Social conservatism

[blueish swede]

You forgot the othering of anyone with an internationalist approach as "citizens of nowhere".

And now you can add moaning fishermen to the list.

and the most hated of all, wealthy people with left of centre views

 

[bluethrunthru]

I suppose (in a way ) that this post should be on the 'Why do you Tory' thread. Ive always believed that people who vote Tory..... hate, fear or dislike a certain class of person or race. These can be real or manufactured (in the press) and can consist of

Unemployed
Disadvantaged
Homeless
Immigrant (legal or Illegal)
Foreigners (they don't even need to be in the UK)
Single Parents
Disabled
Gypsies
Eu

etc etc


The way the Tories win your vote is by being perceived to be tough on each of these groups... by either cutting the benefits , deporting people or banging on about wave machines in the channel. This rhetoric is maintained by a drip feed of headlines in the Tory press (Mail /Express etc) and by TV programming such as ''Cant Pay Wont Pay'' or '' Benefits Britain''

I often hear Tory voters say '' I vote Tory..... I don't agree with all of their policies but'' ..... Which to me means that they'll be one group that the individual dislikes or fears (or maybe doesn't understand) ... and that can usually be brought out over a few beers and a chat. (The conversation always swings round to it).

If the Conservatives actually wanted to solve any of these problems they could / would actually legislate but they don't (for example if they wanted to get really tough on Asylum Seekers they would have to turn up at the United Nations and call for changes to the UN Refugee Convention of 1951) - are they actively lobbying for changes ? No... because it's in their interest not to solve problems as that retains their base vote.

Just my thoughts.

I think myself there is a line and a lot depends on which side you are. One side of that line is where you lie awake at night and worry on a scale of how do I feed the family tomorrow up to how do I pay the bills and keep a roof over our heads at the end of the month.
On the other side you are kept awake by things like how is my share save in company shares that I can put my meagre excess pay performing through how are my investments doing to how is the stock market as a whole doing.
Very few in the first group sadly even engage in politics and not a lot of them vote. If they do I doubt most vote for a party that would do them actual harm although some are shown to be open to persuasion.
In the the second group those nearer the line may well not prosper mightily under a Tory Govt but are fearful or persuaded its in their interests to vote Tory because it would be even worse under someone else and as you go up the scale you get people who are natural Tory voters because they wouldn't vote any other way to extremely wealthy folk who vote Tory because they want a pliable Govt they can buy access to.
It shouldn't be overlooked that in the second cohort there are well off people who lean to the left and vote that way but they are a tiny minority who are happy to contribute to food banks and get a hamper from Fortnum and Mason at Xmas whilst wringing their hands about the plight of the poor.