Why conservative voters handle election outcomes better than Labour voters

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It's been 14 years since Labour and Remainers have won a large vote, but you wouldn't know it. Every panel show seems determined to tell Conservative and Brexit voters how stupid they are, as if those doing the bashing are the majority. For instance, shows like BBC's Question Time and Have I Got News For You have often featured heated debates where Conservative and Brexit supporters are frequently criticised.

Now that they’ve actually won a vote, the annoyance will surely be even louder. In the 2019 general election, the Conservatives won a significant majority, securing 365 seats compared to Labour's 202. Similarly, the 2016 Brexit referendum saw 52% of voters choosing to leave the EU, yet the aftermath was marked by continuous debates and criticisms from Remain supporters.

I can't see Conservative voters taking the same stance as Labour voters have for years and telling their opposition how stupid they are.

I guess Conservative voters must be the bigger people.

This isn’t my experience at all. Our Tory council went Lib Dem at the last council elections and they have been pretty poor losers IMO . Lots of misinformation spreading and underhand tactics since .

Many big players had already managed their exit strategies from politics so won’t be publicly moaning about it . Also frankly many are so embarrassed by the poor quality of govt ( truss mini budget , multiple ministerial changes and 5 leaders in 5 years , the scandals and mistakes ). You could interpret that as being magnanimous in defeat if you want but a thread arguing that Tories are somehow better people because they can take defeat so well is somewhat hilarious . I suspect some are embarrassed , some shell shocked by the scale of defeat and some are already plotting .

I think there are probably quite a few Conservative voters who, while not being able to bring themselves to vote for another party, are not that disappointed that the Conservative Party are no longer in government. In its current form, the Party is not appealing to "One Nation" Conservatives and has not proven itself to have a handle on the economy. They are probably pleased there is now an opportunity to regroup. I predict a few years in the wilderness with a loon such as Braverman or Badenoch in charge, then a move back towards the centre and then inevitably winning another election. Not a Tory voters myself but they'll be back in power at some point.

That wasn't an 'attack' though was it. It was just calmly stating they think you are showing hypocrisy.

Nadine Dorries' performance on Channel 4 on Thursday night didn't show any basic manners never mind how to be 'the bigger person'. She ruined what could have been a good debate. Even Emily Maitlis got fed up of her and finally put her back in her box. So no... don't agree with you. OP. There are those who can be gracious in defeat and those that can't, from all parties.

@lavenderlou @NYE2023 i think you make good points there

Those saying it’s new and due to the behaviour of the last bunch- well maybe it’s spread wider but it isn’t new.

A friend crowed ‘ding dong the witch is dead’ all over SM when Thatcher died. Classy.

My dad was a Tory- though open to change when the situation merited it. At the time, Labour were shrieking, table slapping hecklers. He called me in to listen to someone new- a labour leader who was able to discuss and explain policies in a rational fashion. He was impressed. I was too young to pay attention to who that was. It was probably the ‘80s.

The slogan shouting and jeering is counterproductive. I know my left wing friends are intelligent and caring, they just have this blind spot about political rhetoric.

But you'd have to compare that with MN after the previous elections. Anecdotally I agree there are usually far more "Tory scum" type comments coming from the left than vice versa.

You don't think conservatives jeer.??

Right. Im not sure the blind spot is one side. We see what we want to see...

I agree. I am left-wing, always have been. And I would be heartbroken if my kids voted Tory. But I do see the self righteousness of the left and the unwillingness to understand why people see things differently. They think we are morally right and everyone should agree with us.

I don't think the centre right, Tory voters are any more willing to understand other points of view. But they just don't care as much about what other people think they generally don't want to get into an argument, see themselves as realists and the left as screaming children.

Far right are something else again - they just want their way.

Politicians are professionals - they should be able to understand other points of view. They all have it on themselves to be classy - great leaving speeches from Rishi and who'd of thought: Jeremy Hunt and totally expected poor show from Liz T

Have you seen the Angela Rayner thread op? If not, I suggest you go and take a look.

Oh I can't fucking wait for all those Tory bashing mumsnetters to start moaning. Can't fucking wait !

They've got their messiah! Let's see how it goes.

It seems to have been long forgotten that the tory government of the day was strongly remain. The government of the day campaigned remain. Wild unhinged fringes (Boris, JRM etc etc) had to shoot off sideways to argue otherwise

Most reasonable and middle ground tories are still for remain, they see the damage that has been done

Labour on the other hand I feel let me down badly, Corbyn I think was a secret leaver although he campaigned for remain but the way membership was sold was not strong enough to capture the working class north, hence the outcome. Yet poorer areas really needed EU membership and income and initiatives.

This is a bit off topic but about 20 years ago I was working for a software company who had created an operating system for handling case work and it was to be used by people in politics for managing their constituency work.

I had to go to various gatherings of MP's and councillors etc to demonstrate, so I would often be included as an agenda item in a meeting which was about other things too.

I was often amazed at the sort of people who seemed to be attracted to politics, often discussion was nigh on impossible because no one was listening or would concede a single point. It left me amazed any decision ever got made at all.

So I wonder whether those with strong political opinions are cut from the same cloth.
Many people don't feel that passionately so don't bother discussing it all all.
Passionate Conservatives and Labour voters alike don't listen and debate well ime
But in the public sphere it seems easier to say a left position because the accepted framework is that the left cares for all while the right cares for the self (which isn't my view but since when were encapsulations ever a complex and nuanced idea boiled down accurately?)

Well my collegue told me that the labour victory would be terrible for the country so that didn't sound that stoic

I dont know what the stats are but a huge number of the working class, lower income earners vote tory. Its why we have had a tory government for so long.

My LinkedIn begs to differ OP. It's full of (mostly) old white men marked as "retired" bitching all over the cabinet announcement posts.

If you had seen the vitriol aimed at Angela Rayner and her trouser suit yesterday on Twitter, I doubt you’d be lauding the right as good losers.

Classy, like this?

You don’t have to be on the right to see that was a terrible suit, you only need to have eyes.

I think the more important issue is, if people don't listen to each other - including those who voted Reform - and try to understand why they did so instead of calling them stupid, we could be in quite a dangerous situation in a few years time.

I don’t think Corbyn favouring Leave was very secret at all. If you read the histories of the campaigns, he barely showed up for any remain events (but effectively blocked Labour colleagues from doing so by being a maybe)

He then, IIRC, suggested that article 27 and the two year deadline be triggered the day after the vote. He did not like the state aid restrictions that EU membership brought.

So this is a thread for Conservative voters,who are the bigger people and therefore don't spend time telling their opposition how stupid and nasty they are,to tell their opposition how stupid and nasty they are?
Or have I misunderstood?
It's possible,as I am a never-having-voted tory Remainer (who managed in spite of that to have an enjoyable conversation with a colleague yesterday about what motivated their vote for the Conservatives,and why they had decided not to vote Reform, moving on to PR and Question Time....)
And to be honest I can be angsty at times - it comes from a place of despair about what has happened to my country over the past 14 years,but I try not to do it. I think there are many Conservative voters who have felt that way in the past.The first reaction of an older man stopped in one of the Kent seats taken by Labour was "God help us",so not that calm and accepting.

😂😂😂

I didn’t see it.

But wow.

What a pointless thing to comment on, particularly with vitriol, given she’s second in command after a major election victory.

I thought the outgoing and incoming PM's speeches showed how to deal with defeat and victory with dignity and humility, something that has been lacking in politics for a while ?