Help - tempted to vote Tory, against my long held values! Convince me otherwise!

[Flingmoo]

Right, excuse my poor understanding of politics, I'm just after some friendly advice.

I'm from a working class family who would rather die than vote Tory. I've done well in life and now have a much better career than my parents ever had, but still I've always been a bit of a Guardian reading lefty who also hated the Tories. I sort of used to be a Lib Dem, but since the big tuition fees betrayal I've been flitting between Greens and Labour.

However I am getting this horrible niggling feeling that perhaps the Tories have done a half decent job... Unemployment down, taxes down, hopefully reducing inheritance tax, "bedroom tax", extended help to buy, all good stuff IMHO.

But theres a lot of stuff I don't agree with:

• Not impressed at the way the NHS is going
• Not happy about sale of Royal Mail
• Corporate tax dodgers not dealt with
• David Cameron is a slimy twat

Er, thought there was more but can't think of any other points.

Anyway, please convince me to vote for a different party. I'm rather fond of the Greens but isnt it a wasted vote? Miliband seems a bit limp. Lib Dems not to be trusted anymore after Cleggs big fat porky pies last time. UKIP is a massive no no for me and I'd happily punch Farage in the face if I were allowed to... So who do I vote for?

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/28/-sp-david-camerons-five-year-legacy-has-he-finished-what-margaret-thatcher-started

My brother was politically apathetic. He is a doctor and hates what the Tories are doing to the NHS, so he has joined the Labour Party and is hoping Andy Burnham will be our next Health Secretary.

Over the last 5 years our trade balance and Current Account Deficit have worsened, and we now have the embarrassment (as the 6th wealthiest country) of having food banks. People in work cannot pay rent and rely on food banks.

The vulnerable suffer like the disabled, yet the government cut the taxes to the very richest.

I have voted for them before but I am not voting for the current lot of Selfservatives.

silveroldie - why?

You and the other Tory voters on this thread haven't actually given a single reason why anyone should vote for your party.

Yes please explain why.

I had heard that right wing voters were less intelligent so, my view, they just follow blindly. Let's have a well reasoned argument please.

Like the OP, I used to always vote Lib Dem but am honestly not sure which way to go this time (although never Tory). I've been reading up on the individual Labour/Lib Dem/Green candidates for my constituency as the only sensible way to make a decision here. Based on that, I'm tempted to go Green (even though I'm not that impressed with their leader).

TheHouseOfMirth it's not something I have done my homework on, but didn't the LDs announce more money for children's mental health services this/last week? Do you think it's enough to make a difference, do you think it'll be targetted correctly?

Dear Mamuska, the NHS on its' own is enough not to vote Tory. You know they've been doing their best to dismantle it, piece by piece, and that isn't good for anyone, rich or poor. It isn't good for individuals, and it isn't good for the economy.

But I think blacksunday hit the nail on the head about unemployment with this:

Unemployment is nominally down because, although job opportunities haven't improved much, people are taking on low-paid, part-time jobs, or classifying themselves as 'self-employed'.

Cameron is right that the claimant rate is down, but this doesn't mean that those who were on benefits are now in jobs, it just means benefits are more and more difficult to claim. For many this just means they are destitute, or they are employed but on zero-hours contracts (destitute on the weeks when they are not offered work, but by the terms of that contract are unable to offer their labour elsewhere).

The Tories are not a pro- women ( and some might argue anti- women party), one of the first things they did ( in 2010) was axe the woman's national commission, an organisation that advocates for the rights of women. The women's national commission had been going since 1969. But obviously the Eton boys brigade have a very dim view of the needs of women, especially women in need. The effects of losing such a powerful advocate can be seen such as cuts to legal aid so that not all women who experience domestic violence are entitled to legal aid.

Like the NHS mental health service cuts, and cuts to social services, and to legal aid the people who are affected are often the most vulnerable and whose voices are often not heard.

Interested to see justgetthruthegoddamday saying coalition is good, it seemed to piss everyone off last time with the negotiations and compromises.

