To think that some left-wing supporters are just so NASTY

[cathf]

This is based on posts I have read on here and a couple of very vocal left-wing friends I have on facebook.
I have truly never read a Conservative supporter personally attacking Labour in the same way.
I find it astonishing and if I am honest, a bit childish.
Recent examples include a website pulling Teresa May's living room apart and costing out every single thing in it, to a chorus of comments along the lines of how can she sleep at night when children are hungry and she has a £25 candle.
Every time the subject is raised on here, there is a long thread of hysterical comments about how nasty the Tories are. Yes, Tory supporters state their case and answer back, but they seem to be able to do it in a more restrained, mature manner than outraged Labour screamers.
There seems to be a lot of personal bile aimed at Teresa May, which I am at a loss to understand - just what has she done that is so terrible?
She is pushing through Brexit, but that was what the country voted for. Is she supposed to go against the country's wishes?
All of Labour's policies look very lovely, but none have any substance at all. My friend recently stated on Facebook she was supporting Jeremy Corbyn because he wanted peace not war. And? How is he going to implement that then? It reminds me of the 1980s T-shirts stating War is Stupid. Lots of nice words, but to implementation strategies.
It amazes me that supposedly intelligent people seem to be so brainwashed by this nonsense and think that flinging mud is an appopriate way to behave.
Is it just me?

pink, I think the general belief is that Labour used sickness benefits to massage the unemployment figures. They moved people on to sickness benefits to lower the unemployment figures and possibly to create a large tranche of 'client' voters.

I experienced this myself in the late 90s. I was signed off sick and I was very ill but the condition was brought under control and well managed. I'd been given an 'indefinite' sick note and kept expecting to be assessed again and kicked off but no questions were asked and I stayed on it for a few years. I thought it was a bit of an anomaly. Eventually I got a job under my own steam. I was very left wing at the time bought up in a left wing family and I did this because I thought that if you were able to contribute you should in order to help others who couldn't. I also thought I would be better off working. I was incredibly surprised to find out that I wouldn't be for a long time and also that I wasn't an anomaly and lots of people who were capable of working were on the sick. To back that up, at the time our figures of 'sickness' were way, way out of kilter with comparable European countries at that time even though there was no suggestion that they were sending sick people to work nor any plausible reason for the UK to have such high rates of sickness. And despite many on the left denying it I think most people could clearly see with their own eyes that a lot of people were taking the piss at the time and that rankled especially for the low paid.

I think this is a difficulty that the genuinely disabled face now. Although I think the conservatives may well have gone too far with disability cuts it's difficult to make people listen because the system was so discredited and the public really did want to see the abuse of it stop.

BillSykesDog but the Tories did exactly the same, in fact they started the whole signing people of sick to keep the unemployment figures down.

I was on IB as well 20 years ago, I did get kicked off it with no reassessment but as I was approaching the point of considering myself well enough to work I just went with it. I was lucky that I didn't need the money to survive as I was still living with my parents at the time.

Apparently I side 80% with PC and 75% SNP

Ooo it does it for Finland too goes to check who she should vote for next general election

Well the Finnish one was shit, with a question asking if Finland should remain in NATO... not well researched at all.

OK so this is odd...

I did that 'who-i-side-with' thing, and it came out that I agree with 52% of Labour's policies, 52% of UKIP's, 52% of Conservatives, 48% of Lib dems, and 48% of the SNP's.

So there isn't ONE single party that I appear to agree with on almost everything. It's come out that I agree with around half of the views and policies of five different political parties.

Weirdly, when I did the 'who-i-side-with' thing in 2015, (when Ed Milliband was hoping to be voted in as PM,) I came out as agreeing with 86% of Labour's policies, and yet now it's just 52%. What's that about?

I haven't changed my stance or opinion on ANYTHING since 2015, so the Labour party must have. I wonder what they have changed their stance on since 2015?

Can someone who is a bit more clued up tell me/advise me???

Meant to say also, it's come up as me agreeing with around half of the policies of 5 different parties, which means I DISAGREE with half of their policies too. I was already unsure about who to vote for; now I am even more baffled!

Lily did you input the how strongly you feel bit?

That changed me form PC to Labour massively and really downgraded my alleged UKIP/BNP support.

I think we also need to remember the manifestos aren't out yet : my alleged support I education for the BNP (!) is based on them opposing free schools, I think...

What's more interesting is the bit at the bottom which lets you know (in case you didn't and I honestly suspect some don't) whether you are left or right wing in what you believe and how authoritarian you are.

I know an astonishing number of left wing people(or who espouse left wing beliefs) who vote Conservative and some rabidly right wing labour voters!

These surveys do always help me to see - whilst I agree with them wholeheartedly on so many things - why the LibDems and I aren't seen as a happy match.

Hey @ilikebeans' thanks for answering me

Yeah I did check the 'how important is it' bits, and put my own stance on a few too, as I didn't have a clear cut answer to a few of them. I did this on about 6 questions I think. I answered loads of 'extra' questions too. (There is an option at the end of each category that says 'answer more questions on this subject.......' so I answered as many as I could.)

My husband suggested I just put flat out yes or no answers, and don't put any 'put your own stance' answers which may be construed as ambiguous.

I opposed free schools too! Re BNP, I came out as 38% agreeing with them which was 2% higher than I got with the GREEN party!

