Tory voters - Has the current government put you off voting Tory again?

[Unami]

This question isn't aimed at those who have historically voted Labour, obviously.

I'm genuinely interested in whether the current government's policies have disillusioned any Tory voters. I have a relatively wide mix of political perspectives amongst my friends and colleagues, and I'd really like to ask some of the people I know who voted Tory in the last election whether or not the current governments' policies have put them right off the Tory party. I'm thinking especially of voters I know who are younger than me, too young to remember the previous Tory government, and have more or less inherited their affiliation with Conservative politics from their family. I get the feeling that some of these younger voters might think that current policies, like the bedroom tax, the benefit cuts to disabled people, the withdrawing of EMA, are a bit much, quite frankly. However, I don't want to ask them directly as most of the Tory voters I know don't really like to 'talk about politics' or would be defensive/evasive about it. Anyway, I'm sure there's a much wider range of perspectives here!

So, have any current Tory policies - the welfare cuts, the marketisation of the NHS, increased student tuition fees, the bedroom tax - actually surprised you and made you reconsider voting Tory again? Or has their general inability to improve the economy (despite/because of their so called public sector cuts) put you off?

If so, who would you vote for now?

I did vote Tory once, when I turned 18, I was young and naive in my defence, I was also rebelling. Thankfully I came to my senses and my parents didn't disown me

It's interesting that the Torys are all het up about UKIP. They are being nudged to the right.

I agree with ttosca, none of the three main parties are going to make great changes to the general direction of travel, but if we protest and engage in activism we might eventually nudge labour to the left of central.

*I did vote Tory once, when I turned 18, I was young and naive in my defence, I was also rebelling. Thankfully I came to my senses and my parents didn't disown me

I did vote Labour once, when I turned 18. I was young and naive in my defence; I was also rebelling. Thankfully I came to my senses and my parents didn't disown me

'The best thing to do at this point in history is to engage in activism and protest.'

I think there will be a big protest vote on Thursday, and tens of thousands of people will protest by voting UKIP. It won't be greens that they vote for, they will protest by voting UKIP. That is what the Tories are worried about. They must have heard it on doorsteps across the South.

Littlejohn has a good article in today's Mail about it.

"If UKIP had sprung up in Egypt, or Poland before the fall of the Iron Curtain, it would have been hailed as a spontaneous popular, democratic movement.
So what if it is a protest party? How else are we supposed to protest, if not at the ballot box?"

"If voters really are ready to ? as Nick Clegg claims ? back UKIP only because they want to say ?to hell with mainstream politics?, who can blame them?
To paraphrase the Monty Python ?Romans? sketch: what have the mainstream parties ever done for us?
So-called ?mainstream? parties monopolise politics and reject any opinion which doesn?t chime with their narrow orthodoxy.
OK, so UKIP may not have a forensically honed manifesto containing policies for everything from the funding of diversity workshops to transgendered toilet facilities.
But getting the hell out of the EU, scrapping the Yuman Rites Act and dismantling ridiculous, ruinous wind farms is a start.
Whoever thought that in the 21st century we?d have an energy policy which includes automatically turning off our fridges by remote control rather than building power stations or exploiting our untapped resources of shale gas? All so that politicians can burnish their ludicrous ?green? credentials and feel good about saving the polar bears?"

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2316746/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-How-protest-ballot-box.html#ixzz2RxcMURiF
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2316746/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-How-protest-ballot-box.html?ico=home^editors_choice

This is what Boris Johnson wrote about Nigel Farage

"And that is the problem we Tories face when confronted with these chaps from Ukip. Take Nigel Farage, whom I met years ago and who has always struck me as a rather engaging geezer. He?s anti-pomposity, he?s anti-political correctness, he?s anti-loony Brussels regulation. He?s in favour of low tax, and sticking up for small business, and sticking up for Britain.

We Tories look at him ? with his pint and cigar and sense of humour ? and we instinctively recognise someone who is fundamentally indistinguishable from us. He?s a blooming Conservative, for heaven?s sake; and yet he?s in our constituencies, wooing our audiences, nicking our votes, and threatening to put our councillors out of office. We feel the panic of a man confronted by his Doppelgänger. Omigaaaad, we say to ourselves: they?re stealing our schtick!"

