Can anyone help? What am I missing? I’m seriously lost on this one.

Do you think most people vote for a party or against the other?

It’s a tribal thing. I supported Chelsea in the 70s – same thing, no facts would sway me.

Apparently, this is according to someone on my family whatsapp group, there’s nobody else to vote for. Never discuss politics with your family.

If you can’t grasp the ability of people to do stupid things which are entirely against their own self interest then your life must be one of constant surprises.

I fear that the truest answer to your question will be “because Dominic told Boris to tell them to do it”

Some just seem ok with being mugged off

Because not everyone has the same political views and unfortunately the Tories are the main stream option if you are conservative (small c) in your politics. Under normal circumstances they are just as valid a choice as any other main stream party, they are painted as evil by people who don’t like their policies.

Why anyone would vote for the current version of the Tory party though is beyond me, they have nothing to do policy and everything to do with racism, populism, personal advancement and naked power grabbing. This is not politics as normal, hopefully Sterner will bring thing back to normal by highlighting how awful the Tories currently are. Don’t forget Labour are coming back out of their own very dark period, there were many, many people who legitimately asked who would vote for Corbyns version of the Labour party?

To get brexit done

And piss lefties off

So we can all end up with matching haircuts, matching clothes and one state controlled media outlet.

Life will be so much better when no one has to think for themselves

To follow the american dream (of abject poverty for the 99%)

For lots of reasons most normal people can’t currently fathom, but 6 months ago, because they were just a little bit racist.

Maybe more than a little bit.

As someone thats voted left his whole life but grew up in a tory house hold (despite being very working class) i will never understand it. I don’t understand how anyone could look at the last Labour manifesto and say it was full of bad ideas. Personally I think its because they are selfish and don’t care about helping others or want to pay less tax, but im sure its more complex than that.

The question i would rather ask Tories is do they feel like they are getting what they voted for.

Because they attract large numbers of votes from people who can engage in debate without resorting to verbal abuse or name calling or spreading lies about people who have a different point of view.

E.g. I’ve just had this from a mate – completely false news but cheerfully spread by an army of activists who are quite happy to deliberately mislead:

++++
Nicked this from a friend …….it appears that Cummings’ trip was a BUSINESS trip that also involved his sister who LIVES at the house he ‘allegedly’ isolated his family …..Now for some of the main course…defend this and you are a sucker for a sob-story – spewed by a conman….. nite-nite……

I think we can all appreciate a father doing what he thinks is best for his son during this pandemic. It’s been a tough time for everyone.

But, in the case of a top government official making a mercy dash of almost 300 miles during Lockdown ‘rules’… there appears to be some strange coincidences with other events.

For instance, GlaxoSmithKline, who have been fined millions of pounds in the UK for bribing companies not to make generic copies of their out of patent drugs, so preventing any competition and allowing them to sell their products highly priced to the NHS, operate from a base in the North-East.

That operating/manufacturing base just happens to be…Bernard Castle in County Durham!

Dominic Cummings readily admits he took a drive out to Bernard Castle on April 12, because his eyes were feeling a bit odd and wanted to test them.

Two days later, GlaxoSmithKline signed off an an agreement with the Government to develop and manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine with Sanoffi of France.

COINCIDENCE?

Mr Cummings’ sister Alice is based at the family home where the government aide thought best to isolate himself, wife and child.

On April 14, Alice Cummings was appointed a Director of Idox plc which shortly afterwards was awarded contracts to supply PPE and other equipment to the National Health.

COINCIDENCE?

Because they attract large numbers of votes from people who can engage in debate without resorting to verbal abuse or name calling or spreading lies about people who have a different point of view.

E.g. I’ve just had this from a mate – completely false news but cheerfully spread by an army of activists who are quite happy to deliberately mislead:

His kid is autistic.

Which puts a rather different slant on the ability to palm off a nipper at short notice to the neighbours.

pot kettle

Because they attract large numbers of votes from people who can engage in debate without resorting to verbal abuse or name calling or spreading lies about people who have a different point of view.

Bahahahahahahahaha. Aye, right.

Because they attract large numbers of votes from people who can engage in debate without resorting to verbal abuse or name calling or spreading lies about people who have a different point of view.

This.

Because they attract large numbers of votes from people who can engage in debate without resorting to verbal abuse or name calling or spreading lies about people who have a different point of view.

