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.

the cams are so wealthy and well connected it doesnt really matter where they go because ma an pa will buy them a job/pull the right strings in anycase...

apologies, thats not to say education is all about getting a job. its much wider than that...

And this "Gideon" Osbourne stuff... he changed his name by deed poll when he was 14 because he didn't like it. So what?

I thought Gideon was funny!

swc, the point was that the trip was paid for by an anti-sanctions lobby. He didn't go there to talk or play the diplomat, he went there for a 'jolly'. Bloody insensitive when you consider that Nelson Mandela was still locked up and SA were still making all the wrong headlines.

In the context of the rest of your post, the Gideon comment simply came across as spiteful. Or perhaps implied some sort of faux-posturing to try to make himself sound a bit less posh. Like... let's see... Anthony Charles Lynton Blair aka Tony.

You're saying they can't understand "ordinary" people because they went to Oxford? I would only have an issue with this if there were loads of teachers, and manual labourers, and SAHMs etc etc who were lining up to be part of the Conservatives and were being rejected. Then there's a problem. But... if you want to change the high numbers of wealthy, highly educated people in politics, you need to change an entire system. Yes, there are more politicians, in all parties, who went to Oxbridge, but that's because people with those educations are brought up to seriously consider politics as a career. For us mere mortals, our parents encourage us to be teachers, and doctors and accountants and make a living because they know they won't be able to support us while we're running around the country.

Would it be nice to have a broader mix of people representing us? Of course it would, at all levels and in all parties. But that's not how things work. As a society, we need to get better at incentivising people at all ages and socio-economic levels to get involved in politics and make it worth their while.

I am not wild about voting for the Tories and certainly haven't made any decisions - but my decisions won't be based on what school they went to, or even that they were part of a society that has a terrible reputation when they were young and stupid teenagers.

facts should not be mired in someone's background or ancestry - that's just an 'ist

when you extend that you need to understand that people who are born into wealth and aristocracy are brought up with certain things being natural to them and you cannot castigate them for that

you castigate people for their decisions and choices

and as I said you'v emade 2 relevant points the rest is all "ist"

I think a more damning thing wrt the Conservatives and SA, let's not forget Thather's son's involvement in a failed coup and the backhands and favours he got thanks to his mother!!

So when he went to SA it's because he didn't know any better?

The fact that 3 prominent members of the Tory party all were members of the Bullingdon club at the same time is mere coincidence?

This isn't just about Oxbridge, as you seem to think it is, it is about identifying with your voters.

They've made choices that have tied in with their priviledged upbringings, they've made no effort to find out how the rest of us live. That's reflected in the number of Tory members who are manual workers and the number who didn't go to Oxbridge. It's also reflected in the poor representation of women and ethnic minorities in their party.

So don't try to gloss over the rest of the facts by trying to make me out to be an inverted snob. Oxbridge is just a tiny part of the bigger picture here.

nobody tries to make you out an inverted snob.you're doing pretty well on your own

and I'm a life-long labour supporter

People have been crawling around trying to find pics of the shadow cabinet wearing 'Hang Mandela' badges in their youth. Either the pics don't exist (possibly because said thing never happened), or the people who have the pics aren't going to share them. Bercow used to go in for that sort of thing though didn't he?

As for Cameron's attitude to women MP's... haven't you heard about his A-list? Presumably not. At least 50% of PPC's for winnable seats at the next election sre to be filled by women, and 10% by ethnic minority candidates.

Your "facts" are selective and not entirely accurate. That's why it comes across as mud-slinging.

If you want to think I'm an inverted snob you go ahead, I'm not on here so you can think good of me, I don't give a shit one way or the other.

I do care about this country and our lives. Selfishly I care about dh and the kids and what will happen to us if DC gets in. Because it won't be pretty.

Oh you can deny his arrogance, his favours for the boys, his discrimination, his parties funding by the banks, but I won't overlook that. You can say I'm just smearing them, well I ain't no politician, I don't work for any party here, not Labour not Tory not Lib Dem.

I found those facts shocking and I don't want a man like him and his peers to be ruling over me. And I'm entitled to say so and I'm entitled to reveal those facts.

So nerr!

The A list has been scrapped.

I do look up my facts thanks.

i just now think that they all do a crap job.

And it's a vicious circle. You won't join them because of your perception of them being elitist so how the hell are they supposed to change?

Pressure. From us.

You read the facts, you don't like them, so you don't vote for them and you campaign for change.

Anyway, I've fishcakes to make.

Or is that sausage rolls and fruit shoots?

The point is, the A-list was Cameron's idea. Doesn't that tell you something about his attitude to women and ethnic minority MPs?

(Personally, I'm against those sort of interventions. As I said before, I couldn't care less about siomeone's gender, race or class. I just want someone who is going to do a good job.)

I doubt things are going to be "pretty" whoever wins the next election because of the state of the economy.

Wow ? what a lot of opinion this OP has started. For my money's worth, it's posts like this that really frustrate me. I wouldn't mind someone coming on and giving reasoned arguments about why not to vote for the Conservative Party (as I will be voting come the election), but this kind of rant just undermines the concept of such discussion entirely. Why the total focus on the background of the leadership? What does that have to do with 'change'?

At the end of the day I could say, as others on this thread have, that 'Tony Blair went to Fettes', or 'Harriet Harman is the niece of the Countess of Longford', or list all the Labour MPs that went to Oxford, or who sent their children to private schools...but to what end?...Or, in a reply that would be even longer, I could list all the instances of Labour or Liberal MPs under investigation for misuse of their expenses ? again, there are several...

However, neither of these points have the slightest importance in terms of choosing one Party over another. Personally, I don't think it matters what background someone comes from ? for me, it matters that they have decided to devote their careers to public policy. If George Osborne is the best person to deal with the economy, it doesn't matter that he comes from a background where his father built up wealth through his own business. Equally, if Michael Gove is the best person to sort out our schools, it doesn't matter that he is the adopted son of a fish merchant and a lab assistant. If Alan Johnson was a Postman or head of the Post Office before seeking election and becoming Home Secretary, it wouldn't bother me. I focus on policies, not personalities.

Interestingly, most people haven't actually focused on the second part of your post, where there is actually more truth in what you say. I agree that historically there has been less breadth of background in the Conservative Party but, whatever you think of her, remember that the Conservatives were the Party who put the first woman into power as Prime Minister. Look at Sayeeda Warsi; look at Theresa May, or Theresa Villiers. If you have a look at the PPC (prospective Parliamentary Candidates) list for the coming election, you will see a huge number of minority and female candidates standing in very safe Conservative seats. As far as I'm concerned, that IS a change, and one for the better.

(btw ? like 30andlurking I have also chosen this as one of my first threads to comment on. Nothing like getting your teeth into something!)

I was once black balled from an Oxford drinking club, not that I ever asked to join. DW knew a few of the Bullingdon Club members and even though she was from a two-up-two down in Newcastle. We knew David Milliband when he was a Fresher at college. We did things back then that perhaps we regret now but we have all changed and matured since.

The Bullingdon Club is old history but look at what Boris Johnson has done in London. I think run it very well in most people's estimation. I find it hard to believe David Cameron's experience of his son dying has not caused him to stop and think and want to do something that goes beyond politics.

The other thing that I take comfort from is that none of the 'Eton' front bench are in it for the money or the perks. Surely, they could not do worse than where we are now.