people who voted tory

[frogwoman]

...also in last day or two I've talked to a few people who voted Tory (and often for the first time). Every single one of them gave "the economy" as the reason.

Did they go into any detail? Whats their general attitude to benefits etc? There was a bit of nasty stuff on social media about tory votes coming from 'sheltered housing blocks' etc.

 

[butchersapron]

Trouble is that Lucas has egged on such delusional narcissism by admitting that she is gutted that the 2800 greens who voted for her party in Lewes sunk Baker.

Baker's share of the vote fell by 16%

Really? Bloody hell. And she's supposed to be the astute one.

 

[emanymton]

I'd say that there is a greater proportion of cunts in the part of the population that votes Tory than in the population as a whole though.

My grandad was solid Labour all his life (well until 97 anyway) and a trade unionist. One of my uncles is a tory and this caused quite a lot of arguments. But there is one story which while not political really shows the tory mindset.

My grandad was after a particular kind of screw. My uncle said he had some he could have. But then proceed to charge his own father the few pence that the screws where worth. It was some time before they spoke again.

 

[brogdale]

Really? Bloody hell. And she's supposed to be the astute one.

Yep.

Meanwhile, the Green party’s only MP is proposing that progressive parties work together in future to beat Conservative candidates rather than splitting the votes in key seats. Caroline Lucas, who was re-elected for Brighton Pavilion, said she was backing the move after witnessing progressive politicians such as the Lib Dem MP Norman Baker, in neighbouring Lewes, being voted out. Baker lost by just over 1,000 votes to Tory candidate Maria Caulfield. The Green candidate, who stood little chance of victory, picked up 2,784 votes.

Lucas said: “The system is wrong and we should have electoral reform, but that could be some time coming. So we need other ways to work together in a progressive alliance. Where it is appropriate, only one progressive candidate could stand in a seat – a sort of electoral pact. Cooperation during the EU referendum campaign could be the start of it.”

It's in the Guardian, obvs

 

[Casually Red]

My grandad was solid Labour all his life (well until 97 anyway) and a trade unionist. One of my uncles is a tory and this caused quite a lot of arguments. But there is one story which while not political really shows the tory mindset.

My grandad was after a particular kind of screw. My uncle said he had some he could have. But then proceed to charge his own father the few pence that the screws where worth. It was some time before they spoke again.

That says it all. There really isn't a punishment severe enough for that level of ugliness

 

[brogdale]

I'd say that there is a greater proportion of cunts in the part of the population that votes Tory than in the population as a whole though.

I'd imagine so. That said, there'd be a very small proportion of their electoral support that could ever conceive of the true nature and role of the party; most probably believe that they are supporting some sort of patriotic, decent, responsible grouping that believes in balancing the books and giving everybody an equal chance.

 

[treelover]

Universal Credit is going to have a big impact, especially on women who run small e bay type things, crafts, etc. but millions more are going to be introduced to conditionality, mumsnet has discussed it in the past.

 

[ManchesterBeth]

Some of my friends are joining the labour party so they can steer them back to the left. I'm not sure if that would help.

They'll be trotbots in a few years time. Mark my words.

 

[comrade spurski]

Labour councils have made tens of thousands of us redundant.
Labour councils have given us pay freezes.
Labour supporting trade union leaders have sold us out over our pensions
Labour supporting trade union leaders have sold us out over our pay rises
Labour supporters told us not to rock the boat cos the priority was to get Labour elected
Now they are beginning to say/imply/insinuate that they were too left wing!

FFS ... and they wonder why they didn't get the votes they needed.

 

[ManchesterBeth]

I was very angry on Friday with the people who voted conservative. But this is just a knee jerk reaction tbh. As someone else posted on here, do we really write off a quarter/a third of the population as being cunts especially since labour is pretty much equally pro austerity? I was gonna ask what can 'we' do to 'win these people over' but then that seems massively patronising.

What do we do from here though? Is electoral politics a total waste of time? Anyone got any ideas?

Many people on my Facebook news feed craving some sort of return to Bennism. I posted this text

It hasn't garnered much of a response.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Many people on my Facebook news feed craving some sort of return to Bennism. I posted this text

It hasn't garnered much of a response.

Who'd have thought it...

