To ask why people vote Tory?

[Tierne]

It has to be said that life in the UK on low or middle income is much harder than it seemingly is in other western countries of similar wealth. I dont think the Tory party is making this country a nice place to live in at all. But they keep getting voted in.

So if you vote Tory:
Why do you vote for them?
Would you ever change your vote and for what reason?
Do you feel uncomfortable at how Tory policies batter the most vulnerable in our society? For example making it impossible for people to get on the housing ladder, high rents and low tenant protections, no energy bill caps, etc?

NB: I dont want this to turn into a Tory bashing thread. I'd just like to hear how Tory supporters feel about their party.

Most people whichever way they vote care about people including , but not exclusively, themselves

What differs is how they think people and the country is best helped

If people started discussion from that basis it might help

I think that on average people who vote Tory have greater belief that hard work and good attitude will bring success

That explains also why working class people may vote for them as much as rich people - although in the former case it can be about hope

I said to our Lib Dem mp “when are the Lib Dems and the Labour Party going to sort out their leadership and have a strong opposition?” No credible response. That is why people voted Tory in the last election

As previous posters have pointed out, most voters, Labour, Conservative, or others, want the country and its people to do well, but they disagree on how that should be achieved.

Conservative voters tend towards wanting equality of opportunity with a relatively basic safety net, whereas Labour voters tend to favour redistribution, working more towards equality of outcome.

Yes it’s about which way you think is best. Some posts earlier were hyperbole re ‘the poor’ etc

A lot of voters switch between the two anyway - hence the large swings we see between eg Blair and Johnson

Imo a party shutting the door on anyone who has not voted for them for a period of time - through insults etc is making a mistake. You are better to offer something good than attack if they are wanted back

One is always reminded of the walk a mile in my shoes quote, when this (ubiquitous) topic does the rounds. Until you have lived somebody else's life, nothing they do, including their voting preferences, is any concern of yours.

Telling me I am a thick, selfish, racist will not EVER make me want to vote Labour.

One of the reasons my and many others' votes will not swing.

Tell me why I should vote Labour, make me want to vote for them, swing my vote... preferably without rubbishing my previous choices.

Another reason that some people vote conservative is to do with how people respond to insults, sneering, and hatred. Seeing Labour supporters spew vitriol as some on here do pushes people away. One of the things people think when placing their vote is “what does this say about me, what sort of people am I voting for, and voting with.”

I really don’t understand why some supposed Labour supporters choose to drive votes away like this.

@SlickShady

This article is quite historic, but suggests that it's not only the "dirt poor and tick all the intersectionality boxes" who are net burdens on state finances www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2215070/Are-contributor-burden-nations-finances--Squeezed-middle-increasingly-dependent-state.html

And even if that were true, I'm happy to support vulnerable people in society to improve their life chances. Your post puts a chill up my spine

This post describes me and why I vote the way I do perfectly!

Those obligatory accusations are just lazy. The same accusers will be those wanting to vehemently protect human rights, as was seen on a thread yesterday. The funny thing is, they NEVER respect the democratic vote! You could tie their 'logic' up in knots, all day long.

I really don’t understand why some supposed Labour supporters choose to drive votes away like this.

Because they've been brain washed into thinking theirs is the only way to think ie right and good and pure so obviously those who don't must be the opposite, evil, selfish, bad. It's infantile - the thinking processes of very young children who haven't yet learned that others have their own thoughts separate to them. In an interpersonal relationship they'd be called toxic and abusive but when it comes to politics and group think it appears to be just fine.

One thing that would move me away from the Conservatives is the way they have loaded more taxes onto higher earners, and removed allowances and benefits.

The top rate of income tax under nearly all of Labour’s time in office was 40%. It’s now 45%, with 2% NI on top. That’s an 8% reduction in take-home pay on the amount earned over the threshold.

If you have ever been at the end of a Tory insult tirade , or the even worse the Tory "oh" followed by turning their back on you and excluding you , you would see it goes both ways

I tend to see them as individuals not the whole group

What is interesting in this particular thread is that I have seen many more "lefties abuse us" and only a few actually lefty ignorant posts

Misrepresentation of the typical lefty is a form of insult and disrespect also

I don't care if you use nicer words if the meaning is the same

Completely agree. I'm your classic floating voter - I have voted for all three main parties (Labour, Lib Dem, Conservative) in my time, Independents in the local elections.

But because in the last elections I voted Conservative to keep the SNP out in my constituency i'm a "shitting cretin" according to some Labour supporters? Way to go to win my vote back, guys.

I really don’t understand why some supposed Labour supporters choose to drive votes away like this

because some truly believe they are morally superior to all other voters simply by placing and X next to the Labour Party candidate

Well no. In this thread there have been several posts saying terrible things about Conservative voters, and nothing equivalent in the other direction.

There are posters on here saying that anyone who voted Conservative are happy for the old and vulnerable to die this winter. Can you find anything equivalent from the other side?

Hear hear. When it comes to voting preferences, hypocrisy is rife. Here are some examples: the biological woman, asserting a female PM is irrelevant but would be extremely relevant if it were a Labour female PM, calling people terrible names, which is bullying, something many of them purport to oppose.

All of this behaviour culminated in Brexit. I saw educated people lose their minds, when the vote didn't go their way. The way I saw academics talk, on social media, was outrageous. Saying Brexiteers shouldn't be allowed to breed. It's worrying that they are still being allowed to indoctrinate their political ideology in education.

😅

I think there is a huge amount of hypocrisy on the left which is one of the reasons that I've been pushed away and find myself a bit politically homeless at the moment.

One of the most blatant examples of this is when I was living abroad - on the continent, in a country that was very high tax and big state. Just after brexit a lot of brits moved over and had so much bad to say about brexiters and the nasty tory party and how people in the uk were really suffering and had nothing. But these same people arranged their lives and taxes so they were still paying tax in the UK, not in their new country where tax is much higher. They kept properties back in the uk while deploring the housing crisis back home. There was a real disconnect and hypocrisy there.

Can you explain your first point please? How do you think would people ‘be kept on benefits’ under Labour? What would you like to see happen? Is the current system also too soft for you? £70 a week too much to live on? Would you be happier if benefits were withdrawn altogether and children starved to death because you’d rather not have to fork out for them out of your taxes because you’re already paying your private school fees?

Yeah there’s a reason why your views might be ‘unpopular’ - because they’re horrible.

No wonder the Tories are classed as the business party. It is very rare you will see a Labour voter, on MN, who will keep emotive language out of their response.

Reminds me of the biggest virtue signaller, Gary Lineker.

And here we have a great example of the sort of thing that I was posting about.

Another behaviour that pushes me away from Labour is the way some of their supporters will say the most awful things about others, and then get upset that there’s not unconditional love coming back the other way.

Telling a Conservative voter that they are lower than vermin, and then also saying that they should care about you being cold this winter just doesn’t work. I don’t care if an awful person finds life hard.

I have a dh and friends and relatives who all vote conservative and we rub along ok.
He calls me comrade and I just laugh , it's part of a healthy debate. (I'm not a communist! )
We have learned to respect each other's points of view : he was brought up working class with parents who had nothing. They just preferred the conservatives and their values. Mine were also w / c with different values.
I agree that calling people scum or whatever isn't helpful , but that conservative MP swiveled her finger at a crowd when Boris Johnson left back in June and I'm sure many voters say nasty things about each other , it's not helpful at all , but I agree they should all rein it in a bit.