Are You A Working Class Tory?

[Stan Tamudo]

I am financially conservative, want small government and socially liberal as in I don't care what other people do/believe/look like as long as it doesn't harm me. Unfortunately the liberals are not very liberal and the Conservatives are not very small government any more so I just vote for best fit. What I do hate though is the fact that the opposition parties whoever that is at the time just disagree with any policy put forward by the governement for the sake of it.

 

You don't own an abbatoir in Todmorden do you?

[davebrmm]

I am! I was born and bred and lived on the A,B,C streets and seen what the middle class red nutters have done to our great city.Please don,t,let them have anything to do with the tour .city of sport ,don,t make me laugh

 

---------- Post added 08-07-2014 at 11:26 ----------

 

that`s so bad, it has to be a parody.

 

have a look for labour millionaires labour leaders you will find more than the tories

[Mecky]

I wonder how many people who class themselves as working class tories (they may not be actually tories but rather just vote for them) are personally adversely affected by tory antisocial policies such as the Bedroom Tax, Granny Tax, benefit stops, discriminative disability policies and the rest?

[Mister M]

I wonder how many people who class themselves as working class tories (they may not be actually tories but rather just vote for them) are personally adversely affected by tory antisocial policies such as the Bedroom Tax, Granny Tax, benefit stops, discriminative disability policies and the rest?

 

Quite a few I would say. I think when people vote, they do so not only on the basis of how their preferred party is going to affect them personally and financially; but also on how it's going to affect other people as well.

For example I was reading an account about the healthcare reforms in America ( http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2004/sep/12/politics ); and how the most opposition to these reforms came from poor areas where few have full health insurance. So although the reforms would have been of personal benefit to people in Kansas, that's where the most hostility to the reforms came from.

This apparent paradox was understood as the political right successfully stoking up a resentment in working class people of a 'liberal elite' doing things for them, and assuming what those with less money should be thinking.

I think that's why a working class Tory like Norman Tebbitt was a very effective politician; his relatively modest background was used to change the image of the Tory Party in the 1980s, from the Tory Party being for better off people to a party being for the working classes. The consequence of this is that 30 years later is although people like Mr Tebbitt were able to rise through the ranks, more power is concentrated in the hands of fewer people, and I think people were a lot harder on those who for whatever reason weren't wealthy.

[truman]

Quite a few I would say. I think when people vote, they do so not only on the basis of how their preferred party is going to affect them personally and financially; but also on how it's going to affect other people as well.

For example I was reading an account about the healthcare reforms in America ( http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2004/sep/12/politics ); and how the most opposition to these reforms came from poor areas where few have full health insurance. So although the reforms would have been of personal benefit to people in Texas, that's where the most hostility to the reforms came from.

This apparent paradox was understood as the political right successfully stoking up a resentment in working class people of a 'liberal elite' doing things for them, and assuming what those with less money should be thinking.

I think that's why a working class Tory like Norman Tebbitt was a very effective politician; his relatively modest background was used to change the image of the Tory Party in the 1980s, from the Tory Party being for better off people to a party being for the working classes. The consequence of this is that 30 years later is although people like Mr Tebbitt were able to rise through the ranks, more power is concentrated in the hands of fewer people, and I think people were a lot harder on those who for whatever reason weren't wealthy.

 

Didn't Blair's Labour do the same ? Trying to make Labour the party for the middle class? Remember "Mondeo Man"?

[Se7enhills]

This apparent paradox was understood as the political right successfully stoking up a resentment in working class people of a 'liberal elite' doing things for them, and assuming what those with less money should be thinking.

 

That is probably one of the most perntinent points Ive ever seen written on here.

[Mister M]

Didn't Blair's Labour do the same ? Trying to make Labour the party for the middle class? Remember "Mondeo Man"?

 

Yes he did - he and his spin doctors either thought they could take their core support for granted; or that because of the way that elections are won in this country (through gaining key marginal seats) then all they had to do was design policies and change their presentation to meet the needs of this select group of voters.

But all parties do this Nick Clegg tried to capture the nation and the voter with that truly awful soundbite "alarm clock Britain"

[Mecky]

Quite a few I would say. I think when people vote, they do so not only on the basis of how their preferred party is going to affect them personally and financially; but also on how it's going to affect other people as well

 

Yeah perhaps a bit of both, but things are no better than they were 4 years ago according to leading economists, who say Osborne may just as well have gone on holidays for 4 years for all the good the cuts have done. All the cuts have done is punish the most vulnerable in society and done nothing to reduce the deficit. Coincidentally or perhaps more intentionally, the cuts have most affected those least likely to vote or at least unlikely to vote tory. They caved in to the pensioners and no doubt further bribes will following come election time.

[Obelix]

Yeah perhaps a bit of both, but things are no better than they were 4 years ago according to leading economists

 

Who are these "leading economists" and have you a reference to where they say that please?

 

Or is this going to be another example of you spouting unsubstatiated rubbish and then refusing to provide evidence?

[Plain Talker]

Neither working class nor Tory, here.