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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

721 replies

BigSandyBalls2015 · 03/10/2017 09:18

That is all!
Opinions please.

OP posts:
Natsku · 03/10/2017 09:40

Tory dad not sad although it is sad.

Schtinkay · 03/10/2017 09:41

I did the same at his age.

The young Tories are a lot more libertarian than the older party.

Good for him. If he would like advice/contacts I can help so please feel free to PM me.

pisacake · 03/10/2017 09:41

disowning the little shit?
wishing I had aborted him 17 years before?

(ed: am I doing this right?)

thecatfromjapan · 03/10/2017 09:41

I do have friends with whom I disagree politically. I had a friend who was Chair (or whatever), of the university Conservative group.

Probably because of that, I know there are some real issues with (some sections of) the youth wing of the Conservatives at the moment. As I said before, it's not being dealt with by the Party as a whole. It needs to be. And I wonder if the reason it's not being dealt with is down to the numbers and average age of CP members.

Lalalandfill · 03/10/2017 09:42

I'd be delighted my child had the guts to stand out from his/her peers

KalaLaka · 03/10/2017 09:43

Gutted. But as rebellion goes, better than drugs I suppose.

ThaliaLuxurySpa · 03/10/2017 09:43

OP,

Are you William Hague's parent, asking in retrospect?

Floisme · 03/10/2017 09:43

this idea that everyone who is a member of another party are all awful people is profoundly depressing (and, by the way, it's a part of the reason why we have ended up with people like Trump).

Absolutely.

blackteasplease · 03/10/2017 09:43

In all honesty I'd feel I'd failed to give my child decent values. Sorry.

thecatfromjapan · 03/10/2017 09:43

And I do think it's great for young people to get involved in politics. For a start, getting involved in mainstream politics is a great way to avoid extremism. It's when people start thinking that mainstream politics has nothing to say to them that things go really awry.

Schtinkay · 03/10/2017 09:45

Re bullying - don't believe all you read in the Mail on Sunday. It was a hatchet job that young Tories were caught up in

To whoever said the Party did nothing to address it - they dissolved the entire youth wing!!!

UnicornRainbowColours · 03/10/2017 09:45

I am a conservative so I wouldn’t be bothered. We live in a free country and it wonderful he is free to male those choices.

ShoesHaveSouls · 03/10/2017 09:45

V disappointed actually - our whole family and most friends are pretty left-leaning politically.

I would however, let him make his own mistakes, and find his own way back from the dark side into the light Grin

So far I'm doing ok though - no children showing a leaning towards right wing politics. All showing a healthy disdain for Theresa, Boris, Farage, Trump, Brexit. So that's all good.

ItMustBeBedtimeSurely · 03/10/2017 09:45

Some of these replies are boggling.

It's perfectly possible to be a Conservative and be a empathetic, socially responsible person. Not everyone agrees on the best way to run a country fairly, and that's ok. I really do believe that we need different opinions and ideas to find good solutions. The idea that one side is right and the other wrong is naive and frankly dangerous.

SusanTheGentle · 03/10/2017 09:46

Incredibly disappointed. Even more so if they'd actually read and understood the manifesto and genuinely believed that screwing over disadvantaged people was a reasonable way to run a country.

ALSO as others have said, worried; the YCs have a massive bullying, misogyny and racism problem and I'd worry for the child too.

CaoNiMartacus · 03/10/2017 09:46

I'd give him a clip around the ear and a copy of the Communist Manifesto.

scaryteacher · 03/10/2017 09:46

I'd be pleased, as an interest was being taken. I'd hope he'd be open minded to other views as well, as he was during the Referendum. Mine is almost 22, and we agree to disagree on lots of things.

SusanTheGentle · 03/10/2017 09:46

Conservative and be a empathetic, socially responsible person

Could some of those mythical people perhaps try and get the rest of them to behave like they give a shit, then?

mogulfield · 03/10/2017 09:47

Mumsnet is like a parallel universe these days, in real life I have friends of all political persuasions, we manage to discuss politics like adults and often learn a thing or 2.
I understand why my friends have opposing political views and (shock horror) am still friends with them.
I also find it wearing that labour voters think Tories are mean, selfish etc etc when actually the people on this thread being rude are Labour voters to Tories. Which is pretty ironic.

itsatiggerday · 03/10/2017 09:47

How is that even on a forum with a relatively educated, thoughtful and discursive posting body, we are so lacking in nuance when it comes to domestic politics? This is such a depressing thread.

When you're next bemoaning the polarisation in our society, the divided narrative of 'us' and 'them', when you're pointing fingers at people who are 'othering', remember that we all have a tendency to do that, but we don't notice it when we're so comfortable in the 'us'.

For all the lefties keen to distance from Momentum - 'they don't speak for me' - the same is true on the right wing. It is a spectrum. And a whole ton of people voted Conservative in the last election. There was no evidence of wholesale election fraud and ballot box stuffing.

So please, let's address our divided, polarised, silo society with a little bit of honesty with ourselves and think about how we can instead contribute our penny's worth to the kinder, more generous and more nuanced discussion.

UnicornRainbowColours · 03/10/2017 09:47

Also Op in the grand scheme of things, there are boys his age running off to join gangs and Isis so I think being a member of the young convvatives pales in comparison.

DuckOffAutocorrectYouShiv · 03/10/2017 09:48

I'd be surprised, as she is pretty left wing in her thinking. However, I wouldn't have been surprised if her brother had've. I'm left of centre. DH is r-o-c. We've been happily married for two decades and can coexist with different political beliefs and still respect each other as partners and humans, believe it or not Hmm

CalmanOnSpeeddial · 03/10/2017 09:48

You haven’t read that post properly whosethemummy. Cobweb was saying that she’d be OK if it was the result of a thoughtful look at policies but not OK if it was the result of frothing thick racism. Ie that both strands are represented within the Tory party.

I’m not a Tory myself but I’d probably be happier with a teen with thoughtful right wing leanings than some of the left wing knee jerk Tumblr outrage I see amongst teens and also on MN. UKIP or the BNP however I’d be genuinely upset because I don’t think there are any worthwhile consistent political values within those parties.

specialsubject · 03/10/2017 09:48

Whichever party,let's hope he isn't as intolerant, closed minded and plain unpleasant as some on this thread.

AccrualIntentions · 03/10/2017 09:48

Could some of those mythical people perhaps try and get the rest of them to behave like they give a shit, then?

As a usually Lib Dem voter, I'm just as disturbed by Momentum and the far left of the Labour Party as the Young Conservatives. Could the sensible and rational and not rabidly anti-semitic people in the Labour Party also please get the rest of them to stop being such a bunch of dickheads?