To not understand how you can vote Tory after watching this

[Kimonolady]

Not trying to be goady. Not trying to start a fight.
This video truly shocked me to the core and I actually found it hard to finish.
If you're planning on voting Conservative - has this video given you pause for thought? Is there a way you can explain your choice in light of it? Genuinely curious.
Video is at the top of the page (article worth reading too.)
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/30/disabled-readers-austerity-disability-cuts

Has anybody actually answered OP's question yet? By the way, OP never said she was a labour or Corbyn supporter. So let's stop with the partisan deflection tactics.

Oh do give over.

She posts a Grauniad link and asks how any 'Tory' voters could explain their choice after watching it.

She might not have said she's a Corbyn/Labour/anything other than 'Tory' supporter but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out precisely where she's coming from and what the intention of this 'Not trying to be goady. Not trying to start a fight' thread was.

They're alright Jack and couldn't care less about the cuts.
If they did they wouldn't vote Tory.
It's simple if you feel strongly about something you do something about it, for the good.
You can't vote Tory and give a shiny shit about anybody on benefit

I doubt the video will make any difference to anyone - the labour supporters will hold it up as more evidence that the Tories are evil and the Tory supporters will roll their eyes and feel they don't have to justify their vote

Yep. And the same would be true if it were Labour involved in the videos too. Most voters are extremely tribal. It's like being a football supporter. Your own team can never do any wrong!

Only a few percent of the population actually bother to vote based on an objective analysis of the options, tbh.

I watched that video - and I'm still voting conservative because I believe Corbyn will be an across the board nightmare. I'm very much hoping that labour boot him out and reform after this election and put disability benefits reform front and centre to stop these sorts of atrocities.

I wish Corbyn was just running on a ticket of putting up taxes and sorting this out - he's doing all sorts of crackpot things likely to cause more unemployment and economic instability and none of his spending will stand the test of time against an aging population requiring higher and higher health care and pension spending.

I haven't seen the video but that's because I have personal and professional experience of what the cuts are meaning to people with disabilities. I really do think it's possible to be completely insulated from how many people are having to live. I used to issue vouchers for food banks, believe me no one gets them lightly or enjoys having to use them.

'jc has never been tested' - May had never been tested, neither had Cameron - you can't claim either as outstanding leaders!

FontellaBassthesoulsinger I'm sorry you've misunderstood the purpose of this thread. I think that if you read my posts, you will understand why I was asking and what I was trying to understand.
I've not at any point been anything other than completely respectful to people with opposing views to mine.

She posts a Grauniad link and asks how any 'Tory' voters could explain their choice after watching it.

It's a video. The Guardian didn't make the video. She wasn't asking people to read an editorial.

And even if she were, that's no more evidence that she's a Labour supporter rather than Lib Dem, SNP, Green, etc. is it?

NoLotteryWinYet thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I'm interested that you seem to think it's a case of Conservative v Labour - is that the case where you live? Or is that you just don't think any other party has a viable chance?
I'm also really struggling with Corbyn.

Since you've posted on here a fair few times, would you mind saying what issues have been at the forefront of your mind during this election?

I genuinely don't feel the need to tell the world my voting preferences or why. If you are genuinely looking for honest views then MN isn't the place for it.

I think it's not kind when you have disabled dependants to piss all your money up the wall. It's also not kind to say fucked it all and let the next generation worry about your spending. No matter how much it makes you feel like a hero to do so.

That goes for the country as much as it would a household. Give Jeremy Corbyn and chums control of the finances and we will end up cutting a very large number of things very very fucking quickly.

I'll vote for the Tories to continue reducing the deficit which they are in fact doing.

Have some

LiviaDrusillaAugusta Fair enough. Thanks for responding anyway.

PeanutButterBunny is that aimed at me?

*if I voted according to tribal loyalties it would be Labour. The Labour Party chose to change that.

metspengler Thanks very much for taking the time to post that, I found it very interesting

Kimono yes it's apocryphal crap passed off as a personal anecdote.
It's also nothing to do with the Labour manifesto.

I've watched the video before. I'm a centre left voter. My husband is disabled and has been through benefits related stuff which is pretty shit.

