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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To have put in my (postal) vote today for the Tories?

196 replies

IonaNE · 04/06/2017 16:00

I agree with their education policy (especially grammar schools) and a lot of their criminal and immigration policies. I have done the "isidewith" quiz (uk.isidewith.com/political-quiz) and I side 58% with Conservatives, 48% with Labour and 40%, 36% and 34% with UKIP, LibDem and the Green Party, respectively. But in general I have done it because it seems to me that the Conservatives are clever people (mostly Oxbridge educated), and you have to trust the leading of a country to clever people. (We all remember a certain Labour prime minister and his "bigoted woman" remark, when he thought his mic was off, don't we?) The Tories support working people, as opposed to second- and third-generation lifelong benefit claimers (large estates of high deprivation in my region) and they have already proved themselves by decreasing unemployment levels to those in the 70s, if I remember well (I wasn't in this country then, I'm an immigrant).

Disclaimer: I mostly use MN at the weekends, so I will come back and read replies today but I can't promise anything from Monday onwards...

OP posts:
GreyBonnet · 04/06/2017 17:11

Can I just point out that the deadline for postal votes was 5pm on the 23rd May. If you have really sent your postal vote in today it won't count.

Dawndonnaagain · 04/06/2017 17:13

You claim to be a former teacher but present this tripe as a valid argument: But in general I have done it because it seems to me that the Conservatives are clever people (mostly Oxbridge educated), and you have to trust the leading of a country to clever people.
Bloody tosh!

Piggywaspushed · 04/06/2017 17:13

Awwlook she doesn't any more. It's OK.

Piggywaspushed · 04/06/2017 17:14

Grey , I think I love you.

Vango · 04/06/2017 17:14

Can I just point out that the deadline for postal votes was 5pm on the 23rd May. If you have really sent your postal vote in today it won't count.

😂😂😂

Dawndonnaagain · 04/06/2017 17:15

By the way, Iona is not a troll, she's been here for a few years. I disagree with her on a lot, that's how I know she's been here a good while!

Dawndonnaagain · 04/06/2017 17:16

Oh Grey, I do it's gone in today, I really do! Grin

BIWI · 04/06/2017 17:17

She might not be a troll, but she likes to indulge in a spot of goady fuckery, doesn't she? Hmm

VladmirsPoutine · 04/06/2017 17:17

Quite frankly I'm voting Conservative because there are far too many nurses, police officers and teachers. We need fewer!
OP, shall we get together next week sometime and go canvassing?

GreyBonnet · 04/06/2017 17:17

No, my mistake, that was the deadline for applications for a vote Blush Ignore me, was just trying to help, sorry.

Killdora · 04/06/2017 17:19

GreyBonnet you are my new idol Grin

That is so hilarious Grin

Vango · 04/06/2017 17:19

Now I'm sad again.

Dawndonnaagain · 04/06/2017 17:19

(hope)

LauderSyme · 04/06/2017 17:20

YANBU. That's what democracy means after all: your free choice to have your say in who governs us. However you may need to do a little more research if you want to make an informed choice next time. Here are some starter subjects for you:

  • The % of Oxbridge educated people who went to a private school.
  • The relationship between the elites who make up the establishment and their ability to buy their way into the club, starting with a good education.
  • The well-documented decline and reverse of social mobility in recent years.
  • The fact that 60% of British people in poverty live in a household where someone is in work.
  • The fact that massive Tory cuts to working age benefits have seen the working poor get poorer.

You may enjoy the article linked below. (I could have linked from pretty much any mainstream media outlet but I like the irony of this one Wink)
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2095549/Right-wingers-intelligent-left-wingers-says-controversial-study--conservative-politics-lead-people-racist.html

I'm really disappointed that you might not be around after today to share the benefit of your wisdom with us OP. You must be really brainy if you need a website to tell you what to think. Such a shame for us all...

LauderSyme · 04/06/2017 17:24

Sorry to burst the bubble inflated by GreyBonnet but the deadline for applying for a postal vote was 5pm on 23rd May. The deadline for actually getting your ballot paper in is 10pm on 8th June like the rest of us.

IonaNE · 04/06/2017 17:25

Hopefully she filled in a pizza delivery form, thinking it was her vote.
Possible, if pizza delivery forms in the UK come with pre-paid envelopes and you have to give your DoB and signature... I don't order pizzas, but in the UK even this is possible... Biscuit

Hahahahahha at Oxford education making people clever or good leaders. I'm Oxford educated and have taught at one of them and all I can say is hahahahahahhaha (20nil)
Well, now, 20nil, you have actually made me doubt... because otherwise you would have picked up on the fact that I never said Oxbridge education made someone clever. This is also to others asking the same thing. Guys (well, I suppose, mostly girls): a Nobel-prize does not make anyone clever. It is a sign that they are. No, I am not equalling an Oxbridge degree with a Nobel-prize (before 10 Mnetters come with grinning smileys and biscuits and lols saying I did). An Oxbridge degree shows that you were both clever and hard-working enough in your teens to have got in; and that you were clever enough and hard-working enough in your early 20s to have obtained it. That's, say 5-6 years of hard work at a time of your life when other things also demand attention. I would like the country I am living in for now to be led by people who were not dumb to start out with; and were able to put in that sort of work.

