people who voted tory

[frogwoman]

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?

 

[Pickman's model]

in years gone by i'd have suggested simply waiting them out as the average age of a tory voter famously in the 60s. i no longer know whether that's a course you wish to pursue.

oh: and yes, yes electoral politicks is an awful waste of space, time, energy and money.

 

[Orang Utan]

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.

 

[frogwoman]

And yeah if everyone who wasnt registered to vote or stayed at home had done so, and voted, would the result really be much different?

 

[Orang Utan]

But then I also read this today:
https://libcom.org/library/revolutionary-alternative-left-wing-politics
and this:
https://lifeglug.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/how-to-organise-and-take-direct-action/
So yes, electoral politics is a massive waste of time unless you're only interested in incremental changes that fail to challenge the inherent inequality that both the right and the left prop up.

 

[bi0boy]

A Labour party that can win over both the white working class people who voted UKIP and the middle class worried about their mortgages is difficult to envisage.

 

[frogwoman]

The labour party was all over the place. The pink bus, the control immigration mug, rachael reeves saying labour are the party of work, the hystetical anti scottish stuff we're seeing now. It might not be a case of tories winning but of labour losing.

 

[Pickman's model]

The labour party was all over the place. The pink bus, the control immigration mug, rachael reeves saying labour are the party of work, the hystetical anti scottish stuff we're seeing now. It might not be a case of tories winning but of labour losing.

perhaps if the rhetorick of work was abandoned they might find more people willing to vote labour.

labour is the party of rest and relaxation might though be seen by some as a bit of an oxymoron.

 

[frogwoman]

If you wanted tory you would just vote tory wouldnt you, and people did!

 

[Pickman's model]

If you wanted tory you would just vote tory wouldnt you, and people did!

yeh so why the labour party think there's a market for tory-lite i do not know.

 

[frogwoman]

Those john harris videos are great. Theres a bit where he is trying to find scottish labour voters and cant find any, and he eventually finds one and asks why hes voted labour, and the bloke replies 'because im a tory'.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

A Labour party that can win over both the white working class people who voted UKIP and the middle class worried about their mortgages is difficult to envisage.

Winning back the former is pretty easy, I would think. They were foolish to address immigration as a response to UKIP. The underlying reasons why people feel excluded are the things that needed addressing, such as the housing crisis. They had nothing to say about that at all.

For the middle classes worried about their mortgages, my suggested approach would be one that stresses the benefits of universality. So pledging a return to universal child benefit, pledging the axing of uni fees, with a mea culpa for having introduced them in the first place. Stressing the benefits of universality to everyone by pointing at the NHS. Doing such a thing while avoiding the accusation from the tory press that it is a return to 'tax/borrow and spend' is trickier as it involves addressing the false assumptions and misunderstandings that are used as the rationale behind austerity. Given that, austerity may need to blow up economically first.

The harsh truth is, I think, that the tories won because enough of the latter group felt that the economy was in recovery and so were happy with 'no change'.

 

[Pickman's model]

this all paid for by expropriating tory members and donors.

 

[frogwoman]

Tbh i think people need to stop wasting their time with labour.

 

[frogwoman]

I really recommend people watching the video of the tories in the north east too.

 

[frogwoman]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2015/apr/23/tories-north-east-teesside-workers-video

 

[treelover]

Due to social media there seem to be lots of information from individuals on why they voted Tory, what comes across to me, is in some ways, Cameron, is the 'accidental Prime Minister', lots of accounts are not very positive about the Tories. I think they are aware how ephemeral lots of their support is and will push through appalling radical policies as quick as possible.

political scientists and indeed the LP and others will be able to build up quite a substantial picture of why they won.

 

[brogdale]

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?

The answer to your penultimate question has to be yes.

wrt Labour; what is the point of voting for a right of centre, market friendly, repressive 'tribute' party of capital when the real thing offers a more coherent, easily absorbed narrative?

I've thrown the term 'Pasokification' around on these threads, but obviously the demise of Labour is taking place in a very different context to that of contemporary Greek politics...and there is no Syriza. Labour's demise is occurring on at least 4 fronts, and it's almost impossible to envisage any leader that could lead the party towards a position that might counter the four-fold erosion of the base and simultaneously gain from the small centre of UK politics.

