To feel increasingly alienated by Tory voters?

[BarmyBrunhilde]

I am in despair as to where our country is at. With the cost of living crisis looming (and already beginning), this winter is going to be brutal and likely life ending for so many in the UK, and the current aspiring leadership of the Tory party seem to be more interested in litigating culture wars and appeasing NIMBY pensioners in the Home countries than actually addressing any of the serious problems in the UK.

I've never been a Tory voter, but I've always been able to get along with people who have different views (provided they aren't racist/homophobic etc). But how anyone could see all the misery and deprivation on the horizon, look at the prospective leaders and frontbenchers with their complete lack of sultions, and continue with supporting them is genuinely beyond me. I find myself slowly being consumed by bitterness and rage against people for their views, and it frightens me. Am I alone in this?

Tories are not responsible for brexit, COVID or cost of living crisis or global fuel prices. The government are not your parents. Labour are far more abysmal than the tories hence why the tories keep winning.
the above is pretty much the answer to all of these threads.

@UWhatNow I think much of what you are saying is a massive exaggeration, and I also personally don't think trans women should be considered men in law (which I know is equivalent to supporting fascism in some quarters but oh well!) I think some need to start being a bit less susceptible to constant moral panics from the press and social media (we only need to see the Johnny Depp supporters to see the issues with that!) and start looking at what's actually happening to the majority of people.

Are there some bad trans people? Sure, same as any group. Does that mean that trans should be a 'single issue' vote for every woman? No. And I don't find in my own life that other woman are in agreement with you on this (in that they honestly don't really think about trans people very much - and neither do I, in spite of some parts of MN's best efforts!)

As others have said, the electoral system is a joke and the media in this country is an even bigger joke. Unfortunately, the people that read these newspapers (Mail, Express, Sun, Telegraph) probably don't realise that they are owned by billionaire media barons who have a vested interest in brainwashing their readers to believe the Tories are the best thing since sliced bread.

But taxes haven't gone down in the last twelve years, have they? [disclaimer - I worked abroad and came back only in 2010, so am prepared to be corrected.] I find the tax burden here pretty huge - income tax plus national insurance plus council tax. And I think what one gets in return is absolutely paltry. At least under Labour there were decent public services. When I compare my sister's experience of hospital when giving birth and my own in a horribly underfunded health system elsewhere I really thought Labour were getting things right. They helped my stepchildren stay in school by giving them a small grant in sixth form to help the family finances, and now they are paying back by working as a nurse and a teacher. There isn't anything like that now.I brought my children back to the UK because I thought they'd be well educated in the state system, and for the first few years they were. Then I had to take them out of school and home-ed them because their experiences were so dreadful.

@Itisasecret I agree with your last paragraph - my DH is in this bracket and it is shit - we do not get full child benefit, we cannot claim any help we are shafted from every direction but as he earns just over £50k people think we live the life of riley, we would be better off with him going part time and claiming benefits, but we won't as he enjoys his job, but things are very very tight.

I cannot work as we have a Disabled DD and I am her main carer - but I do get the massive carers allowance of £69.70 per week !

When will someone do something about the threshold for paying 40% tax - it would be a vote winner for any party.

I have never voted Labour and I cannot see myself voting for them- they seem to get their ideas from the papers, if there is a headline they just trot out what has been said, they seem to be lacking in any ideas and are a lazy opposition. And they cannot tell you what a Woman is.

Women's rights do matter - they matter a lot, why should we give up what we are entitled to and is our right, we owe our Daughters safe places in their futures.

I am fed up of the Tory voter bashing threads on here, if we all voted the same it would be a dictatorship - would that be better ? The vitriol is just down right nasty and unecessary.

Each person is different and if we all agreed on the same things, what a boring world it would be, I cannot see how a global pandemic or a war can be put at the door of the Tories.

I am hoping they will step up and hit the energy and fuel companies where it hurts and they are made to help everyone out - not just people on benefits, as the energy hikes are hitting almost everyone only millionaires and billionaires seem to be immune to this.

'I am hoping they will step up and hit the energy and fuel companies where it hurts and they are made to help everyone out - not just people on benefits, as the energy hikes are hitting almost everyone only millionaires and billionaires seem to be immune to this.' I wish I had your optimism.

This corrupt, incompetent shit show is the best you think we've got when no one else has had a chance is TWELVE YEARS ??? My goodness you have a limited imagination !

I cannot see how a global pandemic or a war can be put at the door of the Tories.

It can't, but how they respond to the same predicament as every other country absolutely can be put at their door. Take a look at the graph I posted earlier on the thread. It's their report card. They did very badly indeed.