 

[ManchesterBeth]

I spoke to two colleagues who voted for them and they both gave Ed Miliband as a reason, and then the economy. So it's partially about charisma of the leaders, but in the absence of Cameron's charisma, it's not the whole picture - they trust the Tories more with the economy.

The economic reasons are empirically Short Termism. I don't say short term motivations because the public are made to believe that the conservatives are on the road to long-term economic recovery. When in reality it is an ideology devoid of concrete coherency, hence my use of the phrase 'short termism' to denote fluctuations in electorate consciousness.

I.E: we would likely be seeing a different result if the election took place last year or in 2013.

 

[Duncan2]

Labour councils have made tens of thousands of us redundant.
Labour councils have given us pay freezes.
Labour supporting trade union leaders have sold us out over our pensions
Labour supporting trade union leaders have sold us out over our pay rises
Labour supporters told us not to rock the boat cos the priority was to get Labour elected
Now they are beginning to say/imply/insinuate that they were too left wing!

FFS ... and they wonder why they didn't get the votes they needed.

I take some small comfort from the fact that the public sector workers were already pissed off with Tory rule and in actual fact as we know they aint seen nothing yet,Gove is meeting Probation Officers they are told to stand when he enters the room.Brother is one such PO he is going on twelve months Sabbatical perhaps never to return.Nephew is Hospital Doctor he is even more depressed about the future of NHS.Hopefully the BV are heading for a perfect storm of poll tax moments in their second term.Voters are eventually going to want someone within hailing distance of the moral high ground if such a Party both exists and can convince them that it is in earnest.Its cyclical we will probably have to wait longer than we would like.

 

[ManchesterBeth]

Leave the dialectics and the fancy theories at the door and just concentrate on human decency versus human indignity .

You need a cultural shift, not this continual to and fro between 2 bunches of Tories with different coloured rosettes . A day to day fight involving participatory democracy for the citizen . Not an opportunity for a bunch of tossers with a big hairy minge on their banner to be pretending to do something worthwhile .

Rest of your post was good but this is just humanistic philistinism.

Christ the identitarians of theological salvation. Really?

 

[chilango]

Did they go into any detail? Whats their general attitude to benefits etc? There was a bit of nasty stuff on social media about tory votes coming from 'sheltered housing blocks' etc.

No. They didn't. They're not people who've expressed "rightist" views generally. It seems more about "competence" and buying the general "need to balance the books" argument for austerity.

 

[ManchesterBeth]

No. They didn't. They're not people who've expressed "rightist" views generally. It seems more about "competence" and buying the general "need to balance the books" argument for austerity.

Ah the myth of austerity. Shows the extremely low level of political education in this country that people actually fall for that shit. It isn't even good bourgeois economics ffs!

 

[chilango]

Ah the myth of austerity. Shows the extremely low level of political education in this country that people actually fall for that shit. It isn't even good bourgeois economics ffs!

Same people arguing that rising share prices = economic recovery.

But, I think, they're all homeowners and round here house prices have soared stupidly rapidly (cross rail and so on) so you can see why they might feel like things are going well.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

This is probably the best thread for this.

I think that since Thursday I may well have turned into LLETSA. Someone please offer me something to be vaguely optimistic about. The only thing keeping me sane at the moment is the fact that I can get away with bullying the uber cuntish Tory voting labourer at work cos everyone else thinks he's a cunt too. But while that'll keep me going for a week or two it's just not enough - someone please give me something to be vaguely optimistic about. In 2010 it was shit too but there did seem to be the appetite to at least try and fight it (yeah it was mostly futile but there was vague hope) but the feeling I get now is that everyone's either exhausted or has a similar view to me about the prospect of making any difference.

To cheer myself up, I look at this photo about three times a day.



I agree with ska that this shock victory will galvanise more resistance this term.

My biggest worry is the NHS. Austerity will be brutal for many people, but these policies can, at least conceivably, be reversed in the future. The fear with the NHS reforms for me is that they will 'lock-in' privatisation and create powerful vested interests that it will be politically and legally very difficult for future governments to challenge, like in the US where the political establishment don't fuck with the health insurance industry.

