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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

This is a goady thread

267 replies

cannotbelievethistoday · 05/05/2017 08:22

I have private school for my children. I own my house outright. I have private medical insurance. I have savings in the bank. I own a second property outright which is let out. I go on many many holidays a year (approximately 6-8). The absolute devastation that the tories are reaping on public services will largely pass me by.

I vote labour.

WTF do people without money (and all the things outlined above) vote Tory? THEY ARE NOT ON YOUR SIDE. THEY DON'T CARE. I see people without any of the aforementioned luxuries cheering about voting someone in who will have a guaranteed negative impact on their lives.

Off to find a wall to bang my head on.

AIBU to say I don't care that this is a goady thread.

(You can say I am troll but mumsnet will confirm I have been a member for years.)

OP posts:

Goldfishjane · 05/05/2017 09:41

I have no affiliation with any particular party
Here's my thoughts

This time it's a red herring because it's all muddled up with Brexit!

There's a squeezed middle, not as well off as you OP, who worry that Labour will target them instead of going after the rich and that middle is probably better off with Tories in (I think there's evidence that neither party will go after super rich)

There's a worry about BTL etc and actually only the Tories tried to address that, unless Labour have some pledges that I missed, but BTL flourished under Blair/Brown

There's no other options if you want a smaller state generally

I am not well off and don't know how to vote. I suppose Labour but I can't say I'm happy about it. If you are earning average wage then it's probably tempting to vote for lower taxes. I'm an average earner, I don't know how much difference it will all make to me.

Jux · 05/05/2017 09:41

When I was a teen, I was told that the young always vote Labour and the old always vote Tory. I was the opposite, and inclined towards Tory as a teen - due to very Tory parents, I hope.

As sn as I starte paying attention, I started voting more towards Labour, sometime Labour sometimes not, but never ever Tory.

I used to be a pretty moderate, floating voter. I find that the older I get, the more socialist I get.

I suppose the Tories dangle gold in front of people, but it's like the pot at the end of the rainbow - doesn't really exist for most of us.

jollygoose · 05/05/2017 09:43

vote labour and we will have no defence for this country, in the event of hostility we will have no deterrent and they will decimate our armed forces that is enough reason to vote conservative.

Lweji · 05/05/2017 09:47

jollygoose
What?

Who do you think will attack Britain with conventional forces?
Are you thinking of Gibraltar?

Mulledwine1 · 05/05/2017 09:47

The Tories have already decimated our armed forces.

I don't know if we need Trident, I thought not, and then Putin started throwing his weight around and I wasn't sure. But most of the rest of Europe don't have nuclear weapons and don't care.

MrsSummerisle · 05/05/2017 09:49

Maybe the left could try not taxing us into oblivion, not hating Britain, and choosing leaders who aren't far left lunatics? You might actually start winning votes for a change!

Hope this helps!

SenoritaSweet · 05/05/2017 09:52

Champagne socialist, anyone?

BitOutOfPractice · 05/05/2017 09:55

TheGentleMoose that depends what paper you pick up doesn't it?

LadySalmakia · 05/05/2017 09:56

The thing that really gets me is the highly educated people I know, rich and poor, who vote Tory "because immigration because taxes because strong govermint because they'll be better for the poor trickle down blah blah blah" that are displaying NO critical thinking skills at all.

Either they're not able to analyse what politicians are saying and compare their behaviour to their words, or they're actually just a bit racist and selfish and don't want to admit it to themselves. The only Tory voter I know I have any political respect for is one who admits that they vote Tory because they know it'll benefit them and their huge stockpile of wealth.

I mean, don't get me wrong, Labour and the Lib Dems are a shower as well, but they're not actively trying to line the pockets of their mates and pretending that talking tough is the same thing as actually being a tough negotiator and having a strong government.

toomuchtooold · 05/05/2017 09:59

I don't know who to vote this time. I'm in a labour/tory marginal and so will probably reluctantly vote Labour but I am totally disappointed by Corbyn's half arsed Remain campaigning and then by the party rolling over and voting thorough the Article 50 stuff with no amendments. What the fuck? Corbyn's supposed to be a politician of conviction, so I would like to know his actual opinion on the EU. Does he support it, but feel unable to go against the working class voters who support Brexit? Then he should be out explaining to people why he thinks it's a good idea. If he doesn't support it he should come right out and say and then all the champagne socialists (hi) can go over to the Lib Dems. But how can he think going out is a good idea? Can he really seriously think that the country is on the brink of the socialist revolution he's waited his whole life for? The politics of the UK has been consistently to the right of the rest of the EU for the last 40 years, Jeremy, give it the fuck up, being in the EU and committed to a social market democracy was the best deal the left wing was ever going to get.