Maybe both parties are extreme IYSWIM (one far right and one far left.)

I have always been a Labour supporter, and as I said, I came out at almost 90% the last time I did the quiz, but this time only just over half. So as I said, I do wonder what has changed with them.

confused.com. Who on earth can I vote for? HALLPP!!!

I come out as:

65% Conservative
56% Labour
55% Lib Dem
54% UKIP

I was bang in the middle as a 'centrist'.

My themes:
Protectionism (moderate)
Unilateralism (moderate)
Pacifism (strongly)
Collectivism (moderate)
Secular (moderate)
Keynesian (strongly)
Big Govt (extremely)
Assimilation (moderate)
Tender (moderate)
Regulation (slightly)
Traditional vs Progressive (equal)

Thanks for sharing that copper rose

I came out on the ideology scale as centrist. Which basically means I am smack bang in the middle of everything! Neither right nor left, nor leaning towards any particular party!

Not really any help!

I'm going to do it again as DH suggested, with yes and no answers, and no 'put your own stance' replies.

I'll come back and tell you the results.

Well that's not helped either; just giving yes and no answers.

Now I am in agreement with

Conservative 58%
Labour 58%
UKIP 56%
BNP 56%
Plaid Cymru 55%
Lib dems 55%

WTF? How can Labour and BNP be so close?

I am even more confused than ever now!!!

I'll be voting Tory this time btw, and did in 2015 too (Lib Dem in 2010)

I am an annoying swing voter with no loyalty to anyone at all - I just happen to think that Tory is the right choice at this time.

If Labour get their act together, bin off the evangelical Corbynistas (incl momentum) & stop living in a twilight world of Xmas past (hankering for Blair-like times - Yvette Cooper, David Miliband, Ed Balls et al) then I would be more inclined toward Labour, definitely.

I think I'll go for a lie down LOL

Still wondering though, why I was almost 90% in agreement with Labour's policies in 2015, but only just over half now.

As I said, I have not changed my views on anything, but they clearly have. I wonder what though? Puzzling.....

It's funny in an horrific way isn't it Lily?!

Seeing that you 'agree' with the BNP!

I was 34% BNP apparently...

I feel quite a bit like you do Copper rose.

An ideal situation for me would be Theresa May being the leader of the Labour party.

Lol 😂

I saw some T shirts pop up on my Facebook feed that had a picture of an evil looking rat and the slogan 'You're never more than ten feet away from a Tory'. I had to wonder about the sort of person who would actually buy that and hope I'm not friends with any of them regardless of if you changed it for Labourite or whatever. Lots of people were commenting on how amazing they are

Ha ha, yeah I was shocked to be agreeing with the BNP 56%!

But then I agree with roughly the same of Labour....... So weird!

And on the first attempt I did, (where I was more specific in my answers, and answered twice as many questions,) I was only in agreement with about a third of BNP!

BillSykesDog but the Tories did exactly the same, in fact they started the whole signing people of sick to keep the unemployment figures down.

Yes I'm not disputing that - but it was under Labour that claims almost doubled. And all of the rise was mental health conditions (physical conditions actually fell in the period) and almost all of these the kind of mental health condition which is self reported like depression or anxiety and not observable conditions like bipolar or schizophrenia.

In other words there was an unprecedented rise in the easiest condition to fake and hardest to dispute. A condition which is often cyclical, relatively possible to control and which even many of the severest sufferers (myself included) manage to maintain a working life with. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out what was going on.

It really discredited the system which is why I don't think the public get massively exercised about cuts going too far - or if they even believe they are.

It's funny in an horrific way isn't it Lily?! Seeing that you 'agree' with the BNP! I was 34% BNP apparently...

Personally, I wouldn't find it remotely funny if I was 34% (or even 4%) BNP.

Upshot is, no matter what I do, I am agreeing with at least FIVE political parties with roughly the same percentage, and they are a mix of left and right! WTF!!!!

Makes sense that it calls me a 'centrist' though, as I definitely do see both sides to political arguments, and think everyone has something to bring to the table.. Corbyn, Tim Farron, Theresa May, and even Nigel Farage all have good points, and something to offer. But they all have their bad points too!

The left are a bit soft though overall, and the right are a bit tough. It's a shame some middle ground can't be found.

And I STILL don't know who to vote for!!!

On the quizzes with support for Labour decreasing, one thing that I noticed when I did it was how much the general political feeling in the UK has shifted to the right recently. When I answered the questions, I dithered a few times and gave an answer which I thought seemed reasonable and not terribly extreme. And then I thought about them an hour or so afterwards, and realised that 5 or 10 years ago, I would have considered my 'reasonable' responses to be pretty close to unacceptable breaches of human rights. It was actually pretty scary, because I didn't realise that I had been so strongly affected.

Oh get a grip Brexshit.

I said funny in an horrific way - it was quite clear what I meant.

Fwiw my 'agreement' with the BNP was on 'healthcare', I also agreed with Greens 42% - on healthcare too.

@Brexshit I wouldn't take it too seriously. I came up with agreeing 'somewhat' with five different main political parties. They were a mix of quite far left and quite far right. Yet I was told I agree equally with them all! So it's not to be taken seriously anyway.

For clarity, Brexshit: