to be genuinely confused as to why anybody who isn't rich would vote tory?

[StuckinTheMiddlewithYou]

Seriously, I don't get it. Unless you're earning at least £40K, why would you?

Enlighten me!

It's healthy for democracy to have a change in government every few years.

Even three terms is a bit much for one party to be in power. Both the big parties have outstayed their welcome in recent years.

I just don't understand the whingers on both sides in 1997 and 2010. What did you want? A one-party state in perepetuity? That isn't the way democracy works.

I think a lot of LibDem voters didn't realise they were voting Torie tbf They voted Torie by default

"AIBU to wonder why Labour voters think it's perfectly acceptable to repeatedly start threads like this flinging insults at Tory voters? I've never seen a thread going the other way.

Speaks volumes to me."

Well said.

i there's only one way to find out....

".....but totally understand that cuts have to be made"

Oh god. If I hear this bullshit trotted out one more time, I'll go bonkers.

Do you really just swallow what politicians say without out any critical thought whatsoever? Christ.

Cuts have to be made at such a fast and furious pace?

Rubbish.

The Tories are rubbing their hands in GLEE that they have brainwashed people into believing they can take away so much from the British people in the name of 'bankruptcy'. Britain is nowhere near bankruptcy for god's sake. Get informed.

This is a very interesting notion that far exceeds Nick Clegg and Cameron's limp dick bleating about bonuses today

faverolles & StuckinTheMiddlewithYou

£40k would make you richer. It would by no means make you rich.

You'd be able to live more comfortably, bigger house, nicer car and dining out more. But you are not exactly going to be rubbing noses with the Beckhams.

I'm not a Labour voter but Labour did not bankrupt this country.

Erm, you'd certainly know about it if they had. We are in no way in the same position as Ireland. In fact, we are helping to bail out Ireland. Because we are bankrupt. Right.

I cannot believe people believe that Britain is bankrupt. Duhhh.

ItsGrim, you are right. We are not bankrupt. Usually if one is spending money like it's going out of fashion, it's preferable to stop BEFORE you actually go bankrupt. You don't carry on until you are.

If you look at our national debt and annual budget deficit, it's enough to make a grown man cry. If you compare our debt levels to the PIGS countries you'll find we're actually comparable. The only reason we've not gone bump is because we have not adopted the Euro. That mean's unlike the others, we have the ability to devalue, vary our interest rates and the all important "quantative easing" (aka printing money). If we had adopted the Euro, we'd probably have gone down shortly after Greece and before Ireland.

So you are right. Labour did not bankrupt us but thanks to them, we're on the national equivalent of an IVA.

ITs grim if you do your research yourself you will see how much in debt we are, dont need politicians to tell us.

hate the 'we' surely there must be something better offered for our future?!

We cannot keep wasting and spending as we are, for example we dont need child benefit, it should really be to those who need it. Cut the quangos and think tanks

I voted Tory because Labour massively over borrowed during their time in office (and kept the full extent of their borrowing off the books using PFI) and seemed to be deluded about the fact that you just cannot have everything. The banking crisis, while pretty awful (but predictable), is a separate issue from the massive government overspending that took place before the crisis.

I am not parroting something I've read in a newspaper when I say this - our extended family contains three economists, and out of interest we looked at government spending and did some rough sums together a couple of years before the banking crisis. We concluded at the time that spending was unsustainable and that the shit was going to hit the fan at some point. We also looked at the housing market and predicted that there was going to be a crash (which was why I didn't buy a house!). At the time, we didn't factor in the American sub-prime industry, otherwise we might have predicted the financial crisis. (FYI we still think there's going to be another house price crash.)

Cameron does not strike me as an ideologue in the same vein as Thatcher, and I think he (and the reality of working in a coalition) is capable of keeping that part of the Tory party in check. I think people who say things in the vein of "nasty Tories just want to cut everything and make poor people suffer" need to ask themselves why any politician would do anything so patently unpopular if they didn't need to.

In addition, I am naturally averse to voting Labour as the Labour party and many Labour voters in the part of the country I grew up in were the worst kind of unreconstructed misogynists you can imagine and I find it very hard to see that Labour has anything to offer me as a woman. I also opposed identity card legislation on libertarian grounds and I am sympathetic to repealing the ban on fox hunting, again for libertarian reasons (although I do not hunt myself and don't know anyone who does). I felt strongly enough about identity cards to vote Tory on that issue alone.

And I wouldn't be considered rich by the OP's criterion.

Pigletmania, some believe in the universality of child benefit. Some believe it's very affordable if you get various corporations to stop wriggling their way out of paying tax. Legal? Yes. Utterly distasteful and wrong - absolutely.

Hmm. Every country seems to have overspent. Even the Germans. Every news report about Ireland's blames the banks.

Read for common sense on managing government deficit because the Tories have it so very very very wrong

"I am not parroting something I've read in a newspaper when I say this - our extended family contains three economists"

How patronising, FairPhyllis. And stupid. In effect you said, you're related to an economist so you know far more about the issues than those of us who aren't." Never mind that economists come in a fair breadth of political stance.

I'm related to one solicitor, one expert on cystic fibrosis and one G.P. but I would never claim it would give me superior knowledge of any of the above. What an utterly ludicrous statement.

Yes, that's it tax those corporations! It's all their fault. If only they'd pay their fair share.

Wait, hang on. They just relocated to Switzerland. What was a few billion in tax now is £0. well done.

I think some people vote tory because they think it makes them posh or a success. From my own observation it is reasonably common amongst working class make good types - often if they have not made good though doing well in business or a long hard slog rather than a degree and a profession.

My mother was very shocked to discover that I did not vote tory as it was a party for "people like me"

Labour are useless and no reward for working hard. Labour give away money the taxpayers contribute to lazy, uneducated scroungers

I don't understand why ANYBODY would vote Tory full stop. After all they have taken away quite a lot from the higher tax bracket so not really the party of the middle classes are they? More the party of the super rich bankers/large corporations.

I vote tory because I want to reduce the size and scope of the state to a minimum. I'm opposed to state intervention into personal, social or economic affairs unless absolutely necessary. I want people to take responsibility for themselves wherever possible.

NuLabour seemed to want to control everything. A million extra public sector workers we didn't need and couldn't afford, stealth taxation with one hand given back by the other hand in "tax credits" etc. Rather than save during periods of economic growth they instead spent even faster allowing the unfunded pension deficit to grow to £3.8bn, the national debt to rise to £1bn.

sorry that should be "£3.8 trillion, the national debt to rise to £1trillion.

I actually heard Clegg say that the recession was due to the banks and sub prime market the other day - he obviously forgot he's supposed to blame Labour.

I think that the constant repetition of 'Labour got us in this mess' actually backs up my point that (most) people who vote Tory do so without understanding their policies, broader politics or the economy. And then, just pick up something they hear that justifies their vote (in their own mind) and repeat it - ad infinitum.

cos they were conned by DC and his cons and lies

Chocolate. To a point he is right. The recession was caused by that. Well triggered is probably a more appropriate word.

However, the spending deficit was NOT caused by the banks & the sub prime market. That was Labour spending vast amounts of money we did not have.

The current austerity measures would have come at some point. The only question was when.

what about Tony and his cons and lies then.

We cannot keep borrowing and spending at this rate.