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 ?

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.
Then why would you vote for a party that have starved all of those areas of funding by choice? How much do you think Brexit is costing?

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
I’m not sure why you think doing good is an insult? I want society to be better, everyone benefits when public services are better funded and people can access healthcare and a decent education and get a job. I am sick of seeing disabled people getting trampled, I am scared for my children who need specialist education provision and longterm healthcare, and I am appalled at the number of families living in poverty even when working. It’s a disgrace. We should be ashamed.

Funnily enough not every region of this country has prospered over the last 10 years or so, whatever the Tory supporting press tells you

Funnily enough not every region prospered under the previous 13 years of Labour either, hence why they got kicked out in 2010.

I think a lot of people vote Tory because they always have, and so did their parents, and their social group.

Labour would never have got 13 years of power had that been true. Under Blair and a MODERATE labour, huge numbers of traditional Tory voters changed and voted Labour instead. When Brown took over and Labour lurched to the left, those same people returned to Tory.

It's a fact that elections are won by "Mondeo man" - a relatively small number of moderate/centralists who swing their vote one way or another according to current party politics, party leader, etc.

Regardless of how crap the Tories are, we'll never have an extreme left wing party in power. If Labour are serious about getting power, they need to move more central.

Life long labour voter here, but I haven't been able to vote for that shambles for a long time. My vote has moved to the Lib Dems. Why anyone would vote Tory is a mystery to me, much like people voting Brexit it usually boils down to angry or fearful people being mislead.

Katerinablum That would be my Cornish bubble would it? Labour have fuck all interest in rural communities; I taught in Cornwall under the last Labour govt, and the disparity in funding between Cornwall and the metropolitan Labour constituencies was staggering, and not to our advantage.

I have never, and will never, vote Labour.

As I pointed out earlier, not everyone is a fan of socially aware liberalism either.

I will vote Tory to get us out of the EU pronto, and not via the surrender document either. If you think Boris is bad...look who is the next President of the Commission, and Head of the ECB.

scaryteacher come up to the north west and see how it’s declined over the last 10 years or so. Been up to Bolton, Rochdale or Oldham recently ? ....Thought not, 1 in 4 shops empty, rough sleepers out of their heads on spice on every corner, run down estates that haven’t seen investment for years, essential services cut to the bone - our meals on wheels service has just been scrapped, 5 out of 10 libraries shut - our local one first opened in 1910, didn’t last 2 years under the tories, surestart centres closed willy nilly, schools falling apart literally and an absolutely unfit for purpose regional transport provision- been on northern rail recently ? I appreciate rural poverty is a thing but try living in an urban se and you’ll be desperate to return to the south west. Leaving the EU is a clusterfuck of massive proportions and I really don’t care who the new head of commission is, i’m more concerned about the venal tossers currently in government who’d sell their own grandmother off

The idea that rural communities will get equality from brexit is ridiculous! The access to funding, agri subsidies and regeneration funding will not suddenly be expanded as we plummet into recession. At best you may hurt the rest of the country at the same time.

come up to the north west and see how it’s declined over the last 10 years or so

I am in the NW - I saw how it declined over 13 years of Labour too! Yes, it's continued to decline, but we were left high & dry and ignored by Labour too!

Conservative, particularly in light of the 'dream team' of Corbyn, Mcdonnell, Abbott and input from Momentum. 🤔

My Pa used to say 'Conservatives are for strivers, Labour are for skivers.' Unoriginal maybe but very apt.

There is no alternative.

The country must either leave the EU or stay and it cannot prevaricate any longer.

The EU scaring committee needs to pull its finger out.

Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn. Polarised.

The only voters who come out of this with any credit are those that didn’t bother.

Katerina Been to Cornwall lately either? Tried to get there on the train? We get cut off if the line is washed away at Dawlish. We do get one bus an hour through the village, but it doesn't go where I need to.

We have the same problems in the SW as you do, but not spice as yet. It will come, as the new housing estates being built are being sold off to HAs from the NW and Manchester. Should be an interesting experiment.

I'm north west, didn't prosper under Blair years, the high street dying is clutching at straws to pin on the tories.

