My dh and I were discussing the tory party. He really dislikes what they stand for.aibu to.ask .. .

[Chewchewaboogiw]

Ask if you.vote tory and would be planning to continue to do so.. why and what do you like about the party?in the circles we mix in no one votes tory that we know of so cant ask in real life.. but there must be many who vote this way.

I don't think anyone can assume that because people vote for a party that has done "bad things" that they agree with those things. Most people are reconciled to balancing a variety of things in political decision making and the level of corruption is one of them. There comes a tipping point but it really depends on how much better they think the other parties would be (and it's not like progressive parties are immune from that kind of thing) and it's also balanced against the general direction they think the parties would go in, or for some people specific policies under discussion.

Personally, I am seriously worried about any party that tries to enforce silence on their own members in terms of discussion of contentious issues, more than a lot of the issues with the Tories at the moment. Parties and stuff are pretty irrelevant though they naturally piss people off, and while procurement scandals are more serious, I think they are less serious than suppressing political discussion by a fair margin, certainly in the form we've seen, because they strike at the heart of the democratic process.

So you'll throw the whole country under a bus just to get back at trans people. What a truly terrible take. Not to mention he only said that to get votes from bigots. The idea that Johnson of all people gives two figs about women's rights is utterly ludicrous.

Yep I'm Getting a new phone in next 3 weeks -- why it keeps crossing stuff out I have zero idea!!! Bizzare

Boris's ability to tell a human male from a human female is reassuring. I think he's sleazy in his professional and political acquaintances and certainly doesn't have a fixed moral compass; I don't find him even mildly amusing, but his ability to delegate to people who are good at their jobs worked well when he was Mayor of London. He's a cheer leader, not a thinker.

So you'll throw the whole country under a bus just to get back at trans people. What a truly terrible take. Not to mention he only said that to get votes from bigots

😆😆🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

I don't know any trans people well personally, but my DS had a year-long affair with a trans person, and the trans customer service person at my local supermarket is efficient and charming. I am not judging all trans people on SM, but I think there's starting to be enough evidence to suggest that there should be completely separate provision in sport, prisons and closed environments for trans people. Separate, but equal.

@Giraffesandbottoms is that throwing the country under a bus? As I said, I am not personally involved; I have no skin in the game and no axe to grind. I think that expecting natal females to compete in sport against people who decide to compete in women's sport after male puberty trashes any notion of equality. We could decide on weight categories, like boxing uses, to level the playing field and work out a handicapping system. Would that level the field enough?

@XingMing

thats not my comment, I’m laughing at the comment I’ve quoted, because it’s absurd to claim people are bigots for agreeing that trans women are not women.

To sum up in one sentence - Tories are not Labour

I think for many people this is the main reason. I wonder how many people vote to get a party in and how many vote to keep a party out?

Exactly @Giraffesandbottoms isn't it bonkers that some people are that narcissistic that they think anyones personal opinion that is different from theirs is of course just to get at them... 😬😬

I wonder how many people vote to get a party in and how many vote to keep a party out?

If the old adage is right that oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them, it looks like the latter.

Apart from myself I only know Tory voters. They all intend to continue voting Tory. When questioned they all feel that the Tory’s are doing a good job.

I vote Tory and will continue to do so. They at least recognise a woman

Many conservative principles are in bedded into our culture the idea of less government intrusion in our lives and belief in personal responsibility on making choices

at the moment we have a Tory party who are taking on what a more left policies high taxes and high (ish) spending (though largely led by Covid)

politics being left and right is being shaken up everywhere at the moment

Ive always been more to the left (centre left) and I’m well aware this is where labour need to be to ever win an election (not looking particularly promising at the moment)

But Labour have a strain of complete cultural madness that runs through them. Corbyn for fuck sake. Until that ideological zealotry is locked up and they throw away the key, I'll hold my nose and vote Tory

apart from voting Tory I completely agree and I can understand why people won’t vote for Labour. When Blair and Brown led the party this was dealt with there was no pandering to the left of they party or taking on policies that were too radical for the majority of voters. This is why the issue around self id/the question of what is a women has back fired so much for Starmer. Blair absolutely would have considered what most voters want to hear and based his answers around that, showing solidarity with a very very small number of people isn’t always necessary. This debate has played into the mistrust people have of how Labour is run

Well the NHS has been said to the closest thing British people have to a religion and it is completely socialist - free on tap healthcare to a population where the majority of households and 40% of the population are net recipients of government funds i.e. take back and consume more services than they put back in taxes. I think top 40% roughly works out to 35k based on a stat I once read but it's probably higher now...

