what is fascinating about the tories is their will to blindly follow policies that destabilise our country, put it at odds with European business culture, and further social destruction - whilst still claiming to believe in 'family values'.
Swathes of the UK whose families and relationships were blown apart by the poverty induced by the Thatcher government (where the same industries that were 'in decline (read 'asset stripped') were not in Europe) Thatcher was agressive, she was naive and an anti-working class snob, but obviously didn't understand the links between poverty, lack of opportunity and disenfranchisement and social breakdown, rising crime rates, drug and other illegal trading, more burglary and crimes against property, more domestic abuse, greater consumption of (abuse level) drinking, increased anti-social behaviour, poor schooling and educational inclusion, higher interest rates, weak and dangerous investments, increased depression and other mental health problems, resentment, resignation and anti-establishment apathy (or to put it another way, if people don't see any point in anything, why should they work hard for someone else to make the money).
These are the consequences of a selfish society, where people who are too poor to help themselves get insular and then do not help their fellow man - this is how we used to be as a country under the conservatives, and we have many legacies to look forward to, including the failure of the big society idea. The old style (and now the new style) tories don't care... well until the higher crime rate begins to affect those with property - and then we get the usual rabid right wing home secretary wanting to punish the poor more for doing what the weeathy are doing with accountants, taking more than the laws will allow - the difference being that the poor are doing it because they have one life and are desparate with all that's stacked against them to make something interesting or mroe wealthy out of it as a result and keep failing because their crime options are more overt.
I have worked for people with senior salaries who use their position to fiddle expenses (not politicians, civil servants), buy computers for themselves, get their friends public contracts etc, which might mean at most a breach of employment contract (but is acttually often just 'clamped down upon' with no punishment) yet if a poor person shoplifts to sell for food or a night out or to pay council tax (as happened to a person I know), imprisonment is a possibility.
We have had several years, yes of cost, but also of investment in so many areas of public life - I live in a 'fringe' area that has slowly and imperfectly, yes, but has moved from being an area that was 'colourful' i.e people fighting in the street on occasion, sometimes a threatening atmosphere, some pettyh crime, some serious crime to being an area with hardly any of the above, even without incomes going up or gentrification, as well as the poorer blinkingly starting to trust measures to get them into top universities, to trust that opportunities, careers advice, better healthcare, regeneration projects etc were actually aimed at them - right as these inititiatives get momentum, the tories shut them down and reverse them - because they are on an entirely different mission.
let's be clear, when conservatives hear that there is a wave of intelligent, well-informed, socially supportive, passionate and communicative, educated working class, lower and mid middle-class people on a path to swamp professional and political society, they get very, very threatened and take measures to push the tide back
If we use an alternative analogy, tories are like a small cell of people protecting a large pot of gold - the number of people who go through public school each year are smaller than the number of those on Unemployment Benefit