Think Boris Johnson, eh? Cameron? Osborne? Gove?
Sorry, I actually liked all of them. And especially Gove, who I think was a great ed. secretary (and, btw, a LAC and grammar educated himself) and would have turned English education round - if the leftist teaching community had not managed to force him out. Their loss, not his.

and for thinking you will get a positive response (shinyredbus)
?? Shinyredbus, I honestly hope you did not think I had posted here to get validation from Mnet?

You clearly have no understanding of the position that schools are in (Rainbowcolours1)
To be fair, in recent years only what I read on the BBC website and (less frequently) on TES. But I left teaching because of the result of the ridiculous Labour policies of "all must get prizes", the Mickey Mouse subjects and the ridiculous behaviour policies. I also know that the West London Free School has been a success - due to the curriculum and because the school distanced itself of the above as much as possible (and yes, Latin is obligatory and many teachers are, wait for it, Oxbridge graduates). I also know that Katharine Birbalsingh is headteacher of another free school.)

I find it worrying you had to do a quiz to decide which way to vote. (Toocold)
And you masterfully deducted this from...? The fact that I did the quiz?

Most Tory voters I've come across I have found to be extremely naive or extremely selfish. Often both of these. Which are you, OP? (AuldHeathen)
Could you hold on a second, Auld Heathen, please? Just explain the "jump" of how we got from your personal opinion ("I've come across", "I have found") to having accepted this as some universal truth?

OP posts:
Brokenbiscuit · 04/06/2017 17:27

Lauder, I love the fact that the Daily Mail printed that article. The irony! Grin

That has made my day tbh!

SnickersWasAHorse · 04/06/2017 17:28

Sorry, I actually liked all of them. And especially Gove, who I think was a great ed. secretary

You like Gove. I don't think his own mother likes him.

EastMidsMummy · 04/06/2017 17:29

I agree with their education policy

What, cutting money for schools?

Justdontgetitatall · 04/06/2017 17:32

Ahhhhhhhhhhh you being an immigrant explains a lot!!!!!

Efferlunt · 04/06/2017 17:32

Good for you. You can do what you want. But your reasoning in your post is not sound. What does being clever have to do with a. Being oxbridge b. Gordon Brown's remarks. There are also plenty of oxbridge people in the Labour Party. Your arguments make no sense.

squoosh · 04/06/2017 17:34

I would like the country I am living in for now to be led by people who were not dumb to start out with

Awwww. That will make David Davis sad. He was 'dumb to start out with' and seems to have remained so.

IonaNE · 04/06/2017 17:39

You seem to have moved on to better paid pastures new, now (Piggywaspushed)
Piggywaspushed, wrong assumption again. In the new job I was actually paid less. But there are things the value of which can not be expressed in monetary terms.

Bored, OP? Not much to do this afternoon? (IHateUncleJamie)
IHateUncleJamie, I have never been bored in my life. There was a thread of one-liners on a popular teachers' forum, and someone said when a kid complained that they were bored, the response should be "Only boring people are bored, interesting people are interested." And why should I have anything to do on a Sunday afternoon - is it not relaxation time for you?

You work with the disadvantaged. (...) On my mother's ashes. I'd have absolutely no qualms at all about reporting you (Awwlookatmybabyspider)
For voting Tory? Grin This said, I would first read the thread - or at least my posts, otherwise you end up making a fool of yourself.

OP posts:
rollonthesummer · 04/06/2017 17:41

But in general I have done it because it seems to me that the Conservatives are clever people (mostly Oxbridge educated), and you have to trust the leading of a country to clever people.

Have you read Brave New World?

Bunnyfuller · 04/06/2017 17:41

Does the op honestly think absolutely everyone on benefits is only there out of laziness? Honestly, I would love some of these oblivious, clueless and unjustifiably smug people to be teleported into some of the different lives in this country.

Meanwhile my police officer husband is STILL at work on his 1% in seven years pay rise. While I will go back in tomorrow and have to shelve all my planned work as we'll be planning our next week dealing with increased demand for boots on the ground, for the third week running, having to cancel another set of rest days for many officers, against a background of year on year 20% austerity cuts. Luckily, Britain hasn't suffered at all from these cuts.....oh.......wait.

Take your Biscuit back op, wouldn't want you to think us greedy police are looking for handouts.