How do people keep voting in the tories?

[chaosmaker]

I'd love it if tory voters could say why they vote the way they do given that there's ample evidence for how utterly incompetent they are (11 years). Especially in the last election. With that not-fit-for-purpose idiot in charge - edited by MNHQ
I also keep writing to my MP saying that if they are going to pretend we have democracy then they need to scrap FPTP.

AIBU that we should allow people with no sense to vote or
AINBU am I right in that people should have to factor history and rare sense into their decision making?

@BlokeTarget

I’ve been in the armed forces for 25 years.

1997 under Blair’s labour and browns’ labour h till 2010 i witnessed some of the worse defence cuts / redundancies / equipment issues ever.

Since this Tory government there’s been record investment in MOD and NATO GDP 2% commitment. More equipment procurement and record salaries.

Working for the government under a Labour Party was absolute misery ss brown was famously quoted “ a pound spent on defence is a pound wasted” and didn’t we feel that policy. 2 major wars and record underfunding.

I’ll never vote labour again. And I voted Tory last time to keep that absolute champagne socialist, terrorist sympathising, oxygen thief Corbyn out of government. He would have dragged us back to a 3 day working week under union control, and nationalised the railways and gas companies ; who would pay for this? The taxpayer.

He’s scum.

Who pays for the armed forces? And wtf for? Murderous illegal wars they can't win. Resulting in waves of refugees. But I digress.

I am saying if there is no opposition party, then you get Tory.
Rock on Boris.

@Bollindger

There is an opposition, and they lead in all the polls.

Boris has lost all credibility.

@XingMing

And nothing improved.... the 1970s were shitty for most people whoever was in power. There really wasn't a better or worse version of the 1970s that flowed from party politics. It was universally difficult for everyone, whatever your views. You could not choose an option to favour your situation; times were tough for everyone. The super-rich had gone overseas, so taxation fell on anyone who earned a wage.

Your memory is patchy at best.

I was also there.

Do you remember 1979? By then James Callaghan was indeed Prime minister at that point.

Thatcher focused on several issues for the election - here is what she had to say on immigration -

"In a 1978 television interview for current affairs programme World in Action, Conservative MP Margaret Thatcher claimed that British people feared being 'swamped' by immigrants from the new Commonwealth and Pakistan. Racial tensions had been brewing in the UK and Thatcher brought immigration and race to the forefront of the political debate in the year leading up to the 1979 general election."

Then there was the unemployment issue and the infamous "Labour isn't working" poster. Within 3 years she'd managed to more than double it.

Rock on Boris.
How pathetic.

Boris is a joke, I agree, but when it comes down to it Labour will lose again.
Why? Because the people who do vote don't trust Labour. When the UK has hard times people just won't vote for Labour...
A Decade , Brexit, Covid and still Labour can't win.

There hasn't been a general election since brexit or covid so your points are wrong.

Ok, won't win.

Yet Labour lead in the polls and the Tories have lost two formerly safe seats.

It's a running narrative from the Tory faithful that Labour can't win, that people don't trust them.

Sadly, this is over confidence based on a one issue general election and the arrogance to thjnk that the Red Wall will.stay with the tories.

Remember the only majority you have won in decades was Cameron's paltry 16 or so back in 2015. A lot of you are counting your brexit chickens. Liklihood is after 15 years in charge at the next election the Tories are going to struggle.

Alongside the cock ups on covid and brexit not delivering its promises that is.

@JohnHuffam1812

Also the biggest defence cuts have come in the last decade under the tories.

The railways have been nationalised.

Energy companies have collapsed and been handed to bigger firms concentrating market power into the hands of the big companies.

I love how these predictions all came true under the tories.

Interesting. Because all the cuts and scrapping of equipment and capabilities happened in my first 13 years of service ( labour)

And since 2010 ( you can’t blame nimrod on the tories- it was a death trap. And labour left us £175 billion in debt ) there’s been record investment un quality equipment , the equipment in wearing and using right now. Today.

Even with the cuts of 2010 , there were insignificant compared to the damage Blair/ brown did to defence and our capability. I’m not talking from my armchair here… like a lot of folk do and pretend to be experts. I’ve seen it and lived it everyday since 1997. Labour were the worst. Hands down.

