To be sick of this "all old people vote Tory" narrative

[WatchoRulo]

There really is no nuance to any debate when people make ill informed claims of this type.

Anecdotally from my friends and family - the only Tory voters are the younger people.

Factually - it's very obviously the case that not everyone over, say, 60 suddenly starts voting Tory.

Also - like the "old people without degrees all voted for Brexit", these claims are based on a statistical extrapolation, often from a very small sample size and are also based entirely on what people who were asked told the researchers. This "data" is from the very same polling organisations that failed to predict the outcome of the referendum, yet somehow some people have accepted their guesses as immutable truths and "facts".

We have a crap FPTP electoral system which means most people don't get what they vote for.

It's a secret ballot - the only way to know for certain the detailed demographics of who votes for what would be to check who actually voted for whom.

I am really fed up of the narrative that as a boomer (aged 60, still working and paying tax and NI by the way) I have deliberately shat on younger people all my life (why would I - I have a teenage DD).

I have personally never voted Tory and consider it vanishingly unlikely I ever would, and I recognise that I've had some lucky breaks from when I was born, but I haven't deliberately stolen from young people.

Give it a rest.

lts not a history degree.

Yep to all of this. It's nothing personal. The elderly people in my family voted Remain, but that means nothing at population level.

I also annoys me that it's seems almost as if old people are perceived as a static population rather than a diverse group ,that younger people will (hopefully considering the alternative, eventually join ) I think they love to play the divide and rule trick , because it lets the government nicely off the hook . I've never voted Tory either .

YABVU to suggest that over 60 is old. What century are you from???

I live in a Labour stronghold and only know two people who ever voted Tory they are both working in finance which I think has given them a different perspective to me who works in the public sector.

I expect there are some people who make stupid xx group are responsible for all the ills of the world comments on Mumsnet and elsewhere. But they are stupid and can easily be refuted. Might be easier to do that on the threads where those comments are being made, so it’s clear what’s being responded too?

Side note, I do think there are other groups that come in for a lot of criticism on mumsnet. Mothers in law, husbands / men, step mothers, Tories, Labourites, trans rights activists, mums who work, mums who don’t work, old people, young people etc.

It's like 'all young people are snowflakes'

selfish, stupid, tribal or just plain cunts take your pick.

Agree @WatchoRulo

It's probably thought because it's mostly younger people - under 35 - on twitter and instagram etc who shout their mouth off about how proud they are to not be a tory, (and how proud they are to be a remainer.) Then they shout about how they reckon everyone more than 20 years older than them, are thick racist bigots.' So the hard of thinking and more obtuse people assume everyone over 40 must be a tory voter and a brexiteer.

Also, I get SO fucked off with anyone who is more than 20 years older than these gobshites, being called a 'boomer.' They need to grow the fuck up, and educate themselves.

Not all older voters, but more people in the older demographic vote Conservative than in the youngest.

You cannot POSSIBLY know that. You are only going on what you have read and heard in your little social circle, and the social media websites you visit. People could tell you ANYthing. That's the point of the thread, sooooooo many assumptions, with NO proof.

Many people will vote Tory but not tell anyone, because they know what the vicious and vitriolic far left are like, and the abuse and hate they will receive. so they keep it to themselves.

The fact that all 'polls' showed Labour would win in the general elections, and Remain would win in the Brexit vote, (yet Conservative - and LEAVE won,) proves that. Don't believe everything you read on the internet, OR everything people tell you!

I don't think the 2019 polls were showing anything other than that the Tories would win, and during the EU referendum the polls narrowed and tightened all the way towards the end, ending up in 'could go either way' territory. Which was pretty well reflected by 52/48 (even though Leavers like to describe that as an 'overwhelming' majority.

The current polls are a different kettle of fish altogether, and the fact that the Tories have managed to lose a very safe seat like Tiverton and Honiton in a byelection bodes ill for the Tories. Unless of course you're a full blown 'they can do no wrong' loyalist.

@WhileMyGuitarGentlyWeeps Oh come on. Extremists from all sides throw insults.
By suggesting that it's just far lefties or even just lefties is as bad as saying all o lder folk are raging brexiteers 🙄

The shy Tory phenomenon is a known thing, although the biggest polling fuckup in recent years actually involved underestimation of the Labour vote in the 2017 GE. But let's assume for the sake of argument that there is some shy Tory effect happening at the moment. It's not 36%.