I can only really see one way in which they could possibly make themselves appealing by the next GE and that is to present themselves as the party of radical constitutional reform; specifically standing on a platform of electoral reform. The prospect of a proportional electoral system would stand the chance of making them attractive to voters that have been lost to UKIP, Greens and the LDs that remain, and possibly many Scottish voters.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Due to social media there seem to be lots of information from individuals on why they voted Tory, what comes across to me, is in some ways, Cameron, is the 'accidental Prime Minister', lots of accounts are not very positive about the Tories. I think they are aware how ephemeral lots of their support is and will push through appalling radical policies as quick as possible.

political scientists and indeed the LP and others will be able to build up quite a substantial picture of why they won.

Dangerous.

You can get a very misleading picture from the self-selecting nature of social media posts. See the Scottish indyref, for instance. Most tory voters won't be posting anything at all about why they voted tory.

 

[co-op]

, do we really write off a quarter/a third of the population as being cunts

20%. Not all of them cunts.

 

[Dogsauce]

I reckon a lot of people vote for competency, not so much policies. They don't want their shit fucked up. This is why a minority Labour government with an unclear relationship with the SNP didn't appeal versus a proven Tory-led coalition. Also Labour were in the unfortunate position of being in power last time people's shit got fucked up and people haven't forgotten.

One of the actually major joys of the '97 result was the real sense that the Tories were out of power for a generation, and that their long-term decline would continue as the blue-rinse supporters died off. The cunts are back and they're digging in.

 

[snadge]

It's very strange, I asked around and even some usual Tory voters I know said that they had voted Labour due to them being disgusted with the austerity drive.

I am hearing very similar stories from friends I know around the country also getting similar replies from people they asked.

So who the fuck voted these scum in?

Nobodies admitting to it.

 

[ska invita]

One of the actually major joys of the '97 result was the real sense that the Tories were out of power for a generation, and that their long-term decline would continue as the blue-rinse supporters died off. The cunts are back and they're digging in.

im really curious to see the age range of tory voters at this election ~ i worry that for younger voters its less of a stigma to vote tory (<based on nothing other than a feeling, so want stats to hopefully disprove it)

 

[kebabking]

i think anyone who believes that the Tory party, let alone those who decided to vote tory on Thursday, are wildly enamoured with either current tory policy or personalities needs to give their head a good shake.

participation - both voting and joining - of the major parties has dropped through the floor because those parties are so utterly uninspiring, elections are not won and lost by a clash of ideologies but by the reluctant choice of which tawdry, legend-in-his-own-lunchbox middle manager who will probably fuck things up a bit less than the other tawdry, legend-in-his-own-lunchbox middle manager. neither of whom is offering anying very different to the other.

 

[treelover]

snadge
There is a narrative on social media, that appears to be growing fast, that the election was fixed, it wasn't, but a lot of people, especially young ones, seem attached to CT's at the moment.

 

[SpineyNorman]

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.

 

[kebabking]

im really curious to see the age range of tory voters at this election ~ i worry that for younger voters its less of a stigma to vote tory (<based on nothing other than a feeling, so want stats to hopefully disprove it)

one of the other threads touches on it - in the 1990's and 2000's no one voted tory, they were toxic. now its Labours turn. the Tories were toxic because of their (de)industrial policy, Labour are now toxic because (in the public mind) of a decade and a half of war for little visible result and the tanking of an economy. facts don't matter, policies matter little more. its simply Labours turn to be unelectable.

 

[Orang Utan]

It's very strange, I asked around and even some usual Tory voters I know said that they had voted Labour due to them being disgusted with the austerity drive.

I am hearing very similar stories from friends I know around the country also getting similar replies from people they asked.

So who the fuck voted these scum in?

Nobodies admitting to it.

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.

 

[Lo Siento.]

Tbh, if you don't look at the background figures (productivity, private debt, balance of payments, comparisons with past recessions), the economy just about looks alright. Especially if you're a home owner in a relatively secure job (for the moment) in the Midlands and the South.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Tbh, if you don't look at the background figures (productivity, private debt, balance of payments, comparisons with past recessions), the economy just about looks alright. Especially if you're a home owner in a relatively secure job (for the moment) in the Midlands and the South.

Yep. I spoke to someone who voted tory on Thursday, and he gave the economy as the reason. Is a home owner in a well-paid job, voted Labour last time. He even acknowledged that the economic recovery (as he sees it) may be nothing to do with tory policy and just down to luck on their part, but still it was enough for him to switch. The bit that horrified me wasn't this bit, but his reply to my response about the bedroom tax, etc - which was a resolute 'why should I pay for someone to have a spare room'. He was genuinely clueless about the effects of tory cuts.