Are the conservatives really this popular?

[LabourHere]

Listening to statistician on BBC who reckons the conservatives are head in all polls and will win a majority on election day.

I know only two people voting conservative (mil and dm). Who are all the other conservative voters??

Are the conservatives really going to win the election so easily?

If so...I'm very very sad

I've given up even attempting to convince dyed-in-the wool Tory and Lib Dem voters of anything other than the fact that they're the cleverest, nicest, most forward-thinking, least materialistic people on the planet. Some of them are especially clever for having been born into wealthy backgrounds, or, more often, Hyacinth Bucket nouveau riche circles, or even deprived parts of society where critical thinking isn't taught in school.

You are very funny, perhaps unintentionally.

ColourMagic wrote: .... "It isn’t being proposed as an additional tax, but as a potential replacement for council taxes and/or business rates."
.
Don'tKnowhow... wrote: ...."The point here is that I (for example, I am sure there are many others) can’t afford an increase on the amount that I pay in Council Tax currently. What would happen to is when we can’t pay?"

.
What happens to us when we can't pay council tax in the here and now?

Current Council tax is very unfair. People in low value homes pay disproportionate higher amounts of Council Tax right now, and people with homes worth millions pay relatively low amounts of council tax..

The Daily Express is totally wrong to say that Labour is proposing a Land Value Tax “based on 3% of the value of each property”. That's pure scaremongering. The Sun and the Mail are at it too.

.
The value of your garden (if you have one) is Already included in Council Tax you pay now. Any possible Land Tax would be a replacement of the unfair Council Tax system.

Both the Lib Dems and Greens are also looking at the possibility of a land tax to replace the out of date, deeply unfair Council tax.

@EntropyRising Thank you for your input. I did consider a career on the stage as a comedian and then came to the conclusion that someone from my background could only aspire, if they were lucky, to sweeping it.

Pepperwand wrote: "My whole family work for the NHS and not one of them is voting for Labour."

.
Have none of your family not noticed the dangerous shortfall of nurses, and how few people are now going into nursing, and the high levels of agency staff used because of nursing staff shortages?

40,000 nurses missing from the NHS. At current rates that will be 68,000 by 2023/4.

"a leaked copy of the government’s long-awaited plan to tackle the staffing crisis.
.
Blaming the government’s decision to abolish bursaries for nursing students, a draft of the NHS people plan says: “Our analysis shows a 40,000 (11%) shortfall [in the number of nurses needed in England] in 2018-19 which widens to 68,500 (16%) by 2023-24 without intervention, as demand for nurses grows faster than supply.”

That would mean that the NHS’s shortage of nurses increases from one in nine of the workforce to one in six, adding to the rising pressures on hospitals, GP surgeries and mental health care."

people with homes worth millions pay relatively low amounts of council tax.. what if those people cannot afford a rise in council tax is the question I had asked. What will happen to them when they can’t pay this new tax. Whichever party implements it.

Consultant Clinical Oncologist Clive Peedell warns about the losses and dangers in wait if we get another Tory Government:.

.
"I have been an #NHS consultant cancer specialist for 15 years. If you care about the future of the #NHS then you shouldn’t be voting for a Tory government led by Boris Johnson. This thread explains why"

twitter.com/cpeedell/status/1201620622247374848

PS, I am personally not on twitter. But it is increasingly used to reach wider numbers of people. So please don't disparage Dr Peedells's messages just because they are on twitter.

From my experience as a teacher (14 years - 7 Labour, 7 Conservative)

Conservative = curriculum change every 3 years
Labour = curriculum change every 3 years accompanied by a glossy leaflet and an LEA (useless) adviser

Conservative = no money for textbooks
Labour = no money for textbooks but money for a yurt to help us lean about ‘cultural identity’

Conservative = not enough money for IT equipment
Labour = enough money for IT equipment but it’s all shitty RM stuff that’s way overpriced and breaks within 18 months

And the abolition of Ofsted is a good enough reason in itself not to vote Labour.

@ *Don'tknowhow ....

Who has told you that you will 'have to pay more council tax'? the Express? The Mail? Scaremongerers?

Land Tax is not even Labour policy. What is being looked at is various ways to make the current Council Tax system More Fair . Because at present people who own the highest value properties are not paying anything like the proportion of council tax that they should.

No I am going by what you have said. I live in a relatively high value property but earn little. Going by what you have said I would have to pay more. What if I cannot afford it? Genuine question.

The NHS needs reforming (REFORMING NOT PRIVATISING) - not endless money chucked at it.

It could suck up the whole of the national GDP and still be underfunded.

We need to seriously consider:

1. What is it there to treat and what is it not
2. Whether there should be some contribution at the point of use as in many other European countries
3. Whether there should be penalties for misuse.

It is a well known effect that people do not value what they perceive to be free.

Any many perceive the NHS to be free.

Tbh none of the parties are great, but the conservative leaflet I got through the door was the best and promises the best things, but will they stick to what they say? Probably not.

No I am going by what you have said. I live in a relatively high value property but earn little. Going by what you have said I would have to pay more. What if I cannot afford it? Genuine question.

I guess you just need to check your privilege and sell your house and be happy about it.