I look at the UK now (I live in Germany) and I just do not fucking understand what is going on in front of me. DH (Swiss) is getting a real education on what it was like for us as Scottish in the 1980s, I grew up poor n a really tough council estate and it just seemed like every day the Tories came on the news and announced something else inexplicably stupid and/or cruel they were going to do to the country. Honestly I mean I was in favour of Scotland staying in the union in 2014 (didn't get a vote as I lived in England) but now I'm just thinking guys, cut and run.

SemiNormal · 05/05/2017 09:59

I'm a floating voter. I thought I'd never vote Conservative but when the alternative is Corbyn and his ilk then there simply isn't much choice. Right now I'm considering Lib Dem but it will most likely be Conservative I vote for because I feel that out of everyone it will be May that gets the better Brexit deal.

YetAnotherSpartacus · 05/05/2017 10:04

Maybe the right could try not cutting essential welfare and services, not hating Britain enough to sell us out in an ill advised split from the EU, and choosing leaders who aren't far right lunatics?

comicnavy · 05/05/2017 10:04

Yanbu, OP. It's baffling.

derxa · 05/05/2017 10:06

Corbyn

MrsSummerisle · 05/05/2017 10:09

LadySalmakia

Either they're not able to analyse what politicians are saying and compare their behaviour to their words, or they're actually just a bit racist and selfish and don't want to admit it to themselves.

The modern left's problem is that they define "racist" as "not wanting to open our borders to the entire world", and "selfish" as "not wanting to be taxed into the ground so others don't have to work". For evidence, see every Twitter lefty ever. Under those conditions, "racist!" and "selfish!" are seen by normal people as the hyperbolic abuse that they are, and so their power has been completely nullified. You brought this on yourselves.

Now people can just vote Tory with a clear conscience.

Fruitboxjury · 05/05/2017 10:11

This country is a joke. I'm ashamed of the fact that we can't put forward anyone better to lead or country either in government or in opposition.

Quite frankly it tells me that we are failing spectacularly at all the things we think we're great at like our education system, our political economy, our innovation, leadership of free thought and speech... all the really important skills, structures and experiences that make us the well rounded, progressive, forward thinking, rational people. If we were still good at these, we would be debating leaders with robust ideologies, inclusive policies, the ability to make us all challenge our perceptions and view the country as a whole not a mini-empire that only exists within the confines of your own front gates.

If these are the very best people we can turn out to lead our country we deserve everything we get and I shudder to think what the leaders of the next generation will be like if this is the kind of calibre of their role models.

Juncker was right, we are deluded.

derxa · 05/05/2017 10:12

Under those conditions, "racist!" and "selfish!" are seen by normal people as the hyperbolic abuse that they are, and so their power has been completely nullified. You brought this on yourselves.
Agree completely.

MrsSummerisle · 05/05/2017 10:12

YetAnotherSpartacus

Maybe the right could try not cutting essential welfare and services, not hating Britain enough to sell us out in an ill advised split from the EU, and choosing leaders who aren't far right lunatics?

Er, remind me which side is crushing it in the local election results and in the national opinion polls? It's the left that's as popular as a piss-flavoured milkshake, not the right.

Lweji · 05/05/2017 10:13

Corbyn

But, then, May.

Lweji · 05/05/2017 10:15

Maybe the right could try not cutting essential welfare and services, not hating Britain enough to sell us out in an ill advised split from the EU, and choosing leaders who aren't far right lunatics?

Er, remind me which side is crushing it in the local election results and in the national opinion polls? It's the left that's as popular as a piss-flavoured milkshake, not the right.

Yes, they are winning. And that it's baffling considering the above. :) But then that's probably what the voters want.

LadySalmakia · 05/05/2017 10:15

Who said I was left wing? MrsSummerisle, I'm a centrist. I have no problem with taxes and restricted immigration. I have a problem with poor people being taxed into the ground whilst the rich get tax breaks, and I have a problem with restricting immigration because of racism and xenophobia towards certain groups of people.

I'm not interested in refusing to admit that 'immigration' is a dogwhistle for 'I don't like brown people' and 'lower taxes for me' means 'force ill people into paroxyms of anxiety then starve them to death'.

user1493797837 · 05/05/2017 10:15

I'm on income support and vote conservative.

I prefer to keep taxes and benefits low. I also prefer their stance on immigration.

YetAnotherSpartacus · 05/05/2017 10:16

Er, remind me which side is crushing it in the local election results and in the national opinion polls? It's the left that's as popular as a piss-flavoured milkshake, not the right

Yes, but that's the point of this thread - the question the OP is asking is why people are voting for the right even though they are not on their side.

derxa · 05/05/2017 10:18

Yes strong and stable leadership Just watching poor old Diane Abbott discussing the results today.

HorridHenryrule · 05/05/2017 10:19

It's not the entire world it's our European cousins that the Brexit vote was about. Let's not forget Farages bus with that poster of Sirian refugees. We need people in this country to pay taxes and TM is not stupid she will get the best possible deal for Britain I hope.

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