This is who the Tory Party are, read this if you are even considering giving them your vote.

[Rhubarb]

A few facts about the Conservative Party that you should know if you are being persuaded by their talk of change.

David Cameron was born in London, his father was a stockbroker and his mother the daughter of Sir William Mount. His ancestors from his father?s side hail from bankers and stockbrokers, it?s how they made their fortune. Cameron went to Eton and then Oxford where he was a member of the notorious Bullingdon Club. He has stated publicly that he is a huge fan of Thatcher. Unsurprisingly he voted against the hunting ban, being a hunter himself. He has been criticised by his own party members for being too Etonian and out of touch with reality.

In 1989 Cameron accepted an invite to South Africa paid for by an anti-sanctions lobby. This was whilst Nelson Mandela was still in prison. He was quoted as describing the trip thus: ?it was all terribly relaxed, just a little treat, a perk of the job.?

Cameron?s wife Samantha is the daughter of Sir Reginald Adrian Berkeley Sheffield and the Viscountess Astor. Their combined wealth is estimated at £30m plus.

George Osborne is the eldest son and heir of Sir Peter Osborne and was originally named Gideon. He was educated at Oxford and he too was a member of the Bullingdon Club. He has two children who are privately educated.

He was caught up in the expenses row after he ?flipped? his second home in order to pay less tax, the Lib Dems reckoned he got away with £55,000 by doing this. He also claimed for a mortgage that was paid, chauffeur fares and two copies of a DVD of his own speech on, of all topics, ?value for taxpayers money?. He subsequently paid it back.

He also tried to solicit a £50,000 donation from a Russian multi-billionaire back in 2008.

So there are 3 members of Oxford?s Bullingdon Club in the Tory Party right now, all from the same year. Isn?t that nice for them? A club that was noted for it?s drunken antics, willful destruction of restaurants (run by working class people), bars and windows and it?s arrogance in the face of the law.

Of the Tory Party itself, there are currently 17 Conservative women MPs compared to 95 in the Labour Party.
Of the occupations of MPs, in the 2005 general election there were 35 manual workers in the Labour Party compared to 2 in Conservative. Labour had 32 school teachers, Tories had 6.
In the same election there were 13 non-white Labour MPs and just 2 Conservative MPs.
Of those going to fee-paying schools, in 2005 118 Tory MPs came from fee-paying schools compared to 63 Labour MPs. 43% of Tory MPs were Oxbridge education compared to 16% of Labour.

So whenever anyone tries to tell you that the Conservatives do live in the real world and are all for making ordinary peoples lives better, quote these figures at them.

Me, I might vote Lib Dems.

I agree with humanbones too, some people, gawd help them, actually do want to make a difference. Some people get into politics for all the right reasons, they just don't get very far with it, that's all.

Nick Clegg has all the right intentions, he went to Oxford but remained a socialist, unlike Blair.

I think it's telling that so many Tory MPs are from Eton. They've even been criticised by their own members for the Etonian feel. It's a bit like the Masons, it's not what you know but who you know.

I went to Oxford.

There you go, weren't expecting that were you?

Oh dear, now I've killed it.

thanks HumanBones. Newbie, 1st post, bit scared! For some reason decided to throw myself straight into political bear pit disussion rather than nice gentle thread about shoes... why why WHY!?

Not in the space of 2 minutes 19 seconds you haven't.

Lots of lefties are the same - Tony Benn had all the privilege of a hereditary peerage but went on to pontificate on poverty, a large proportion of the Labour party wants to deny to others what they had for themselves (e.g., Dianne Abbott, who sent her son private while opposing it publically).

No surprise to me at all.

That was for Rhubarb btw

Rhubarb, pmsl at the idea that my background is similar to Cameron's (despite the fact that I have children at independent schools. One of them has a mahoosive scholarship, btw, though that really shouldn't come into it).

FWIW, I'd also say that MN in general has little in common with what you (Rhubarb) call 'the majority of people in the UK. The majority of people that are state-educated working people from ordinary homes'. But that's just a by-the-way.

30andlurking, you are one brave lady!

Don't forget discussions on shoes can be equally contentious

Welcome to MN

welcome 30andlurking - get stuck in!

I actually went to a residential college in Headington which was affiliated to Oxford Brookes.

But we got membership of the Oxford Union and it was quite an eye-opener. All of us at the college were from working class backgrounds, given another chance in education by the catholic church. The qualifications we got were equivalent to 4 A Levels, enough to get into Uni. We all had backgrounds and suddenly there we were, in Oxford!

But we were certainly told of our place in that society. I stuck to the bar in Oxford Brookes because I felt so intimidated and humiliated by them.

holythingy, so the majority of mumsnetters are Tories are they?

Wouldn't surprise me.

you were saying someguy?

I am a state-educated working person from an ordinary home

Rhubarb, I studied Law at manchester and also felt totally out of place due to the number of privately educated people on my course.

On the first day loads of people asked me 'what school did you go to?'

I thought it was very as I could not believe any of them would have heard of Whitworth High

Not surprised R at all.

I'm still sticking to the view that parties (any of them) don't identify with people in reality. THey are composed of Politicians who have a specific psychological need which makes them seek power.

THe rest of us have a need to avoid that seeking for power and wish to get on with our own lives.

THe small group of politicians and the large group of the rest of us do not meet except at elections generally.

THe politicians ask for our vote by pretending to be like us - AND ABSOLUTLEY N ONE OF THEM ARE IN ANY WAY LIKE US! - though I wouldn't say they are all corrupt bullies.

But by background, inclination and mindset, they are not like us, they do not understand us, whatever the banner they attach to themselves to get the power they need.

