Would you vote Conservative at the next election?

[cheeseismydownfall]

Obviously this question isn't really relevant if you vote Conservative anyway!

Over my 25-odd year voting history I have voted Lib Dem, Labour and Green. I consider myself left wing and would never have considered a Tory vote. But if the principle parties maintain their current positions on women's rights then for the first time ever I will consider a Conservative vote at the next election - not simply because this one issue trumps everything else (although I personally feel very strongly about it, education, health and the environment are still hugely important to me) but because I simply don't trust the critical thinking skills of any party who have allowed themselves to be so thoroughly hijacked by the trans rights agenda and attempt to silence dissenting voices.

Anyone else feel this way?

[HandsOffMyRights]

I spoilt my ballot in a Tory safe seat area.

While the Tories seem to be the only party that know what a woman is, the way they've handled the current crisis and Brexit makes my blood boil.

I feel politically homeless.

[GreyGardens88]

Not if it's the same government in power no way

[GracieLane]

No IMO the conservatives parties policies and 'values' evaporate quickly once the price is right.

[KenDodd]

no deal Brexit - best summed up as the only time in history that a country declared punitive sanctions on itself.
Oh but think of all the money Rees-Mogg and co stand to make crashing the economy. I'm beginning to think Brexit was dreamt up by the Bullingdon Club for a laugh.

[andyoldlabour]

I voted Tory for the first time in my life at the last election, mainly because of the other party's endorsement of and capitulation to trans rights.
However, as a previous poster pointed out, they have probably by their incompetence cost over 60,000 lives and left the UK with the 4th highest death rate in the World.
I am in that political wilderness again.

[SinisterBumFacedCat]

No, the only way I’d vote conservative is if it was a choice between them and a far right party. Austerity has disproportionately affected women, I think the figures are 80-90% of those affected were this damaging policy is women.

[KenDodd]

All these people saying they wouldn't vote Tory, I bet they still get huge numbers of votes. I don't think I've ever seen this much damage done to the country in my life than the Tories have managed in the last ten years. Even if we just list the deaths they've been linked to and ignore everything else.

Up to 120,000 deaths due to Tory austerity.
60,000+ due to covid.

Some of the covid deaths would have happened anyway even under better government but not anything even close to 60,000.
I just don't know what theyd have to do before people stopped voting for them.

[SlipperyLizard]

Nope, would never vote Tory even though to do so is arguably “better” for me (if by that I mean I’ll pay less tax).

I live in a place where Labour can’t win but I really struggle to vote LD at the moment. I reluctantly voted LD last election to try to remove our useless Tory MP. Didn’t work. No idea how I’ll vote next time, but not Tory.

[Binterested]

I just don't know what theyd have to do before people stopped voting for them

People will stop as soon as there is a credible opposition. There isn’t. Keir has a very long way to go. The shadow cabinet are a bunch of goons. I don’t like a lot of the Tory cabinet and I know there is much dislike for Priti Patel but the letter the black Labour MPs wrote to her was mortifying. Incoherent identity rambling worthy of Fox and Owl. I’m embarrassed for them.

[KenDodd]

Well if 180,000 dead doesn't turn you away from them nothing will.

[ThinEndoftheWedge]

Never voted Tory.

Politically homeless thanks to the abandonment of women and girls by Labour/Lib Dems/Greens.

I might vote Tory if the local candidate was vocal on women’s rights/domestic violence and really got it etc.

But that’s it.

I would vote for the Baroness - despite political differences - but she’s now in the Lords.

Not sure who that would include in the current crop.

[SapphosRock]

God no.

I despair when people vote for a terrible party because they align with them on a single issue and brush over everything else.

Aside from the Brexit and Covid shit shows and the dismantling of the NHS, the Tories have a dreadful track record of supporting gay equality and as a lesbian I just couldn't.

No.

[redcarbluecar]

No. I can't imagine any circumstances in which I'd vote Conservative. If I felt unable to vote Labour I'd vote for of the smaller parties or simply not vote.

[Nonnymum]

Definitely not, they are incompetent, untrustworthy and uncaring

[Dances]

There wont BE any women's rights if the TRA supporting mop get into power - the word women will not describe biological females but any person who 'feels' they are one.

The Tories might be damaging to vulnerable women, but the above is the ultimate damage - we wont exist.

For that reason, I would vote Tory. I am also sick of being at the bottom of the pile.

