To be sick of people from Southern England blaming everyone in Northern England for the Tory government?

[Purpledaisychain]

When loads of people from Southern England voted Tory too?

When you look at the election map, it shows that there are more blue areas in the South than up North. But the way some people carry on at the minute, you'd think that the South was all red.

It did swing the election, be honest

This is an obvious TAAT and won't help matters.

Yanbu. The north returned a majority of Labour MPs and Labour were the largest party in the region (look it up if you don't believe me). But you wouldn't think it to listen to some of the commentary.

I’m just sick of everyone blaming everyone else. Labour voters blaming Tory voters, Tory voters blaming Labour voters, Northerners blaming Southerners, Southerners blaming Northerners, Scottish blaming English, English blaming Scottish, Middle class blaming working class, working class blaming middle class .... it never ends.

The one thing this whole shitshow has shown is we are anything but a United Kingdom and that makes me quite sad.

(Before anyone nitpicks I know the Midlands are neither north or south and I know it’s not all Scottish/English people etc etc)

I haven't ever heard anything like this.

Everyone has a democratic right to their own vote. If you are sick of hearing people "blame" others for the way they voted, change who you spend time with. I might not agree with how other people vote (of course people will vote differently- that's the whole point!) but I will never blame someone for exercising their democratic right. Anyone who does clearly doesn't understand the importance of freedom of votes and I wouldn't be interested in their views because of that.

It is quite a funny conclusion. Like 'the north has a moral duty to vote labour so they win / there is a strong opposition. Even if labour is crap. The south appears to have no such obligation.
The whole electoral system is a bit bonkers though. Loads of us live in very 'safe seats' and elections are normally decided in a few swing constituencies.

No one is blaming the north for the Tory government - they're frustrated by the north voting for the Tories then bitching about the Tories. The north has been blaming the south for the Tories for years and now the north voted for them too and they're still blaming the south!?

@Lockheart

This is an obvious TAAT and won't help matters.

Yes and no. There is a thread on the subject now but it's also something that has come up loads in the past couple of weeks due to the imposition of higher covid restrictions and the way it's been handled. So many people's response has been some variant on 'you did this to yourselves by voting for them'. Well no actually we didn't! The north once again returned a majority of Labour MPs.

There is a real failure to understand the distinction between losing seats and losing the region full stop. And tbf there are northerners who don't get this too.

@MakingShapes

No one is blaming the north for the Tory government - they're frustrated by the north voting for the Tories then bitching about the Tories. The north has been blaming the south for the Tories for years and now the north voted for them too and they're still blaming the south!?

The north didn't vote for them. Pretty sure that's the OPs point.

There's only one person to blame for the current Tory government. That's Jeremy Corbyn. It was obvious from the get go to anyone with half a brain that he was never going to get elected as PM. But he is a stubborn wanker who stuck it out as long as possible. Labour may have had a chance with Theresa's 2017 election if they'd had a decent leader. He should have stepped down before then and given someone else a go, but his ego prevented him from doing so. He had a Messiah complex and we've got Boris as a result.

A map of constituencies

You can 'blame the North' but look where the blue ones are.

People seem to utterly ignore the Midlands and East of England in this discussion too. They do actually have the franchise as well.

The difference is the level of wealth though- households that are wealthier have always voted Tory as it will benefit them.
That pattern of voting has not changed in the south east. You'd like to think that people would vote for what benefits the country but they don't.

@Orcus

People seem to utterly ignore the Midlands and East of England in this discussion too. They do actually have the franchise as well.

No, really, we don't!!

Leave us out of this one....

YANBU. I'm from the Midlands so I'm impartial and I'm sick of hearing this shit from southerners.

@MillieEpple

It is quite a funny conclusion. Like 'the north has a moral duty to vote labour so they win / there is a strong opposition. Even if labour is crap. The south appears to have no such obligation. The whole electoral system is a bit bonkers though. Loads of us live in very 'safe seats' and elections are normally decided in a few swing constituencies.

This

I don’t care where they voted, but I cant understand why anyone would support the Tory government.

I can. Although I don’t. It’s highly disingenuous to claim you don’t understand why.

households that are wealthier have always voted Tory as it will benefit them.

That's another generalisation. There are plenty of wealthy people that vote Labour because it benefits everyone. They didn't fall for the 'they're going to tax you to the hilt and steal your gardens guff'.

The only generalisation I'd go with is that people who care about others don't vote for the Conservatives. They come from all walks of life.

The voting system in this country definitely needs reform.

Only a certain number of constituencies count because of the general make up of those constituencies. I used to live in what was the safest Conservative seat in the country.

@MakingShapes

All the blaming threads I've seen so far is Southern people blaming 'thick' northerners for voting Tory.

Sweeping generalisation, much?

I don't think it's the system, it's the career politicians. Now it's a job, you get started in Ents or similar at University and start connecting from there.

Grassroots politics died decades ago and the polarisation became unassailable. That and the reality of voting - who votes for their local candidate these days? No, we all imagine we are voting in an American system and we vote for the party. Speaking to some people in their 30s and 40s they are amazed that this isn't how its supposed to work!

So, if you are going to change the system you will need to educate every voter too! And good luck with that - covid has shown just how inexorably uneducateable some people choose to be!

@Rotundandhappy

Sweeping generalisation, much?

Yes, those threads do make huge sweepng generalisations!

It's Brexiteers or Northerners in most of those threads

The very best blame the Northern Brexiteers!

It's not really surprising given the urban South East / London centric demographic here.

@toconclude

You could say the same thing about all of the places in Southern England who voted Tory. If voting Tory is such a stupid thing that only Northern people do, why is there so much blue in Southern areas?

The North is getting the blame for switching from labour to tory in some areas, but you could also argue that the South is to blame for either remaining blue or switching from red to blue as well.