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Original poster

Please, let's not let this go

45 replies

CommonRoom · 10/12/2021 16:18

I can't believe what's happening with the government. I'm not normally very political, I'm not a Labour supporter, more of a floating voter so I am not coming from a knee jerk anti conservative position.

I'm nearly 60 and have never known as much sleaze and cynicism in politics. I am ashamed and embarrassed that such behaviour (lockdown parties, expenses scandals etc. etc.) seems to be endemic in our country. I am so worried that the most recent news will fall off the headlines and everyone will just carry on as if it's normal. It really is not acceptable in a modern democracy at all. We have friends and family in Europe who have previously been Anglophiles who now think we are a backward, corrupt laughing stock. Please don't let us accept this as ok.

OP posts:
FindingMeno · 10/12/2021 16:46

I completely get you.
Everyone has such short memories though when it comes to time to cast their votes Sad

DoOneBoJo · 10/12/2021 17:03

Well I will NEVER forget and I will never vote conservative again Angry

Saucery · 10/12/2021 17:08

@DoOneBoJo

Well I will NEVER forget and I will never vote conservative again Angry
Me neither. I have great reservations about the other parties (rights of women being the main one, experience another) but honestly, none of them can be worse than this. How dare they lie to us like this.

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FindingMeno · 10/12/2021 17:20

Will the electorate stay angry though in general?
Somehow I doubt it.
There's always a pre election diversionary tactic that can pop up like Thatcher and the Falklands.

TempNameChangexx · 10/12/2021 17:31

Agreed (and I'm nearly 60 as well Smile)

I think though that more needs to happen - trying to persuade people to not vote Conservative again isn't enough, we need something radical

And yes - voters have short memories - maybe all of us "women of a certain age" need to commit to stand outside polling stations at future elections with banners reminding people of how this government have basically been laughing at us "little people" while they carry on making their friends rich and doing whatever they want to do.....

Forion · 10/12/2021 17:35

I can't understand anyone who votes Tory. They literally despise anyone whose not rich and public school educated. Ds1 went to Oxford with the toff types and he told me that they refer to ordinary people like they're utter scum. They joke about the poor dying etc. some really sick stuff.

ivykaty44 · 10/12/2021 17:38

I didn't think anyone was allowed to stand outside polling stations with political messages?

im certainly surprised that there'd be tory votes that never vote tory again

TheVanguardSix · 10/12/2021 17:40

It's as mad, bad, and humiliating as Berlusconi's Italy. People are complacent and so willing to accept that we're pumping dirt instead of water. Like it's 'good enough'. Or maybe, we feel fatigued and powerless. I don't know. What I do know is that in my 25 years in the UK, I've never voted Tory and I never will.

Mybalconyiscracking · 10/12/2021 17:42

Well , I’m happy not to vote Conservative as soon as someone provides me with a viable alternative. At the moment I don’t see one!

And I’m afraid I can’t get too exercised about some civil servants getting together for some cheese and wine over a year ago. The world has gone Bloody Mad!

ivykaty44 · 10/12/2021 17:48

perhaps everyone else is feeling laughed at for not holding their loved ones hands as they died - as per the rules, whilst the cheese and wine parties continued @Mybalconyiscracking perhaps if you'd experienced your loved one going of in an ambulance and kissing them goodbye with a look of terror - you'd now feel cheated and scorned

Saucery · 10/12/2021 17:58

I’m sure lots of people got together for cheese and wine last Christmas when they weren’t supposed to. That’s not the last (cheese) straw for me. The breathtaking arrogance and shambling incompetence is. The outright lies, the old falling on their swords sniveling announcements, the despairing reactions from some decent Tory MPs who can see their party becoming a total shitshow…..that’s what will make me vote for someone else.

Original poster
CommonRoom · 10/12/2021 17:58

@Mybalconyiscracking

And I’m afraid I can’t get too exercised about some civil servants getting together for some cheese and wine over a year ago. The world has gone Bloody Mad!

Do you really think this is fine? This week several people have been prosecuted for having parties last year. If you are really prepared to shrug that off then you have set very low standards for your government
Doesn't it bother you that this country is now being viewed by outsiders as governed like a chaotic circus?

OP posts:
AwaAnBileYerHeid · 10/12/2021 18:01

@Forion

I can't understand anyone who votes Tory. They literally despise anyone whose not rich and public school educated. Ds1 went to Oxford with the toff types and he told me that they refer to ordinary people like they're utter scum. They joke about the poor dying etc. some really sick stuff.
Not everyone who votes Tory is like this. My uncle votes Tory. Working class man. When asked why he voted the way he did, he said that he was utterly disillusioned with scrimping by while working 50+ hours a week, while a good few members of our family sit on their bums on good money from their benefits with 'depression and anxiety' - and not genuine depression and anxiety, beleve me. People who sit and say that you're a mug if you work. Another with 7 kids who pops one out every 3/4 years, which ensured that she didn't need to work for many years.

He doesn't begrudge genuine folk benefits, but in his opinion, there are too many piss takers. He thought that the tories would clamp down on the benefit system and manage to stamp out at least a bit of the piss taking.

I'm not saying I agree or disagree with his views however I think it's nonsensical to tar everyone with this brush that you have tarred them with. My aunt did the same, basically running him down for his choice of who to vote (which is his right) and all he did was dig his heels further and further into his own opinion.

