Would you vote conservative again?

[Erica56]

I wouldn’t vote conservative again after the total shambles that have been the last 12 years. They’re constantly infighting rather than sorting out the economy and have left the NHS in a total mess. No care for people suffering from the cost of living crisis

@StoneofDestiny but the 27 out of 90 kids in DC’s 6th form on bursaries? And the other 60 odd throughout the rest of the school - not to mention the 20 Ukrainan children they’ve provided free places for. They will go, I’m in Lewisham, SE London. It’s not a particularly affluent area, these kids value their places and add huge, huge amounts to school life

I have no issue with people choosing to send their children to private schools, people using private healthcare or owning big homes. if I didn't pay a private dentist, I'd have no dentist at all.

However the argument put forward about children on bursaries attending private schools is often put forward as a virtue - they are actually necessity to keep their charitable status. Even Eton has children on assisted places, bursaries and from impoverished backgrounds.

My issue is that all Public Services including Education should be funded sufficiently to enable all people to have great schools on their doorstep, great hospitals, great mental health care, effective policing, fire fighters, prison services etc.

For many people inadequate Public Services costs them their lives!
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I would be deeply ashamed of myself if I had ever voted Conservative. How anyone could after the last twelve years is inexplicable to me.

@Mardyface I wasn’t assuming at all, I was asking if you knew of Trinty School which, if you’re local, will know has some issues. This is no secret. I also am fully aware there are other great schools in the area that have great results, but of course if DS had to leave his school quickly, will have to go where there are places.

@Mobiledesktop I actually agree with @Mardyface it is absolutely wrong that families at the moment are struggling to feed their kids, buy them uniform, school shoes, pay for them to go to football club on a Saturday morning, or go on school trips. All kids should have these basic necessities. And I’m happy to pay sufficient tax to enable this. But I’d like to be able to do both - pay my fair share and be allowed to choose my DC’s school.

Bloody lovely to have managed a couple of pages of genuine debate on MN, on such a highly emotive subject, with people respecting each other’s opinions and not calling each other cunts though 😁

Agreed. I think I got a bit arsey at one point for which I apologise.

I agree. The PFI debt, plus introduction of tax credits were both massive mistakes. The PFI contracts won’t be fully paid off until around 2050, with hospital trusts spending up to 16% of their yearly budget paying their PFI debt.

@Blossomtoes no need to apologise at all! It’s an emotive subject, and personally, I’m learning a lot. I absolutely value everyone’s input and listen carefully, where people are constructing valid, well argued opinions. People calling me a cunt, not so much 🤣

Antisemitism and their views on women rule them out for me. Voting for anyone else is a wasted vote.

Oh poor you. I for one believe we should be looking to prioritise people who own 8 homes over those who won’t have enough money to heat their home this winter. Thoughts and prayers are with you

People calling me a cunt, not so much

Ah, at least I didn’t do that! I don’t go in for name calling.

@Blossomtoes I read everything you wrote, reflected on it, and still thinking about it. You make some valid points, maybe strongly, but politely. You’ve had way more influence on my thinking than many other posters on other threads - definitely food for thought, so thank you!

@Sniffypete Starmer's wife is jewish and he goes regularly to local synagogue..

The anti-semites are being booted out of Labour as quickly as evidence can be found to do so - haven't you seen all the corbynites whingeing on twitter about the party being purged of people on the left of the party - they really mean the anti-semites. Only they play faux ignorance about why certain people are being expelled.

The self ID thing

Fair enough if that's the most important consideration for you right now.

But they really are taking action against the people who were welcomed by Corbyn and have antisemitic views.

I’m pleased. As I said, my aim isn’t to change anyone’s mind, just to state my case. And the amount of misinformation disseminated on these threads does my head in - I must have posted that link to the Kings Fund report on Labour improvements to the NHS hundreds of times!

This^

Nope. Not a chance. But then, I’ve never voted for them so they won’t miss my vote!

I would rather Tony Blair came back than BJ.

@Blossomtoes can you post it again so I can read it? I’m horrified by the state of the NHS, DS was in A&E with a broken finger (rugby) a few weeks ago. It wasn’t life threatening, we could wait (6hrs) but DS (and I) were absolutely horrified when a clearly very unwell newborn came rushing in with his parents. Even DS could see this baby needed seeing very quickly, but it must have been an hour before baby was seen. As DS went through, baby was all strapped up to monitors etc he’s still upset about whether the baby was OK or not 6 weeks later.

Just to be clear, not at all a criticism of the care DS, nor baby received. Both of which were outstanding, but they are clearly so overwhelmed.

Because he is a competent economist who knows how to keep the money markets calm, which keeps all our interest rates down (or at least lower). He doesn't have 7 kids by different mums, he hasn't been caught groping anyone at the Tory conference and he seems fairly grounded and sane. And to be fair, most of his wife's money comes from shares in her father's Indian company, I don't know if she paid tax in India instead. That wouldn't bother me.

My worries about the Labour party have always been all that ridiculous crap about women and the damage to women's rights, antisemitism, plus momentum skulking in the background, and over-influence by the unions.

But I think the barometer has swung too far the other way, and we need more unionism now, to cut down on zero hours contracts, and poor staff treatment by the likes of SportsDirect, Amazon & Uber.

Plus the reactionary beliefs held by Coffey and JRM on such basics as abortion rights have shocked me. You'd think they were living in the 1820s not the 2020s, definitely not fit to have any real power.

I have not RTFT so apologies.

So much of the current crisis has been outside anybody’s control, Covid, then the war and resultant energy crisis - there’s nothing any politician can do about that. There’s no magic money tree, Labour won’t do any better. Should we have let people die during Covid to prevent furlough costs ? Should we let people freeze due to Russia ?

The government can’t win here, if they throw billions of pounds at energy security and prices tank, the taxpayer will be paying for it forever, if they don’t commit and prices stay high, they will be doomed for failing to support people.

No government can deal well with volatility and risk - often they are dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t.

Even awarding contracts to contacts during Covid was understandable - competitive tendering takes months. People just don’t realise how complex policies are.

People don’t understand that at present, every decision is on a knife-edge.

I don’t trust Labour - it sticks in my mind that during the election campaign at interview a Labour MP didn’t understand that issuing government bonds was increasing borrowing….

I think Labour would have all the same problems plus more. And at least the Tories know what a woman is !

@edwinbear, here you go. It’s highly illuminating. I worked in the NHS between 1999 and 2007 and the change was mind blowing. There was huge investment and it was closely linked to service improvement. We actually went whole days without a single person in the A&E waiting room. Of course, as you’ve observed, it’s all been thrown away now - and was long before covid.

www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/field/field_publication_file/independent-audit-nhs-under-labour-1997–2005-sunday-times-march-2005.pdf

Brilliant post. 👍👍👍

Excellent post.