To feel like I'm not sure where I sit politically anymore, and to worry about it.

[Lookuptotheskies]

I've always been a staunch Labour voter. Always been pro refugees. Always given people the benefit of the doubt. Always felt okay that I've brought innocent kids into the world.

Labour are making cuts to disability benefits (and in turn, carer benefits). They are looking to slash sen support in schools.

My town is being overtaken with overt criminal activity. Illegal cigarettes, money laundering business, violent crime on the increase, known drug dealers, fly tipping, etc. Nothing is done. It's just a never ending thing, they bust one and another pops up.

I've always fought against the tide of racist idiots, using politics as an excuse for violent riots. I live in a multi-cutural town, chose a very multicultural school for my kids. But I can't continue to argue with the people pointing out the rise in crimes, drugs, exploitation etc which is very visibily linked to immigration. I feel so uneasy about acknowledging how I feel about this! Guilty and a bit embarrassed. I've always been live and let live, whereas now I feel more protective, more cynical, less tolerant.

I am also gender critical and very much in favour of single sex spaces, based on biological sex. This has been a slow thing too. I've witnessed the language around women changing (cervix owner, pregnant person, chest feeding etc). I've witnessed our spaces and groups being invaded by biological men (I don't want a man on the other side of the curtain to me in a women's hospital ward, or a bra changing cubicle, or a swimming changing room.

Does anyone else feel like they are completely re-evaluating what they accept/don't accept, and what they stand for politically?

I don't currently feel there is any one political party that aligns with my ideals.

I may or may not get completely flamed, but I'm curious on other's thoughts. I will check back intermittently but I don't live on my phone/mumsnet.

This is not a troll post. I've been a mn user for over 18 years.

It's been a long, long time since the left stood for the interests of the working classes.

And guess what? The working classes have noticed.

Simple but true. Best to keep my head down mouth shut on social media to avoid being cast as an agitator. That feeling strengthened with the lady who got 31 months for a hate crime.

When yesterday a nearby neighbour man got two years suspended for having 800 images of children.

I've given up. Too old waiting for surgery I don't want to miss if I'm banged up.

People will show it in votes.

Mass immigration is a con of the rich to suppress wages and make cheap labor easier and to increase demand on housing, thus increasing the price of property. Lower paid people cheering it on are turkeys voting for Christmas.

They will.

And the left will act all shocked and appalled 🙄

The mayor of Los Angeles is furious. The result of ICE patrolling the city has brought construction to a halt. Immigrants legal are staying home. Illegals hiding out. There's no-one to clean pools, water gardens in the case of the wealthy.

It's very painful for many just now.

@Lookuptotheskiesi could have written this, word for word. Especially the bit about feeling a tad embarrassed by my own views now. I want to defend Labour and still do on some things but they seem to have missed their mark and are alienating their core supporters.

I live in a quiet, predominantly white MC village.
I admit that I saw no issue with immigration as I just wanted all people to be safe.

However, our nearest town (3 miles) is a bit of a no go area now. Lots of young male refugees/immigrants hanging around in gangs and actually being quite threatening. My son and his boyfriend no longer feel safe to hold hands there (after being roughed up by immigrants), whilst previously there was a general acceptance of everyone.

One refugee recently told me he would cut my head off at work (NHS) because I couldn't give him a same day appointment.

I don't know what the answer is.
Seeing young children washed up on beaches, or blown to pieces in Palestine and Isreal is also appalling.
How did it come to this?

This is the general problem. People are okay with mass immigration until they're actually forced to live near it. Those who make these decisions don't live near it.

I think there is an increasing trend of the police managing law abiding people and not the violent. You see it on womens rights events, the transrights activists are often aggressive and violent yet it is the women who will be policed. The grooming gangs thing, little girls ended up with convictions whilst the men abusing them walked free.

This is another major problem.

Police openly admitting it’s not worth reporting thefts and burglaries, yet finding time to harass people who make rude remarks on social media.
Failing to enforce laws allows criminals to make ordinary people’s lives a misery. It’s good to be tolerant, but we are tolerating abusive behaviour.

I remember the resentment I felt at school when the “bad boys” got away with absolute murder and teachers did nothing yet if us meek “good girls” put the slightest foot wrong we got told off with both barrels 🙄.

It is all worrying. I saw that there could be in the next parliament possibly 30+ Muslim-issue MPs (note I said Muslim issue ) with views that most traditionally left-leaning people would not support.

I agree with the majority on this thread. Good to find my tribe. It gives me a bit of hope for the future.

I find as I get older I instinctively prioritise the rights and safety of women particularly young women. Men have been put first forever. I put their interests above respecting religious beliefs or how a minority of men feel. This makes some people terribly angry interestingly.

Congratulations, you have started to think for yourself!
I have become a single issue voter now and will only vote for a party that can differentiate between men and women.
The British Communist Party is one of them (or was in the last election anyway)

You really wouldn’t!

I don’t think the conservatives failed because of austerity I think they failed post brexit because they were lazy and disunited.

I actually must be one of the few who doesn’t care about immigration and it’s not a factor in my voting. (I don’t care that other people care about it - it’s just not an issue I care enough about to vote on.)

I do care that we seem to be paying ever increasing levels in tax with little to show for it and a populace who wants the government to do more and more (well their fellow taxpayer to do more and more) while not taking responsibility for their own lives.

Most of my issues with the UK are nor really something government can fix (the skyrocketing levels of intorelance and hate are what make me feel most uncomfortable. I know a surprising number of people seeking an exit plan for that reason alone.)

