To be finished with voting Tory

[Viviennemary]

I've voted Tory in the last couple of elections. Didn't like Corbyn and thought Keir Stammer was a bit feeble. But after that smug performance by Sunak I am totally not going to vote Tory for a very long time. We are now in a position not to be affected too much by recent rises. Not always been that way of course. I wonder if others are feeling the same. But the lack of any sort of help for less well off people makes me absolutely sick. And all decided by a multi millionaire.

I live in the Speaker’s constituency so don’t get a vote

@Fordian

Confession. I voted Tory.

In May '79.

I was 18.

I haven't made that mistake again.

I voted Tory in my first election too. I was young for my age and much as I disliked my parents and had their overall disapproval, I grew up in their environment and imbibed more of their shit than I'd realised.

I also haven't made that mistake again, but I'm currently politically homeless.

You. Voted. Tory.
And now you feel sorry for the "poor people"

What if both main parties have a single boss?

I'm not sure it helps to portray all Tory voters as evil puppy killers who don't give a shit about anyone.

The real question is why Labour can't seem to generate support against such an absolute shitshow of corruption, neglect and sleaze.

If that sort of things bothers you, OP, I'm not sure why you were voting Tory before.

Im sorry (actually - no I am not) but you CANNOT use self ID as a reason to vote Tory.

A few PPs have said (validly) around the issues regarding self ID e.g rapes in womens prisons...THESE HAPPENED UNDER TORY LEADERSHIP.

They have lied and lied and lied again, and are deliberatly wishywashy to keep your vote. There is no guarantee that they will not u turn.

But instead you throw millions of women under the bus by forcing us into state sanctioned poverty.

They are destroying our country - you CANNOT let this continue.

Instead, lobby you labour MP. Tell them how you feel, tell them its stopping them taking back control.

I’ve been a lifelong Tory voter, however the longer all this crap goes on the more likely I am to change my vote. However, as to what I would change it to I genuinely don’t know as I definitely don’t want to vote Labour…no way! However, it only ever seems to be those two to get in so what do we do?!!

@ExplodingElephants

I’ve been a lifelong Tory voter, however the longer all this crap goes on the more likely I am to change my vote. However, as to what I would change it to I genuinely don’t know as I definitely don’t want to vote Labour…no way! However, it only ever seems to be those two to get in so what do we do?!!

You vote labour.

Or you protest vote. Even if the alternatives don't get in, it shows that there are engaged voters out there who will give you their vote if you listen to them.

People don't like fence sitters. It doesn't get you votes, it makes people wary because they don't know what you stand for. Someone who takes a stand is at least showing you who they are even if you don't like it.

I'm afraid I'm not voting Labour because they don't believe that female people have the right to a word for themselves or to define themselves in a way that excludes male people or any single sex spaces.

So I will be spoiling my ballot paper until there's a party worth voting for.

I've never voted Conservative even I would almost certainly be better off financially if I did. Still have principles!

I'm not sure it helps to portray all Tory voters as evil puppy killers who don't give a shit about anyone.

This is true. I have some tory voting friends and they are kind and inclusive but they firmly believe that if they vote Labour it will be like the DDR or worse. It is beyond bonkers.

However. If you are a tory voter suddenly realising after 12 years that the tories don't care about people on low incomes, the sick, the disabled, the precariat, pensioners, anyone who doesn't vote for them. I have to ask you if you ever gave more than a passing thought to who to vote for? Did you even read a manifesto*?

Did you read manifestos from other parties and see what they're about?

Sometimes, especially local elections, it is prudent to vote for the representative who will actually represent the area (your area) and stand up for you and the area. That sometimes means voting for a party you don't normally vote for. And it sticks in the craw but that is sometimes the sensible move.

I didn't realise the speaker still has a constituency. That is absolute shit and I'd be pushing for change if i lived there. It has been clear for a number of years that the Tories want to privatise the NHS, by selling it to US healthcare companies. Brexit has accelerated that, i think? because doing trade deals with the US now has the privatisation (into American companies' hands) as a non-negotiable part of any trade deal.

slow handclap that wasn't hidden. It has been in plain sight for years.

*yeah, they all lie. You have to look at their record too

I'm not voting for anyone. Tories are awful and Lib Dem and Labour don't care about women.

@lonelyapple

I'm not voting for anyone. Tories are awful and Lib Dem and Labour don't care about women.

Then you have voted Tory.

Then you have voted Tory.

I won't be voting for any of them and I certainly won't vote for the other two whilst they put women in danger.

LOL at people who voted Tory when they were only making the lives of the very poorest and disabled miserable from 2010 onwards, but suddenly discover a conscience when their own living standards start to get hit.

Of course that's what the Tories have always relied on - enough people voting only to safeguard their own personal comfort, regardless of what impact it had on the very poorest.