Also, we do actually have pretty decent data about how various social factors make people more likely to vote certain ways. It's not remotely an assumption that older voters are more likely to lean Conservative and have been for a long time. It's a fact. We live in interesting times, so I suppose it's not completely impossible that this might be flipped on its head in the next GE, but the age cleavage in British politics in recent years is very well established.

I've found my people! What ever happened to Rock Against Racism? I I remember having quite a heated debate with my maths teacher about this. I also remember going on quite a few anti-government protests at uni, boycotting Barclays bank and being a member of CND.

It's not just the "old people voting Tory" trope. It's the characterising of a whole generation as being rich selfish twats whose mission in life is to screw over the young. I do think however that it also happens the other way round in some cases ( calling people "snowflakes" and constantly referring to the younger generation as entitled) ) but to me this seems to be part of the current trend of trying to put people into boxes which seems so prevalent these days. People are individuals. They don't fit neatly into categories. I quite shocked my niece the other day when I told her some of the things I used to get up to at her age.

We need a lot more tolerance and understanding in our society today.

These are not guess's - polling/marketing research is a huge and highly profitable industry, didn't one leading tory become a multi millionaire running a polling company?

Yes these numbers wont be exact & they occasionally get it wrong but they'll be with 3 to 4%.

On Brexit, there have been university based research into who voted for Brexit, & it shows that the less skilled and less educated someone was, the more likely they were to vote to Leave, same with age, older = more likely to vote Leave.

BTW none of this makes anyone's choice right or wrong.

I was going to say that it's probably a better prediction to take into account where you live and what you do. I know plenty of social workers and other public sector workers in the home counties (over 50) who would never vote tory. My mum has never voted Labour and I think still wouldn't but even she is now veering towards the need for a GE and would probably go Lib dem or Green (she's in her 70s and a lifelong Tory).

I have a relative who is obsessed with making out the older generation have ruined it for the young people.
Some of the things they say are too embarrassing for me to write on here as it's just so awful.
I think it's a way to box off young people from older people in society so that young people don't gain from their knowledge and don't ask questions.
Keeping the young away from different opinions and boxing off anyone who has any thing different to say as 'right wing idiots' is something I am noticing increasingly.

Teaching kids critical thinking is more important than ever.

The young can learn so much from the older generation I hate the increasing villainizing of them.

You just done the reverse, criticising and pigeon holing young people. - "Need to learn critical skills/could learn so much from the older generation"

Age alone doesn't bring wisdom, Tory membership (mainly older) chose Truss over Sunak - how well did that go? and not content with that want Johnson back.

@Sunflower987 Well said, I agree. There is a deliberate strategy to divide and conquor.
Look at what is happening to the WASPI women who happily paid "upwards " for their pensioner aunts, uncles , Parents etc to have their pensions and they have been "rewarded" by the Tory chancellor at the time, Osborne, pushing 6 extra years on without due notification. Even now when the DWP have been found guilty of maladministration they are dragging their heels and have not yet paid a fair compensation.
Our society is being taught to hate old people.

Divide and rule and get the people arguing amongst themselves whilst the super-rich destroy our society and loot our civilisations while flying rockets into space for their demented kicks whilst pretending to care about the environment.

I haven't criticised young people.
And yes it's important for them to learn critical thinking skills and speak to the older generation.
Sorry you don't think that way but I think you just proved my point..
You don't think they should listen to the older generation or obtain critical thinking skills,
Because obviously from your observations of the Tories the older generation are stupid..
No wisdom to be had..

It's important we keep conversations open through every generation and people are able to freely speak their opinions.
You learn more that way and avoid an echo chamber which isnt helpful.

My parents would never dream of voting Tory. Neither would any of my family, my friends I assume wouldn’t but of course I don’t know that. I grew up in what was always a strong labour seat. Last GE labour only just in. I’d be very surprised if that’s not hugely changed back again next GE. I’m not sure what people in a small town in North Wales thought the Tory party would do for them, so I was very surprised at the results to be honest. I know live in a very strong Tory seat, Tory area (blue Surrey) but would never vote Tory. I might be someone who fits their voter status in terms of salary etc but I’ve not forgotten my start in life as a teenage mum on benefits and how hard life can be. Things might be very different now but I couldn’t ever be a Tory

It's on a par with the idiots' whine of 'all old people voted for Brexit', of all my friends, mostly well over 60, only 1 voted Leave and he never heard the end of it!