To think that if you voted Conservative you won't admit to it?

[Jjcrackers]

My Facebook thread is chocca-block with 'anti Conservative'/country ruined/heath to the NHS' posts. Yet nobody has piped up to cheer that the Conservatives are winning.

AIBU to think that with such a majority, probabilities would suggest that a large proportion of my friends (in the loosest sense of the word)voted conservative but are sitting on their hands?

Thank you Bub, I feel strangely angry this morning and should have stayed of the fuck fuck fuck fuck thread (couldn't resist that teaser) but I think it is about pragmatism, not moral-high-ground point scoring and getting the country run with 2+2=4, not 'what would you like it to be?'

Yes - the hatred, the bile, the vitriol at people who simply put a cross in a different box. And the baby killing nonsensical hyperbole posted across this site. It's hysterical. Utterly, hysterical.

And no,the Tories here can never win because whatever they post, no matter how sane and objective , it will be used against them to accuse them of being a smug rich, bastard or as evidence that they are heartless.

No one predicted the election outcome because good, decent people stayed silent and quietly voted to avoid the bile , the bullying and the abuse they were seeing heaped upon those who did speak up.

MN admin - I would advise you to look very very closely at what some of your members are saying and how they are behaving or it may bite you on the arse too. This is an amazing website but some of the posts today are shameful.

I'm a disappointed labour voter but the point of a free vote is that you get to choose who you like even if I disagree with you. My best friend always votes Tory we have some heated debates over a bottle of wine about policy but I'd never question her character as a person because of her political leanings. No- one should have to keep quiet because of fears of abuse.

And now it's raining....

IMO, most people want the same thing: NHS, education, public services etc etc. Yet they differ about how to go about it... I could talk about these things all night with friends of all different political persuasions, but I doubt we'd end up calling each other cunts, we'd just drag out the details over infinite glasses of wine until someone won the odd point or two, or we agreed to disagree, or we'd move on to something far more interesting.

And yes, I did vote Conservative, not entirely happily but the best option I could see. If asked, I would admit to it but I dont feel the need to shout about it either.

gamer - absolutely. I love my friends for who they are, not the colour of their vote.

I wonder if it will be discussed at pick-up later, one mum complained last week she had no Green to vote for and I had to bite my tongue. I don't want to fall out with anyone but I don't dissemble very well and no, I don't think the sky is going to fall down the NHS is doomed.

oops, strikeout fail

I voted for the conservatives and so did my DH but we both agreed we wouldn't share that we did on FB as we couldn't face the nastiness that we would inevitably receive from so called friends on our political choices.

This is the first thread on here that I have felt happy to post my voting choice without feeling at risk of being called selfish, ignorant etc.

There are a lot of sensible and honest posts on this thread which is refreshing to see after the last few weeks

Yy kitty

I voted Tory yesterday for the first time in my life. I understood that we lived in a democratic country but many people on Mumsnet don't seem to have grasped that fact.

I use social media for the purpose it was invented. To catch up with friends/share photos etc. Not to spout my political views. Therefore noone on my Facebook friends list would have any idea how I voted.

Oh and I tend to unfollow anyone who uses Facebook as a political platform, regardless of who they vote for.

I voted conservative.
There were a few things that solidified my opinion, but Ed saying that he didn't think they had overspent last time was a big worry.

I am not comfortable with some conservative policies however on balance I think they were the best option.

There's a term for the delusion that you can show how "good" you are by loudly proclaiming how much you hate certain things: "Virtue signalling". See it all the time on mumsnet. "I hate the Tories". "Ukip are the spawn of the devil" etc etc.

"It’s noticeable how often virtue signalling consists of saying you hate things. It is camouflage. The emphasis on hate distracts from the fact you are really saying how good you are. If you were frank and said, ‘I care about the environment more than most people do’ or ‘I care about the poor more than others’, your vanity and self-aggrandisement would be obvious, {...}. Anger and outrage disguise your boastfulness...

...No one actually has to do anything. Virtue comes from mere words or even from silently held beliefs. There was a time in the distant past when people thought you could only be virtuous by doing things: by helping the blind man across the road; looking after your elderly parents instead of dumping them in a home; staying in a not-wholly-perfect marriage for the sake of the children. These things involve effort and self-sacrifice. That sounds hard! Much more convenient to achieve virtue by expressing hatred of those who think the health service could be improved by introducing competition."

www.spectator.co.uk/features/9501282/hating-the-daily-mail-is-a-substitute-for-doing-good/

Ironically, if you voted for the Green Party, you just wasted a piece of paper.

'Virtue signalling' - yes, I like that, along with 'Catastrophising' which I've just read elsewhere.

I live in Wales which has been Labour run for a while now, and the NHS doesn't seem to be better off and the school Pisa scores are behind England. Things may get better, they may get worse, most of us voted hopefully on the balance of probabilities.

I live in a safe Labour seat (I think, haven't checked to see if the local incumbent has had his Portillo Moment yet...) but have no plans to brick the windows of those who saddled me with the bone headed time-server...

I voted Tory. Labour are economically illiterate. So I'm happy to admit it. But I don't think I'll be joining in the FB discussion where a friend of mine is saying that everyone who voted Tory is a "fucking numbskull" - have the grace to be a good loser and not resort to then language of the gutter.

I don't talk about my political views in my real name as I work in local government, might as well hand my notice in! You can't be seen to be political when you're working with MPs or Local Councillors for that matter...

Sorry to jump in late, I did not read the whole of the discussion above. Just a contribution to the theme:

I don't believe for a second that people who voted Tory are keeping quiet because they are afraid of unfair criticism. All kinds of political organisations - feminists, LGBT, animal rights, etc. - get loads of vitriol and that does not shut them up. Tory voters are keeping quiet because most of them understand very well that the criticism directed at them is in fact fair. They know full well that they are voting for more food banks, fewer women's shelters, more homelessness, the bedroom tax, selling off the NHS and higher education, and appalling treatment of asylum seekers. Who would want to publicise this?

Woah, my safe Labour seat has just turned Tory, my vote actually counted, go Democracy!

I voted Conservative and I put it on FB, despite all of the Ukippers protesting about it!

Yes. If you 'virtue signal', you seem to be able to be an absolute bastard in everyday life. Agree with every word of that Spectator article.

I voted SNP