There are no main parties who I align with (and I would cut my arms off before voting Reform). Bit the election is a long way away and a lot can change before then.

This is a great discussion..it’s good to have people listening to each other.

It’s good to see a discussion but I’m wondering if it’s been left too late. Especially given some posts still on here.

We need to stop seeing politics as left vs right. Most people are liberal in some areas and more right wing in others. It depends on your priorities, however we have come to believe that a political party should be a complete match for our needs. It just isn't possible and we should find the best fit.

The problem is the press more than anything as they promote the idea that you can't politically sit in the middle, and if you believe one thing you must be extreme left/right and there is no discussion or compromise to be had. It doesn't serve the public, just tries to persuade them to agree with their agenda. It needs change. That's why we get a political party u-turning or reading the room incorrectly and coming up with policies based on what the press says, not the people on the street. It just creates instability.

This was me about 9 years ago - looking back, I think Brexit completely changed my opinions more than anything. I now feel like I've found my party but it's taken a long time, and a lot of soul searching, to find them!

There's a war on women in my opinion.

I'd say that all of my 'middle class' friends vote labour, and all of my 'working class' family and friends vote either conservative or reform. And the middle class people look down absolutely scathingly at those who vote reform/conservative.

I used to be staunchly pro-NHS but now I feel we should burn the whole thing to the ground and start again. The amount of waste is unfathomable and the lack of care is criminal imho.

I used to be staunchly pro-immigration, but then when you look at the stats of places like Rochdale, Bradford, Leicester, Birmingham and in particular how women and young girls are treated it's just appalling and I can't fathom how we're seemingly allowing it. One of my closest friends was a nurse (she left about 3 years ago) and said the rates of incest/rape/non-vaxxed children and babies/FGM were too much to bare.

I used to be very "pro-trans" but then my niece who was 13 at the time was told she had to play hockey against a 15 year old boy who identified as a girl and it completely shook me - it was dangerous!!

I find the amount of tax we pay as a family to be absolutely mind boggling, especially when i compare with my friends who live abroad. We're not getting good value for the amount we are spending.

One thing that helped me was I wrote a list of things that were non-negotiable and then found which parties or even individual politicians who my views most aligned with.

I've always been politically centre left. I believe in social democracy, societies with free market economies to produce growth and a strong fabric of social equality to mitigate as much as possible poverty with a strong public health, education and justice.

The problem is that parties have forgotten the "social" aspect to market economy. Our economies right now have governments incapable to make the policies necessary to change the decline because they sold themselves long ago to arms lobbies, big business (instead of funding local small/medium ones), or short term political deals instead of long term benefits for all.

Democracy only works when I can vote for a party that mostly represents me. Right now, none of them do. They are all awful.

I read that as 'Limp Dems' and nearly choked on my tea laughing. In some ways they are.

Like the OP, I also feel politically homeless - no party seems to reflect my values/views. To an extent Reform do, as they're vocally dissatisfied with everyone else - but (like Brexit) there is no policy/substance behind them, plus the racist tropes.

I think this is partly why voter engagement is so low. Certainly I feel no alignment with any party, and that there is so little difference between them on major points, why bother? I was brought up that voting is a duty, part of the social contract. It feels weird to not vote - that's a personal thing BTW, I'm not suggesting anyone else should feel compelled to vote, just that I do & am really struggling with the (logical) idea of not voting in the next GE.

I really liked John Smith when he was Labour leader. I do feel Labour lost their way with Blair onwards, it feels like rebranded Conservatives in many ways. I don't feel I can vote for Labour/Greens/LibDems if they won't protect women. Everything is so underfunded atm, eg schools/police/social care - and this Govt are trying to trim those further. It can't continue, the services are breaking, as we see with classes trying to share one glue stick between 30 kids (personal experience), the increase in criminal behaviour*, ppl unable to access care - some of whom die & aren't found for weeks.

*bit of a tangent here, but I was shocked at the TRA behaviour in Leeds recently - encouraging ppl to mask up, instructing them on how to get away with criminal behaviour if arrested, reading messages of encouragement/solidarity from violent criminals, & statements that would get PREVENT involved if it was any other group. Some of the chants are similar to Dylan Vylan's (but aimed at women, not a race or country), yet no action is taken. If the police/Govt allow one group to act like this with impunity, others will follow, and I'm worried we will see even more violent disorder.

I don't think those on the right care either though. They may say they do, but actions speak louder than words. We live in a society where we are easily led by populist parties which allow them to say one thing and do another. Basically piss on us and then tell us it's raining. We will look back at these times and realise how easily swayed we were.

It feels politicians are working for something else and not us. I think this is true of all parties.

As I said before it is the press/SM which dictates, and we need to look at ourselves and how reactive we are, and to disengage from things blatantly trying to make us take a particular view without any supporting evidence, before we are going to see real change. Really we are the ones who have the power to change it, by making propaganda not have the desired effect.

I do think Labour have done some good things but also made some terrible decisions, mainly out of cowardice and it being easier to go after vulnerable people than to tax wealth. Again they need to be reminded that they work for us, even if it is only on paper and not real life.

We also need to want a better economical system where someone having a bad day at work and getting upset doesn't send the markets in a spin. How easy is it to game a system like that? That isn't stability. These are people's lives and jobs. It's an utter pisstake. Much of the shit in the world is about money. It is about money above anything else.