To ask would you still vote Tory after everything Boris has done and if so, why?

[bookworm1982]

My husband and I were talking about this over dinner and I'm genuinely interested in people's answers (not looking to wind anyone up).

they will want people to vote for them in a general election

People used to vote for the party whose policies were the best fit with their values. Maybe we should start doing that again instead of holding popularity contests.

I usually try to focus more on the job that I think the person will do than their personal actions in private or even their personality. Some pretty crappy personalities have been effective political leaders.

That being said, there are times when moral problems like corruption, or hypocrisy, can undermine leadership. Plus some people are just too annoying.

Then there is the issue of the other option.

I am a swing voter. I usually vote Lib Dem or Labour but have voted Tory in the past because the MP was a strong advocate of a local (big) infrastructure project that I agreed needed doing and thought he was a decent person. I did not vote for BJ or Tories generally in the Brexit era, and wouldn't vote Tory again while he's leader. I can see a situation where I would vote Tory again but it would depend on a lot of things; new leader, manifesto and the MP themselves being someone I perceived as a decent person. The stars would need to align in a way I don't see them doing for some time with the current crop. My local MP is a Tory but a career politician that toes the line, over spends and trys to get his family elected to local govt and I just can't see a situation I which I'd ever vote for him.

One of the 300 odd MPs who isn’t in the cabinet? Jeremy Hunt, Johnny Mercer, Penny Mordaunt - there are plenty to choose from.

Penny, TWAW, Mordaunt is the Minister for Trade Policy. There's gossip about her running for the leadership. Reforms to the GRA are still on the table.

Yes I would vote Tory, despite coming from a long line of Labour voters. I cannot vote for a party who don’t know what a woman is, and Starmer’s attitude to restrictions and vaccines during the pandemic has been more than alarming. I couldn’t, in all good faith, support them now, so it’s the lesser of two evils.

The question in the OP is a bit misleading. Boris is not the Tories. Boris is just another leader they will dispense with as soon as the party sees he’s a lane duck. That is a difference between labour and the Tories. Labour allow themselves to be hijacked and permanently tainted by people like Corbyn and his relics like Rayner who is still hounding the front benches. Tories will find someone else before the next election if needed.

@Blossomtoes

they will want people to vote for them in a general election

People used to vote for the party whose policies were the best fit with their values. Maybe we should start doing that again instead of holding popularity contests.

Maybe people dont anymore because they dont stick to their manafesto pledges.

@sst1234

The question in the OP is a bit misleading. Boris is not the Tories. Boris is just another leader they will dispense with as soon as the party sees he’s a lane duck. That is a difference between labour and the Tories. Labour allow themselves to be hijacked and permanently tainted by people like Corbyn and his relics like Rayner who is still hounding the front benches. Tories will find someone else before the next election if needed.

Don't understand the hatred towards Raynor on here, she is someone who didn't have the best start in life, went back to college, was a carer, represented her fellow workers, made her way up to be on the shadow front bench.

I'm sure some on here would be happier if she had "known her station" and had 5 more children - still (at least) one less than Bojo but thats all ok for you because he is a man???

@sst1234

The question in the OP is a bit misleading. Boris is not the Tories. Boris is just another leader they will dispense with as soon as the party sees he’s a lane duck. That is a difference between labour and the Tories. Labour allow themselves to be hijacked and permanently tainted by people like Corbyn and his relics like Rayner who is still hounding the front benches. Tories will find someone else before the next election if needed.

The Tories don’t do this? Really? Thatcher?

I live in an area that was traditional tory and that changed in a recent by election to Lib Dem. So even ‘safe seats’ do change.

If the state schools are bad in your area surely they need more investment and support. The Tory gov don’t do that.

I don’t think the actions of Boris and cronies are in any way unique in their shit-ness. I firmly believe any and all politicians would behave equally badly given the chance and that we only find out the half of it. I am quite confident that labour and other party politicians broke whatever rules didn’t suit them it just hasn’t made the news. I remember the expenses scandal and any number of other morally bankrupt things politicians have done over the years and they certainly weren’t all conservative.

So in summary - the current lot are shysters, any other replacements will also be shysters.

I actually think the policies of lockdown, massive vaccination programmes and a push to get back to normal haven’t been worse than the policies of other countries.

My big fear is that Johnson will be very keen to go to war against Russia over Ukraine to try to sure up the support of his base. That will be the only reason he would get involved, he's not going to actually give a shit about Ukraine.

Don't think Raynor is very professional. Shouting scum at the opposition, bullying Rosie Duffield (who used to be a teaching assistant so not exactly landed gentry) spouting twaw.

@Kendodd

My big fear is that Johnson will be very keen to go to war against Russia over Ukraine to try to sure up the support of his base. That will be the only reason he would get involved, he's not going to actually give a shit about Ukraine.

Yes, that’s very scary. He might remember how the Falklands saved Thatcher’s electoral skin and think a jolly good war would be the perfect distraction from his current woes.

@Newgirls

I live in an area that was traditional tory and that changed in a recent by election to Lib Dem. So even ‘safe seats’ do change.

If the state schools are bad in your area surely they need more investment and support. The Tory gov don’t do that.