Women/ethnic/Etonian are red herrings. I am not tribal , I do not vote for someone who looks like me or sounds like me or has the same birth background as me. How can I? They are fundamentally different from me - they want power, I do not.

Ah, Rhubarb.

Rhubarb - I went to Oxford, fee paying school, die hard Tory voter. I lived in David Cameron's constituency too. Despite that, I tink you and me have got on pretty well on MN when we run across each other. People are people and there are good and bad even in RL.

I know from a previous post that you said your circumstances are not good at the moment and I can see your reservations about David Cameron and whether he can know what it is really like to live on a low wage or benefits, on a sink estate, send DCs to a rotten school. On one level, of course he can't. On another level he can still think, this is awful for the people involved and dreadful for the country and we must do something about it - and to really mean it.

I just hope he does 'mean it' because it is clear Labour didn't over the last 12 years. They should have. Labour Ministers living down in London in 'Grace & Favour' homes on the public purse and claiming expenses are not living anything like the life of their constituents. As others have said, plenty sent their DCs to private schools and or went themselves too. Now that really does annoy me.

[Hope you and your DH are OK and its nice to see you posting again.]

Rhubarb - our posts crossed. No, I'm sure most MNers aren't tories (they're all wet liberal Guardian types). However, I'd say the proportion of MNers with degrees (and more) and children at private schools was significantly higher than the national average. In fact, that's so very obvious that I feel rather silly for pointing it out.

I couldn'tv care less whether my MP - or the PM - is male or female, black or white, state comp or Eton, "posh" or working class. I'm just interested in what they have to say and how good a job they do.

So the "statistics" about the backgrounds of the MPs mean nothing to me.

All I really noticed was the mud-slinging in the opening post. Came across as just plain nasty.

stuff that has absolutely no relevance and is probably just narrow-minded

David Cameron was born in London, his father was a stockbroker and his mother the daughter of Sir William Mount. His ancestors from his father?s side hail from bankers and stockbrokers, it?s how they made their fortune. Cameron went to Eton and then Oxford where he was a member of the notorious Bullingdon Club. He has stated publicly that he is a huge fan of Thatcher.
Cameron?s wife Samantha is the daughter of Sir Reginald Adrian Berkeley Sheffield and the Viscountess Astor. Their combined wealth is estimated at £30m plus.

George Osborne is the eldest son and heir of Sir Peter Osborne and was originally named Gideon. He was educated at Oxford and he too was a member of the Bullingdon Club. He has two children who are privately educated.

He was caught up in the expenses row after he ?flipped? his second home in order to pay less tax, the Lib Dems reckoned he got away with £55,000 by doing this. He also claimed for a mortgage that was paid, chauffeur fares and two copies of a DVD of his own speech on, of all topics, ?value for taxpayers money?. He subsequently paid it back.

He also tried to solicit a £50,000 donation from a Russian multi-billionaire back in 2008.

So there are 3 members of Oxford?s Bullingdon Club in the Tory Party right now, all from the same year. Isn?t that nice for them? A club that was noted for it?s drunken antics, willful destruction of restaurants (run by working class people), bars and windows and it?s arrogance in the face of the law.

Of the Tory Party itself, there are currently 17 Conservative women MPs compared to 95 in the Labour Party.
Of the occupations of MPs, in the 2005 general election there were 35 manual workers in the Labour Party compared to 2 in Conservative. Labour had 32 school teachers, Tories had 6.
In the same election there were 13 non-white Labour MPs and just 2 Conservative MPs.
Of those going to fee-paying schools, in 2005 118 Tory MPs came from fee-paying schools compared to 63 Labour MPs. 43% of Tory MPs were Oxbridge education compared to 16% of Labour.

It's all just bloody irrelevant

you've only actually brought 2 facts that are worthy of consideration

Unsurprisingly he voted against the hunting ban, being a hunter himself. He has been criticised by his own party members for being too Etonian and out of touch with reality.

In 1989 Cameron accepted an invite to South Africa paid for by an anti-sanctions lobby. This was whilst Nelson Mandela was still in prison. He was quoted as describing the trip thus: ?it was all terribly relaxed, just a little treat, a perk of the job.?

thats because they didnt actually want to mix with any ordinary people...

actually, where you did or didnt go to university is a complete irrelevance. what you did there is.

cameron didnt do much apart from captain the tennis team and join a few dinner clubs which iis disapointing, shows why he is so poor at the dispatch box. the fact that royal intervention apparently got him his first job at cco and that he worked for normal lamont during the whole black wednesday debacle probably deserves further analysis by mumsnetters....

DCs children are state Educated aren't they? Unlike Dianne Abbott who "wanted the best" for her child and went private

I fail to see how any of that is irrelevant. I think it's highly relevant.

I want to know where our possible future PM stands on apartheid, on women MPs, on ethnic minority MPs, on the expenses scandal, on corruption, on better education for all.

Those facts tell me that he isn't the man I should be voting for.

I fail to see how facts can be mud-slinging, unless you don't like those facts.

Hi Betadad. Yes I am very very worried about DC getting in and what that will mean on a personal level. I just don't think he understands any of the issues we are surrounded with today.

I've stated in this thread and others that it doesn't mean I think Labour identify with us either, but the stats do show that Labour have more working class people in its party than Tory. And I'm sorry, but for me that's terribly important.

Because I've met people who think the working class live off benefits, whilst having state of the art equip, we drink and smoke ourselves silly and don't give a toss about our children. There are people like that out there in the world, one of them was a social worker. And this ignorance and loathing is frightening, because that isn't the truth at all.