People who don’t resort to lies choose to vote for people who are proven liars?

Maybe people remember things like the gulf war, the winter of discontent?

As a country we are ****. There’s no centre line.

Anyone who wishes to be a politician should automatically be barred from being one.

I’m not Tory nor am I Labour.

However this kit of brexit banging imbreds are possibly the worst I’ve seen. Though I dread the thought of corban being in the driving seat instead

because they are ****

The question i would rather ask Tories is do they feel like they are getting what they voted for.

I think this is the nub of the topic. I’m more left leaning than many of my peers and thus I can see that the last election was won on a string of wild promises from a party that had undergone a huge change in the 3 years since Brexit.

The “genius” of it is that the party that spent almost a decade disenfranchising half the population than managed to seduce a good chunk of disenfranchised voters…

More over this was not a top-down strategy, it is the direct result of a “fringe group” managing to change the narrative around a niche topic into a war on “elites” and every subsequent national vote became all about overturning the “establishment” until they managed to get their own puppets in power. The turning point happened almost half a decade ago, and people have short memories.

People voted tory because the messages they received were plainly worded, multifaceted and tended to focus on the things voters were against so eventually they score a hit with lots of people:
“Don’t like foreigners? Neither do we!”
“Don’t like corbyn? Neither do we!”
“Don’t like dole scum? Neither do we!”
Etc, etc…

People who voted tory don’t really believe the party had changed their spots, but they heard a promise or two in amongst all the others that they wouldn’t mind coming to pass and so thought they’d give Boris a go.

I hate to say it but I can see why the message that Corbyn was unelectable stuck with so many. But Starmer is a very different kettle of fish, and he’s been gifted an excellent start, a seemingly callous government in increasing disarray, during a major public health crisis…

We’ll see what he makes of it, the next election is still a long way off, probably on the far side of a global recession.

Selfish
Dimwitted
Gullible

Years of propaganda from the majority of the media helps

Is it because they are self-centred, uncaring, phuk you, I’m alright bastards?

The tories have now manipulated the economy in such a way, with wage stagnation and the housing bubble, that even professional people (the middle classes) especially young professionals who would once have voted for a better future. Are living month to month, struggling to keep afloat and living from one pay check to the next, unable to vote for long term policies because they believe any tax rises will sink them now.

Tory voters seem to be people who readily acknowledge problems in society but are too scared to vote for the change that is needed to address this.

The other parties do seem to present alternatives that would deliver change.

But the Tories seed the fear, presenting the alternatives as dangerous radicals who would damage the (often fragile) standing of voters. They literally aim to Conserve the status quo, selling this as opportunity to the masses (but in reality simply keeping Rees Mogg and co rich).

In short, the policies needed to effect worthwhile change are easily portrayed as dangerous.

because they are ****

This sums it up in truth.

Lol at the above, i’d say the same about those that voted Labour last time around for Corbyn and McDonnell’s retarded keynesian economics.

Starmer’s Labour is more something I could vote for.

I’m one of Thatcher’s Children. Born 1969, when I was 10 my dad left the RAF after 22 years and had to find a job to keep a roof over our heads at the time of her rise to power. Winter of discontent etc a big part of my early childhood

Took a while, but he did, and we had a secure and happy life while other communities were pulled apart. I was brought up believing that working hard for your family was the right way. I started work in 87, knuckled down, worked hard, saved hard, did well for myself, all through my 20s and the Tory years.

So plenty of people have done well in the Tory way, and don’t understand or have any experience of why other people would not. *

By 97 I could see the damage Tory policies were doing to wider areas of society outside my previous experience, and it was the first time I hadn’t voted Tory. Never have since.

*And I’ll add that some people seem to have a disconnect between their vote and it’s consequences. Pre-Covid, my parents could not see that the failure of the NHS to provide cancer treatment to a friend within the target times might be connected to them voting for yet another round of Tory austerity, despite hearing first hand accounts of cuts to public services from me and MrsMC.

I always quite liked the pie analogy. The pie in this case being national wealth.

The left focus on dividing the pie up as fairly as possible.
The right focus on making the pie as big as possible.

Neither is right (or wrong) and both sides have policies that are self-consistent but fail if taken too far.

I didn’t vote for this lot, but I find the name calling (on both sides) tedious. People who hold a different political point of view to you are not evil. Yes there are idiots, racists, anti-Semites etc on both sides, but most voters for the main parties are sensible people who are voting for what they think is best.