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/10024202/Keep-calm-everyone-now-is-notthe-time-to-do-a-Nicolas-Cage.html

But what Boris says is not true. Farage isn't stealing their shtick, he is the real deal, not just an act.

While they hug hoodies, hug trees and have solar-powered lavatories, while they ride bikes, tell the 'squeezed middle' to take a hike and preach the polar bear, Farage is out there among the people, keeping it real and offering up a new deal.

While they are more progressive than a Guardian editorial, Farage soeaks to the increasingly discontented people.

They say Boris is popular and can beat New Labour, but I think Farage can give Boris a run for his money.

They'll try to smear him because they fear him, but they've got no-one near him.

I don't think Farage went to Oxbridge, I don't think he's got a PPE, he's not like the rest of the big three. He is not a cardboard cutout, he is not as progressive as the rest, he puts people above the polar bear and won't wear the climate change scare.

Are you for real, Claig?

Have you not seen the numerous racist comments by various UKIP candidates?

You are seriously a right-wing populist, claig. You would be perfect fodder for the Nazi party in the 1930s.

I think there will be a big protest vote on Thursday, and tens of thousands of people will protest by voting UKIP. It won't be greens that they vote for, they will protest by voting UKIP. That is what the Tories are worried about. They must have heard it on doorsteps across the South.

Yes, I am for real.
Of course I have read these reports. The Daily Mail has been running them daily one week before the vote. The Tories are worried about UKIP's chances and the Daily Mail have suddenly found all these cases in the past week.

There are nutjobs in every party, but they don't make up the majority. Give the public credit, they know what's for real.

Racism, Romanians and chemical castration: what Ukip candidates really believe

Racism is ?just ethnic banter?, paedophiles should be killed by vigilantes and Londoners should wear face masks to protect themselves from eastern Europeans, some of the UK Independence Party?s local election candidates have suggested.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/10022138/Racism-Romanians-and-chemical-castration-what-Ukip-candidates-really-believe.html

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Geoffrey Clark, Ukip Candidate, Calls For Compulsory Abortions Of Disabled Foetuses

The Ukip candidate for Kent Council Council has provoked outrage after publishing a manifesto that called for disabled foetuses to be aborted, free euthanasia for the over-80s and the deportation of 'riff-raff.'

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/18/ukip-geoffrey-clark-compulsory-disability-abortion-_n_2322798.html

Give the public credit, they know what's for real.

You obviously don't. UKIP are a nutters party.

No, I wouldn't, because I believe in democracy and referenda.
Let's have a referendum on Europe and on windmills and on polar bears. Let's have proportional representation. Let's have democracy.

Let's see if the people want "hug a hoodie" and Guardian progressive preaching or let's see if the mainstream is the Daily Mail view.

Let's have an end to New Labour sofa government and rule by progressive elite and let's give a voice to the people.

Let's vote on Thursday.

Let's have government of the people, by the people and for the people and not for the progressives.

Yes, I am a populist and I therefore read the Daily Mail. I am a populist because I am not an elitist, I am a populist because I believe in democracy.

Is Ukip a party of bigots? Let's look at the evidence

Their manifesto might just look like a list of things that annoy people, but party members hold some views that should concern us, says Alex Andreou.

Links with European far-right parties

Ukip is part of the group Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD). The group includes representatives of the Danish People?s Party, the True Finns Party, the Dutch SGP and the infamous Italian Lega Nord ? all of them far-right. Nigel Farage is co-President of the group along with Lega Nord?s Francesco Speroni, who described multiple murderer Anders Breivik as someone whose ?ideas are in defence of western civilisation."

Mario Borghezio, another member of the group, declared in a radio interview that Breivik had some "excellent" ideas. Farage?s reaction was to write a strongly-worded letter to Borghezio, asking him to withdraw his comments or Ukip would pull out of the EFD. Borghezio not only did not apologise, but responded with an extraordinary speech in which he raged: "Long live the Whites of Europe, long live our identity, our ethnicity, our race? our blue sky, like the eyes of our women. Blue, in a people who want to stay white."

Nigel Farage did not withdraw from the EFD. He continues to co-preside over it, along with the leader of the Lega Nord. MEP Nikki Sinclaire, however, was expelled from Ukip for refusing to take part in the EFD because of their ?extreme views?.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/02/ukip-party-bigots-lets-look-evidence

Let's have government of the people, by the people and for the people and not for the progressives.