It is a bit crazy that we are offered diametrically opposed Option A and Option B, and 36% vote for one and 35% for the other, but our country is dragged unhindered in direction A for five years, then the situation reverses and we go in direction B for five years

I have a funny feeling stuff like Universal Credit, or reorganisations of NHS/education, waste far more money in consultancy and management fees than they ever actually save us or improve services.
Plus they only last till the next big swinging dick comes along and decides to make his mark on the dep't after a reshuffle/election, so we start the whole thing again. What's the point?

Boulevard yes they announced more spending on children's mental health but let's put this into context - NHS spending on children's mental health services in 2009-10, the final year of the last Labour government, was equivalent to £766m (at 2013-14 prices) and by 2012-13, it had fallen to the equivalent of £717m. And that's without taking into account all the cuts to mental health services that local authorities have also made.

But Labour has more or less said they won't be reversing any of the changes to the welfare bill theTories brought in. They can't. It would be too expensive. So what are they going to do. Nobody seems to be quite saying. Except everybody will be better off under Labour. I think Miliband as PM would be a total disaster. He just isn't up to it IMHO. If Labour had a half decent strong leader I might consider voting for them but certainly not with Miliband at the helm crashing towards the rocks.

If you are a Guardian reader, search their website for articles about foodbanks and cuts to services for children with disabilities eg respite care. Despite the rhetoric of 'We are all in it together' all the evidence shows that it is the poorest who have lost the highest proportion of income since the Coalition cuts began. Is this the type of society you want. Personally I think overly 'strong leader' tend to make bad decisions. Poll tax, war in Iraq. So I would prefer Ed Milliband to that.

The Tories are killing people and I'm not using euphemistic or inflammatory language.

There are people being assessed as fit for work who are terminally ill, whose deaths are then hastened by actually starving to death in cold houses as they've had their money cut off.

So they're dying cold and hungry but what does it matter as they were dying anyway

Similar thing has happened in a few cases where people with severe disabilities have been assessed as fit for work. A man who had autism died of malnutrition from eating cardboard boxes as his benefits were cancelled.

You do not have to dig deep to find these stories and you certainly don't have to look in left wing press to find them.

Terminally ill face being forced to do work experience or lose their benefits

Cancer patients who have more than six months to live could have to do work experience or see their payments slashed

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/terminally-ill-face-being-forced-690027#ICID=sharebar_facebook

The Tories are psychopaths.

I had heard that right wing voters were less intelligent so, my view, they just follow blindly. Let's have a well reasoned argument please. ^^

The Tories are psychopaths. ^^

Such well reasoned, intelligent arguments!!

What do you call a party whose policies systematically kill people, ajandjjmum?

What do you call a party whose policies systematically kill people?

Tories are psychopaths

The Tories are killing people and I'm not using euphemistic or inflammatory language.

Oh for crying out loud. You see, this is why people like me can't take Labour voters seriously. Half of you seem to think that outlandish, histrionic nonsense like that passes for a proper political argument.

I'm not a Labour voter. I'm just a human being with a conscience.

And, unfortunately, it's not nonsense. The coalition cuts have killed many people.

Benefit cuts are already being blamed for the deaths of many vulnerable people, but there could be 60 more that we never hear about

The Government are still weighing up whether their reviews into benefits-related deaths are in the "public interest"

www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/government-benefit-cuts-are-already-being--blamed-for-the-deaths-of-three-vulnerable-people-and-there-may-be-60-more-9942735.html

Calum’s List

Welfare Reform Deaths – Memorial Page

calumslist.org/calums-list/

Also not a Labour voter Backcrack

It's a perfectly reasonable political argument to look at Tory policies that are actually killing people

Bizarre that you don't think so

Rather we glossed over it?

It's not the left wing press reporting it, these are not inaccurate stories.

BackCrack is there a preferred, non-histrionic form of language you'd like us to use instead to refer to government policies which lead directly to the deaths of vulnerable people?

If we are going down this route, what about the lives destroyed by the Labour party, encouraging people to take no responsibility for thier own lives or family?