How would you feel if your 16 year old DS wanted to become a 'young conservative'

[BigSandyBalls2015]

That is all!
Opinions please.

My OH is quite right wing in some ways and we've had many dinner table debates about economics and taxes but he's moving more and more to the left as time goes on and he sees the damage the right wing government over here (Finland) has done to the country (not that bad, they're nowhere near as right wing as the Tories, but there are problems and they've been increasing). Last election he voted for the Greens - compare this to the election before that when he voted for The Finns Party (i.e our far right party)

But I do think that the left is morally superior to the right-otherwise I'd be a right winger!
Don't people on the right think they are morally superior to people on the left?

Don't people on the right think they are morally superior to people on the left?

I'm a centrist, so frankly I'm morally superior to the lot of you.

Actually no, I don't think I'm morally superior to my friends/family who are on the right or the left. I generally understand why they hold the views they do and disagree with them, but that doesn't equate to feeling or being morally superior.

be VERY proud might not be your preference, but at 16 to take interest in this and care about whats going on shows great maturity

"Actually no, I don't think I'm morally superior to my friends/family who are on the right or the left. I generally understand why they hold the views they do and disagree with them, but that doesn't equate to feeling or being morally superior."

I don't think I am morally superior to individuals on the Right. There's a difference between thinking that and believing that the policies of the left are morally superior to the policies of the right.

I don't think I am morally superior to individuals on the Right. There's a difference between thinking that and believing that the policies of the left are morally superior to the policies of the right.

But that's not what you asked when you said "Don't people on the right think they're morally superior to people on the left?".

R4 now, May to compel local councils to build council houses. According to this confused fool the private sector can't solve the housing crisis.....err might that be because free market can't and doesn't solve anything. This is just one of the ways in which conservative theories and philosophy collapses in its own contradictions.

Like Bertrand, I think that the left is morally superior, which is why I vote for parties with lefty policies.

I think that this might be the cause of a lot of the lack of understanding that there seems to be around politics. I suspect that people who vote for centre-right parties have pragmatism at the core of their voting decision making, so find it bizarre that other people take it to heart so much, where people who vote for left wing (and, I suspect, far-right) parties, seem to do on the basis of morality.

That's obviously a sweeping generalisation with loads of exceptions, but there does seem to be a big divide between people who see a Labour Party manifesto as impractical nonsense which is never going great to achieve the results promised, and the people who look at the Conservative manifesto and can't get past Universal Credit and the sickness and disability benefit assessments.

I absolutely think the left is morally superior to the right. That's the whole point. That's why the left can't stomach the Tories.

I absolutely don't think anyone can hold the moral high ground tbh.

Plus 'the left' and 'the Tories' aren't homogenous masses.

There are many in the left I can't 'stomache. It doesn't mean I vote Tory as I don't.

It is startling as well, that people think that there is an issue with having 'too many left wing teachers'

It's because people who have 'left wing' beliefs are more likely to go into into such professions. Also right wing parties are decimiating teaching and the NHS.

I would imagine a higher percentage off Tory teachers can be found in private schools?

Centering society around the needs of the many, not the few, is the moral stance.

Tory Social Darwinism is corrupt and faulted.

There's so much stereotyping and judgment on this thread it's laughable! Apart from it's not really funny, it's just close minded, and willfully ignorant.

I tend to vote lib dim, so don't really consider myself on either side of the left/right debate, and any political thread on mumsnet always ends up with the majority of 'left' posters being rude about posters whose politics are different to theirs. I think that says a lot about the 'left' and how intolerant it is of those not with them.

"majority of 'left' posters being rude about posters whose politics are different to theirs."

Do you really think it's that way round?

I'd be mortified

Centering society around the needs of the many, not the few, is the moral stance.

It's a good old sound bite.

I would imagine a higher percentage off Tory teachers can be found in private schools?

There are a good many in state schools.

I would certainly tell him to wait. No judgement on the political side of it but just bear in mind that if it does turn out to be a teenage mistake (and don’t we all make them) it may follow him for life. And potentially cause him great embarrassment.

By all means go to the meetings etc but I would be hesitant to sign his name up at 16

My favourite teacher in school used to be the Tory MP for our area. Pretty sure he was a moderate Conservative though (and a brilliant teacher)

"Centering society around the needs of the many, not the few, is the moral stance.

It's a good old sound bite."

Doesn't make it wrong. And certainly better than vice versa.........

I watched as the Labour Party hauled us into was in the ME (how many of us here mae he'd against this?). I don't think I've ever been so disgusted by any other political act in my lifetime. I'll have a think though.

So no, I don't go in for shorthand generalisations of political parties (apart from ukip - there really is no hope for that lot).

Flipping heck my autocorrect is wild today...

War... ME...marches against Tony Blair's Labour Party

Yes Bertrand I genuinely think the left despise the right and the language on here from the left has been far more personal in its attack.

What I don’t think the left understand is that, for the majority of centre right and right wingers we absolutely fundamentally believe that our policies are to the benefit of society as a whole too, as a bankrupt nation will certainly not be able to look after its poor and vulnerable. And we believe that left wing policies will at best leave us all worse off and at worst bankrupt the country.

I 100% understand that lefties believe passionately that left policies are to the benefit of the whole nation. I simply disagree. I think it’s naive and history has proven his time and time again. But I do not despise left policies and left leaning people.

I think it’s a big difference.

"Yes Bertrand I genuinely think the left despise the right and the language on here from the left has been far more personal in its attack."

I'm not going to go through and c&p but I do think you might be wearing blue-coloured spectacles!

For me, there are two sorts of Tory. There are the old fashioned, one nation, noblesse oblige types who genuinely think they are doing the best they possibly can for the most number of people and there are the Thatcherites and post Thatcherites who are very Devil take the hindmost. Sadly, the second type seems to be currently outnumbering the first.

the language on here from the left has been far more personal in its attack

We have to use a lot of words. The Right's slurs are more potent, "chav", "benefit recipient", "single mother", "unclean", and now "snowflake". Or just a curled upper lip.

The language of the left about the right tends to be rather nasty. It is not surprising. If you look at the demographic a lot of it is just about education and I don't hold it against them. In fact it often makes our points for us through what they say that ends up making them look bad.

Yes I do believe both sides are well meaning. However I agree with the comment above - if you know your politics is best and right then that is what you know. People on the left and right both hold the same view on that. You don't care for your family by spending all the wages on sweets on pay day (Labour policy) - you conserve - "conservative" and make sure everyone is looked after.