To not understand why people hate David Cameron and the Conservative Party?

[SuperWifeANDMum]

Just that really.

I am a Conservative voter.

PM Cameron has disappointed me in some ways such as his lax approach to curbing immigration, deporting foreign criminals and addressing the alarming benefit culture but he has implemented a fair few positive changes.

For example:

Reducing our Debt.
Introducing Bedroom Tax.
Cutting corporation tax.
Frozen Council Tax.

Of you vote labour, why?

I am deeply concerned at the thought of another Labour government next election.

MrSheen I should never have put 'alarming benefit culture' in my OP what I actually meant was I don't agree with people claiming benefits who actually don't need it or who commit benefit fraud.

I absolutely agree that those most in need should not have any benefits cuts and I am astounded at how harsh and aggressive these cuts are.

Reading David's story made me incredibly upset but also after telling my mum etc I realised how little this kind of thing is reported. We need a change in the current benefit system and need a system that supports those most in need. Not more cuts and hoops to jump through.

In regards to bedroom tax, I still support the idea but it cannot be executed correctly so I think the government needs to scrap it.

Ten years of both parties and I despair of both.

Labour spent too much and Conservatives let corporations and high paid individuals avoid and or reduce their tax as well as well as screw us through privatised industries who are not efficient or cost less.

Immigration wise unskilled and semi skilled people shouldn't be allowed into the country - end of. I am happy for uniquely skilled individuals to come to help UK PLC to win work on the global stage.

Utilities need to be nationalized like yesterday, it is not stable for the country to be reliant on foreign companies to be responsible for something so important.

I have no party to vote for in the next election.

LurkingHusband thank you, After what I have learned from this thread next election will be the year I properly look into all parties and research properly about the policies they want to implement and not just voting the same as my husband and family.

Thanks again to all who have posted you really have made me question things I would never have questioned before.

good grief op, are you really that naive then? does it take MN to make you realise what goes on in this country?

sheesh

SuperWifeANDMum

The scary thing is there are so many people who can't see what they can't see (IYSWIM). The mainstream media hides it from them, as it's in their interests. More money.

Just remember, you live in an age of instant communication. Of undreamed of access to information. And yet you knew so little.

There's a reason we are drowning in cat videos, and can't read about the X factor, because there's a scandal on Bake off, whilst Strictly is moving on without Brucie, to set up a one-off special with the guys off Jeremy Kyle. And that reason is by flooding us with crap, we can't see the truth. It's called signal to noise. More noise makes it harder to hear the signal.

And that is deliberate.

ssd

In the scale of things, the OP was actually quite well informed and educated. You'd be mortified if you realised how little the average voter - of any persuasion - knows.

I think for me what sums it up best is what Stuart Lee said a while back:

"You do feel an awareness of … luck. Which is why I'm surprised that [Michael] Gove can be so certain about things, because he is adopted and he was parachuted down into a degree of relative opportunity, like I was. In a period when there was a degree of social mobility that there isn't now… it makes me think how lucky [I am]. Seems to make Gove think he's worked hard and deserves the position he's in."

Tory voters, ime, lack the insight/empathy to appreciate "there, but for the grace of God, go I"... they feel they 'deserve' to look down on those less fortunate, who have somehow brought it on themselves, rather than appreciating that lives and circumstance can turn on a sixpence - particularly when you don't have the cushion of "family money" behind you. The Tory "divide and conquer" tactics have nicely turned attention at looking for "benefits scroungers" and away from looking at tax-dodging companies and rich mates who quietly shuffle donations into their party coffers.

ssd I had no idea at all that people were dying because of way the benefit system is managed. I have already said I was naive. I have mentioned the David Clapson story to members of my family today and do you know what is ironic? We fundraise and donate heavily to armed forces charities yet not one of us knew of David, who was an ex soldier and how he died in such a cruel and un dignified way.

LurkingHusband I think you are probably right. I am so shocked at how little I knew and yet I thought I was pretty much clued up on politics.

OP, how can you vote for ANY party without knowing why people vote against it? Likewise, how can you decide NOT to vote for a party without knowing why people vote for it.

It's terrifying, and mind boggling, that you have literally not a clue about the other side, what they think and why. I haven't RTFT, but really how could you reason yourself into your position with that lack of understanding?