Actually the use of single heartbreaking cases almost makes me vote Tory in response. There is no government or party or ideology, none, which will prevent fuckups and wrong decisions and cold autocratic bureaucratic nightmares. Not in a complex developed nation. Vote Labour thinking that it will, and your hopes will be crushed. Look up Hugo Chavez. Look up the Azure card. Look up the number of houses built under successive governments. Look up who actually started the ball rolling on the ideological change that has ended up with the permanent reassessment system of the ESA, PIP, UC (clue: it was Labour). Then look up why that change was made ( because the Incapacity Benefit longterm award system was used as a dumping ground by the Tories to keep unemployment figures down). I actually agree that nobody should be labelled with a diagnosis and left to rot on benefits. NONE OF THIS IS SIMPLE. There are Conservative politicians and friends who spend their whole lives working for other people, they just tjink the state is both inefficient and does not incentivise well, and in many ways i agree with that. I personally feel the state is a more dignified route of sharing than personal charity. But i tell you i would rather die in a hospice than an NHS ward. Has Alexs experience of state distribution been positive? Many people would watch the video and say the state is so bad at this it shouldn't be involved. I think that would be a Conservative response.

ToastDemon sorry I'm not sure what post this is in response to. What's apocryphal crap?

I was agreeing with you Kimono That supposed personal anecdote about the college lecturer.

annandale that's not a point of view I've encountered before, so thanks very much for sharing it here. I've learned a lot from your post. I can absolutely understand why people might thank that.

Kimonolady, thank you for replying. I don't and won't berate anybody for their political views because I just don't know enough about it all. It's reassuring in a way to see that other people also don't necessarily have a clear view either

I don't know when our political system got so bad but it really is bad. Considering the whole premise of politicians is to do the best for the country, they're failing that mandate wholesale.

Guy Fawkes. Where are you now that we need you?

Most voters are extremely tribal. It's like being a football supporter. Your own team can never do any wrong!

That's just not true.

Of course there are people who voted 'the way my parents voted' the way 'I've always voted' and so on. And there are those who vote with the best intentions in the world because they are persuaded by something, be it a message, or the politician delivering that message, and then a decade later they vote completely the opposite way.

But for most of us I don't think it's got anything to do with being 'tribal', it's just how the policies line up with us and our circumstances and consciences and the political landscape, at that moment in time.

I've never voted Conservative in my life but I will be next week. I've voted Labour (when young and idealistic) and as a first language Welsh speaker, I've voted Plaid. Last couple of elections I've voted Lib Dem and actively campaigned for them (never will again though) and this time I'm voting Conservative.

I'm not 'tribal' and never will be and I'm sure I'm not unique in that.

The sweeping generalisation about who votes which way and why ... is the most senseless kind of political observation. People are going to vote the way they want to vote because of myriad reasons - it might just come down to how well Corbyn came over in a single interview, or a single trigger about a single issue that swings them.

As a life-long vegetarian I was none too thrilled by May's comments on Fox Hunting, but it's not going to stop me voting for her. For me, she's the safest pair of hands right now, and that might not be a ringing endorsement but it's why she gets my vote and I'm not going to justify that to anyone.

You go to the polling station, you mark a cross on a bit of paper and you vote.

I probably would have voted for labour if it weren't for the hero-worship for Jeremy Corbyn. To some he is the new messiah. Just like those loons who get Nigel Farage tattooed on themselves. To their devoted worshippers they can do no wrong. They beyond criticism, and just look at how incompetent key members of those parties are. A government is not a one man band.

Oh yes Jeremy is going to make the poor rich, stop all terrorism by being everyone's best friend, rescue the NHS, build everyone a home, give everyone a job, feed all our children, Get all members of the EU to agree to a fantabulous Brexit, nationalise everything so the trains run on time.

Now don't get me wrong the Tory policy on the disabled is cruel and I can't vote for them either. But there are other options available.

You want to know what happens when a bloke goes to the electorate planning to fix everything with your cross on the ballot then look at America and France. The people are being fooled by silly promises either right or left wing.

If it was that simple to solve 65 million+ people's personal grievances don't you think one of the parties would have done it by now since modern parliamentary democracy was created?

However you vote be realistic and stop demonising others. We have no idea what personal journeys people have gone through to make them want to vote one way or another.

I sincerely doubt anyone is voting Tory to sadistically watch disabled people suffer. They probably view it as a the best option available right now.

IMO all options are crap, the state of the nation and the world in general is crap, and is not going to improve any time soon.