To ask what stops you voting for the tories ?

[Icandothattoo]

For me
The unending shite that is brexit
Corruption and dishonesty, especially during the pandemic but not uniquely. And not just Johnson.
Making already deprived areas compete against each other for levelling up money whilst perfectly affluent tory voting areas are handed it on a plate (looking at Richmond N yorks Rishi ! ). Funny that 80% of constituencies getting levelling up funds are tory...
Whole culture war. Singling out certain minorities to attack for purely political gain. In the 80s single mums, 90s benefit claimants, 2000s refugees, immigrants. FWIW I'm fairly gender critical but disliked the way they toadied round Trump and his abhorrent opinions/followers who pretty much wrote the culture war playbook.
So what stops you from voting for them ?

The politics of cruelty. The Tories are obsessed with the 'culture war', immigration and benefits because they know they have nothing positive to offer ordinary people. But what's easy and cheap? Making sure the public have 'enemies' whose lives you can make worse. Target vulnerable groups for being 'too woke', make life harder for immigrants and people on benefits (40% of whom are in work) and you can tell the electorate you are Doing Something.

Because that's much easier than actually doing anything that helps anyone.

They focus on all the wrong 'problems' - the things I mention above rather than the fact we need more immigration and that we have an ageing population. Which is why we need immigration.

There would be a simple way to 'stop the boats', or a lot of them. Create a visa for construction workers from countries like Albania. A lot of the people coming over want to come here to do that kind of work, and we desperately need that kind of worker. Give them a legal means to come here and work. No need for flights to Rwanda and cruelty.

How do you sell that to our own construction workers who saw their wages plummet and stagnate under FOM but have then soared in the last few years?

This

Fraud in government spending.

“The NAO said the recently-created Public Sector Fraud Authority had estimated that in 2020-2021 there was between £33.2bn and £58.8bn of fraud and error in government spending and income unrelated to the pandemic across the whole of the public sector"

www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article/nao-sounds-alarm-over-surging-fraud-levels-in-government-spending-27699

@florenz If it were only true.....

The reality is that, on average, the data shows across the UK, wages increases have been very low in recent years.

There will be localised pockets of large increases but the fastest and largest rises were in the early 2000s, wages tend not to rise in a stagnant economy which what we ve had for many years now, hence the very high tax burden we see now.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1323328/weekly-earnings-in-the-construction-sector-in-the-uk/

The big construction companies round here are currently using Brazilian builders and after CPTTP it will be Malaysian.

The Tories were elected on getting Brexit "done". Is it? We don't even have border checks on goods yet!

The Tories were ejected on an oven ready Brexit deal that would be fantastic for Britain. Was it?

The Tories were elected on a new plan for social care. Where is it?

The Tories were elected on promises of 40 new hospitals. Where are they?!

The Tories were elected on promises of levelling up. (Levelling down more like!)

The Tories were elected on promises of a high wage economy. Don't make me laugh.

We've never had it so bad.

What kind of fools will believe anything the Tories promise now?!

verdantverdure

It doesn't sound like Starmer has a 'quick fix' - not very dynamic is he?

Starmer’s “missions” cover five broad themes: the economy, the NHS, crime, the climate crisis and education. He said they would be long-term objectives, rather than consumer pledges...

You forgot to answer verdantverdures points.

Just thought you might like to know.

My brain, my eyes and my morals.

I just realised I typed "Tories were ejected" a lot. Wishful thinking?!

I wish that journalists would really press them on these exact issues. Swathes of the press seem quite willing to give the Tories a free pass.

What kind of fools will believe anything the Tories promise now?!

There are people falling for 419 scams who weren't born when I got my first scam spam email.

Swathes of the press seem quite willing to give the Tories a free pass.

As long as we have an honours system that can get Paul Dacre* into the House of Lords, why would his papers ever risk upsetting the power of the party ?

Other toadying media magnates are available.

I know. It's utterly depressing.

For me it’s the tiny cost of living payments. MPs can charge a grand for a days side hustle. They know how little they are throwing to us and they talk it up like it’s a great thing they’ve done.

Alexandra2001

The graph you have posted (Average weekly earnings in the construction sector in the United Kingdom from June 2000 to May 2022) is somewhat misleading because the dates along the horizontal axis do not go up in equal increments all the way along, e.g. June 2000 - June 2018 are set at 2 yearly intervals along the axis, then June 2019, Sept 2019, Nov 2019, Jan 2020, May 2020 etc.

And your point is?

Mainly the lies

I take it you rely on some sort of translation software ? You may want to check it's settings. It appears to have translated "You forgot to answer verdantverdures points." as "please post some more useless links".

I hope you kept the receipt.

Meanwhile, on planet LLM the funniest thing is ChatGPTs first answer was about how the Tories can't be trusted. I had to nudge it/he/she/them to actually support the Tories.

Blossomtoes
And your point is?

Wages in the construction industry in the early 2000s rose less steeply than would appear from the graph posted above, e.g.
June 2000 £368
June 2001 £401
June 2002 £408
June 2003 £426
June 2004 £436
June 2005 £445

Compared to:
May 2020 £577
May 2021 £662
May 2022 £716

SerendipityJane
I take it you rely on some sort of translation software?

No - I wanted to reply to Alexandra2001's post first.

You forgot to answer verdantverdure's points

Boris Johnson is no longer the PM and no doubt some of his plans were delayed by the pandemic and the Ukraine war- although wages are clearly rising in many sectors.
I have already posted this link on the 'oven-ready deal' in a previous thread;
https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-shaky-evidence-for-starmers-attack-on-johnson-brexit-promise

I have morals.

A non-Tory government (be it Labour or a coalition) may not make things better short-term, at least stop them getting worse.

We really do have to stem the decline. I can't believe how bad things have become in the last few years.