To be a secret Tory voter and feel embarrassed about it?

[SecretToryVoter]

I’ve just gone to do my vote and had to admit to myself that I’m one of those secret Tory voters and would be embarrassed to admit it to friends / family!

A month ago I was adamant that I would be voting Labour but ended up changing my mind for a number of reasons

1. Keir seems to have a number of grand ideas of what he wants to do but no substance behind how he’s going to do it (where is he going to find an additional 6,500 teachers as just 1 example)
2. Womens rights
3. my Labour candidate has been helicoptered in and doesn’t look good on paper whereas the Tory candidate is a local, well respected councillor
4. Tory policy is closer to my values overall

anyone else had to admit to themselves that they are a Tory at heart for this election?

Reform would hopefully split the Tory vote.

Do you really think he'll turn up?

Is it embarrassment or fear of getting torn to shreds though?!

I'd feel ashamed too if the party closest to my values had achieved this in 14 years of government.
1.Increased hospital waiting lists from 2 million when they came to office to 7.5 million today.
2.Reduced the % of people who start treatment within 8 weeks of being diagnosed with cancer from 93% in 2010 to 58% today.
3.Increased our public debt as a % of GDP from 70% in 2010 to 98% today.
4.Increased overall taxation from 31.8% in 2010 to 36.5% of GDP today. That is a huge jump and the highest it has been in more than 70 years.
5.Decimated public services- cutting 40% of the budget spent on public services and local authorities since 2010. That includes libraries, leisure facilities like sports centres and swimming pools, local council services like street cleaning, waste management, youth provision, children's services.
6.Tripled the number of homeless people who are sleeping rough on the streets.
7.Reduced the numbers in our armed services by 40,000- at a time when national security has been a higher priority than at any time in the last 80 years.
8.Increased food bank usage by more than 5000%.
9.Reduced productivity rates by 60%- the biggest drop in the Western world.
10.Average salaries, adjusted for inflation, have not risen.
11.Pays pensioners the lowest State Pension in Western Europe.
12.Tripled the number of children living in poverty between 2010 and now. We now have the highest figures in Western Europe.
13 Allowed water companies to pour billions of gallons of untreated sewage into our rivers and seas because our sewerage systems can not cope- meanwhile the company owners have paid themselves millions of £££s annually in bonuses whilst allowing the sewerage systems to degrade.
14 Allowed energy company bosses to charge us extortionate rates for gas and electricity plus continually increasing standing charges and paying themselves billions of £££s in profits. In addition the government pays them huge amounts of money through the taxation system and through grants - again millions. every year. Yet British people pay the highest energy prices by a mile in Western Europe.
15 Tipped hundreds of millions of public money into the pickets of Tory cronies for PPE that was useless and then paid the same companies millions of £££s to store it and then destroy it.
16 Cut funding to universities and tripled tuition fees- students now leave with an average of £45,500 of debt- in 2010 it was £15,000
17.Created such a mess of housing that rents and house prices have almost tripled. On average mortgages were 4 x the average salary in 2010, they are now 8 x .

I could go on but I would be mortified to say to anyone that this government, who have done the above things come closest to representing my personal values.
How can this be true for you?

I'd be embarrassed to vote to destroy the NHS, because I can afford private. To destroy the State Education system, because I can afford to send mine to private schools. To vote for the continuation of fillign rivers, lakes and seas with excrement, because it fills my pockets as a share holder. The list is endless.

In what world is "Well you should be embaressed. (sic)" bullying?

To have a stage on which to attack the PM with his rhetoric? Yes, I do, unfortunately.

You should be ashamed more than embarrassed tbh. 🤷‍♀️

I can't imagine being ashamed of my vote. That suggests you've made the wrong decision, and you know it.

But didn't Starmer say Men can have a cervix? Do you want men in our spaces? Taking jobs and sporting achievements from real women, letting people with a penis share prison cells, hospital wards and women's refuges with biological females. Just when the NHS has said STOP. I almost voted Tory because of it. If Starmer is dumb enough to say Men can have a cervix, what else might he do?

But clearly the first 9 years were okay. Boris wiped the floor with Labour’s Corbyn in 2019, so enough people were pretty happy with what the Tories achieved then. 🤷‍♀️

He's rowing back on that already.
He'll change his tune if/when they get in. He goes with the wind, and the wind is changing.

desire to start to create a fairer less class-ridden society

The policy doesn't do that though. It makes independent education more elitist.

The last 14 years haven't been easy for a number of reasons but macro factors are affecting other developed economies in Europe as well. Labour will solve nothing.

Everybody has a right to vote for who they want. There is nothing embarrassing about it. We live in a democracy.

And enough people weren't as well.

Trying to shame or humiliate a person for making any decision based on their legal right just because you don’t agree with it is bullying in my opinion. If you were to do the same outside of a polling station then you would be arrested and for good reason. It’s intimidation which is a form of bullying. Hence my statement, on which my opinion won’t change. Nobody should be shamed for which way they vote, each individual has their opportunity and choice and that’s their own business not anyone else’s to interfere with. To say “you should be embarrassed” without even trying to give any constructive criticism or basis for reasoning is simply said for the sake of being nasty which is why I called out that poster. You don’t have to agree with it, you can of course just scroll on and not comment.

I voted YANBU because you absolutely should be completely ashamed and embarrassed for voting for this lot.

Yup same here. Was sure I'd be voting lib dem until somehow I got pissed off about the vagueness on men in skirts. But also I voted selfishly I guess, because I'm sick of the "soak the rich" bollocks while I can't even afford private school - but the tax system has me down as loaded.

That was due to Brexit. Labour promised another vote and people were fed up and wanted it finalised. Don't you remember 'oven ready' and 'get Brexit done' on repeat?

Funny how a labour supporter would always throw insults call someone embarrassing… yet I’ve never seen a conservative supporter do that on here.

As I said earlier OP has a right to vote for who she wants. It is a democracy and there is NOTHING embarrassing about it. Perhaps you would be better off living in a communist country.

In a Tory world blatantly, where everybody who works hard full time, sees a lifestyle to reflect doing so, where nhs nurses aren't queuing in food banks. Somewhere over a rainbow...

I voted Tory for the first time in my life due to the gender issue and Middle East situation. I won't advertise my vote and no-one will ask as they will assume I voted Labour but I cannot bring myself to vote labour as I feel the gender issue is the most important issue of the generation.

It is only too easy for privileged rich people to stay 'reserved.' I suspect their public cover would slip should they be struggling with no money every month, with their children going hungry, relatives dying in nhs corridors.
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I'm simply responding to the question presented in the OP.

It’s your vote and your right to weigh everything up and decide who to vote for. Don’t be embarrassed, wear a blue top with a big rosette. I weighed everything up and voted Labour for many, many reasons. Your vote, your choice, don’t let anyone grind you down.