My entire family, DH family and extended friendship circles are all voting conservative. Mainly young professionals or graduates with young families. Older generation are pissed at Corbyn's plans to reduce the military and decrease inheritance tax threshold

the conservative leaflet I got through the door was the best and promises the best things, but will they stick to what they say?

Out of interest Coulddowithanap , what things did the Tory leaflet say that you liked? I'm interested as I haven't had any Tory leaflets through my door

I feel I have got no choice but to vote Conservative and pray that Labour don't get in.

Brexit has little to do with my choice, as I am not against the idea of a second referendum and would be quite happy to remain in the EU so long as it was achieved democratically.

It's the threat of a four day week, absolutely terrifies me.

I absolutely cannot vote for a party with that policy.

DH is paid hourly. 5 days, 37.5hours, clock in, clock out, get paid every Friday. He is, by far, not alone in this. If he has to have a day off sick, although not completely disasterous, it takes months for the household finances to recover properly.

Labour seems to have forgotten this sector of the working electorate, rather strangely as it mostly consists of the working classes that Labour profess to represent most.

Indications seem to be that Labour think the only jobs are salaried office jobs where a four day week might work because your average generally competent office worker can be quite a bit more flexible than someone working on a non-stop 8am-4pm production line or on the till in Sainsbury's.

That fifth day, 20 percent of DH's wages, is all of our food money and most of my medicine costs. We would have to starve, not pay the rent, sit in the dark or I would have to stop my medication and literally wait to lose my legs/go blind/have a stroke/have a heart attack/die.

I despise Jeremy Corbyn with a passion as I personally believe a cult of the leader is a damned dangerous thing but I would have been willing to vote Labour if some of their policies did not alarm me as they do. Corbyn is too much of a seventies throwback, doesn't seem to live in the modern world. John McDonnell concerns me too, he gives me a creepy puppetmaster vibe although I cannot put my finger on exactly why. I wish Chuka Umunna had not pulled out of the leadership race way back when.

People also don't advertise when they vote Conservative so their true popularity cannot be truly assertained. I truly believe quite a lot of people say they voted Labour when asked in an exit poll, when they really voted Tory and that's why there have been some shock Tory wins over the years.

BlackCherryBliss
The Labour policy is to introduce a 4 day working week with no loss of pay within 10 years So I can't see why it would be reason not to vote Labour in this election.
I don't like Jetemy Corbyn either but I would much prefer him to be Prime Minister than Johnson who has no principles other than ambition and self interest. At least Corbyn believes in something.

Codywolf I'm genuinely interested in why you are worried about Labour getting in? What is it that makes you think your life will be more difficult under them than if Boris Johnson gets in?

BlackCherryBliss the four day working week will come about as a result of ‘productivity increases’ over the next decade. It’s a farce - completely unworkable. How do you measure productivity in the public sector? How do you ‘improve’ productivity in the public sector when you’ve promised public sector workers an annual 5% pay rise? How do you improve productivity in the now massively expanded public sector when you’ve filled the workplace with militant trade union activists?

You are right. McDonnell is far scarier than Corbyn. Anyone who wants to bring back secondary picketing should rightly be feared, and I have no time for someone who thinks history should remember Winston Churchill as a villain.

And the abolition of Ofsted is a good enough reason in itself not to vote Labour

OFSTED is not fit for purpose. It needs either reformation or a different approach.

I note that you failed to mention the proposals Labour want to make to the inspection system.

Not me!

Plenty of NHS doctors including my sibling support the Tories.

On the point about council tax there is far too much tax all round and yet no party really plans to reduce it much as they all like loads of power and a huge state. The Tories slightly better than others on that but I hold out no hope of my £3600 a year council tax reducing. I live in hope. Owners of more expensive houses also pay a lot more stamp duty too -0 taxed to the hilt on property already never mind income taxes of marginal rates about 50% before we even get started on the 20% VAT we all have to pay, fuel and other duties and all the rest.

I note that you failed to mention the proposals Labour want to make to the inspection system.

They want to bring the inspection back under the LEA (along with all free schools and academies). So, the LEA will be responsible for inspecting its own schools. Can you not see the potential problems there?

I appreciate what you are saying but with no loss of pay is ideological pie in the sky, to put it nicely and is never going to happen in the vast majority of the private sector.

DH's employers quite literally shit a brick every time the minimum wage goes up. First they cut the ten minute afternoon break. Second they instituted working, what they lovingly call "bell to whistle", which means the workers have to show up ten minutes early and wash their hands/get changed out of uniform and safety gear after their shift ends. I think that is technically unlawful as it means the workers are at work unpaid for at least 1 hour and 15 minutes each week which brings their wage below minimum wage.
Another NMW rise saw them locking up the toilet roll, taking handwash out of the toilets, cheating the average holiday pay entitlement by on the fly manipulation of the qualifying period. They gave one chap a written warning for using a single piece of printer paper for scribbling down a personal note on it.

Then there are the workers on more than minimum wage like DH who have not seen a pay rise in years and probably won't until minimum wage catches up to their pay level and the tight gits in charge have no choice.

There is no way on this earth or any other planet would you get his employers to pay 20 percent more in wages for the same output which is what this policy would require.

Ideals are one thing, getting real world bosses to adhere to them are quite another.