Basically half the country voted to leave the EU and If you want Dianne Abbott as home Secretary, Emily Thornbberry as Secretary of State, John McDonnell as Chancellor, Shami Chakrabarti as attorney general there is one, and it is not because of the Right wing media", those who are Corbyn disciples are not better informed or more enlightened.

The current situation has not become so desperate that they see Corbyn as an answer, if he stepped down along with the majority of his front bench they would be wiping the floor with the Tories.

ssd and Katarinablum are spot on about the aspirational Tory voter IMO.

And a lack of awareness of the interlinked nature of a society that leads people to vote in self-interest only and forget/overlook that that has wider consequences that ultimately affect all.

I no longer have a vote in the UK, as I have been away too long, but whereas I might previously have voted Labour I could not vote for Corbyn. I would probably be Green by inclination (I live in the country where the Greens are a proper political force and tend to give them my support), Lib Dem tactically.

Scary
I'm in a village in Surrey. Our trainline gets disrupted occasionally (that's the one train every 1 or 2 hours. I Can't get a bus on demand to the places I want either! Stop wallowing in self pity for goodness sake. Brexit will make your life and transport options worse, but you seem to latch on to the idea that it's a good thing as it will make my life, and that of my childrem worse. That is such an awful outlook in someone who is supposed to be an educator.

in A (not the) country where the Greens are a proper political force.

Sorry scary would love to visit Cornwall but prices are out of my league. I don’t live in a rural back water -11 miles from Manchester- we have 1 bus an hour ! Train service is a joke - packed in like sardines and recently told that upcoming modernisation has been cancelled. The areas round here in the NW I agree have a long history of socioeconomic deprivation and low aspiration - slight improvement under labour - but things have accelerated massively in the recent past - I’m afraid leaving the Eu is only going to make things worse as many up here aren’t financially well insulated against price rises and ‘bumps in the road’

And so much whataboutery on this thread ... if a government is inept you give someone else ago surely ! You don’t keep voting for the same muppets

No, I am horrified by what's happened to the UK in the last 15 or so years and I hold the Conservatives partly responsible.

I think our whole political system is no longer fit for purpose and we need to find a way to move towards more consensual politics. Two sides shouting at each other across a room may have worked 200 years ago, but it really doesn't feel like it is now.

No, I am horrified by what's happened to the UK in the last 15 or so years and I hold the Conservatives partly responsible.

Not sure how you can hold the Tories responsible for the last 5 years of Labour, mostly under Gordon Brown's mis-management???

Nor the subsequent five years of coalition with the Libdems insisting on some of their policies and blocking some of the Tory policies.

We've only had 4 years of a true Tory government, most of which has been overshadowed by Brexit.

Nor the subsequent five years of coalition with the Libdems insisting on some of their policies and blocking some of the Tory policies.

Yikes, that’s inaccurate. I think you mean five years of the Lib Dems throwing themselves and their polices under the bus to abate the worst of Tory policy, which made little difference in the long run apart from alienating many Lib Dem voters.

Wouldn't ever and couldn't ever vote Tory. I associate Tory voters with racist nans, under-educated and over-promoted middle managers, people who go on holiday to the same place every year and most of the people who write posts on AIBU.

You do not have the option of voting for another Conservative government. What Mr Johnson offers is not the Conservative party other than in name only.

The real Conservative Party might choose someone who is public school educated, but not someone with no morals, and since 1968, not someone who makes racist comments.

@PushingThru well isn't that a poor stereotype, probably wildly inaccurate too.

Not a Corbyn fan, but interested to know on what basis he can be called ‘evil’. Also interested to know which Labour policies are ‘bonkers’. Can anyone assist? Looking at BoJo’s performance over the last two days, Corbyn is beginning to look positively statesman like to me ... although I’d far rather Keir Starmer were leader.

And as for people voting Tory - back in 2015 my Tory friends told me they voted for the Tories because they were ‘pro Business’ and ‘pro the Union’. Fair enough - I understand those reasons, but why on earth would that kind of person vote for the current Tories - who are pushing for a No Deal which will screw business and destroy the union. It literally makes no sense.