Why do people say ‘all the parties are as bad as each other’ ?

[Diefrausagtnein]

‘I can’t choose between them’
’Lesser of two evils’
It’s just so flipping cynical and pessimistic. And also lets the current lot off the hook who really have been terrible. Ed Davey and Keir Starmer for example seem fairly sensible and above all honest. Current lot haven’t been. Brexit, Covid corruption, austerity. Really how can other parties that haven’t been in power for 14 years, or ever for that matter, be as bad.

Because governing is hard and it's unlikely that any party will create massive change.

Exactly this. This Tory party have realised that they can just siphon off public funds in plain sight. I find it baffling that people think it's okay. Cameron was a saint in comparison and he happily fucked a pig.

Yup Nadine Dories and Maria Caulfield. Both Tories with awful reps, nurses, but doubt involved with the unions…😂

They all have policies that i strongly disagree with.

I remember it clearly. Short NHs waiting lists, minimum wage introduced, Surestart centres, more teachers, TAs introduced, more police, less divisive politics, no Brexit it was hugely better than now. Things they could have done better though was no Iraq war, started building council houses again and no arms length companies.

I had to explain to my 17 year old that the pig fucking was a) real b) done by someone I respect more than the last 3 prime ministers.
Is face was 😱🤢😱

I do too.

Things are much, much worse under the current tory government.

To be honest, I think we have reached the point where anyone - bar a select few who have done very well out of the tories - who looks at the shit show of the last few years and goes "yeah, but the other lot can't do any better" has to be considered a bit insane.

No manifestos have been released yet, as far as I know.

Most of the people I work with are Tory/Brexit voters who are in denial about the sheer level of criminality this lot have engaged in.
Say what you like about Keir Starmer but he wouldn't have moved his pregnant mistress into no.10 or given his American shag £100,000-odd of public money.

@MathiasBroucek big aspirational policies are often expensive and risky. And get cancelled.
Since Thatcher and her obsession with free market economics and a small state the country has become wary of anything that costs money because its a drain on the public ‘purse’. No one wants higher taxes to pay for big ideas because they believe the mantra that the state is always bad. And yet when Blair and Major implemented PFI to improve investment it was also bad.

The conservatives have been horrendous but really the electorate is completely mad - Boris Johnson etc.. what did people think was going to happen? Rishi Sunak has had enough. Labour were not much better when in government. Gordon Brown sold off the gold and pensions, PFI was a horrendous expensive cost to the NHS sold under the guise of shiny new buildings. Iraq war etc... I like Keir Starmer but am not convinced by the Labour party. I have no idea what their policies are except the VAT on private school fees. I feel so despondent generally. I wish we had PR so could have seats from a wide variety of parties so at least together they have less chance of making things worse.

It is an actual campaign strategy of the Conservatives this time round to land this message, particularly on scandals and propriety issues - because they can’t defend their record. I think it is terrible for democracy to court apathy, but there you go.

@crackofdoom Who’d believe a tory manifesto though ? They’re promising things that are indisputably damaging, scrap inheritance tax, scrap NI, crazy.

Because no party can fix our problems and they don’t want to believe that

I don’t know. I personally have felt fucked over by successive governments since I was about 16.

I think Conservatives are screwing people like my dp over (disabled) and Labour will be damaging to my adult daughter.

My local Labour MP is a bag of shit and either lies or ignores people.

It's just a conversational cliche or trope. Something to say if you are too lazy to think or care, or go out and vote.

But if you have lived through quite a few General Elections, heard the glowing promises, the arguments, the threats, topped off with gilded manifestos........and within mere weeks (sometimes days) have seen the pledges turn to meaningless ashes, whoever wins, it's tremendously difficult not to feel EVERY politician is a self-serving swindler.

Why is scraping inheritance tax, damaging?

I thought not many people paid anyway, it’s one of those issues that often comes up but doesn’t change much wether it’s in place or not.

@atotalshambles this meme that they ‘sold off our gold’ is old hat though and really shouldn’t overshadow the genuine achievements of that period.
PFI was a continuation from Major, the economy was shot, infrastructure was falling apart, and yet no one wanted to pay higher taxes to remedy it, so Blair extended PFI.
Blame Thatcher for decrepit public services, crumbling schools etc.

Because each of the Parties have ideologies some of us fundamentally don’t agree with.

So Lib Dem stance on what a woman is. Some of us really want full minority support for people with gender dysphoria and have lots of empathy for them. But we don’t want our children to be told lies about biological sex and to confuse them and we want safe spaces for women. Nevertheless I am voting Lib Dem as my candidate locally is the best and I don’t think they personally are too into this.

Labour’s ideological stance on private schools is ludicrous and helps nobody. Why not just fund SEN better and make sure all kids in state schools get more exercise. It’s SEN and sports that the private sector do better, it isn’t that complicated. Joe Wicks will be happy to help if you want some branding attached to your ideology.
And I totally agree that your own child’s or relative’s health or education always comes first. Not your party’s outdated bloody ideology.

Tories a cess pit of infighting. They can’t agree amongst themselves. They are too focussed on the grey vote at the expense of our future as well.

The real truth is that politicians have divided the country and there is no clarity between the left and the right anymore. At the poorer uneducated level many hate immigrants and want the nanny state to look out for them. The reality is that all work needs to pay a better wage and housing conditions and access to health needs to improve for all, but some personal responsibility towards your own health (don’t smoke and get fat and drink too much) and own life needs to be taken as well. Lots of traditional Labour voters were pro Brexit. So Labour is too chicken to backtrack on Brexit/closer alliance which is rubbish for the rest of us.

For all of us it would be better if the Centrist got together and formed a whole new party and ditched the far left as well. Sunak was held to ransom by reform type thinking- it’s good they split. Starmer needs to manage those out in his own party gradually who have extremist views too, he clearly tried but the press won’t let him get away with it.

The irony is that I don’t believe that either Starmer or Sunak personally believe in the some of the ideologies their party stands for. So it is a shitshow.

@Itsonlymashadow agreed it only affects top 4% of the population.
I’ve no probs with it. Clearly just pure vote catching gimmickry, pretty much like the labour VAT policy. In the cold light of day one policy helps the richest, the other doesn’t 🤷🏻‍♂️If you don’t mind about scrapping IHT, surely same for VAT on private education…goes both ways.

This election is like finding out Jimmy Savile's hospital visit has been cancelled only to hear the sound of a digeridoo coming down the hallway

Last week my disabled neighbour had a stroke, his GP called an ambulance and they waited for five hours.
My child has had four different teachers over her final A-Level year.
Our local wild swimming chair ended up hospitalised after an ear infection from dirty water gave her a brain infection. I no longer wild swim.
Our town centre is largely boarded up.
My friends in Devon have crytosporidium after sewage got into the drinking water.
The waiting list for my 'emergency' gynae surgery was a minimum of 18 months.

Not to mention the fact that the entire social contract has broken down and our society is now more fractured than ever.

These are the things that really matter to me. These are the things that were very, very different under a new labour government.

@TheTigerWhoCameToEatMyHusband see it’s analogies like that that are so ridiculous. And it diminishes what the Tories really have done.

I agree but can they fix it?