Sorry to 'pick on' you - but my area also has "outstanding" state schools at both primary and secondary level. We still chose not to use them, because the independent system is all we have ever known, and it never crossed our minds to do anything else. So it isn't always about investment and support. Something even more profound would have to happen for dyed-in-the-wool independent school people to switch to state - though I'm not sure what it is. Part of it, for me, is that I don't think the state has a clue about what an all-round education actually means. I would be more in favour of it if it were taken out of party politics and were (like the NHS, or its potential replacement) part of a cross-party policy based on what works, not on ideology.

What I don't understand, really, is why those in power were so keen to 'nudge' everyone into paranoid compliance regarding lockdown and Covid. As previously mentioned, I didn't comply, because I didn't see the point/necessity. They evidently didn't see the necessity either, to judge by their actions (and if Labour/Lib Dems had been in power, it would have been the same story). But in that case: why enforce it? Why bankrupt the country for no particular reason? I will never understand this.

Portillista usually what happens is independent school people running out of money.

If there is a choice of Labour, Lib Dem, Green or Conservative I have to vote for the only party who haven't actually announced they hate women.

Unfortunately that means voting Conservative as they haven't actually said that yet.

If there is an independent who is Gender Critical I'd vote for them but nothing will make me vote for the other 3.

I think any woman voting for Labour, the Lib Dems or the Greens nowadays is a turkey voting for Christmas so it doesn't matter what their other policies are or if they might be better.

@hayley037

Do some people in some constituencies really only have 3-4 options on their ballot paper and not have any independent candidates they could vote for?

I usually have around 10 different options where I live.

If people continually vote Tory despite not wanting to and 'having no option' then they will always feel they have a green light to continue to engage in corruption and that injustices are okay. We'll also never see the end of the 18th century model of democracy we currently have with FPTP.

We had an Independent in a couple of GEs in the last 20-odd years, plus we used to have UKIP and even had a BNP candidate once.

It's a Tory/LD marginal, so most Labour voters (me included) vote LD tactically in the hope of unseating the Tory incumbent who is an ERG member in a remain-voting area.

We'd probably still have an LD MP if they hadn't taken Cameron's coalition shilling. The LD MP was a minister in the coalition and a lot of people switched their votes to the Greens in disgust, so he got booted out.

I know people who voted Tory, some have always voted Tory, and moan about the state of the NHS, schools, roads etc. When I point out that they voted for this, they claim that they didn't vote for spending on X, Y or Z to be slashed, like voting was a pick'n'mix process.

If you voted Tory, at least own the consequences.

@PermanentTemporary

Portillista usually what happens is independent school people running out of money.

Well, that too! Still paying off several credit cards and a debt to a school...

@AlexaShutUp

My only conclusion about the voters who wouldn't vote for other parties because of their stance on women is that they must be very comfortable middle class voters with very few other things to worry about.

My job brings me into close contact with the horrendous impact of Tory rule, and believe me, lots of real women are really suffering from that impact right now. I doubt that many of those queuing up at food banks right now have much headspace to bother about whether Keir Starmer knows what a woman is tbh.

I am very unhappy with Labour's position on women, but I am really concerned that people are focusing on this to the exclusion of other issues which are equally important.

It's a bit like single-issue voters in America endorsing whichever demon promises to ban abortion.

I will never vote for the party that cocked up the Brexit referendum, voted NOT to continue feeding hungry kids during their school breaks, locked down the country to "save" the NHS but had their own boozy bashes as though the rules (the law!!) were beneath them, laughed about that among themselves as though it was such a cheeky mischief while people died in hospital scared and alone, handed public money to pals of theirs who apparently shrugged their shoulders and said, "Sure, we can supply PPE, how hard can that be", deported Windrush immigrants because surely a black person couldn't be a legal immigrant, and would rather kneecap the economy and standard of living for the majority of us than invest in expanding capacity in our health services and schools so that they're no longer constantly threatened with being overloaded and overwhelmed.

They are hypocrites. The only ones who look like remotely decent human beings are the Scottish Tories, and that's only because they are politely ignored in Westminster.

I will never vote for a party that it’s supports vote for hyperbole over getting on with stuff.
Trite headlines over long term policy.

@BingoNinja

Yes I would vote Tory, despite coming from a long line of Labour voters. I cannot vote for a party who don’t know what a woman is, and Starmer’s attitude to restrictions and vaccines during the pandemic has been more than alarming. I couldn’t, in all good faith, support them now, so it’s the lesser of two evils.

Yes, the tories have an immaculate track record for voting on women’s rights, and their policies certainly do not disproportionately affect women.

If you’re going to vote tories don’t try to pretend it genuinely about the rights of women

Ok, I am considering voting Conservative because I am selfish and evil. Nothing to do with trying to stave off the damage to women's rights.

Just don't scratch your head next election when the Conservatives keep the leadership, as you don't know that many evil and selfish people and no one has any other reasons for not voting for Labour.

You'll just have to conclude that most people you interact with are selfish and evil too.

The tory voters I know vote that way because they don't want higher income taxes or CGT etc.

Not many people admit that on MNs though