You keep saying this, but all the political parties and papers you claim to love and claim 'represent the people' are full of hatred for anyone who isn't a suburban, white, middle-class, heterosexual conservative.

So when you say 'the people', you mean a small subset of 'the people', who, apparently, are the only 'real' people in your eyes, because all these other 'people' who UKIP and the Daily Heil shit on on a daily basis are sub-human.

Mario Borghezio is not a member of UKIP and Farage asked him to withdraw his comments.

I am a disenchanted Tory voter. I don't rate Cameron or Osborne. I think they see themselves as maggie and Geoffrey Howe in the early 1980s but frankly they're just not that bright. Not to start another maggie bashing thread please, but she did achieve her aims. They aren't achieving their aims and don't seem to have a bloody clue why that is.

The coalition is a farce and the only reason it had lasted as long as it had is the self interest of the top players in conservative and lib dem parties ie Cameron, Osborne and clegg. I wish William Hague was PM. he is super bright and very down to earth ( yes I have met him).

'all the political parties and papers you claim to love and claim 'represent the people' are full of hatred for anyone who isn't a suburban, white, middle-class, heterosexual conservative.'

No they aren't. These are the smears that progressives use in order to try and fool the public. UKIP and the Tories have rural members, non-white members and gay members and MPs. The progressives are desperate to smear them because they know that they are popular and speak for the people - unlike the progressives who speak for the polar bear and the elite. The progressives bandy about the word "populist" as if tit were an insult, when it is really what democracy is all about. The progressive policies aren't popular, that is why the progressives try to deride the people and their wishes.

And I would rather slit my own throat than vote UKIP.

My STBXH dallied with joining UKIP. Farage and the top players may not be racists but there are some incredibly unpleasant POVs bandied about amongst members and in forums. I've seen them.

No, they are racists. They are racists and bigots. This is no laughing matter. You can act and think and foolishly as you like, but when you promote parties with racist and bigoted ideologies, it's not funny anymore.

The progressives bandy about the word "populist" as if tit were an insult, when it is really what democracy is all about.

No, democracy isn't 'populism'. Far from being about the well-being of 'the people', populism is divisive. It pits some homogeneous group of people against another. The 'others'. I'm not just referring to the so-called 'elite' (of whom you have no idea who they actually are), but other sections of the population.

In the case of UKIP, this is immigrants and the EU. Their manifesto is based almost entirely around limiting immigration and an anti-EU stance. They're not a party which seeks to promote a prosperous, welcoming, and diverse Britain. They're a nasty little party which thrives on ignorance and hatred and blames immigrants on all the perceived problems with the UK.

How many minorities or non-white, non-heterosexual, non upper middle-class, males do you think will vote for UKIP? 3?

And look.........they even make Nazis welcome within their party

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-22349676

' I'm not just referring to the so-called 'elite' (of whom you have no idea who they actually are)'

You are right, I don't know who the elite are, but what is indisputable is that they are progressive, are anti 'populist' and pro polar bear.

'How many minorities or non-white, non-heterosexual, non upper middle-class, males do you think will vote for UKIP? 3?'

No, lots more than 3. The Tories are worried about their vote deserting them for UKIP, but so is Labour in some areas and working class people move to UKIP. These working class people aren't progressives, most don't read the Guardian and are not fooled by spin.

Hundreds of thousnads of non-white, gay and working and middle class people want a referendum on Europe - this is not an exclusively white upper class issue. In fact, the upper class whites are probably more progressive and want to stay in Europe, want more carbon taxes for working people and benefit from the taxpayer subsidies to erect windmills on their landed estates.

On Channel 4 News just now we saw Harriet Harman in South Shields, Miliband's seat, and the report said that Labour's main opponent there (in the by-election) seems to be UKIP and not Conservative.

Channel 4 News said that some people see Farage as the common sense man in the pub. I think that is right, and that is why Farage could quite easily eclipse Boris Johnson in popularity, because Boris is funny but not the ordinary bloke.

Remember how both parties wheeled out the policy wonks and toffs to enter a Greggs establishment and partake of pasty in order to look like we are all in it together. They can try as hard as they like, but Farage has the effortless appeal to ordinary voters that the pulic school policy wonks and PPEs can never achieve no matter how many pagers they carry.

For shame, claig. Really.