I voted Conservative, and am happy to admit it - why don't other Tory voters feel the same?

[MillyMolly99]

I voted Conservative, and am delighted with the election result. However no one else seems to admit to being a Tory voter, but there are clearly lots of us around. I told someone at work about my voting preferences - she looked at me as if I'd just killed a puppy.

DH commented that being left-wing is a more fashionable view, even if you don't agree with left-wing politics.

I think he has a point. And I get heartily sick of people who brag about being brought up on a council estate, holding it up as a badge of honour, assuming this gives more weight to their opinions than those of us who come from a different sort of background. It's some weird, inverted snobbery thing.

I totally agree with David Cameron's comments about wanting to ensure a good life for those of us who are prepared to work for it. What's so wrong with that????

I know Betty DH has been in the military 28 years, we've never known anything like it. The amount of stuff DS1 has had to buy (well us) has been ridiculous.

MrsItsNoworNotatAll - I don't believe I should have been allowed to take the mick. I think it enabled me to stagnate, never aspire to anything. I also felt I deserved to be able to sit at home doing sweet FA. How was that helping me?

I am saying that that option shouldn't have been available to me. I don't think the answer is 'well you did it, why shouldn't others', thats not the answer surely?

Quiero - If I accuse the Labour Party of enabling me to be a lazy twat, is that the same as blaming them? I dunno.

Of course I take responsibility and am not longer a lazy twat, the opposite in fact. But only when they took my benefits away.

So if you could claim benefits, hassle free you would choose that over working? Is that what you're saying? Do you think the majority of people think the same as you?

This is not about being bitter it is about the fact the welfare state is about to be torn to shreds and many people are rightly concerned, if not terrified.

That's me that is. If the Tax credits are going to be which looks likely then I'm fucked. I can't do any more hours than I do because there isn't any so I'm fucked.

But hey! Looks like I'll have to get over it won't I.

At the time I did, yes. If that was offered to me again, I would probably say no. I think a lot of people would take benefits, hassle free. I know plenty of people who did.

Oh I agree that there needs to be a way to deter the piss takers Shiny (though I disagree that there are a lot). Maybe harsher punishments for it? But that isn't what's being proposed. The cuts are going to be fairly arbitrary among all those who receive benefits, not just those who need a kick up the arse.

Another poster wondering where Brillo lives in isolation & with no infrastructure. Wonder who she would call if there was a break in at her home (after all she's not benefitting at all from the prison service locking up criminals) or if she had an accident. Wonder where she thinks the money comes from to pay MP's salaries. Wonder whether she takes her own rubbish to a private waste disposal unit, without driving on public roads to get there. Wonder where she buys her groceries from without benefitting from literate & numerate shopworkers, supply chain workers, farmers...
Does she never see a gp? Or have a smear? Mammogram?

I doubt tax credits will go.

What Quiero said.

CupidStunt - I wonder what the ratio is between piss takers and genuine people in need? I think there are a lot more piss takers than you think. Certainly, knowing a fair few myself shapes my view on amounts.

I'm not sure why you're not more pissed off about these people actually. I think it's ok to say that benefits piss taking is wrong, without always being perceived to be saying that cuts across the board is right.

I voted Tory: waves at OP!

Labour always ruin the country. OH and I both work in the public sector and may well be affected adversely - BUT, do you know what, it's not about personal finances, its about philosophy and the bigger picture. Socialism is flawed and ruinous, there will be cuts, they will affect us, but in the long-term, without a thriving economy there can be no increase to public spending at all.

Austerity stifles the growth of the economy

It's a long time since the Labour Party could've been described as socialists

Even if the economy thrives the Tories won't increase public spending. They are ideologically opposed to it. They will just keep the statutory services and even then they will be sold into the Private Sector to allow share holders to profit whilst workers wages and rights are reduced.

Thatcher only ever put money into the Police when she needed them to beat striking miners.

We're higher rate taxpayers and I'm a small business owner and neither of us voted Tory. For us the cost to society was too high.
I'm always astounded and impressed by these hermit off the grid high tax payers who receive nothing from the taxes they pay in.
There is a good quote from Elizabeth Warren on this -
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody. You built a factory out there - good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory... Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea - God bless! Keep a hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

Some outrageous ignorance on this thread.

1. Doesn't it occur to the person claiming that 'lazy fuckers on tax credits' choose to work fewer hours that perhaps the reason those people can't work extra hours at short notice because they have young children for whom there is no other childcare? Because those are the people who will be getting tax credits- people with no kids don't get them for doing 16 hours. Or do you live somewhere very unusual for the UK which has available, flexible round the clock childcare? (If so can you tell us all where the fuck it is, because I'm sure some of those who've struggled with finding adequate childcare would love to move there, even if it is full of tories).

1. Whatever labour government gave income support without question to single parents was out long, long ago- were you a parent in the 80s or something? More recently, the bizzarrely hated Gordon Brown brought in tax credits which were the ONLY funding the UK has made available for childcare for workers on a low income. Without this, many more single parents would be unable to afford to work, because the cost of childcare is equal to or greater than low wage work (and not just min wage). I know I would never have been able to afford to work before my youngest was 5 without this- some of us have always tried to work. I note that you are a Tory- so much for Tories being for "hard working families" if they are supported by people like you, eh?

I always wonder why we view success in terms of monetary gain. You see someone with a flash car and think ooh they must be successful. Being rich is the ultimate goal. Money makes the world go round but I think we are losing sight of the things that really matter. Happiness, being kind, staying well and caring for our beautiful planet.

Those of you worrying about inheritance tax and what you leave your children want to hope there's a semblance of society left and any true moral values and most importantly a bloody planet for them to live on.

Of course people who take the piss out of the system piss me off Shiny. But I don't believe everyone who receives benefits should be punished on their behalf. And despite knowing some myself (who yes, I reported), I still don't believe they're as prevalent as you think. In my opinion, you're either massively overestimating how many people are piss takers or underestimating how many receive benefit. Probably both.

Regardless, I wouldn't agree with raising everyone's income tax by 10% to make up for those who evade or avoid tax, so why is it ok in your eyes to cut the benefits of all who receive it in order to make up for the piss takers?

Cupid - I don't think it's ok to cut benefits for all.

Labour only talk about benefits. They seem to think that the most the working class should aspire to is sitting around watching Jeremy Kyle all day on handouts.

Until Labour reengage with the aspirations of the working class I do not believe they will ever win an election. They have abandoned being the party of the working poor to be the party of people on benefits. And there simply aren't enough of them, BME, public sector workers and guilty wealthy people for them to win an election without regaining a lot of the working class vote. Particularly that which went to UKIP.

My first post on this thread was this:-

I voted Tory.

We both work, OH is in currently working two jobs and I work part time in the retail sector. I have to grit my teeth when customers use the phrase "thought I would treat myself as I have been paid today" and when I ask where they work they say "oh no, I mean my benefits went in today".

It is so totally wrong. I want benefits to go the genuinely needy, not these effing lazy parasites..

To all those who have commented on this, can I say that benefits were designed for those in most dire need. If you can afford to come into my shop and spend over £300 on clothes for yourself then something is clearly wrong.

Don't even get me started on the fact she referred to it as "payday".

Then why start talking about people who take the piss out of the benefits system (the way you did) in response to people talking about benefit cuts?

eenie, even people on benefits need clothes. You're making an awful lot of judgements about this woman based on the fact that she receives benefits and buys clothes.

I bought some clothes last week. I'm on benefits. You now know as much about me as you did about that customer. Am I a lazy effing parasite?