Some people think the Tories handle the economy better than Labour. Oh and then there’s low taxation! But more recently it’s the Brexit, refugee, foreigner thing.

Tory voters seem to be people who readily acknowledge problems in society but are too scared to vote for the change that is needed to address this.

But the Tories seed the fear, presenting the alternatives as dangerous radicals who would damage the (often fragile) standing of voters

This is well put – fear of the alternative rather than belief in the Tory way.

Lol at the above

Entirely your position to take. Fortunately, I remember the poll tax effects and more currently, the laughing stock this government has become.

You vote and I vote and we get what we get. Fortunately for me, it seems independence is becoming increasingly more likely.

Maybe people remember things like the gulf war, the winter of discontent?

Eh? Both of those occurred under Tory governments.

The question i would rather ask Tories is do they feel like they are getting what they voted for.

There are probably people in countries around the world who used to belong to a certain empire and probably some people in countries that are in “union” with what was the epicentre of that empire, who are now looking at the behaviour of the leadership of that country and thinking “It’s taken a few decades, but finally the English are beginning to understand what it is like to be ruled by the English”.

Why did people vote Tory at the last election? I’ve absolutely no idea…

I’m one of Thatcher’s Children. Born 1969, when I was 10 my dad left the RAF after 22 years and had to find a job to keep a roof over our heads at the time of her rise to power. Winter of discontent etc a big part of my early childhood

Took a while, but he did, and we had a secure and happy life while other communities were pulled apart. I was brought up believing that working hard for your family was the right way. I started work in 87, knuckled down, worked hard, saved hard, did well for myself, all through my 20s and the Tory years.

So plenty of people have done well in the Tory way, and don’t understand or have any experience of why other people would not. *

By 97 I could see the damage Tory policies were doing to wider areas of society outside my previous experience, and it was the first time I hadn’t voted Tory. Never have since.

*And I’ll add that some people seem to have a disconnect between their vote and it’s consequences. Pre-Covid, my parents could not see that the failure of the NHS to provide cancer treatment to a friend within the target times might be connected to them voting for yet another round of Tory austerity, despite hearing first hand accounts of cuts to public services from me and MrsMC.

👍🏼 good points

*Head above parapet*

Some of us will vote for literally anyone who has half a chance of denying the SNP a seat, Tory, Lib dem, Labour, Monster Raving Loonies, anyone. If the Tories are the only opposition to the SNP in my constituency they get my vote.

Why did people vote Tory at the last election? I’ve absolutely no idea…

Given that only three Labour leaders have won since WWII, there would appear to be a flaw in your reasoning. Which came as a huge surprise to me.

Are we arguing for a one party state?

This thread is symptomatic of the divisive, polarised nightmare society has become. In a nutshell, if you don’t think like me you’re wrong. I’m so utterly convinced my world view is the correct one, i will insult and dehumanise anyone who doesn’t share it.

I have flip flopped my political allegiances throughout my life and reevaluated some once deeply held views as I have got older. I have voted on what I feel are the main issues of the day and don’t feel chained to any one ideology. And crucially, I can still be mates with, and not belittle and insult people who vote differently.

Something I’ve thought about a lot actually.

My sister and bro in law are staunch Conservative voters. They are working class, retired now, not wealthy. My sister constantly moans about the deficiencies of the NHS. She does have health problems but she genuinely doesn’t make the link between austerity, the Conservatives and the deficiencies in the NHS. She just doesn’t see it.

I will have to add that there is a healthy dose of racism in her thought processes too.

My own thoughts?

The Conservatives are basically a political interpretation of Darwinism. Except money/power/being born out of the “right” vagina is the equivalent of better genes.

You need help with money?
You need help with health problems?

Tory reply, “*@£& you, if you’d have worked harder you’d have money and that would cancel out both of your problems.”

I find it repugnant. I wouldn’t care if I won a large amount on the lottery. I just could never vote Conservative.

Some of us will vote for literally anyone who has half a chance of denying the SNP a seat, Tory, Lib dem, Labour, Monster Raving Loonies, anyone. If the Tories are the only opposition to the SNP in my constituency they get my vote.

Rangers supporter found. Pure staunch and all that.

Posted 8 minutes ago
REPLY | REPORT