Believe it or not insiders of the Tory considered George Osborne was very left leaning and that can be backed up by his triple lock deal ,no tax rises decisions.Originally Posted by the other bob wilson
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Believe it or not insiders of the Tory considered George Osborne was very left leaning and that can be backed up by his triple lock deal ,no tax rises decisions.
No tax rises is left wing?
And his mission to shrink the state and pursue an aggressive and ideological austerity agenda? He was socially liberal (like Cameron) but 'left leaning'? I don't think so.
No tax rises is what you expect from the Tories. Low tax meaning less money being pumped into the public sector.
Osborne was hardly left leaning. As for the triple lock that was all about firming up the grey vote without which the Tories would be stuffed.
Without which , the Tories - as they currently are/have been - are stuffed.
Lord Heseltine recently admitted that the Tory traditional voter base is dwindling (dying off basically) by about 2% a year.
Add in the amount of oldies that Theresa 'political genius' May managed to thoroughly piss right off and I think the Tories have awoken to find themselves staring at a bit of a mountain to climb.
We can expect a chameleon act while they attempt to make themselves more popular again, no doubt after which they will further attempt to revert to form.
In the meantime, it's no bad thing in itself perhaps.
I'd love to think the Tories are stuffed, but they are the great survivors of British politics and history says they'll find a way of coping even if their situation is as daunting as you say it is.
On the day after the election, I said Labour were it's moral winners and I still believe that, but what success they enjoyed rather came at the expense of the smaller parties than the Tories, who managed to attract their largest number of voters since 1992 despite running a campaign that is now widely described as being shambolic.
When I try to figure out why so many decided to vote for the Conservatives, I come up with the usual reasons for voting for the what's in it for me party, but that doesn't explain why their vote went up - there were definitely some stop Corbyn at all costs voters, but the result might well have been different if older voters had supported the Conservatives at the level they'd been backed by that age group before.
The "grey vote" swung to the right even if you factor in that very many people go on a left to right political journey over the course of their three score years and ten and, after getting in a bit of trouble on here last week for calling many older voters selfish and bigoted, I've been trying to be a bit more understanding in my outlook.
I had another conversation about immigration with one of my older neighbours on the weekend and was told that it's all very well people saying that we need to be more tolerant, but they don't have to live with what others do. This took me aback a bit, because apart from one or two Afro Caribbean families around by us, there are no potential candidates to be immigrants I can think of - I cannot think of any Asian families (Muslim or non Muslim) and I'm pretty sure there is no one from EU or non EU mainland Europe countries here either.
So, this neighbour doesn't have immigrants living close by and yet appears to believe they are living in some sort of front line. I can only think, that as a member of the generation that still relies on newspapers (the biggest selling two of which follow an increasingly shrill right wing agenda) and the one most likely to watch crap like the Jeremy Kyle show, they are subjected to a never ending diet of tales of how society is breaking down that younger voters do not get to see as much of as them.
My neighbour may not live among immigrants, but there has to be a good chance that the mainstream media they read, watch and listen to feeds their notion that they aren't far away and they're getting closer - if someone, who has a fairly isolated lifestyle, begins to believe that, then maybe the rightward turn older voters are taking becomes a bit more understandable.
^^
Indeed, people vote based on things that they have convinced themselves of (or been convinced) - things that they have apparently been personally affected by, or are somehow in the thick of it. Whatever 'it' may be.
When in fact they are clearly not, but are repeating the supposedly associated stock phrases in parrot fashion.
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