The current govt are enabled to be ruthless against those on benefits, asylum seekes etc
because people vote for these policies
Unless of course, they are like that woman, Michelle, who was a natural Tory, from a Tory background who was quite happy to vote for them and their policies. She probably assumed that benefit scroungers were those who wouldn't work, and didn't read the small print which said that it included people like her, on working tax credits. She's now joined Momentum. I wonder how many more are like her? There was a time when people who had aspirations switched to voting Tory, but now the age they do that is rising.
Whether Momentum will help in the long term is maybe a different question, but the Labour party don't IMO have that visceral hatred of ordinary people that the Tories have.
Desperate people, who have lost everything, may riot, then look for scapegoats, rather than admit it's their own damn bad choices
I will have to go away and ponder this. With Thatcherism, which laid waste to heavy industry, most people affected could say that they didn't vote for her. (Although as it has been pointed out, she was in power for 11 years so someone must have done.) This time a lot did vote Leave, but as the last election showed, when the chips were down, quite a lot reverted to their old voting patterns and May didn't get the huge majority she expected. I think what I am trying to say is that we really don't know how people will respond. May was riding high until that election - a lot of what she said ticked a lot of boxes for people, but it went wrong.
I don't myself buy the idea that 80% of people voted for pro-Brexit parties, which is bandied about - I think a lot shuddered at the thought of the Tories getting in again and doing yet more damage to the NHS.