Whereas I wish they would tax us MORE. Underfunding of public services (especially salaries) in this country is shocking.

This. Starmer made himself look like a weak, lying, laughing stock when he was unable/refused to define half the electorate.

The tax burden is huge and more and more people are now sucked into paying 40% tax. Some of these families are just scraping by and would be better off on benefits. The solution of labour , ops on threads like this and enough is enough? Tax them more to pay for all of this spending. I’m not disagreeing things seemed better a while ago but people have to pay for it. 90% of the tax burden falls on 50% of the tax payers (not even the population as a whole) they have had enough which is why the Tories will keep getting in. Especially as the opposition is totally useless. They should be wiping the floor with the govt.

I'd agree if the money went to public services as opposed to being squandered.
It's this sort of thing over and over again with this lot:

4-billion-of-unusable-ppe-bought-in-first-year-of-pandemic-will-be-burnt-to-generate-power

No, that's not what I said.

I really hope there's something better to vote for by the time the election comes around. Unfortunately Labour, Lib dems and Greens are currently as unacceptable to me as the Conservatives. There are a couple of smaller parties which might be interesting but are they just a 'wasted vote'? I'm not sure.

'They have had enough' but the Tories have been in power for 12 years? Labour have only suggested higher tax rates for salaries of 70-80k (and then was when inflation was a lot lower than it is now). So it doesn't track to suggest that people scraping on just over 50k are somehow going to disproportionately suffer under Labour.

But Labour is suggesting taxes on the energy companies which could then be used to subsidise ordinary taxpayers.
They are suggesting more taxes on those over £`100000 - they aren't targetting people struggling on 40% tax on £50000.
They are suggesting closing the tax loopholes so that the likes of JRM would pay tax. Of course those with the broadest shoulders should pay more. Most of us would be far better off.
I just don't understand why people keep complaining about the tax burden right now and then continuing to say that we have to keep voting Tory because there are no other ideas. Labour has been asking for windfall taxes for ages now and talking about how they'd tax the very wealthy. That's not extra tax for most of us.

But I'm not sure if people are missing the level of crisis that we're headed for? Are people continue supporting a government which won't support people (most of whom will be in work) being able heat their homes and feed their children? This is going to affect many many more people than I think people understand, and even those who broadly consider themselves comfortably off are going to be facing a nasty squeeze and some really tough decisions come 2023. And how long will we put up with it?

Unless I missed it there hasn't been a general election since covid started, the cost of living crisis started escalating and the war in Ukraine began. So it's a bit disingenuous to act like people knew all this would happen when they voted and voted accordingly.

You’ve completely ignored all my posts until now. 70k-80k isn’t a high salary when tax burdens are considered. Especially in in demand industries such at tech and engineering. One example I can give is 150k here vs 750k+ abroad. Labour would lose all talent left in this country. We are a low wage, high tax country. The people quoted already pay 25% of all income tax and they are leaving. They won’t be around to tax anymore. The Conservatives are doing a good enough job with losing talent in this country as it is.

It all started with Labour and their crazy state funding and subsidising income from CTC/WTC. It has bred a generation of poor salaries and state reliance on top up. It’s not as simple as the Tories are all bad and some of the posts on these threads are turning into hate territory. We have a govt who are asleep at the wheel and Labour are partly responsible. That’s past decisions and they too are an opposition asleep at the wheel. They have also alienated a lot of their voters. So yeah, they are all to blame, it’s not a Tory thing. It’s an issue across the whole country, their sense of entitlement and poor political parties.

@Fluffyboo If you had read my comments, you would have seen that I said I had friends who voted in 2019, and while I disagreed I could accept their position. It's those who continue to express support for the government who I made this post about.

Those on 100k already pay 60% tax which is why most leave.

When Labour were suggesting this policy in 2017, 80k put you in the top 5% of salaries. And salaries certainly won't be high if the majority of the population have not disposable income because they are crippled by bills - that's how a recession starts!

Can you give a reliable citation for the statement that most Brits earning 100k leave the country?

The very fact that they make up less than 1% of earners is pretty obvious enough.

Most don't leave at all. I am on a six-figure salary and would be happy to have paid what Labour proposed which was 45% on anything over £80000. That would have been only a small amount more over the year. I think people are happy to pay tax if they can see that the money is being invested fairly and wisely. Under the Tories over the last twelve years it very much has not been.

No it isn't actually, there could be all kinds of reasons for that. Until you provide evidence (which I doubt you can) I would encourage all to remain sceptical of that claim.

You said you paid 18k tax per year? That’s no where near six figure salary amounts.

I’ll rephrase, most people with talent and up to date skill sets are leaving. Think engineering and tech and nothing is keeping them here.