LifeIsWhat · 10/12/2021 18:07

Thank you very much for reminding us. The problem is, I don't think Labour will be better than the Conservatives. Of course this is NOT the excuse for the dreadful situation we are in now. I just felt labour will be equally bad. What is the solution? I don't know.

IncessantNameChanger · 10/12/2021 18:11

We are turning in a corrupt joke of a country.

All that money to decorate a flat while childrens services are unfit for purpose. Leaves a very bitter taste. I cant believe how low morally the government has sunk. It's like living through a real life spitting imagine show.

Original poster
CommonRoom · 10/12/2021 18:11

Leaving aside what Labour are like at the moment, or what people might think of 'benefit scroungers' there surely has to be a line drawn when it comes to public standards. As a nation we have become like the proverbial slowly boiled frog. We have got used to a level of lying and incompetence that most civilised countries would not sink to. It's not a party political point at all, it's to do with morality and decency.

OP posts:
TipseyTorvey · 10/12/2021 18:16

I completely agree it's a complete shit show. They are an embarrassment and I cannot and will not vote for them. But, Labour don't know what a woman is and I'm feminist to the core, so I'm stuck homeless now. I've emailed my mp over and over saying 'please just say you know men can't be women' and he keeps saying they can so.... Homeless I remain.

shakingmytambourineatyou · 10/12/2021 18:17

You need to be on my thread, op. I am ousting the government. I have quite an army.

namechangerino · 10/12/2021 18:18

To be honest AwaAnBileYerHeid your uncle sounds just as bad. Out of interest, after the Tories 'clamped down on the benefit system' (which has led to the actual deaths of people genuinely vulnerable and ill and to the poverty and homelessness of many more) did his relatives continue to receive benefits?

I've said it once and I'll say it again - current benefit fraud is around 1%. Lets not spread this hatred of people who have to claim benefits due to no fault of their own. If you need to claim DLA/PIP you have to provide a small dossier of evidence and even then you can be turned down. You can't simply claim you have 'anxiety and depression' and live of the state for years - believe me. And quite frankly I would prefer to live in a society that takes care of its vulnerable and accept that some will inevitably play the system (like every single system in existence - tax?) than let them be abandoned to isolation and poverty because people like your uncle cry about others having something that they don't.

Anyone who votes tory has made it clear that they couldn't care less about the vulnerable and disabled and worse than that have bought into a deliberate campaign of hatred against them.

And all those people saying they'll never vote Tory again - it was plain as day that Boris Johnson was a lying, immoral, venal, racist, homophobic, misogynist, over-privileged knob many many years ago, well before the last general election. I don't get all the shock.

Yes, OP, it is awful and embarrassing but if the internet has taught us anything, you can't argue with stupid and there's an awful lot of stupid, angry, venal people out there who presumably judge the current government by their own standards.

CorrBlimeyGG · 10/12/2021 18:20

Labour don't know what a woman is and I'm feminist to the core

You're no feminist if you ignore the disproportionate impact of austerity on women. That's far far more important than the odd trans woman in the changing room.

DingleyDel · 10/12/2021 18:21

Agree with every word. The government we currently have are an utter disgrace. And BJ has to be the worst prime minister we’ve ever had.

beatrixpotterspencil · 10/12/2021 18:25

Unfortunately, the clamp down on benefits only really hurt the disabled and genuinely sick. The 'piss takers' are still enjoying themselves, to the best of my knowledge.
It was unfortunate and divisive, and cost many innocent and vulnerable people their lives to suicide and abuse. Duncan Smith ought to have been sentenced for those deaths, not to mention channel 5 and the gutter press.

On main topic, i think the country as a whole has become more divided and peevish. There's a general sense of aggression and judgement everywhere now, it seems.

Labour seem to have lost touch with their traditional supporter, and in ways i cant blame them - the 'red wall', the traditional working class, have changed, especially since Brexit.
The past decade's tories are certainly a new and hopeless breed. I see nothing solving this apart from a complete, cross party coalition, and a total cessation of divisive politics perpetually exacerbated by the right wing press.
In fact the entire 'right and left' wing needs disappear from our vocabulary!
Divisive politics do not create a healthy nation.

Forion · 10/12/2021 18:36

We need proportional representation. It means more voices would be heard and, whilst not ideal, is certainly fairer than the sorry excuse for democracy that we currently have.

user1471453601 · 10/12/2021 18:36

@Mybalconyiscracking, I understand and sympathise with your pov. However, as a card carrying member of a political party, I joined because I believed in the broad thrust of their purpose.

I have joined pressure groups where I vehemently disagree with one of their particular policy/ manifesto ect.

And another one of my pet dislikes, is people who say they "read each parties manifesto and decide which one will be best for them and their family".

I just cannot agree with this. Read the manifestos and decide which one is
morally right,in its general thrust, not what is popular or what benefits me and mine.

SerendipityJane · 10/12/2021 18:41

@DoOneBoJo

Well I will NEVER forget and I will never vote conservative again Angry
they still get in though.

Anyway, it's not people that vote conservative that are the problem. It's the people who don't vote, or refuse to vote to oust the conservatives that are the problem. And they are the majority.

When 2 in 3 registered voters refuse to vote, you are ruled by the tyranny of the 1/3 ....

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