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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have zero sympathy for this woman

836 replies

wasonthelist · 16/10/2015 13:25

The tearful woman on BBC Question Time claims to have been a Tory voter. She's reaping what she sows.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hame-you-hardworking-mums-tearful-6643284

OP posts:
Original poster
wasonthelist · 16/10/2015 13:51

Where did people think £12 billion in cuts (which the Tories did promise) was going to come from - Trident?

Btw I am not saying no other party's ever told a lie, but this was pretty clearly coming.

OP posts:
PurpleDaisies · 16/10/2015 13:53

Surely there's a point where people need to link up how they voted to what's happened?

She did not vote for this tax credit cut. It was not in the manifesto. Yes, fair enough if she was moaning about something we knew about before the election but that's not the case.

hettie · 16/10/2015 13:54

I do have sympathy for her as her situation sounds tough... but it's simply not true that she (or anyone) was lied to. The tax credit cut cannot come as a shock- they were very clear that were going to cut 12 billion from the welfare budget in fact it was an election pledge. Although they refused to explicitly lay out how those cuts were going to fall they were very clear that they were going to make them. It is very very clear to make those kind of cuts they would be cutting every aspect of welfare including tax credits- how could they not?

catfordbetty · 16/10/2015 13:56

OP, I am with you. Some holier than thou responses here.

multivac · 16/10/2015 13:57

Yes, fair enough if she was moaning about something we knew about before the election but that's not the case

See, this is why people are struggling with the sympathy issue. She's 'moaning' (or, more accurately, is shocked, humiliated and fearful) about something she knew was going to happen to other people as a result of her voting choice. But when she and her family weren't going to be affected, that wasn't a problem.

BarbarianMum · 16/10/2015 13:57
AmarettoSour · 16/10/2015 13:59

She was okay with other peoples' benefits being cut

This with bells on.

yorkshapudding · 16/10/2015 14:00

So I suppose you've never made a mistake? She did what she thought was right at the time. Clearly she was wrong but it's pretty big of her to go on TV and admit that. They promised they wouldn't cut tax credits and she believed them. Yes, she was naive, but there are worse things than being being naive and she's clearly paying a heavy price. If you're so smug and self-righteous that you can't spare a bit of empathy for someone who works hard and is still struggling to provide for their children then it says more about you than it does about her. I am a Labour supporter and utterly despise the current government but I can't understand the attitude that this woman "deserves" to suffer because she naively voted for them in good faith and has been let down.

PacificMouse · 16/10/2015 14:01

They did say they would cut spending though. Where did the voters think it would come from?
DC had already started to cut benefits etc... so him chosing to do that again isn't a great surprise is it?

I feel sorry for her because, like a lot of other people, she wasn't able to read between the lines.
There is nothing surprising in what he did. looking at his record and his general sance, its clear that that's where it was heading. But a lotof people chose to forget that and believe the election PR effort (ie we will say things that we want to do in a way that is a palatable for you so you are voting for us even though you don't want what we are actually going to do).

I do think though that she can't complain about it. She did vote for him.

brokenhearted55a · 16/10/2015 14:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

multivac · 16/10/2015 14:02

She was only wrong, in how Tory cuts were going to affect her. It's a bit rich berating posters here for lacking empathy, really.

LieselVonTwat · 16/10/2015 14:02

I feel for her and in particular for her children. I also reserve the right to feel irritated with her and others like her for being so stupid. As pointed out upthread, cutting 12 billion from the welfare budget was an election pledge. It was very obvious which way the wind was going to blow. If she and others in the same situation had applied a modicum of sense, maybe we wouldn't be stuck with this fucking shower for the next five years.

multivac · 16/10/2015 14:03

brokenhearted Don't assume that everyone who doesn't vote Tory is a Labour supporter. That's a very narrow view of politics.

PacificMouse · 16/10/2015 14:04

Maybe the issue there is the fact that people don't always have the knowledge necessary to read between the lines, to go further than the few well thought out messages that the candidates are giving to go further and actually read the manifesto or wonder if what they say makes sense or to see gaps when they say one thing and let you believe another etc...

lostincumbria · 16/10/2015 14:06

I feel sorry for her - I hate that people are in her situation.

Can we separate the manifesto and what was stated by David Cameron though. He said they wouldn't cut tax credits.

The manifesto said £12bn in cuts from the welfare budget.

He lied, but where did people think the cuts were coming from? Pensions?

multivac · 16/10/2015 14:06

PM Yes, that is part of it.
But again, she didn't need to 'read between the lines', or get past the PR, to know what was going to happen - and indeed, was already happening.... to other people.

Sallystyle · 16/10/2015 14:07

Quite a few people in the debates on here wondered how someone who voted Tory would feel when their benefits were cut.

Well this is the answer.

She voted knowing that other's benefits would be cut and that was fine, as long as it didn't hurt her.

But it's not ok now it affects her?

I feel sorry for anyone who is facing tough times but she was deluded to think they wouldn't cut tax credits and my sympathy lessens a little that she was happy for other benefits to be cut and for others to struggle.

How could anyone think that tax credits were safe? Most of us knew it was coming.

lostincumbria · 16/10/2015 14:08

This from Private Eye a few weeks ago sums it up:

To have zero sympathy for this woman
BarbarianMum · 16/10/2015 14:09

Forget this 'reading between the lines' stuff. Cutting welfare was a central tenet of the Tory's election manifesto, not a bloody footnote. And she was absolutely fine about that when it meant cutting benefits to the sick and disabled and other such "undeserving" people.

Original poster
wasonthelist · 16/10/2015 14:10

A lot of extrapolation, assumptions, name calling and accusations of stuff I never said.

I asked if IWBU not to have sympathy for this woman.

I didn't say

I have never made a mistake.
Labour (or any other party) would lead us all to utopia, immediately.

I didn't villify the woman, or incite anyone else to.

OP posts:
brokenhearted55a · 16/10/2015 14:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PacificMouse · 16/10/2015 14:11

Yes maybe I'm too nice to say that she didn't realise and didn't 'know' it would happen to her too...

PacificMouse · 16/10/2015 14:12

Broken but I also doubt that people voting Laboour would do so because they think that they will solve all the world poverty either.....

multivac · 16/10/2015 14:14

So don't post silly rhetorical questions and then call others 'naive' because of the answers you've merely imagined, broken...

hiddenhome2 · 16/10/2015 14:14

Stop back-pedalling OP. You expected everyone to come onto this thread for a super gloatfest Hmm

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