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How do the Tories need to change?

I haven't read the other thread but in the interests of fairness...


It seems to be dawning on The Tories that they did not appeal to those voters with "altruism".

In truth Tory supporters are probably as interested in doing the best for others and their family as anyone else. The problem is that The Tories made "aspirational" and "caring" mutually exclusive. That is why Labour voters didn't talk about it in the company of Tory zealots who have taken the Conservative message to its extreme. A caller on Radio 4 today told how he has been berated by his children for voting Conservative, it is the voters who are in the wrong, how can anyone not vote for the only party that puts the individual first. The bemusement turns to anger among those who demonise jeremy Corbyn , for no other reason than that their ideology had been rejected.

Theresa May has tried to make it shameful for ordinary voters with no strong political allegiances to vote Labour with the message that the Socialists only look after the poor and needy, unlike the uncaring Tory party. Ask who trebled tuition fees and most will say Conservatives, ask who wants to get rid of tuition fees, it is Labour. Poor Nick Clegg has been crucified for not being able to stop the third increase being under a coalition government. Ask students who want to scrap tuition fees who they will vote for and it's Labour. Who introduced PFI for the banks and the rich and powerful construction and services industries to make shedload of money - Tories. What Conservatives says against what it does, is as unreliable as any politician's promise regardless of party.

Also, in the face of how badly off everyone is, and the NHS is collapsing, ordinary voters have felt that things have got worse, and they use public services all the time, they largely accept there will always be problems, nothing is perfect. Voters are not stupid, there have always been problems, even when Labour ruled for 13 years, just different problems.

The middle ground voters determine who wins elections, not the extremists. Which is why the Tories and their running lapdogs of capitalism in the press have tried to paint Labour, the SNP, the Greens and even PC as extreme. The middle ground does not want a message that says to them if they care about others they will be the target of Tory policies to that destroy the public sector. That needs to change.

The Tories need to be like they used to be and promote the idea of reducing poverty by improving the lot of ordinary workers, not thinking the poor will feel better just because of trickledown economics. Only Tory politicians think people don't worry about the wealth gap when, for most, their standard of living is actually going down. The poor want access to education and employment, not more welfare reductions and the Tories need to embrace that idea, instead of pretending that cutting welfare brings down the inequality gap.

Tories instinctively believe that it is the middle income earners who actually bear the brunt of taxation and until there is a global solution to taxing international earnings little is going to change. Gestures towards attacking the super rich and NonDoms have resonance but Tories believe we should just leave them alone, so feed into the Conservative ideology of moral high ground to secure votes of the people foolish to think that aspiration is purely about the accumulation of wealth. Encourage responsibility of the rich and powerful, not set them up as being on a pedestal and untouchable.

If the Tories really believed that those with the broadest shoulders should carry the heaviest burden then they may have won hands down, just like the SNP won hands down because Scots believe the English parliament is unconcerned about every problem in Scotland.

So The Conservatives just need to get rid of the idea that decency is a dirty word and find a way of attacking the wealth gap other than by a race to the bottom. They also need to stop finding a scapegoat amongst the poor, disabled or foreign whose votes they don't need or care about. Stop forgetting about one nation ideology and moving towards Tory centre ground and abandoning core values, leave that for the old guard like May and Johnson and the Unionist dinosaurs to bemoan - move on as our dear departed leader would say. We need effective leadership from every party in power and it gives no comfort to see a Conservative party nasty, rudderless and hanging on to ideas that belong in the last century.

With some apologies to Dippenhall.
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Comments

  • I would like to see them sort out some form of philosophy or ideology to underpin what they do.
    Even this 'one nation' stance is difficult to understand and seems to be vague and fluid.
    When Thatcher said 'there's no such thing as society, only individual men and women, and families'.
    At least that provided a hint at ideology. Even complete and utter free market economics is some kind of ideology. However the Tory party of late seems to stand for expediency and personal gain and nothing else.
    Indeed it seems that the Tories leave ideology as an area for charities to develop for them.
  • They won but times are changing. Authenticity, but then they would have to believe in something other than the opposition would be a disaster.

    Hope this this thread says as civil as the general election thread, as I'm genuinely interested what conservatives think about their own party and it's future.
  • edited June 2017
    Find out where that magic money tree is?
  • Cameron referendum = own goal
    May snap election = own goal

    ....Who and what is next... Coalition with DPU and the borders?
  • Free school elevensies for embryos?
  • Find out where that magic money tree is?