Your forgetting it often happens the other side lead in polls at local level.
For the last 30 years I have been proved right each time, not because I know much about how it all works, rather because I think like the majority of the voting public.
Show me why I should vote Labour, if tjey change my mind and you will see the Election vote swing as well.
Right now they do not inspire trust., they are not leadership material and it shows, no matter how much you rant at me, I am just saying it as it is...

You're being overly optimistic.

Brexit has not brought the promises that people thought were made.

There is a huge amount of anger over how covid has been handled.

"Right now they do not inspire trust". Kind of hard when not in government no? But you know voting for the policies that keep people safe makes them trustworthy, unlike over 100 tories.

"They are not leadership material"

The polls on who is a more trust worthy leader also show that Starmer is trusted more than Boris.

I think you're just repeating these platitudes.

"Show me why I should vote labour"

Yes it's funny this demand to see a parties policies long before the election is called isn't it? What are the tories proposing for the next 5 years after 2024?

Have they managed to deliver anything they promised in 2019? No. Even Brexit hasn't been what was promised.

But repeat away.

I am saying what people think.
Not people on here, who think differently to the average voter.
Mumsnet got it wrong on Brexit.
Got it wrong on JC for a win.
Got it wrong on so many levels, because you think your view should be everyone's view, as to you it makes sense.
However in the real world Labour our just don't cut the mustard. So people who do vote will gulp, close their eyes pray and vote for a Tory party.

But all of the polls disagree with your analysis of.whay people think.

Two safe seats lost should show you that.

The oft repeated this about MN being pro labour isn't correct. There were umpteen anti Labour threads here in the run up to each election over the last 6 years.

Same for Brexit, it was pretty split down the middle, there were lots of pro brexit posters.

But again the same myths get trotted out.

In the real world? In every poll taken over them last 3 months for different polling agencies ?

In the last two by elections ?

That real world.

The desperation is funny.

It's midterm. The Tories should be losing ALL by-elections.

In N Shropshire, between 2019 and 2021 the Tory vote went down by 20k votes. In the same period, the combined Lib Lab vote went up by 3.5k. The oppo parties could only convince 3.5k people to protest vote for them mid-term. The other Tory voters would rather stay at home than vote Lab or Lib.

A protest to the Government, absolutely, but hardly a resounding endorsement of opposition party prospects.

Shouldn't be losing by elections in safe seats with 20k plus majorities, only swing seats.

@JohnHuffam1812

Shouldn't be losing by elections in safe seats with 20k plus majorities, only swing seats.

Absolutely not true. You would know that if you studied political cycles.

The Tories should never have won Hartlepool or Old Bexley (possibly at a push). The Tories are still gaining council seats in places they have never seen Tory councillors. It's strange really.

I do think people are protesting over Boris's leadership, but rather than wanting him to go, they just want him to do better.

The Tories need some big delivery wins before the next election. Otherwise people will stay at home.

Don't forget. Thatcher faced skyrocketting unemployment figures before the 1983 landslide. Labour did not provide any credible opposition then.

Thatcher caused the sky rocketing unemployment and won in 83 because of her popularity boost because of the Falklands.

Foot was also the target of media abuse.

Stop the Revisionism.

Should not be losing in places where they've had 20k majorities.

Labour's majority in Hartlepool had been dwindling for years and Labour made a massive cock up with the candidate they put in.

"They just want him to do better"

Ahh the Tory faithful. Utterly deluded.

🤣 ok then!!!

I can't see that libdems or Labour have any wonderful answers to anything at the moment. There's endless problems but as far as I can see no one has any radical answers.
So you stick with what you know. And if they replace Boris with someone like Rishi Sunak (apparently intelligent, dependable, not a show off, nice hair) then they should win again.

"So you stick with what you know "

I genuinely think the dedicated Tory has no idea how small majorities are in swing seats and is over confident about the last election results which was a one issue election.

Also with how angry people are with the government for mismanaged the covid crisis, oh and in fishing and farming areas with brexit.

The reason is they are the best of a pretty poor bunch