To ask those who voted for the conservatives ....

[ginorwine]

Reading the threads here there is much criticism about conservative policy .
A lot of people must have voted for them .
Where are they on mums net ?
And on threads such as those re the w t c cuts are they not representing their views as it was clear this would happen ?
I can tell that they may be slated but surley differing views can be expressed so long as it doesn't get nasty - a know that feeling run high but surley ppl can do so .
So to Tory voters -is it how you anticipated .what are your views ?

Under the Tories not the stories. Although stories is quite apt.

Quite a few apparent Tory voters were taking great delight in posting how they would quaff champagne while some people were actually posting that they felt suicidal with worry over what would happen to their families under a Tory Government. Those posters did indeed deserve some of the harsh names they were called.

Another thing you see on MN a lot - Labour voters who vote against the party that would be best for them are doing so for high moral reasons, or because they think Labour's manifesto is the best way for the economy/country to be run, even if it's not in their own short term interests. Conservative voters who are voting for a party that's not going to run things in their best interests are stupid, didn't realise what the Tories would do, have been fooled.

othe Oh actually I did meet one tory voter while canvassing...

Living in the biggest house in the area, said he was traditionally Tory but that he might not even vote for the Tories this time because they had gotten so off track...worrying about the economy all the time when what people really REALLY wanted was a return to the death sentence. "I mean why not hold a referendum? It would sail through"

We all just stood there like .

So I guess on my sample of one...Tory voters are in fact actually sadistic!

exit I live in the NE and work in a university...the tory voters are sufficiently in the minority that even if they do exist they never mention it....

helmet you could say that, but I certainly haven't and wouldn't.

Not ALL people who voted Conservative. But quite a few IMO.

Quite a few Labour voters could be tarred with that brush too. A lot of people in the North know nothing about politics but always vote for Labour because they were told a very simplistic 1940s version of politics which said that was who to vote for so they do. They say you could put a Labour rosette on a pig up here and people would vote for it which I suppose is better than sticking your cock in it. For example Labour covered up the abuse of 1,400 children in Rotherham but still got elected. I worked with a girl who voted Labour in the last election because she thought they'd been in government for the previous five years and things had got better. Even when told they hadn't been she still said she had to vote Labour or 'my Mum will kill me.' And the ardent Corbynite my husband works with who is such a passionate tax avoider he claims tax back on everything right down to his wife's birthday card but can't see that conflicts with being a Corbynite!

Yes I agree Boo

However the Tories have the biggest hold over the media, to a scary degree.which swings it.

Malice - exactly. I fear the Tories' nerve would have failed too but whoever did it, it's a scandal.

On the subject of not knowing any Tories, apparently political debate is generally becoming more polarised. There's this idea that the Internet exposes us to more diverse views but the evidence is that in fact the reverse is true: people use the Internet to find others who think like them and become more hostile to those who don't.

I think the phenomenon of left-wing hatred of opposing views is also interesting and concerning, not least because it's bad for the Left. I think it privileges a warm feeling of tribal belonging and moral superiority over actual persuasive political campaigning for meaningful change, in a way that's counterproductive for the stated goals of the left. Or to put it another way, the self-righteous tub-thumping preaches to the converted and just irritates everyone else. Not a great recipe for building a broad coalition. I doubt any swing voters were inspired to support Labour by the sight of people spitting and screaming abuse outside the Tory conference.

boo that is the single most annoying thing about the NE mind set. Labour has been very VERY close to the Tory position for years and years. Yet people who are through and through socialists are still voting for them. We were on doorsteps saying, what about voting for left wing policies...like anti austerity...or free education....and everyone was just 'that's why we vote labour' as if the feckers hadn't introduced tuition fees in the first place...

Ice - I assume you were canvassing for Labour? It sounds to me like you got trolled

Aye that's Northerners for you.

Thick as shit.

Don't want to derail the thread, but there's a school of thought that says tuition fees are actually fairer and a more effective way of supporting poor kids into tertiary education, whereas free university education is basically a subsidy for the middle class. Certainly the participation rates of the poorest in university is growing far faster in England than in Scotland. Some have argued that this is because Scotland largely scrapped means-tested maintenance grants to fund free university places, whereas a large proportion of tuition fees is set aside to support the poorest in England.

Maybe the people shouting outside the Tory conference were getting shafted by the cuts and facing real poverty?