On any subject I'm truly passionate about, you had better believe I know the other side's arguments and beliefs almost as well as I know my own.

Oh dear, OP - looks like you were writing your last comment as I was writing mine so I didn't see it! Sorry

MsAnthropic Good for you. As I have previously posted I only ever really voted for what suited me and also rather embarrassingly just voted the same as my husband and friends.

MsAnthropic Cross post. That's ok I'm actually very ashamed.

Don't be ashamed; you asked the questions and you've clearly listened and taken other views on board with good grace.

MsAnthropic thank you. I am just so surprised that things that I have read from people's posts are not front page news. I read newspapers everyday and I never once read about David Clapson.

Probably depends on what you read.. maybe buy different newspapers and see how their contents and attitudes differ.

When I first came to this country I thought that the press here was by and large impartial/objective (like it is at home in Scandi, where papers are regional, but otherwise have pretty much the same views and content), so would just buy any newspaper I fancied the look of at the time. Well, I soon learned..

Are you on Twitter, OP?

Benefits lifestyle claims are bunkum

Has anyone mentioned DC's miraculous effect on 'the mess inherited from the previous government'?

Apart from his politics (already mentioned by others here), I dislike his manners. He is rude and sexist on air and in parliament to certain women MPS. He is arrogant and imperious.

And this REALLY gets on my wick. He is often see pointing in photos - in my geeky moments I've done a private survey . And it is very rare for him to be photographed at some public event NOT pointing. Either at a person or at a thing. Last year in the floods in SW England he was on a beach, in very poor visibility, pointing at something in the dim distance. Nobody else was looking! Even this week on his visit to Scottish Widows in Edinburgh, he was photographed pointing at somebody in the audience. Last year when on holidays with Sam in Portugal he was photographed at a market pointing at a dead fish. I can't work out if it's just that he points a lot so there are few other photos or that lots of photographers dislike him and his politics so much that they want him to look like an utter dick so will print as many photos of him as possible where he looks silly.

P.S. I have never voted Tory. I did vote ONCE for a Liberal councillor - so long ago it really was the Liberal Party. Otherwise these people have never spoken for me about the issues that trouble me.

Yes, I see 'that Labour did leave a mess shit' has been mentioned already.

WooWooOwl - but middle aged working parents of adult children are the least likely people to be claiming housing benefit, so they're the group not as affected by the charge anyway.

It hits young families more than anyone else as they're the ones that suddenly have too many bedrooms because young children could be sharing a room.

It's everything.

They think we have forgotten about the expenses scandle (which is still going on by the way) which affects all of them. This is without Operation Yewtree and their findings so far...Atos, IDS and his failed computer system that has been scrapped and the new one already noted as not fit for purpose...his flagship scheme costing well over £20,000 per claim, zero hour contracts, employers rights to sack you within the first two years of you working for them for no reason, legal aid pretty much abolished, the student loan betrayal, the arrogance of DC saying that he DESERVES 3 holidays a year and the rest of us just have to lump it, ...the list is endless with this lot. It's fairly safe to say, everything, EVERYTHING they have tried to do has turned out to be a complete disaster.

I wouldn't trust any of them to run a bath, let alone a country. Clueless, utterly, utterly clueless.

dawndonna - interviews conducted with 10 families is hardly a conclusive study.

Did David Cameron say he deserves 3 holidays a year and everyone else can lump it? Really?

Tabulahrasa, I don't really see your point.

If the new amendment goes through, which it probably will, (and I hope it does) people will still get enough housing benefit to cover their extra, unneeded bedrooms if they cannot be found a smaller home.

If the young families choose to stay where they are and not have their children sharing rooms, then it's up to them to pay the full rent themselves.

That is perfectly fair and right.

I wasn't really talking about working parents of adult children, except to say that adult children will move out, meaning that the parents can downsize, or if they don't want to, pay for their extra rooms themselves.

"In 2012, Mr Cameron said he was a ‘great believer’ in politicians taking holidays. He added: ‘If you don’t think politicians ought to have holidays, I think you need to have a serious think.’

He was quotes saying this as he was on his 15th holiday since he came into power.

No one says they can't have holidays, but to think you deserve them, all of them while you should be doing YOUR JOB. Is taking the piss in anyones book.