Did you vote Conservative?

[ampere]

Do you regret it or do you think the government are doing what they said on their tin?

The surestart round here was attended and used by the people it was intended for ...but thats because it was in the middle of a council estate ..not many au-pairs and middle class mummies round these parts

Usualsuspect. Take your point on that, I must say that it did give you somewhere to go in the day, especially in the winter! Me and my mates, left Surestart with a nice cup of tea and sat in the Park, ahh those were the days....great times!

I didn't vote Conservative. I did, however, vote Lib Dem, on the principle of voting for someone who had a good track record of being a good constituency MP.

The MP for Sheffield Hallam.

Yes, that's right. Nick Clegg.

Oh well. I wasn't to know... Perhaps he'll have more time for us after the next election...

I think all these threads show is the impossibility of people on either extreme of the political spectrum being able to imagine themselves into the headspace of the other. There is especially a mindset on the Left like this, which simply, literally, cannot envisage the state of being in which one has right-wing views. Furthermore, it's usually the case that people associate with the politically like-minded, and so if everybody at your coffee morning or pub quiz night or dinner party thinks the same as you, it just reinforces the incomprehension. And so the only way to cope with it is to rationalise it by saying that the "other side" has got to be selfish, or nasty, or even "evil".

(I'm someone who had very little time for Mrs Thatcher, but I'm still going to leave the Internet for five days or so after she dies, because I simply won't be able to stand the things that some otherwise good people will be saying.)

I voted conservative. not that it matters really in my consttuency - (63% cons)

i wanted an abolition of ID cards - and what o you know - they're gone into the political trash here they always belonged.

the equally ridiculous and iniquitous idea of 'road pricing' has also been binned.

and more cuts. necessary but the structural defecit put in by Brown was running a country like a pyramid scheme - doomed to disaster

Unquitdad. You do talk a lot of sense, so much so, I showed it to my DH!

Sorry, 'Unquietdad!'

I did, and I am reasonably happy with the direction that is being taken.

My gripes are with David Cameron for letting Vince Cable crawl all over the economy. He is a very dangerous man with enough knowledge to fool the laymen that he knows what he's talking about whereas any financially astute person recognised his serious flaws. The grapevine tells me that his most trusted advisor is an ex spread better. Hardly a prestigious position!

I suppose the problem is that it's possible in theory to be broadly in favour of what's being done, but still to be aghast at the way in which it is being done - and if you or your other half is, for example, a librarian who is about to lose their job (or indeed a parent whose local library is about to vanish) it's very hard to see the benefits.

Does the extent to which one finds it a Good Thing depend on where one is in relation to the Sharp End? Is there anyone here who has lost a job or a public service as a result of the cuts, but who still thinks it is a price worth paying - and/or that cuts, at the moment, in general, are a necessary evil?

There is also the idea being put about that these cuts are not pragmatic but, in fact, ideological (i.e,. that the Conservative party was looking for an excuse to cut public services and dismantle the Welfare State), and that it came along handed to them on a plate. In this argument the deficit is, in fact, a red herring.

I'm not entirely convinced by this (yet)... Worryingly, it seems to occupy the same headspace as some of my American Democrat friends who are currently wanting, by insinuation and implication, to associate Sarah Palin with the attempted murder of Congresswoman Giffords because of some misjudged "bullseye" and "target" metaphors she used. You start off by thinking the worst of someone and support the notion by using the facts which suit that picture...

UQD - when the threshold for WTC is raised to 24 hours a week, i'll lose that part of our benefits income.

we'll manage without it - ultimately I am conscious that it's all very well to make a genral statement about cuts being needed and then not being prepared to take a reduction of your benefits yourself. I also accept the CHB freeze will erode the value of that part of our income in time.

i was quite annoyed by the hand- wringing that went on about the CHB change, and the lowering of the higher threshold for CTC.

'I'm not alright jack' is just a crapulent a POV as its opposite brother.

Unquietdad

'Does the extent to which one finds it a Good Thing depend on where one is in relation to the Sharp End?'

Probably, to Tories.

and erm.... thinking that the Tories are ideologically predisposed toward a smaller state, less spending, fewer and worse public services is basically the same thing as thinking Sarah Palin is a big old shooting murderer? Seems a slightly tenuous connection!

JoanofArgos, I'm perplexed - are you implying I'm a Tory? I'm not.

Joan - I'm pretty sure most Tories are ideologically predisposed toward a smaller state, less spending and fewer but better public services.

Yes, I may be naive, but I don't think anyone actually goes into politics with the intention of making things worse. They just differ in their ideological approach to improving things.

but the definition of 'better' is a tricky one, no?

You seem to be implying that it's a naive/paranoid assumption to think that the Tories are ideologically motivated to shrink the state, rather than accepting at face value their claims that their hands have been forced by the deficit - I don't think it is.

Joan - the Tories are in favour of a smaller state. They think that will help people and make their lives better (all be it in the long run).

The Coalition have argued that the state is currently larger than we can afford. It appears that Labour agrees. So yes, spending cuts are both ideological and necessary.

But I would argue that Labour grew the state for ideological reasons as well as genuinely trying to improve things.

I'm not sure what the issue is really.

jackstarb - The tories are ideologically predisposed toward a smaller state, less spending and fewer but better public services but the individual gets to keep more money.

This is why they sometimes come across as selfish (or very naive if they are not rich).

'I may be naive, but I don't think anyone actually goes into politics with the intention of making things worse.'

then how do you explain the management of the econimy under Labour?

economy.

Damn keyboard. It is less than 6 months old, and already many of the letters have been wiped off. Has anyone got a solution to the lettering on these keyboards? Is there some paint or other solution to it?

at JoanofArgos

claig

i'm afraid the only solution is to make vicious cuts to your MNing :)

my keyboard is buggered.

No. My vote has always been anti-Tory. I'm an instinctive labour voter but have also voted lib dem on occasion. There is less difference between the three parties these days (in terms of actual policy decisions) so ultimately I had to refer back to the very foundations of what I believe. As much as I respect many Tory party members and politicians, they do not speak for me (despite being the middle-class married person they seem to assume will support them).

It felt to me that the last election presented an opportunity for real political change and reform with a
more diverse parliament possible (post expenses etc). I'm not sure that the coalition represents this (although I do think it was the only realistic solution given the circumstances. Much as I would have loved liblab government). Possibly if the libdems had done as well as was predicted, we would have seen more obvious change.

I'm ultimately pleased that however underwhelmed I am by the coalition, there is at least some neutralising of the worst excesses of toryism... and I suspect Cameron is quite pleased that it's protecting him from the right wing of his party too....

"Tory voters probably aren't kicking themselves quite as much as some others."

Tory voters aren't as disappointed as others. As they OP put it... they are doing maybe not exactly what it said on the tin but what we'd expect to find in the tin!