AIBU to not understand why "normal" people vote Tory?

[olddogsnewtricks]

OK, so I'll probably get flamed for this but am genuinely interested! All the people I know who vote Tory are pretty well off so use private schools and healthcare. As a family we need the NHS and we need a good education system - and I can't see them getting any better under the Tories. Are these just not priorities for Tory voters or do they really believe they will improve even with a Conservative government?

So from 20+ responses we've had political ignorance, and calling them borderline sociopaths...nice and people wonder why Tory voters aren't willing to engage in these type of discussions

Yes, many left wingers may be politically ignorant but at least in their ignoranice they are not voting for policies that will be directly harmful to them.

I think the OP means normal, as in, not wealthy with private health care/ schools etc

most people's priorities are what affects their lives. People without children don't always care about education, others may know people who took the piss re benefits back in the day (even
though lots of people on here deny there was ever such a thing) etc.

And I think it's to do with 'I look after me, you look after you' kind of thinking

Of course your 'just interested' not stirring at all ?
its a democratic society (at the moment anyway) and everyone is entitled to vote for who they want, and why should anyone tell anyone else who and why they voted

Me neither. They make it pretty obvious that they only care about wealthy people, they may as well hold up a banner saying 'we hate the disabled, carers, the NHS, comprehensive schools and low income families.' And yet people still think of them as being better for the country as a whole than the other parties.
I think maybe it's sometimes an aspirational vote. As in, 'it's who you vote for if you're doing alright, Labour is for poor people', and they'd rather vote Tory because they will enable you to keep more of what you earn without having to pay for those pesky people who need more support from the government and society.

2. They are borderline sociopaths and believe that all disabled people, chronically ill people and those on benefits, are scroungers and would be better off dead (obviously not talking about all Tory voters here, but this counts for the majority of my family, and yes they are sociopaths who care not a jot for those poor unfortunates who are stupid enough to be struggling).
That's what I feel tory voters are. Tories are a nasty party.

Many people vote Tory because they believe that they are the party to be trusted with the economy. Not all Tories are anti-NHS austerity nuts. The moderate Tories are not too bad, but unfortunately the hard right fringes are steering things at the moment. .
A healthy economy benefits those on lower incomes as well as the wealthy.

However with the Brexit fiasco I don't think they can credibly claim to be the party of the economy ever again.

somewhere - this thread is obviously for people who do want to discuss it. It's not an interrogation. If you don't want to discuss it, why not just stay off the thread?

Yes, many left wingers may be politically ignorant but at least in their ignoranice they are not voting for policies that will be directly harmful to them

So you're saying that left wingers are the ones that vote in their own self interest, considering that's what's flung at Tory voters. I'm alright jack or whatever the BS saying is indeed.

Labour are such a divided party they have no chance of winning a General Election which is precisely why Theresa May has called a snap election.

Louiseville, I mentioned sociopaths, in relation to people I personally know. People who would appear to have average incomes, children at state schools.
I'm certainly not calling all Tory voters sociopaths.

I would imagine political ignorance would fit the bill for many voters no matter which party they are voting for.

Because most of us are probably sick of the politics of envy and the endless number of people over 13 years of labour rule who increasingly expected other people to look out for them.

Who, like me, came from an inner city back ground and managed to do well despite the surroundings and know its is possible but too many of the kids I went to school with were too interested in being cool than doing well and so left school pregnant with no qualifications. But would now like me to give up over half my earned income (if they had their way) in order to provide for them when they weren't willing to put in the graft.

Those who see that equality of opportunity does not and should not mean equality of achievement which can never be possible unless you want communism.

Why are people taking offence at the question. Op is asking what policies appeal?
I haven't voted Conservative but some of their policies appeal.
I have a friend who voted for them because of the increased in threshold for inheritance tax and because of their 30hrs childcare policy.

I love the way people call Tory voters 'thick' when the irony is most of them will have had a better education and have a better standard of living than the average Labour voter

Did you ever think maybe it's because they generally are fed up of people abusing the system, don't really sympathise with the left wing (let's be honest, Labour are anything but centre) and the Tories are filling the gap?

When you forget the jam's for so long they get pissed off. They were so pissed off they voted Tory and then for Brexit. Labour shouldn't have let it get to that point.

Libdems will probably become a major party again. Labour will be going down the shitter, as they have been since Blair.

OP, i'd love to be able to stand at the Polling station and ask the same question.

Especially of the people who've lived in 80's Liverpool, or whose Parents did.

There's a level of "i'm alright Jack" about a few that I know.

Because mama these kind of questions always become a slagging match against Tory voters

Generally speaking I am in favour of a small state.

I also feel Blair caused more damage than Thatcher (not that I feel she caused no damage) and I will consequently never vote Labour again.

Mama

I don't give these out but OP, here's a for your goadiness

There were a few threads like these after the last GE.

And they all ended up with some posters just slagging off Tories as thick, nasty, uncaring etc.

MN is however less of a lefty echo chamber than it was.

If you are genuinely interested in the question, then there's lots of information about Tory policies available and the ethos that underpins them. And a political debate might follow. But if the start point is to be the demonisation of a different viewpoint, then it's more likely to just end up as Two Minute's Hate.

Political ignorance is a very good way of putting it. It isn't that people are ignorant per se, rather the ignorance is about not understanding the finer detail or how it works in reality. Kind of like people voting Brexit because they believed money would be freed up for the NHS - if you are clued up politically you know it simply couldn't work like that.

I am in my 40s. These last few years have been the first time that I felt my vote actually matters, that it could make a difference. The political reality in the U.K. for many years has been that most people don't notice a difference in their daily lives regardless of who is in power.

The world is changing. And it's changing very fast. I have no doubt that historians of the future will look back on this time as the beginning of the next....major change in the world? Rise of the right? World War 3? Decline in the UK's influence and importance in the world?

Ignorance and selfishness.

LadyPW - my first biscuit! Well, thank you. Although I think you have misunderstood the MN biscuit etiquette - I asked a specific question about voter priorities and have only had a few answers - and a lot of people evading the question or feeling offended. Speaks volumes.

I used to be a Tory voter, because my parents were and I was politically ignorant.

Now I'm not, I'm disabled, I have a disabled son, and conservatives feel like a threat.
I've no idea how to vote though because Labour couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery at the moment, and realistically no other party stands a chance. It honestly feels like we're all fucked unless we have money and plenty of it, and preferably not be led by a government who thinks that we deserve all we get.