Is it not a bit unfair to castigate the entire tory party just because of a recent dominance of a few? There were tories worthy of respect, but Johnson did his utmost to kick them out. This saw a significant swing to the right within the tories. That culminated in the internal election of Truss as PM - and look how well that went. After the next election, with a likely significant clearing out of tory MP’s and also (we hope) a stepping down of a few hard right MP’s, this might create a more centre-right and much more credible tory party.
(PS, I’ve never voted tory but that is different from hating all of them, and whilst a centre-left voter I still think capitalism is much better & productive than any alternative so far dreamt up. So the earlier somewhat simplistic view of left and right is probably quite wrong.)
Because the area I live in is a Tory stronghold for it’s MP, my vote makes no difference whatsoever to anything and I can’t change anything by voting, I’m essentially disenfranchised
But I vote anyway because it was a hard fought for right, and I like to think my vote is up there in the national vote
So I can vote for an independent if I want to without changing the outcome and sometimes I do
At local elections, we seem to alternate between Tory and LibDem, so I vote LibDem
Really, my vote is always a no confidence vote against the Tories
I’ll vote Tory not to keep the Tories in, but to keep Starmer out, I don’t trust him as far as I could throw him.
I’ll never vote for the Tories again. I’ll keep my membership because it may come in useful to tear them apart from the inside.
I’m a Reform Party member now and will vote for them. If labour get in, so be it because after 4 years of their rule the country will never vote labour again either, making way for a true Brexit focussed conservative party. By then it could well be Reform (I hope so) but in 2024 I’m voting for the party I want.
I’ve never voted Tory and I never will, It’s the same here as your constituency Maree, except the other way round. South Yorkshire is a Labour stronghold, it always has been except for the last General Election when a Tory candidate did creep in to one of the areas around Doncaster however, that was due to Boris promising to “Get Brexit Done” I still voted for UKIP despite being told not to split the vote. I would never vote for the Limp Dems or any party that follows a green agenda because we are all being taken for fools with all this net zero and climate change nonsense.
Ditto. A vote for change, we have had a lifetime of stalemate between Conservative and Labour, that and the system of voting is always in their favour. Voters need to get the message through.
No, I don’t think it is unfair. I believe Tory ideology and Conservatism are corrupt concepts based on privilege and the few exploiting the many
I’m not going to argue against that - that is the distasteful side of unchecked capitalism. The opposite of a meritocracy, purely a “who-you-know”-ocracy and a “I’m keeping what I didn’t earn”-ocracy. But, too often, Labour leans into a mindset that seems to be more keen on envy of those who are successful than it is on creating success.
I think that’s a myth created by the Tories to prevent fairer taxation and keep corporation tax low for the chumocracy
There are many Labour and Left wing success stories, who the Righties are quick to condemn
But promoting equal opportunity, fair pay and working conditions and fair contributions via the tax system from those who have acquired wealth from our society are important too
I won’t vote Labour again until they pledge to re-enter the EU because I think the way they backed Brexit was a disgrace (unless I lived somewhere where voting Labour would keep the Tory out, of course! 
)
I don’t think they know real life where some choose heat or eat , families with little ones and mum working for minimum wage ( or dad ) struggling , eating cheap food . Families in rented accommodation longing for their own home .
These people can’t know real life
They might not know real life like that from personal experience
But of course they do know that’s what real life is like for a lot of people at the bottom of the heap
They just don’t care
On reflection, my big issue with the Tory party at the moment is that they will still claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility. What a cheek.
I’ve been reflecting a bit more. Today’s Tory party has become neo-liberal. Which is not about being very LibDem but about being super-free market. So we get human waste in rivers and on beaches: there ain’t no profit in waste treatment. We’re about to get financial market de-regulation: there is deffo very short term profit in unreg’d trading. We seem happy that England uses more water per person than any other European country: let them pee away a precious resource.
So, this non-intervention, non-regulation Tory party are a problem for the country.
Nothing to do with the size of the population which grows day by day?
Per person. So, no, nothing to do with population size. A lot more to do with private water companies seeking profit before responsible water use. And a lot more to do with a government whose philosophy is non-intervention and let the market decide.
I’ ll need a little more persuasion Bread. At the moment can see none worth voting for unless or until a fairer system is in place. Live in a safe seat.
Me too!
Does this mean, if there are many of the same view, that we are about to witness to demise of the Tory party? Surely the rise in popularity of Reform can only take voters away from Conservatives. Reform would become what was the right-rump of the tories: anti-regulation, small government, libertarian, isolationist, etc. Which I’ve no doubt would gather quite a few votes. And this would leave a centre-right tory core.
But how would anyone other than Labour benefit from this?
It is certainly a dilemma for me at the moment. I have voted Conservative all of my voting life - and I come from a working class background (shock, horror!). However, at the moment I am undecided due to recent events. The dilemma for me is heightened by the fact that we have a Tory MP and she is very good - she is approachable and gets things done in our area, as well as being a Brexiteer - I feel a certain loyalty to her. Decisions, decisions! Thank goodness the election isn’t imminent, at least I have more time to consider my options.
We don’t have a conservative government, thats the problem for conservatives. The demise of the Conservative Party is because they are a mirror image of Labour - there is nothing to vote for in either party for people who are true conservatives (especially Brexit Conservatives).
The red wall handed Boris their vote to get Brexit done and the outcome was a stinking majority for Boris Johnson. Meanwhile, Labour (under Starmer) voted 48 times against Brexit in Parliament, campaigned continuously for a second referendum and had secret meetings with Brussels to deliberately scupper Brexit. They also are the party that champions net zero, kneeled for BLM and don’t know what a woman is. On top of that the front bench has zero government experience (and it shows ). They are lightweights and clueless ideologues.
The Tory socialists in government are also the party for net zero, which, thanks to Sadiq Kahn (the “excellent London Mayor”) with the expansion of ULEZ has now reached boiling point. Don’t forget there were about 6 London boroughs that voted for Brexit…
So, that leaves a big vote base of people who have the following priorities.
- Stop illegal immigration - Labour = Open Borders, Conservatives = Failure in securing borders and visibly seen to do so by not backing Brexit properly and leaving the ECHR*.
- Net Zero - Labour supports and Conservatives support (see below**)
- Brexit - Labour are the party of remain and Conservatives the party of Rejoin (under Sunak and Hunt)
So any voters that want those 3 things to be sorted as a priority then Reform is the party with a pledge and a manifesto to deliver them. There is no short term solution to get this done, so even if my vote ends up in a labour government in 2024, the next GE in 2 - 4 years will will result in a true conservative government with a radical pro-brexit, anti net-zero and economic growth policy. It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to take quite frankly. Any Reform MPs standing in Parliament can be the true opposition until then making life very difficult for any government wanting.
The Labour Party will soon destroy themselves anyway as the SNP has, so Kahn, Drakeford and the rest of them. During the pandemic we had 2 years of socialism and guess what ? Nobody liked it.
- The Uk has signed up to net zero through the TCA - we cannot diverge from it.
** Illegal immigrants claiming they were trafficked and therefore cannot be expelled from the country are doing so because of Theresa Mays 2015 Modern Slavery Bill (notice how quiet the tories are on that issue - it’s not being removed from UK law either … funny that).