I believe talk of left wing rhetoric and aggression is just a handy way to shut down people's opposition to right wing views before they can even say anything. Especially talk of it when it isn't even happening on the thread.

I voted tory reluctantly as the best of a bad bunch. Honestly my family was treated badly by labour in the 1990s when I lived with my parents and my df was made redundant so I fail to see them as a party for the poor. My experience is that's all talk with nice ideals but no action.
Re tax credit cuts: currently after bills, food, petrol, dcs clubs and paying a cleaner once a fortnight dh and I are able to save between £800 and £1000 each month yet due to having 3 dc we are entitled to claim £250 a month tax credits. That seems crazy to me and I think we will lose it with the cuts but I can't object as it doesn't seem right we get that much. I'm fairly frugal but not that much!
Until the cuts come in it is impossible to see the affect and the reality. I think the biggest thing that would help families would be to help people get mortgages as they are so much cheaper than private rent. Stricter rules on rents also makes sense. Landlords should be able to make a profit but a "reasonable" profit rather than pricing families out of housing. Not sure how that can be enforced though.

othe as my intervening posts will show I certainly wasn't canvassing for labour...nobody would bother doing that in my constituency....in fact people told us repeatedly we were the only people who had called round at all.

exit what other word is there for someone who votes for a centre right party, that ties itself in knots refusing to admit any left wing tendencies on the basis that they are socialist?
We spoke to a lot of labour voters who had no idea that the labour party was pledging to continue with austerity once in power.

In fact that's quite a good example of left and right having equally strong concerns about the same issues but very different ideas about the best way to address them. It's this fact that gets obscured by the simplistic 'Tories are rich and selfish' stuff.

Fanjo - not sure if you were aware of this but one young woman attending that conference was followed by a protester and threatened with rape. Do you think that's justified because he might have been affected by the cuts?

Yes boo, as Churchill famously said "the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter," - like my Portuguese UKIP-voting neighbour for instance.

Politically naive people exist everywhere and on both sides. At least on mn you can actually engage with people who know know a thing or two about the world of politics - whether you agree with them or not. I think it's such a shame that more people have zero knowledge or interest frankly. I'm all for impassioned debate because it shows that people care. Perhaps we should be concentrating instead on why turnouts are so poor and voter apathy is so prevalent. I am hoping that, loves him or loath him, Corbyn will inject some interest and passion back into politics. People were sick of seeing parties clamouring for the middle ground.

Incidentally, where I live it's Conservative heartland, interspersed with pockets of agricultural UKIP-ness. Most will tell you it's the way their parents and grandparents voted so it's the way they will too. Political Ignorance is everywhere.

'reasonable profit' doesn't seem to be a valid concept in free market capitalism....

Personally I would make owning more than say, 2, houses illegal. That would sort out the 'affordable housing' issue sharpish.

A LOT of people would go into negative equity...but they could still live in an actual house...which is the main point of a house...surely?

I really don't get how the likes of Ed Miliband and Ed balls get away with slagging off 'rich tories' it's so ridiculous and hypocritical and they don't even see it. Then they wonder why the majority vote didn't go to them.

In regards to the situation with Nicola sturgeon saying labour would work with the SNP. I believe Ed milliband would have. Most people believed he would have snapped at any chance to be PM.

I think a lot of Mumsnetters are Liberals/Labour supporters OP. I've certainly found that during my years on here (that's why I feel at home). What makes you think it's a Right Wing site? I can't really see anything to support that view and I've been a lurker and member for years.

I voted LibDem (one of the few!) and always have. Not sure who I'd vote for in future but LibDem more than likely.

I noticed a lot of support on Facebook locally for the Tories and I think that came about through self interest and wanting to be associated with prosperity and 'getting on' in life. A lot of my FB friends live in a poor, rural area but are aspirational iyswim. They see the people in the next county (Tory area) living the high life and think if they vote Tory, that's what they'll become, without having any real knowledge of those people and how they came to be in that particular social strata. I also think that Labour had a dreadful campaign which frightened people and made them equate a Labour Government with a bankrupt country.

I can tell that they may be slated but surley differing views can be expressed so long as it doesn't get nasty

But it always does get nasty. Always.

I don't see how labour could have worked with SNP. They were opposed on almost every single policy.

A grand coalition would have been a better plan...especially since you needed a surgical knife to separate the policies of Labour and Tory in May.

They could just have split the difference and gone for it.

Othe what do you think?

Won't even dignify that with an answer.

I'm sure there have been wrongs from the other side too.