to have noticed that Tory voters are more polite on the whole than their left-wing counterparts

[SeaTheStars]

You don't get many lifelong Conservative voters talking about dancing on Michael Foot(e?)'s grave in the style of a rabid working class person talking about Mrs Thatcher do you?

what a horrid OP

I think people in Scotland pay tax too, FootStamper, otherwise there'd be a stampede north of the border.

Yes cat.

Problem is MT was quite literal in her outlook. i.e. don't concern yourself with those outside your immediate sphere. She really believed that a meritocracy was a viable approach to development.

It is frightening to think this type of talk and atttitudes helped to prop-up her power base. But there is no accounting for what motivates some. That'll never change, sadly.

I'm off to watch Desperate Housewives. Gotta get the priorities right!

I have never voted for New Labour, thanks for asking FootStamper.

Up here we have choices!

Catinthehat2 - MT believed in personal responsibility. The idea that we have a duty to be self-reliant and self-supporting. The welfare state was originally intended as a safety net and, of course, it is right and proper that as a civilised society we should provide for the weak, vulnerable, old, young and needy BUT why as a country does Britain have the largest percentage of economically inactive men of any country in Europe? There is, in this country, a culture of benefit dependency. Living on benefit has become a lifestyle choice. Basically, people expect the Government to sort out their problems rather than look after themselves.

Of course you pay taxes in Scotland. Its just a shame that the British government spends considerably more on its Scottish citizens than its English citizens. How come Scottish cancer patients get drugs that are denied to English patients? How come English university students pay for their university education while Scottish students gets theirs for free? The annual subsidy is £22 bilion a year!

agree is not the most beautifully thought out OP on MN, could be up there with some of the clumsiest of all time

might not vote Tory personally as am not excessively keen on Cameron, although suspect I might, LibDem will always feel like a wasted vote won't it?

Why should taxpayers (english or scottish) pay your grandmother's care home fees Footstamper?

'To say that Conservatism gives everyone the chance to be responsible for themselves suggests we all start from a level playing field. We do not.'

I didn't say we did start from a level playing field' but when in history has anyone ever? The education and health systems as well as the benefit system are supposed to even the odds, and positive discrimination for university entry was supposed to help as well.

I don't see why one can't be responsible for oneself, but contribute to those who are vulnerable as well. A business man who earns a lot will be responsible for his own health care perhaps, but will be contributing through tax and NI for those who aren't able to.

Expenses; someone said Cameron 'has no agenda other than feathering his own nest (and perhaps decorating it with some Osborne and Little wallpaper..). I don't see how he is feathering anything, or that he needs to.

Please tell me what is so 'vile' about the Tories, given that they have been out of office for 13 years and have had a melt down and now got their act together again? Whichever party gets in is going to have to make some very hard decisions about public spending, raising taxes and getting the economy back on track plus what to do in Afghanistan and these decisions can't be shirked, will be unpopular and will affect us all whoever makes them. I'd rather know upfront that things are going to be tough, than not.

Cissycharlton - I am not saying that the taxpayer should pick up the bill for my granny's care. The point I am making is that it is incredibly unfair that in England the individual pays yet in Scotland the state pays.

That's quite a different issue from the op. I think people of all parties object to the fact that under devolved power Wales and Scotland have opted for free prescriptions, university education etc.

"Cameron...has no agenda other than feathering his own nest"

Maybe he was inspired by the example of that arch nest-featherer and money grabber, Tony Blair?

Perhaps we're paying for our 'free' healthcare and universities with some of the revenue from 'our' oil, footstamper.

It's never quite as black and white as all that, now is it?

Glad someone has mentioned Nelson Mandela. Wasn't Denis T busy doing business with the apartheid regime in the 80s? You can see where Mark got it from...

Maggie didn't believe in personal responsibility. It was a con. What she did was quite deliberately throw millions of people on the scrap heap and then blame them for their misfortune, as if THEY were somehow immoral. She didn't take any responsibility for her own policies.

Whether or not you agree with her economics - and I think most of us can see where 'get rich quick and sod regulation' led - the point is she not only gave millions of people a good kicking, she then scorned them for being battered and bruised.

this is a very mild look at Conservative morality of the time. Maggie and her ilk opposed sanctions against S Africa during apartheid because, after all, what's wrong with rich white people oppressing everyone else?

FIL was a miner and loathes Arthur Scargill as much as Thatcher for what happened to the industry. Many ex-miners do but you don't hear about that.

In the same era my father grew his own small business under Thatcher and thought she was fantastic. He loathes Gordon Brown for plunging thousands of his generation into pension poverty. He still works full time aged 73.

Everybody I know who is a labour supporter is obviously vehemently against a tory government. A friend recently said that she would emigrate if Cameron gets in.

Everybody I know who is a conservative supporter can't wait for May.

What I hate is that I personally don't know the arguments well enough to join in - I have heard the anti-tori stuff plenty of times, but I don't feel that i've heard enough from the conservative voters, and why I should vote tory.

(excuse typing please)

Heated - My Mother is the daughter of a miner, all her brothers were miners, all her sisters married miners.

My Mum moved South, votes Conservative, and like you say, hates Scargill as much as Thatcher.

Scargill was thick. Or at least not as Machiavellian as Maggie.

Scargill played into Thatchers hands, big gobshite outmanoeuvred by the grocers daughter.

Why no grocers' apostrophe in that post, Redbin? An opportunity missed!

The OP is something of a sweeping generalisation. I know nice people and knob-ends from all ends of the political spectrum. I think people who believe "X party is nicer than Y party" are just deluded.

Having said that, the sentiments expressed on the Left about Thatcher's impending demise, intention to celebrate, dance on her grave, etc., are hugely offensive (even to someone like me who has never voted Tory in his life) and really, really childish. It's over. She lost. Move on. Grow up.

That's a fair summary UnquietDad.

Edam - sorry, the apostrophe thing just does my head in, so I put them in and leave them out at random, Sometime's it works'.

midnightexpress - I think we all know that if Scotland ever became independent then Scots would have to endure swingeing cuts in public services. The oil revenues that people talk about so fondly talk about wouldn't pay for the luxurious public services enjoyed north of the border. I also notice that since the credit crunch and the UK taxpayer's bailout of RBS, people have stopped talking about how the fabulous Scottish financial services industry could compensate for the drop in funding.