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.

My mum on the other hand who has never voted labour before (and is seventy) is thinking about voting labour in the next GE. This has made the rest of the family really sad because we can't understand what is going through her head.

@Emotionalstorm in another thread you said your husband suggested that the only patriotic way to vote was Conservative.

It’s been the opposite for me and DH, we voted Tory when younger but now we are older (and richer) we don’t

My understanding is that statistically the younger generations are less likely to vote, so even if they’re voting preferences are very different to the older generation, they will have less impact because of apathy.

it’s not as simple as blame the demographic that vote for their voting choices.

it’s also nice to hear from a poster upthread that the younger generations would have acted completely differently under the same set of circumstance as previous generations have, and if only they’d been born earlier we’d have all been saved.

My parents are 93 and 84 and neither has ever voted Tory. I am in my 50s, ditto.

I know lots of Uni kids who vote Tory. They do it quietly, and in the background. If they are brave, they belong to the Conservative Society, but mostly because they have the best balls (!). The issue is they can't discuss it, or admit to it, as they would be hounded and abused. It's a sad state of affairs really.

This also applies to being GC - not allowed, you just keep quiet in order to save being screamed at.

These are not facts. They are statistics based on a small number of voters.

'My parents are 93 and 84 and neither has ever voted Tory. I am in my 50s, ditto.'

oh well then, that settles it. The election statistics are all wrong. Unless, and hear me out now, unless your parents are not in the 67% voted Tory. Which still leaves 67% of over 70s voters choosing Tory.
I know lots of younger Tory voters though, they all have one thing in common - have money and came from money.

Good grief, calm down. I was offering my experience for context, not sacrificing a baby.

Professionally sampled polling still beats anonymous forum anecdotes.

We can take it as read that everyone knows that not literally every pensioner votes tory.

We never had a referendum to join in the 1970s.

Educate yourself.

This. My family didn't have a car and I didn't get on a plane until I was 27.
Many things about life today are much better than when I was younger.
The idea that I might have gone to China on holiday would probably have blown my dad's mind.

We really did.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_United_Kingdom_European_Communities_membership_referendum

We really didn't. Read the article again you have linked.

@Nolongera the UK had a referendum on or not to remain in the EC in 1975. 66% voted to remain. Of course by today's standards that isn't an overwhelming mandate, only 52/48 qualifies for that status.

I’m over 60 and am getting more socialist in my politics. But but can’t vote labour or Lib Dem until they sort themselves out and start protecting women’s rights , stop the authoritarian regime, an£ stamp out the MRAs and racism

Indeed, but we have never had a referendum to join.

@Blossomtoes accused me of jaw dropping ignorance for stating we had never had a referendum to join.

We have never had a referendum to join.

It's pig ignorant goading. Jaw dropping indeed.

Most leavers I know understand the difference between "Join" and "Remain".

I have always been a remainer FWIW.

@Nolongera the hilarious thing is that the referendum-free joining of the EC was under a Tory government.

They're the same thickos who say that all 'old people' voted for Brexit!

I think you misread what I mean when I say I felt disenfranchised. She was PM so whatever party my local MP was (all 3 main parties claimed the seat over the time she was in power) we felt the strain. I can relate very directly to where you are from as some of our family lived in Eckington during the miners strike, working for British Coal in the Doncaster area and come from Salford originally.

I agree, I'm late 60's and have never voted Tory. Didn't vote for Brexit.

This lazy stereotyping drives me nuts.🙄

The referendum was to join the common market.
We then got signed up for the EU by Margaret Thatcher if memory serves me well.

We did.

@Kennykenkencat the EU grew out of the Common Market. Because in this world, things develop and change. Margaret Thatcher was wrong on very many things but on Europe she had a mostly level head on her shoulders. I doubt she'd be impressed with the current crop of incompetents and corrupted.