The UK is at its least influential in generations. A part of the UK that experienced a thirty year civil war is now seeing tensions and violence again. The number of people needing food banks has exploded - about 40,000 people used food banks when the Tories came to power, which rose by more than 62 times higher to 2.5 million in 2020/21. Waiting lists in the NHS have increased.

Home ownership is out of reach for millions on otherwise good incomes. When the Tories came to power in London, homes cost 7 times household incomes on average (that was still too high, by the way). But now it is nearly 11 times household income.

Sorry, but if you were voting Tory over the last 12 years then you were voting for your own selfish interest while millions suffered. Now that the suffering has extended to you, change your vote or don't change your vote - but this is exactly what you voted for.

@Pixiedust1234

I've never voted tory but right now they are the only party that knows what a woman is biologically. Since rapists are being put into womens prisons and womens hospital wards now is the time to say #nothankyou, not #bekind. Its shit tbh

Might have escaped your notice but these things are happening after 12 years of Tory rule.

Raabs dept recently approved the release of Peter Connelly's killer.

If you want these things to stop, then we need a different party in charge instead of one that says ALL the things we want to hear but carry on doing the exact opposite.... most obviously on Covid and social mixing :(

@Butteryflakycrust83 - in many constituencies, yes. Not in all of them. That's the likely outcome of spoiling or withholding your vote.

But the lack of any sort of help for less well off people makes me absolutely sick. And all decided by a multi millionaire

YANBU to not vote Conservative any longer but YABU to have not realised this sooner. Same old Tory. They've always been like this.

A caller to LBC a few days ago was saying he was a life-long Tory voter but they wouldn't get his vote ever again, his reason? Their treatment of Ukrainian refugees. Now, I agree, the deliberate obstacles they've put in the way of refugees is abhorrent - however, I don't understand how you can be surprised that a government that will happily watch their own people freeze/starve, that will deliberately punish disabled people - will be less than accommodating to desperate people from other countries. It left me wondering why the blatant assault of the poor in this country for the last decade wasn't enough to change his vote. It's interesting where peoples red lines are.

The caller ended by asking everyone to #bekind - yeah, fuck off mate!

@lonelyapple

I'm not voting for anyone. Tories are awful and Lib Dem and Labour don't care about women.

At least they care more than the Tories about ensuring that women have enough to eat; adequate heating; adequate help with care for children and elders (which, fair or not, tends to be women's responsibility, etc.)

I do worry about complete right to self-ID and how this can and does lead to abuses. But some people talk as though women's rights ONLY consist of having safe spaces just for women, where that's perhaps about 10 per cent of it, and 90 per cent is about being excluded from male-dominated spaces and activities, or about feeling dependent on, and unable to escape, an abusive male partner. Until the 90s, there wasn't even a legal concept of rape within marriage.

It left me wondering why the blatant assault of the poor in this country for the last decade wasn't enough to change his vote.

Honestly, I think it was New Labour’s tax credit regime that drove a lot of people to eventually vote for a party promising benefit cuts. It had become financially advantageous for too many people to work as little as possible. Employers were turning full-time roles into part-time roles of tax credit threshold hours, because candidates wanting a full-time role were scarce when they knew they’d be financially better off working the minimum number of hours to qualify them for the maximum amount of tax credits instead. And many people saw it as unfair and taking the piss – particularly when you then remember that as well, somebody could claim to be “self employed” and owning a “business” they were “employed” at for the tax credit threshold number of hours, yet declare their earnings as £50 a week, get themselves topped up with tax credits to a full time salary, and do this for years. For a long time, many people didn’t see Tory benefit cuts as “an assault on the poor”, but putting right that wrong.

And now more and more people are realising that it’s gone too far in the other direction.

I really would hope that before spoiling their vote or not using it people would look at their constituency voting patterns and consider the possible outcome of their choice.

@lemmein

A caller to LBC a few days ago was saying he was a life-long Tory voter but they wouldn't get his vote ever again, his reason? Their treatment of Ukrainian refugees. Now, I agree, the deliberate obstacles they've put in the way of refugees is abhorrent - however, I don't understand how you can be surprised that a government that will happily watch their own people freeze/starve, that will deliberately punish disabled people - will be less than accommodating to desperate people from other countries. It left me wondering why the blatant assault of the poor in this country for the last decade wasn't enough to change his vote. It's interesting where peoples red lines are.

The caller ended by asking everyone to #bekind - yeah, fuck off mate!

Also presumably perfectly happy how the Tories have treated all the other refugees over the last 12 years. It was just the Ukrainian's he drew the line at?

Now, I hate how the UK has treated Ukrainian refugees.

But the hand wringing by Tory voters because they've suddenly realised that white, western people can have to flee from oppression as well as people from Syria or Afghanistan is hypocrisy.

Sorry mate, if you were a Tory supporter while Priti Patel was pursuing policies to allow refugees die in the English channel, then you've no right to bleat on about how much you care now.