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.

By 'sex based rights' you don't mean ' rights to safe maternity care' or 'access to legal aid to pursue a claim of unfair dismissal if my employers sack me during maternity leave, or 'access to abortion without needing to get the nod from two health professionals as to why I can't continue with an unwanted pregnancy?'

This is about you needing the tiny number of trans women in the U.K. to be identified as men isn't it?

Bizarro.

This was my reason originally but women's rights/child safeguarding/freedom of speech now make me feel like I have fully switched from moderate left to moderate right.

It’s a shame these thread always do get nasty because I would like to understand what people are voting for when the vote for Conservatives- often on MN people will say ‘no credible opposition’ so it’s a vote against Labour rather than a vote for the tories necessarily. Rarely do people give a reason that is based on conservative ideology.

I was thinking today that Liz Truss and her cabinet being so ‘small state’ is so at odds with what all but a very small minority of people I’ve ever met actually want. I really don’t think the average MN user actually wants a small state. I’ve lived in countries where getting your bins picked up was down to random local guys who would come round if you paid them. I mean… that’s small state. How small do we want to go? If you have a private subscription to a bin collection service you still have to put up with the rubbish from your neighbours who don’t. Unless we want gated communities and the like who was also a feature of where I lived.
I can’t get on board with the ideology behind that so I don’t vote Tory but i would be interested in understanding what people think will be good about it.

I agree with this. I'm a lifetime labour voter and even I don't want to vote labour at the moment!

Yes indeed. It was explained to me how it is part of the great British tradition celebrated in art, and an important way to bring classes and community together. Ahem.

I honestly don’t understand this. I’m a lifelong Labour voter too and I spoilt my paper in 2019 because I couldn’t vote for a party led by Corbyn. But I look at the front bench now and it gives me hope.

Of COURSE there are credible options. I vote for my own circumstances as does everyone else. I don't want to be penalised for the apathy of others, I want to get the best for me. And the people who do not admit it are champagne socialists on here. Just be honest.

Your right it would.be considered appalling if such comments were made, yet somehow they always seem to be tolerated the other way round.

It makes it really difficult to have grown up conversations, when people resort to retorts such as your selfish and stupid to a poster who gave her opinion. This complete lack of respect makes it hard for people to express their opinion.

It's ok to have different views, but without being able to express them there will be no movement or compromise which makes us all poorer in the end...

Just stop reading the guardian. It pained me to do it as I had been reading it religiously since my student days but I had to do it once Suzanne moore was effectively fired. They had been pissing me off for a while before then by consistently blocking commenting on "difficult" topics with inflammatory headlines. I see them as just as guilty of stoking division as the likes of the daily mail

My mum votes Labour and my dad Conservative so I have always been very divided. Where I am from the Conservatives always win.
I have voted Conservative when younger as I believed if you work hard you should be able to keep your money for your family and to better yourself however since having children my views have changed. I want them to grow up in a fairer society and have access to decent healthcare and education etc, as they have in other European countries. I can’t see Labour making things much better though, I think we need radical change in this country.
I said I would leave the country if Johnson got in power but I am still here. I think he is an embarrassment to our country. However I couldn’t vote Labour because we are military family.

However I couldn’t vote Labour because we are military family

We are too. It hasn’t stopped me. It hasn’t stopped ex Major Dan Jarvis being a Labour MP either.

*What makes people say this though? Why do you think Labour haven't been putting forward their policy ideas? They've been doing it all summer and the Tories gave nicked a couple of those ideas to boot!

Starmer asked the right questions today and we actually got to the root of the difference in policy and ideology. He always does well in PMQ's.*

Well given that it was only the end of June that KS said he was putting the last Labour manifesto aside and starting from scratch, what DO they actually stand for? What are their policies?

He was elected in 2020, what have they stood for since then? Why has it taken so long to get anything sensible from them? Frankly until the energy crisis the only thing most people have heard them stand for is disagreeing with the tories on the pandemic and their appalling job at defining a woman, and telling various groups that they don't want their vote if they believe x, y,z (turning a LOT of people off in the process).

Most people don't watch PMQs because they are in the middle of the day when people are working, so only get the snippets later on the news.

