains why the leave vote was so high here.
I would really be reluctant to vote for the tories as a result of what I've witnessed over the last few years and I presumed I wouldn't be alone. I'm now not so sure and suspect that a boris johnson government would win a huge majority. I'm genuinely fearful of this having seen the individuals that johnson has surrounded himself with - not exactly socially aware liberals, more likely libertarian mrs thatcher clones on speed. Don't think we can really expect much investment in public services despite the promises.
These threads got me thinking about what drives peoples voting intentions. Why would you vote for a party that has made such a mess of things ? I just don't get it. I've traditionally voted labour but I am open minded - in fact I've read alot about one nation conservatism which appealed to me. Surely our fundamental aspirations for the country aren't so radically different - doesn't everybody want the poorest and most vulnerable to be supported and enabled into living fulfilling lives, that prosperity is spread equally and public services not turned into cash cows for private companies etc so why carry on voting for a party whose policies have been so divisive and destructive ie
Windrush, brexit, universal credit ?

scaryteacher many voted for Brexit because they saw it as a means to protest against austerity - a kick in the teeth of Cameron and Osborne Funnily enough not every region of this country has prospered over the last 10 years or so, whatever the Tory supporting press tells you ! Maybe you need to take a visit out of your little bubble and visit of few of those places !

@daffodilbrian

Fucking hell. There are no words. Just, fucking hell.

ssd you’re spot on. Funnily enough this inability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes or to empathise was was observed in Margaret thatcher ... in a recent tv programme about her a former aide mentioned that she just couldn’t appreciate that others didn’t have the same opportunities and advantages ....

Yeah you're right @ssd. The "I'm alright Jack" mentality baffles me though! It's so easy to suddenly lose everything you have and be in that position.

People voted brexit as they believed the lies about the NHS getting millions more a week, and education and policing getting more money. Instead of Brussels.
It was quite simple.
Lie to the people and play into their biggest fears.
We'll cut immigration and give the NHS more money!!

And people bought it hook line and sinker.

Oh and the promise of sovereignty, of England going back to the glory days when we all worked in the same jobs for 50 years and communities came together. And everyone was white and spoke like us.

I wish I could find that poem, it's been on here a few years, its about 2 children growing up, the boy has a nice middle class home, good school, room to study, he gets a job through his dad, the boss plays golf or something like that, with his dad and looks after the boy, the boy gets promoted and tells us he did it all himself.... The girl has an overcrowded home, no space to study, mediocre school, works 2 jobs as well as college, tries hard but with no advantage gets nowhere...

They vote purely for their own interests

Of course, I vote for the best for myself and my family and friends. Why would I vote for some random. And myself and my family and friends all need health care, schools, and care in old age.
This is always the case the do gooder lefties make out they are voting for the best for society and the rest are selfishly voting to improve their own lives. Grow up.

Didn't Thatcher welcome Pinochet here!?
People like her look after their own.

Corbyn may well turn out to be an ineffective leader if he ever got the chance, and I’m not overjoyed by the way Labour are throwing women’s rights under the bus in pursuit of woke cookies, but the single-minded war of attrition that the Tories are waging on the disabled and otherwise vulnerable is literally - by the DWP’s own (reluctant) admission after a FOI request - costing 10s of thousands of lives. Over 111,000 people* died within weeks of being found fit for work at a DWP assessment. There are disabled people in my immediate family, good people who worked for years before ill-health overtook them, who have firsthand experience of being disbelieved, patronised and basically treated like shit for the heinous crime of not being independently wealthy. Having supported them through that and seen with my own eyes that I, Daniel Blake may as well have been a documentary...well, I’ll take my chance with Corbyn.

*Almost certainly more now, that figure is at least a year old.

The psychology of denial and naivety amongst those people who think Boris is still the man for the job is fascinating! Got to be a phD in this!

Shame I'm a nurse and not a psychologist!

What on earth is a dogooder lefty ?
And what’s wrong with being a doogooder ? I know, next time I’ll vote for a party that hits the poorest hardest because they must be lazy and feckless and need a kick up the arse...

R44Me, your post says it all. You exemplify exactly what I'm talking about. You mock anyone you think doesn't want to get on, doesn't want to do well. And anyone who has done well but still recognises a whole swathe of the population is struggling is kidding themselves they care, the do gooder lefties...
If you've worked hard, own your home, your kids are doing well at school, why bother with the struggling masses that keep having kids, keep getting ill even though the eat crap, keep spending their benefits down the pub.... I mean, they're all idiots, aren't they? Keep well back from them and hopefully none of their bad luck or bad decisions will rub off on you.
Except that's not how society works. Sometimes the underclass, as you see them, are there for a reason. And sometimes it's really easy to become one of them, through no fault of your own.
Sometimes the underdogs in life need the rest of us to care about them and not sweep them aside.
Because you never know until it's too late that you've become one of them.

@R44Me

I like the quote "when you're not doing too well, vote for a better life for yourself. When you're doing quite nicely, vote for a better life for others."

Similarly, this tweet from Ricky Gervais: twitter.com/rickygervais/status/1167873790891585537?s=20

Voting for a better life for yourself when you're vulnerable often doesn't involve voting for people with policies like the current government. We can all see how badly truly vulnerable people have fared in the last decade.

@ssd I think this cartoon is the one you were thinking of

digitalsynopsis.com/inspiration/privileged-kids-on-a-plate-pencilsword-toby-morris/

amp-rnz-co-nz.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.rnz.co.nz/article/f49617e9-2c65-4662-a630-48534a27e5b1?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQEKAFwAQ%3D%3D#aoh=15675798452716&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rnz.co.nz%2Fnews%2Fthe-wireless%2F373065%2Fthe-pencilsword-on-a-plate

That's the poem, sorry its a big link as above

Yes elena!

I suggest anyone who is thinking of voting for the Conservatives doesn't actually post on this thread as the OP is not the slightest bit interested in trying to understand why. Unless you enjoy a virtual pile on, of course.

Conservative party member here, I’m broadly happy with how things are thanks, couldn’t stand May, like Boris. Voted Leave

Ex Conservative party member here. I'm broadly very unhappy with how things are, thanks, couldn't stand May, but Boris is far worse. Voted Remain.

I can't vote for any Brexit party, and I'd rather spoil my ballot paper than vote for Corbyn. So I never thought I would say it, but it would have to be Lib Dem.

Haha, I think I touched a nerve there. @ssc @fromthefloorboardsup

You have no idea who my family and friends are - which class, how wealthy, healthy or educated. What work I do who I support in everyday life.

As usual this thread is just another to bash the perceived better off and for posters who are themselves of course so much better people than that - oh, and don't like that to to be pointed out.

R44Me, you just keep voting tory and Boris and see how you end up.

Not at all, I'm trying to have a reasoned debate. It doesn't matter about your specific circumstances, it's the principle. You don't know anything about me either but that's irrelevant. I think you misunderstood my previous post.

I've voted for

Plaid Cymru
Labour (under Blair and Brown)
Lib Dem

And Tories in my time (yes I'm old. Old enough to remember the shit awful time of the 70's).

I haven't decided on who I'd vote for (although sorry to sound like many others, I won't be voting for Labour)

Although I voted Remain I'm so sick of it all. I think Boris has backed himself into a corner on Brexit. On other things, I have a inkling that Boris might be a half decent PM. Maybe. I don't think he'll get the chance though.