    From their family tree.
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  • Whilst John major was the first to use pfi in the UK to a very limited extent, it was labour that jumped in with both feet. They used it on the tube and for schools. @Cordoban Addick

    Both parties have defended pfi.

    So once the Tories make all the changes suggested on here, who will vote for them?

    I still have never put my cross next to them BTW.
  • edited June 2017
    I met John Major - nice fella. He approached me and said thanks a lot. Quite out the blue. Was on security at the Olympics.

    Boris Johnson appeared quite awkward and very quick to get away. Did not want to converse with anyone. Each to their own. I don't judge him on that.

    EDIT:

    The Tories should change but simply just having a lot more respect for the British public.
    Once that starts, you might see a change in their general secretive "I'm an asshole" behaviour. Actually it's kind of obvious.

  • Get rid of the hunchback of Downing Street.
  • Whilst John major was the first to use pfi in the UK to a very limited extent, it was labour that jumped in with both feet. They used it on the tube and for schools. @Cordoban Addick

    Both parties have defended pfi.

    So once the Tories make all the changes suggested on here, who will vote for them?

    I still have never put my cross next to them BTW.

    I agree pfi was a disaster and (new) Labour took a bad idea and made it worse. The only good thing I can say about it is that at least we can see something for all he money we spent/continue to spend. Where as for the last seven yeas of added debt I can't really see what we have got.
  • I should add as nobody has seemed to notice that I took the original post from the 'how do Labour need to change' and swapped Tory for Labour, aspiration for altruistic and a few others. I have also swapped some of the text so it makes sense but in the main used the same words and subjects as Dippenhall's original post.
  • edited June 2017
    The problem for the Tories is they needlesly got themselves into this jam. They honestly didn't have to do it but May and others thought it was a safe bet. They have created a crisis and anger within the party. Probably the best advice would be to get rid of May straight away and bring somebody credible in. The anger and resentment is only going to fester with May staying in charge. They should have told the DUP to support them or bring them down, they might not want another election given that they had done well in the last one. Getting in to bed with them is not going to play well with quite a few liberal tories and it is going to look bad from the public persepctive.

    They actually increased their vote, but just that one decision turned everything on its head. Corbyn has gone from a weak enemy who Labour felt it had to get rid of before the next election to a real danger. They have helped unite Labour and helped divide themselves. It is a mess. May is not somebody Tories will be able to rally around.
  • Long shot this.
    However given the amazing resurgence of the Scottish Conservatives, why doesn't May try an arrangement with the SNP?
    It would take a lot of compromise, the biggest of which would be giving up a demand for an Independence ballot at least for the next five years, in return for an 'end' to the Conservative austerity agenda. There may even be a way of getting a softer brexit out of such an arrangement.
    The political gulf is enormous, but if there was a prior agreement on several key areas it could work technically.
    This would leave the Labour party somewhat emasculated of course, but an arrangement with the SNP looks better than one with the DUP.
  • The problem it seemed to me at the 2015 election was that both main parties and their attendant ruling class moved to the centre and it was sometimes hard to tell the difference.
    Scotland and some masterful tactics by Lynton Crosby led to a Cameron majority, but the lack of distinction is what has led to the emergence of Corbyn.
    Maybe it is brexit that makes people yearn for stark choices now.
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  • Find out where that magic money tree is?

    They know where it is, it's in places like the British Virgin Islands, Panama and so on
  • Realise that people who aren't relatives, board members or political journalists actually matter.

    Is it possible to learn empathy if one has grown up without it?
  • edited June 2017
    I have said before when all was rosy that the Tories are in danger. Politics is changing and they have to change with it. Every year a few more old people die!
  • But that is part of the point - nobody can take anything for granted in this day and age. What is happening now is damaging the Tory brand.
  • The sole purpose of the modern day Tory Party, no matter how they try to hide it, is to protect the interests of the rich. Just like Trump and the Republican Party in the US.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/billmaher/status/873412477639204864/video/1
  • The sole purpose of the modern day Tory Party, no matter how they try to hide it, is to protect the interests of the rich. Just like Trump and the Republican Party in the US.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/billmaher/status/873412477639204864/video/1

    The sort of opposite to Labour then........ :wink:
This discussion has been closed.

Roland Out Forever!