Actually, that’s not a real question for this election, as I’ve moved into Simon Hughes’s (Lib Dem) constituency, and he’s a shoo-in. I also admire him. I’ll be voting for HIM, not for the Lib Dems.
But when I consider whether I could vote Tory I am conscious that I am not only considering the policies, good or bad, of the current crop. I am also aware of how it would “look”. Most of my friends are rabidly anti-Tory. Voting for they-who-once-were-led-by-Margaret-Thatcher is up there amongst the most heinous, unthinkable crimes. It’s socially unacceptable.
Obviously my world is only a narrow slice of nice, middle-class professionals, old enough to remember the last Tory administration. And nice and intelligent as they are, there is no way that they will ever believe that the Tories mean what they say when their policies are good ones, or not suspect a hidden agenda that is the reverse of well-meaning.
Like many, I draw a deal of my opinions from conversations I have with people I respect — more, in my case, as a politically unsavvy creature, than I do from careful reading of political manifestos. Given the broken promises and failures of the Labour Governments, and the horrific things they have done in my name, I’m not even sure reading manifesto promises would be a good use of my time.
It’s hard to believe that any of the options would do much better, or much different, from any of the others. So the decision to vote Tory would make me a social outcast, without, perhaps the benefits of taking an unpopular stand.
That is the problem Tories have to grapple with, at least among the people I hang out with.
I think you are right – there appears to be a big stigma about voting Tory… not sure how or if they can change that though?
I especially find that (older) people (who remember the Thatcher years) appear to look down on anyone who expresses a well maybe the Conservatives aren’t that bad view as naïve – which is fair enough, I was 18 just before the 1997 election so don’t remember the impact of the Conservative government – but the thing I remember from my first very exciting general election was lets vote Labour as they are going to make everything better… Are the Labour party the same as the party from 1997 and if not why should we assume that the Conservatives are exactly the same as during the Thatcher years?
I don’t think they would be the same at all. At least Thatcher was upfront with her plans.
I think if the Tory party were really committed to policies I believe in, I could vote for them. It would be churlish not to.
They’re not though – I especially disagree with cutting public sector spending, which is about the only policy they seem clear on.
I agree with you that Labour have done Bad Stuff in our name – specifically for me, the war, but the Conservative Party have never hidden the fact that they would’ve made the same decision in regards to the war.
I’m not going to cut off my nose to spite my face, if the Tory Party had solid policies, instead of soundbites, backed up with a plan of how they are going to get there, that’s how they’d get my vote (oh, assuming I agreed with the policies that is). At the moment it seems to me that Cameron is just speaking in soundbites, being extremely vague about what his plans are if his party win, and not committing to anything. This is what they need to overcome imo.
I heard a quote yesterday that described Tory policies as ‘headline grabbing incoherence’ which made me laugh.
I admit that I am guilty of having a prejudiced and blinkered view of the current version of the Tory party. Old habits die hard. I have been of the mind, over the past 20 years, that I would rather gnaw my own leg off than vote Tory. That came initially from coming of age during the height of the Thatcher years and from never having experienced a Labour governement. I fundamentally disagreed with Thatcherite policies but it is always easy, especially when young and idealistic, to be a hater. Now I like to think I am better informed but I still fundamentally disagree with Conservative ‘every man for himself’ values. I am a socialist at heart, what can I tell you?
Then I was forced to address my prejudices when I married someone who not only had not experienced Thatcherism, but was a stranger British politics in their entirety, and so was coming to it all without the prejudices of the past. I have made an attempt to look at current Tory policy with a new eye, but everything I read gives me chills (education policy to name but one). There are definitely echos of Thatcherism in there. I guess what I am saying is that yes, I am ‘rabidly anti-Tory’ but I dont see any reason not to be, despite having a long hard look.
But I do think that Labour have been in power too long. There is now a whole generation of young people in the same situation I was back in the 80s, never having experienced anything other than a Labour government. They look at everything that is wrong with the country and who else are they going to blame? So whats the solution? I am afraid of Tory policies, Labour are no longer effective and the Lib Dems, although they sound reasonable, dont have a chance in hell. The whole thing depresses the hell out of me actually.
Voters are never told something which should be obvious but apparently is not. Running a government is hard. The challenges of government are extremely difficult and complex. I wish a sitting government would have the guts to admit it, but I suppose it’s not politically effective. It’s easy to criticize the sitting government because they are the only ones making the mistakes. The opposition are the cheap seats in a spectator sport. There’s always something to pick on and that’s all they do all day. The idea of a Tory government with even more aggressive public spending cuts than Thatcher chills me. After witnessing eight years of neo-con domination in the US, the focus on socially conservative policies annoys me. The smug, self-satisfied air of the Tory leader gives me the creeps. Maybe that’s because I’m not a prep school Nob.