Anyone still thinking of voting tory at the next General Election?

Never have,never will.My preference,would be Lib Dem or Green.As I live in a very safe Labour seat,I have the luxury of being able to vote with my heart.

I think there will be a General Election before Spring next year , with strikes etc the government are siting back and saying I am all right jack.
Mick

This post should be on news and politics.

Voting Tory, for more of the same? Why would anyone? But then Labour are doing more of this. Maybe small in the great scheme of things but appalling just the same.

Callistemon21

Chatting on an anonymous forum is not going to change anything, though is it, StoneofDestiny.

I’m not sure what this argument is about, but I seem to have been brought into it for agreeing with SoD. No, chatting on here won’t change anything, any more than it ever does, but that’s not why we do it (chat on here). We do it to exchange opinions, hear other points of view and consider things we might not have previously thought if (or that’s why I do it). I don’t know why that raised a sigh, but hey ho.

Only the dyed in the wool Tory sheep I would think !

LauraNorderr
"We want them to create our wealth and we will reward them."

"The policy of not increasing benefits for those who can work is to encourage self sufficiency "

How do you reconcile those two diametrically opposing principles?

Perhaps not if they got driven off, who knows.

Chatting on an anonymous forum is not going to change anything, though is it, StoneofDestiny

Yes - it just might make some posters consider locating their moral conscience before they vote Tory again.

Chatting on an anonymous forum is not going to change anything, though is it, StoneofDestiny.

One brave member of the £200k+ salary people said "what good is another £5k take home pay if I can't get a GP appointment for my child?". Private health care is useless when you have a screaming toddler with meningitis at 2am.

Mcbab

Hilly1

Don't panic. Don't believe everything in the media. Don't you want a reduction in tax? Don't you want help with your power bills? US interest rates higher than ours. Japan having to rescue their banks. Our debt to GDP second lowest in the G7. We are not in recession a lot of Eurozone is. Give it 6-12 months then make up your mind.

A voice of common sense at last in this thread. Journalists are no more than gossip mongers and political activists these days. They seem to want to determine who runs the country by scaremongering and not giving factual information

Don't my bank account and fuel, utility and grocery bills give me factual information?

Some people seem to live in a bubble.

However, knowing how many posters have been driven off Gransnet because they dared to express an alternative viewpoint than the accepted viewpoint...

What heroes they are!

However, I'd worry more about the people who will die waiting on surgery on the NHS, and waiting on ambulances. I'd worry about the number of care homes that are understaffed. I'd worry about the crisis in recruiting prison officers, police, teachers and doctors. I'd worry about the future of the children in this country and what environment they are inheriting from us.

The reduction in income tax will hardly affect me because my total income is only just over the threshold.

I don't need to "virtue signal" to despair.

MaizieD

^However, knowing how many posters have been driven off Gransnet because they dared to express an alternative viewpoint than the accepted viewpoint...^

I don't know, Callistemon. How many have been driven off for expressing an alternative viewpoint?

I'd like to know that too. Do people keep some kind of tally? Do they have clandestine discussion groups with posters' opinions on the agenda?

WRT reduction in tax, I read somewhere very recently that Thatcher's income tax cuts were always accompanied by increases in taxation somewhere else...

And reading all those post budget analyses over the years of what 'the chancellors giveaways' would mean to people at different levels of income it always seemed to end up with people gaining about £100 p.a. Which never seemed to me to be much to shout about

volver

I'm gobsmacked.

Me too. I know we are not meant to comment or criticise other member's political decisions......but.....bloody hell. I don't know where to start, so I won't.

Virtue signalling is easy

It's not virtue signalling to point out some truths to some people who clearly don't want to hear it. It's not virtue signalling to speak up for the underprivileged. By all means block your ears, eyes and mind to your fellow citizens who are struggling - rest easy knowing not everybody will have a comfy warm bed tonight in a safe area with a fridge full of food for the morning.

Don't you want a reduction in tax? Don't you want help with your power bills?

1p in the £ is neither here nor there if it causes interest rates to rise, completely wiping out gains by mortgage increases, price increases.
Help with power bills - if the huge profits of energy were subjected to a windfall tax that would pay for the help with power bills.

Don't you want a reduction in tax? it will be minimal for all but the wealthy.
No, I want better services.

However, knowing how many posters have been driven off Gransnet because they dared to express an alternative viewpoint than the accepted viewpoint...

I don't know, Callistemon. How many have been driven off for expressing an alternative viewpoint?

Doodledog

StoneofDestiny

It's not brave to give an opinion on an anonymous forum.

Bravery, in the context of this discussion, is getting up every day when your present life is miserable and your future looks bleak. It's when your energy goes into hiding your distress from your children and try and provide for them the life you hoped you could give them.

When people keep supporting a government who only recognises need amongst the privileged you might imagine just how isolating abject misery can be.

Well said, SoD.

Well, we all know that obviously.
[sigh]

However, knowing how many posters have been driven off Gransnet because they dared to express an alternative viewpoint than the accepted viewpoint, it was used as a figure of speech.

Virtue signalling is easy.
How many on here have lived the reality?

I would rather drop dead in the street than vote Tory.

The policy of not increasing benefits for those who can work is to encourage self sufficiency which leads to self respect and helps fight depression and other mental health issues.

This just shows how unaware (I will not say ignorant as it might be misconstrued) some people are of the reality of life for those who are not part of the main stream privileged majority.

This naive idea that there are millions of people scrounging off the state when they could perfectly well go out and earn their living is a complete myth. That is not to say there are not people who fit into that category but they are very much in the minority.

Ask anyone working in a Job Centre who is struggling every day to administer the system that the Tories have saddled them with and they will tell you that there are millions of people who are being punished for being ill, inadequately educated, mentally unwell etc. The staff are working their tripe out to try and find them work and being forced to administer punitive benefit reductions to people who simply do not have what it takes to hold down a job however hard they try.

Case in point: a young relative of mine who is on the autistic spectrum and whose birth parents were addicts and caused him brain deficits in utero. He looks fine - he is entirely physically fit - he has marketable skills - but he cannot hold down a job as his brain does not have the organisational abilities to turn up on time, manage public transport, manage his finances etc. He is not alone; and it is entirely inappropriate to be chasing him around and punishing him for things that are not of his making.

Many of these people whom the government considers should be working have caring responsibilities or transport problems.

This concept of the feckless poor is pre-Victorian and as a society we should be ashamed that this government of privilege is happy to see this return.

Hilly1

Don't panic. Don't believe everything in the media. Don't you want a reduction in tax? Don't you want help with your power bills? US interest rates higher than ours. Japan having to rescue their banks. Our debt to GDP second lowest in the G7. We are not in recession a lot of Eurozone is. Give it 6-12 months then make up your mind.

A voice of common sense at last in this thread. Journalists are no more than gossip mongers and political activists these days. They seem to want to determine who runs the country by scaremongering and not giving factual information

The policy of not increasing benefits for those who can work is to encourage self sufficiency which leads to self respect and helps fight depression and other mental health issues.

Over 40% of people who receive benefits are already in work.

A government policy to deliver poverty as a motivator and a cure for mental health issues sounds like a line from A Christmas Carol.