I have no idea whether the Tory voters on this thread are net contributors or net recipients but the fact that the Tory party are a mainstream party with many voters falling in the bottom 60% and many new Red wall voters (where a 35k wage would probably count as a good wage ). I mean I talked to PP who have experience of living on the same amount of money as benefit claimants sothat is probably not an atypical experience amongst Tory voters and while I am sure it is painful, in a fiscal sense, they are 'taking from the system more than they put in' like unemployed benefit claimants, they are just trying harder.

I view Britons as little troupers, kinda like teens who really try to earn money in a minimum wage job to supplement the household income but it often falls short sadly. Extremely responsible and commendable but to say someone who earns 10% of the family outgoings is carrying the family on the shoulders is a bit much. But yet British people still support the NHS (which is why even Thatcher could not reform the NHS) and even so many people here talk glowingly about the 80% childcare costs rebate and universal credit payments (which are by definition socialist in nature and redistributive). British people like the state to take care of that but they like to see that people are trying to give back even if it's the tax equivalent of giving 10p to the red cross

Yes, Better Together was very good as the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats worked together for the good of the Union itself.

Labour and their activists tried to explain their failure to build on that by gaining votes by trying the same old "What's the question? The Tories are to blame for everything!" schtick.

But their REAL problem after Better Together was:

1. complete failure to understand Constitutional issues WILL take precedence over daily issues. Labour's usual bread and butter issues simply cannot keep up with the more pervasive Constitutional debate.

2. Labour's inability and refusal to understand Scotland's politics has been Ulsterised. This they incorrectly blamed on the Conservatives when the real blame lay at Labour's door due to their Constitutional vandalism under Blair which was erroneously encouraged by Donald Dewar. Labour claimed devolution would kill Nationalism stone dead.

3. complete failure to understand they under Jack McConnell made a pigs ear of devolved Scottish affairs. This was then ruthlessly exploited by the SNP even while Labour continued to try using bigotry against the Conservatives.

4. Failure to declare as a Unionist party and boot the SDLP as well as their united Ireland policy right out of the party. When Corbyn, McDonnel and Abbot were Labour's top brass, I was able to help weaken them further in Scotland and England due to their pro-Provo (SF/IRA) history. They have fallen far from Kinnock keeping Corbyn at arms length due to this history. Very sad to see, actually.

5. Labour started trying to take on the SNP and the Conservatives electorally which was a suicide mission! Labour knew just over a third of their voters are pro-independence and just under two-thirds are Unionist. They tried to serve two masters and attempted to downplay the Constitutional debate which enraged many Nationalists and Unionists alike. A low moment for them was when Thornberry took the piss out of someone for having an England flag flying from a pole from their house. Flying of flags to mark political allegiance is NOT a Northern Ireland thing anymore as its done a lot in Scotland post-2014.

6. Labour suspended Aberdeen councillors for forming a Council coalition with the Conservatives. But did nothing about Labour councillors forming a Council coalition with the SNP in Renfrewshire, I think. Their argument being the Conservatives are the party of austerity despite the fact Labour also regularly blame the SNP for tripling any austerity from Westminster. Labour were viewed as being bigoted against Scotland's biggest Unionist party and as being very manipulative to boot. So lost a lot of votes.

Conservatives always try to get a coalition going with Labour and the Lib Dems, but Labour usually block it. Yet Scottish Unionists of all three parties know they must unite in order to get rid of the SNP, stop independence and put the Constitutional issue to bed.

Labour are incredibly SLOW to understand they need to work with the Conservatives. In fact, since Labour's Red Wall in England collapsed in 2019, Scottish Labour voters who are anti-Conservative now look like bigots. They really need to get over that one.

Fast.