Moreover, its a stealth process of privatisation of the NHS: gradually starving it of funds whilst opening it up to private sector providers. This makes the process less visible and more difficult to protest against and raise awareness of. The Health and Social Care Act has laid the foundations for the wholesale adoption of a private insurance model in health care. That would be an unmitigated disaster. The only way to guarantee against that outcome, and to avoid moves towards it, will be a very intelligent, sustained and well co-ordinated campaign. I think that will be the biggest challenge for anyone to the left of the 'Hayek-on-acid' Bullingdon Club Reunion 2010-2020 that apparently is our fucking government.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

nhs is my biggest worry, too. It's the one great prize they still haven't managed to take away from us.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

tbh though, the libdems were a big danger to the nhs. At least they are gone. Their Orange book lot actively advocate doing away with it. There *are* tories who value the nhs.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

tbh though, the libdems were a big danger to the nhs. At least they are gone. Their Orange book lot actively advocate doing away with it. There *are* tories who value the nhs.

Yep, the only predictable, and throughly enjoyable,* aspect of the election was seeing Corporal Clegg's foot soldiers getting mercilessly mowed down. Shame Cleggy himself wasn't decapitated, but sending him back to the House of Commons with the rump of his 'living dead' party is possibly a fate worse than death. I wonder if he'll quit and use his connections to get a job in a bank or something - would anyone want him?

* oh, and Galloway and Farage getting fucked and the people of Scotland voting en masse for anti-asterity social democracy.

 

[Casually Red]

Rest of your post was good but this is just humanistic philistinism.

Christ the identitarians of theological salvation. Really?

Please expand, I don't understand you .

 

[YouSir]

Yep, the only predictable, and throughly enjoyable,* aspect of the election was seeing Corporal Clegg's foot soldiers getting mercilessly mowed down. Shame Cleggy himself wasn't decapitated, but sending him back to the House of Commons with the rump of his 'living dead' party is possibly a fate worse than death. I wonder if he'll quit and use his connections to get a job in a bank or something - would anyone want him?

* oh, and Galloway and Farage getting fucked and the people of Scotland voting en masse for anti-asterity social democracy.

The pleasure I took at Galloway's demise is badly undermined by the fact that the gobshite's been talking about running for Mayor of London. Not that he'll win, but in the unlikely event that a genuinely good left candidate appears the bearded prick will no doubt do his best to syphon off support and fuck it up.

 

[ManchesterBeth]

Please expand, I don't understand you .

Neither do I understand you TBF.

 

[Casually Red]

Neither do I understand you TBF.

You criticised something, I asked you to expand on your criticism as it appeared a little cryptic to me . I don't understand the basis of your criticism.

You don't have to expand or clarify if you don't want to . Only asked .

 

[frogwoman]

During the last couple days ive had mates of mine and people i vaguely know saying the election was rigged, that the public were duped by murdoch into voting tory through a distorted image of ed milliband who wasnt given the chance to say what he wanted cos the tories control the media and people are stupid, that they're angry with scottish people and people voting SNP, etc etc

Is it me or could this sort of patronising shit have had an effect on why people vote tory? There seems so far to be little reflection on the left as to how this happened. redsquirrel etc?

 

[ManchesterBeth]

You criticised something, I asked you to expand on your criticism as it appeared a little cryptic to me . I don't understand the basis of your criticism.

You don't have to expand or clarify if you don't want to . Only asked .

Your point was cryptic and obfuscatory to begin with, that's what I was responding to.

Sure, we can forget about all theory and what not and focus on human decency vs human indecency. But that's a thoroughly liberal and utterly abstract humanistic position to take, devoid of any communist content. What happened to the old form-content dualism? Gone. disappeared. eradicated. Look at my platonic forms bollocks. wanna join a new religion?

 

[Lurdan]

The pleasure I took at Galloway's demise is badly undermined by the fact that the gobshite's been talking about running for Mayor of London. Not that he'll win, but in the unlikely event that a genuinely good left candidate appears the bearded prick will no doubt do his best to syphon off support and fuck it up.

At least he seems to have given up running for Mayor in Tower Hamlets.



George Galloway to mount legal challenge over election defeat - Guardian

 

[Casually Red]

That wasn't what you said though


Actually I don't give a monkeys

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Your point was cryptic and obfuscatory to begin with, that's what I was responding to.

Sure, we can forget about all theory and what not and focus on human decency vs human indecency. But that's a thoroughly liberal and utterly abstract humanistic position to take devoid of any communist content. What happened to the old form-content dualism? Gone. disappeared. eradicated. Look at my platonic forms bollocks. wanna join a new religion?

You've lost me too, tbf.