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.