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?

and a clear example of it..

My logic with the tories is that they've had 14 years to sort the country out and make things better and things have got worse in every area. Nothing works. Every single system in this country is broken and failing. I can not understand the logic of voting in the same party and expecting a different outcome.

That said I have absolutely no idea who to vote for. I really don't like Kier Starmer. What labour have said about their stance on the conflict in isreal/gaza doesn't reflect how they have actually been behaving so how am I to trust anything else they say.

Exactly!!

They will blame the conservatives for their failure for sure, and with Starmer insisting on reopening the brexit wars they always have that to fall on as well.

completely agree OP & am in the same boat - friends all harping on about Labour & I just can't be bothered to disagree.

I do think we need a change but can't agree with most of Labour's manifesto so will be unlikely to vote at all

I can see why people keep quiet about voting Tory.
This thread is a superb example of the tolerant left in action.

Have you not seen the vitriol directed at anyone even remotely Tory ? The left can be vicious and extremely intolerant of anyone on the right. Oh the irony...

I think that what Labour supporters could usefully have learned over the last 14 years is that shrieking "bigot!" or similar at people with opposing views is entirely counterproductive.

The change we need is stability after the pandemic, wars, COL with a solid conservative gov actually being given the chance to carry out some excellent policies.

Fairly risky… I think some people tried that with Brexit.

Or dont forget Tory bot either!

14 years since when. Covid? Brexit? The Ukrainian war? From what disaster that impacted globally economically did they have 14 years?

Online in particular there are people voting for the other parties that feel their opinions are correct and better than those that would/are vote for conservative party - don't think you should feel embarrassed but also not required to tell people how you are voting.

A lot of people will be voting conservative even if they aren't looking like they will win they will likely get millions of votes regardless of most of the online narrative so it's not an extreme opinion.

I was undecided and changed my mind this morning to vote conservative and not embarrassed

Couldn't agree more with this

@Buntycat but a large majority DOES make a different (call it super or whatever you like) - if you only have a majority of 10 and you have a few dissenters who won't toe the party line, it's much harder to get legislation passed than when you have a majority of well over 100. With over 400 seats Labour HQ could pretty much do whatever it wanted.

Plus the dangers of a weak opposition cannot be overstated.

Keir plans to rob us all of our human rights

And Rishi wants to take us out of the ECHR….

It's not about being ashamed. It's about being weary of being shouted at by intolerant lefties.

You should go on tour. I'm enjoying your posts very much.

I'm constantly surprised by people voting Tory because of women's rights. Literally all the rollback of women's rights, including lack of protection for women's spaces and self ID have happened while the Conservatives have been in power and with their blessing

Fine not to want to vote for Labour as they've been wishy washy about these issues, but outright weird to vote for the Tories to continue doing what they've been doing.

Just like the people who vote Conservative because they're worried about immigration, despite the fact that immigration has massively increased under the Tories in the last few years since Brexit, much more than under any previous government.

Sometimes you need to pay attention to what people actually do, not what they say they do.

For a supposedly tolerant country this thread is appalling. You have one vote to use as you wish. It’s honestly nobody else’s business who you vote for. Everyone saying you should be ashamed or embarrassed should really think about what they are saying. Agree with me or you’re scum? That attitude is what those posters should be embarrassed and ashamed about.
If you feel uncomfortable, (and given the attitude of a lot of posters I’m not surprised), keep it to yourself. You don’t owe anybody an explanation. You exercised your democratic right to vote and that’s great.

I’ve just voted conservative, I’m not ashamed to admit it, the reasons aren’t because I think they’ve done a sterling job for the last 14 years, my decision was personal and even though deep down I should have voted tactically/for the greater good my decision is purely for a couple of reasons below

1. My Labour candidate is well know in our small area, I know him personally, he verbally attacked me when I tried to rescue my friend who was in a relationship with him as he beat her ( I later found out it was a regular occurrence) he’s now married (and apparently happy) but he’s never nice to any of us who know the real him and there’s no way on gods earth I want him representing me or any women in our area, he hasn’t changed he’s just a awful human being
2. Reform isn’t a party for me
3. Green - she’s another awful human being but her actions haven’t impacted me personally but have impacted others in our community
4. Lib Dem - I have absolutely no idea who he is, I wouldn’t be able to pick him out in a line up, he’s not from our area and lives hours away so why would I vote for him to do good in our area and for him to represent me when no one in our area knows him, plus some of their manifesto doesn’t represent or line up to what’s important to me
5. Our conservative candidate is a great guy, he’s does so much for the community, continues to do so much for our area and genuinely gives a shit about our area and even though he’s a conservative it’s a better place having him in it

So those of you who think us Conservative voters are idiots, looking at the reasons above I hope you understand I’m not living the life of luxury in my ivory tower not understanding the needs of real people, I am a real person in middle England with the same issues as most on women on here but I’ve voted conservative and whether you like that or not, there’s no way I want a guy who’s known for DV representing me.

Everyone has the right to vote for who they think is right for them and they should not be abused, ashamed or jeered at for voting against who you would vote for, we are not murderers or abusers we have just voted for blue instead of red

It’s 6,500 new teachers across several subjects, not just math teachers. And it’s not a particularly large number. Strategic bursaries funded by the tax on private education is likely to make those subjects much more appealing.
The larger issue facing teaching is retention and this is unlikely to be solved by a Tory government who underfund the system. Most schools have received a real terms cut to their budget since 2010.

I guess they can start by treating the current ones a little better than the Tories have, pay them properly then see if any of the hundreds who have abandoned teaching due to shit behaviour by the government will come back, then they will slowly train more up and in a few years there will be more. Voila. It’s not that hard. Although you would think so from how the Tories have fucked it…

With their hands in the till?

I think better words than ashamed & embarrassed would be “her choice”