Labour are terrible at communicating, they probably communicate well with their party members (I.e the people that are going to vote for them anyway) but seem incapable of engaging with the people they actually need to I.e. floating voters. For a start half of them should be told to get off twitter and stop alienating people because people are never going to believe the party lines at campaign time when individual MPs have spent the last couple of years spewing their true thoughts via social media! It means they are starting from the back foot already

I think about this too - the ‘landslide victory’ narrative is stupid when applied to out FPTP system. I wish newspapers wouldn’t say it, the guardian does it all the time too so it’s not a self- aggrandising thing form right wing papers. It’s also only what-4 years?- since new Labour that the tories have had a significant majority in parliament.

I don’t think it’s great when Labour dominate regions for generations either. I know it gets corrupt and my Scottish family voted SNP because they were sick of local corruption in Labour. I really wish we could have some kind of decent electoral reform overall.

It’s unfortunate but it has gone downhill massively in recent years

“This is about you needing the tiny number of trans women in the U.K. to be identified as men isn't it?
Bizarro.”

And yet the ideology behind this ‘tiny number’ and rabid trans activism means ordinary people are being locked up, sacked, lives ruined, death threats for stating biological truth. Ultimately women and girls are being sidelined, gaslighted and made even more unsafe in their lives for the sake of this ‘tiny number’ of dysmorphic biological males.

It’s not bizarre - it’s a hugely important issue to some of us who don’t want to go back to some misogynistic dark age.

This is about you needing the tiny number of trans women in the U.K. to be identified as men isn't it

If they were a tiny number then it wouldn't matter. But the amount of men self identifying as women is not a tiny number any more.

Last time I had a chance (local elections, councillors, etc.) I voted for some bonkers Animal Rights alliance
(can't even remember the exact title).

In essence, I voted for cats, dogs, squirrels & lots
of other furry as well as not so furry things.
The human lot didn't appeal to me as I've had it
with them.
It only encourages the buggers.
So there.
In this way, I expressed my dissatisfaction
and opposition to every single established political party on offer. That'll teach them.
I know it's silly and pointless but politically
humans left me no choice.

Do we know how many there are?

I like the “bus route” analogy for voting - a bus is not a taxi, it doesn’t pick you up from your door and take you to your exact destination. You catch the bus that is going closest to your destination and make your way from there.

Voting is very similar - no party will represent 100% of your views, you pick the one that gets closest to your destination.

I’m a floating voter, I’ve voted for all 3 major parties (when the Lib Dems were an actual party that is 😉) at some point in my 25 year voting career so far. I’d describe myself as generally a right leaning centrist and right now you couldn’t pay me to vote Labour/Lib Dem/Green based purely on their sudden inability to define what a woman is. That’s not to say I will/would vote Tory, I’ll wait and see what happens over the next 18/24 months and make my decision at the appropriate time.

I think the question should be why aren't people voting Labour. My experience (living / working in the areas that were red and are now blue)

1. They wouldn't vote for a Labour party under Corbyn. This was, life long, red to the core Labour voters.
2. Labour is too concerned with identity politics and purity spirals. If you disagree with anything then you are unwelcome.
3. They parachute candidates in, so you are either left with voting for a complete unknown or they field the person who was directly responsible for the down grading of your hospital. (Hartlepool)
4. Large numbers of people felt completely forgotten by Labour and just taken for granted. Whether it is spin or not there has been investment in parts of the North.

It messes with my head.

I like the “bus route” analogy for voting - a bus is not a taxi, it doesn’t pick you up from your door and take you to your exact destination. You catch the bus that is going closest to your destination and make your way from there

I like that.

The thick ones in this are the ones who post and hurl abuse such as thick, evil, scum, vile, etc., at Tory voters or people who disagree with them - do you really think people will vote the way you want them to or suddenly agree with you when you do this? You show by your words how utterly intolerant you are, what do you think the people you so despise will conclude about how you will treat them?

When at the polls, I actually think of those less fortunate than myself as I was raised that way. It's a big influence on who I end up voting for. But to each their own...

Labour is the party of hate .

Haven't read the full thread but:

The people I know who vote Tory are 1) Middle class 2) Narrow minded 3) Go to the same place on holiday every year without fail; and 4) Financially comfortable.
Not Tory bashing, for me it's true.

My parents are one staunch Labour and my mum who still thinks Lib Dems are worth voting for. She's from the south west where they usually do well.