Aibu to wonder why the tories are all deciding that they need to fix everything when they have been in power for 12 years?

[berryfull]

What on earth are they on about?

i thought they were all “world beating” and “record levels of this that and the other”

but they get rid of boris and suddenly the truth is out

the economy needs fixing
the nhs needs fixing
every fucking thing needs fixing seemingly….

how can they be so incredibly unself aware?

i thought the only thing that people trusted them on was the economy.

and think they’ll be able to bribe people with phantom tax cuts? Where’s the magic money tree they were blethering in about?

bunch of liars. And incompetent liars at that.

is anyone actually going to vote for them ever again?

The Tories have spent 12 years coasting along, knowing they will always get elderly boomers' votes.

It's now starting to occur to them that they perhaps need to think about their party's long-term future?

The young are pissed off and resentful of the way the elderly have been prioritized again and again (housing, NI, triple lock, BREXIT, covid, you name it).

They do not appear to be "getting more conservative as they get older," partly because huge numbers of them are not doing the kind of things that make people get more conservative (buying property and having kids), or are doing so only at a later age than their parents did by which age their political opinions are already largely formed.

Once the boomers start to die off, the Tories may have a problem on their hands. I think they've just started to realize this, hence the panic.

Nadine Dorries was asked if PM Johnson was thinking of running again for leader by C4 News tonight. She didn't deny it and refused to rule it out.🤦‍♀️

WTF is going on in their wee Tory heads?

The issue is studies show the 'getting more conservative as younger older' thing is largely untrue. The conservative party are relying overwhelmingly on older voters as you say, but young people are more to the left than they have ever been, and dont actually change so much through life. Republicans in the US have the same issue. When was the last time they clearly won the election without the electoral college? 15 years ago plus? In ten years they could be gone unless they change, and they seem to be going even more to the right.

Traditionally, younger people did tend to become more conservative as they got past their late 20s. Right now, however, this shift is not happening, or is happening much much less than it used to.

Agree with pp. My family are traditional Tory voters. In their 70s and 80s, they've all drifted to the Lib Dems over the last five years. Brexit, BJ, etc. They're not obsessed with immigration, nor did they want to leave the EU.

Younger voters are more liberal. No one I know is drifting hard right. Why would they?

Who on earth does the Tory party think it's going to appeal to in 10 years time?

Wish we had mandatory voting in the UK.

It works well in Oz, and is arguably a reason why their democratic system seems to be functioning better than the UK or US.

It makes it much harder for a country's policies to be held ransom to the groups that have the highest turnout with voluntary voting.

As soon as australia also get some very right wing populist who ignores the old standards of decency and the whole 'being a gentleman' thing and has to be forced out like trump and Johnson, we'l see that their system is as shaky as the UK and US. These democratic systems need some extreme shoring up, and we also have to stop thinking of them as the ultimate, best, finished state political system that cant be improved. They're massively open to corruption and constantly underperforms. Theres a reason why countries form coalition governments during war.

I agree with mandatory voting, but only along with a lot of non biased political education that the government keeps its nose out of.

For a democracy to not be a joke the people making political decisions (voters) need to know what they are talking about, and they dont.

Yep, but they think the voting population are stupid because they prove them right time and time again. Britain sleepwalked into disaster. Now you have people celebrating the possible removal of their human rights in the name of racial prejudice. It Beggars belief.

Yes, the electorate are largely stupid when it comes to shooting themselves in the foot, but critical thinking is not usually taught at school. The state education system is great at churning out automata who don't think beyond the headline, but is also one of the reasons we have terrible labour shortages. And the young may be left leaning but they are also unengaged and don't vote. The right wing media bears a huge amount of responsibility but the politicians gave the likes of murdoch (who is poison) all of this power.

I honestly despair. Johnson will get another cabinet position if Truss or Badenoch become PM, and probably be reelected as PM himself in the future. I can't see a labour or coalition government getting in at the next GE. The line of 'there isn't an alternative to the tories' is trotted out with scary frequency. Democracy is dead in the UK.