Also, Labour and SNP are treacherous incompetents. I can't understand why anyone would consider voting for them. The Lib Dems and the Greens are not even worth commenting on.

[WanderingMilly]

Yes, I would.
Couldn't vote Labour, they have nothing to offer. I doubt whether they would have done any better in the current crisis anyway.
Not sure the other parties have much to offer either although I would personally lean towards the Greens if I thought they could really do something.
To be honest, I'm not sure any party upholds women's rights as I would like to see it, but it's always going to be a compromise when it's my views against what the majority think/want......

[KizzyWayfarer]

If you think the problem is that the opposition is not credible, do you genuinely think that the government is credible and competent? Brexit and now their handling of Covid have made us a laughing stock among other countries.

[Badassmama]

Never.

[Binterested]

It’s not a single issue. It’s about truth, freedom of speech, resistance to a totalitarian approach. I actually don’t care all that much about self ID because selfishly it won’t affect me or my children all that much. I care about what’s happening to our society and about how women but also just dissenting views generally are being silenced.

The willingness of the left to close down debate has been the biggest shock of my lifetime.

[sashagabadon]

@Binterested

I just don't know what theyd have to do before people stopped voting for them

People will stop as soon as there is a credible opposition. There isn’t. Keir has a very long way to go. The shadow cabinet are a bunch of goons. I don’t like a lot of the Tory cabinet and I know there is much dislike for Priti Patel but the letter the black Labour MPs wrote to her was mortifying. Incoherent identity rambling worthy of Fox and Owl. I’m embarrassed for them.

this is my current problem with the labour party.
I like Keir but I don't like so many of his polititians. I just dont think they are good enough.
Too many are all about their own identity and jumo on every band wagon going and too many are agitators that want to divide people not bring them together.

That could be society in general now but I hope not and certainly as am MP you should be rising above student identity politics or at trying to - not actively partaking and thinking you are doing a good job for all your constituents.
Case in point, the new mp that went to work in care home just to criticise the ppe situation. Turns out the care home she worked in had plenty of ppe.
that sort of stunt just turns me off and should be beneath MP's.

I want reasons to vote labour in 4 years time. I hope I will be able to.

[sashagabadon]

@Binterested

It’s not a single issue. It’s about truth, freedom of speech, resistance to a totalitarian approach. I actually don’t care all that much about self ID because selfishly it won’t affect me or my children all that much. I care about what’s happening to our society and about how women but also just dissenting views generally are being silenced.

The willingness of the left to close down debate has been the biggest shock of my lifetime.

yes that is it

[Dances]

Also, all my life I have voted not for personal interests but for what I think is fair for all.

The parties I have voted for do not consider what is fair for women or for me.

No more. I am going to vote in my own interest and in the interests of women as a group, to rid us of the oppressive ideology being imposed on us and in front of which we are being asked to kneel.

If that means voting Tory, sobeit

[lady69]

Yes. Did last time and will do it again.

[Dances]

It is a single issue for me.

It is an existence issue for women, for the right to define ourselves, organise ourselves, protect ourselves.

I've had enough.

[CaraDune]

The willingness of the left to close down debate has been the biggest shock of my lifetime.

This is why I find the whole issue so difficult. If it were simply welfare cuts and shitty handling of covid and the resulting death toll it would be a no-brainer.

But I'm old enough to remember the cold war and have friends my age from the former eastern block countries so I know what left-wing totalitarianism looks like (I even travelled there back in the day before the Berlin wall came down). And Momentum's totalitarian instincts scared the shit out of me. Not just on gender - I always thought this was simply the canary in the coal mine. Their repressive tendencies go across the board (look at how they treated Jewish people within the Labour party).

I'm also old enough to remember (albeit hazily) the winter of discontent, and the sky-high inflation and unemployment figures, so I know it's not as simple as "massive welfare cuts - clearly bad" (which they are for the avoidance of doubt). "Completely tanked economy in pursuit of ideological purity - also bad!" The knock-on effects of shafting your economy in terms of suffering, life expectancy, etc. is also hideous.

So a lot of it hinges on whether Starmer can really get a grip on the far left "no-debate, no-platform" faction in his own party. Like a lot of people I want some sort of social democracy, an open society with free speech, and an adequate social welfare safety net. The problem with the last election is neither main party was going to give me that.