@CalistoNoSolo I agree with most of what you say totally- I do however think we will get a change of government - albeit a coalition. A lot of Brexit voters no longer really give that much of a shit- it was a thing of the moment and a lot of them are seeing zero tangible benefits and more interested in what's in their pockets and the bills. Many I think in those northern wall seats will move back to labour especially with some strategic voting (many have very slim majorities at the moment) and in the better off Tory areas it's clear there are very large swings to the libdems- I think that will hold up.- again with some strategic voting.

That sounds about right to me. As for Johnson getting a cabinet job - that would be electoral suicide. No sane PM would even think about it.

A coalition would work for me. If there was a box on the ballot paper for Anything but a Tory I’d cheerfully put my X in it.

I hope and pray you're right. A coalition that brings in PR rather than FPTP is my dream :(

I doubt Boris Johnson would have any interest in a government position now that he's no longer Big Dog (vom). He'll be off like a speeding bullet hoovering up £££££ gigs wherever he can find them.

@CalistoNoSolo totally agree- having lived in Denmark which has about 8 parties- you vote for what actually aligns with you- so you do get far left, far right , centre left, centre right, and centre

You nearly always get a coalition- downside is there's a lot of compromising , upside is anything mental or totally unrealistic rarely gets through - (see Borgen if you've never watched it for details- very accurate)

A lady on Question time last night said all things things that the op has said
The Conservative man ( he was the third person to resign last week but I can't remember his name ) just put his head down.

@Blossomtoes - me too- especially now it's clear they aren't really one nation conservatives these days- more a ukip apologist party. They aren't even good with regards to business or managing finances- Blair was actually much better for business and certainly better on social things- he didn't go far enough though- should have brought in PR when he had an enormous majority. The only people I know who have benefited from Brexit are the well off with off shore kinds of income levels and 'some' tradesmen who are benefitting from less competition and charging higher rates- that benefits none of the rest of us though- we just get charged more be it a plumber, a builder or an electrician. Same with HGV drivers, good they are getting higher rates but it then reflects on the rest of us in higher prices. And there are things the gvt could in theory have done- fuel for instance is still lower in many EU countries due to them taking action and reducing tax on it or VAT. This is well within gvts control but they haven't done so. Lots of EU countries also have nationalised or at least overall 'control' of gas and electric too and hence can keep relative control on prices or easily subsidise at a time like this

I want to know where these ‘tax cuts’ are coming from…

People can’t afford to eat or hear their houses. No one is fucking mentioning that. Is a small tax cut going to help this?😞No it’s not.

I can't see a labour or coalition government getting in at the next GE

They will eventually. It’s just sociology. Also, the U.K. often follows the US politically.

The US is another country on the precipice. We both have had democracy and democratic process damaged by a elected, very popular leader. Both have dealt massive blows to women's rights. Both have widespread discontent across all sections of society. Mistrust of politicians, police, institutions is very high. And life is going to get a lot harder for most people.

Throw in an escalation in hostilities with Russia, a couple of weather "events", maybe a terrorist attack and boom. I'm just glad we do not have high rates of gun ownership to deal with too.

Too true.

Kemi Badenoch scares me with her tax cuts proposals as it will be education she is targeting to pay for them.

The great thing is if you don't bother educating most people they are easier to manipulate and more likely to go along with your daily hate.

According to her Wiki page , KB didn't go to primary or secondary school in the UK.
If this information is totally correct , then it's annoying she is suddenly an expert on how they are run and how TAs etc are not needed.
Considering Andrea Leadsom likes to boast about being a grandmother , you would think she would nip these kind of ideas in the bud too.
( or maybe that's ok because her children can send them to private school I suppose , so maybe not too bothered either about the normal children)
I bet that AL as chancellor would be all for cutting it all back. She looks the ruthless sort.
If these two do get in I think it'll be tough going.

Out of the 5 left, Badenoch worries me the most. She has a privileged background and is baying for big tax cuts. She is utterly clueless about how things are for most of us, and she is a truly dreadful constituency MP by all accounts. She would be a terrible PM, worse than Johnson. But, I doubt the con members will vote for a black woman. She'll probably get a cabinet position though (education secretary?) so will be able to wreak plenty of havoc that way.

Woah! Over here mr carter ruck. Lambs to the slaughter, this lot