Tory Voters

[tomandlu]

I'm not a tory voter (lib-dem last few times, dunno who I'll vote for next time), but I was just wondering how it all felt. The feeling I get from these boards is that Tory voters are largely disappointed. I was just curious to see if that was born out by this poll.

[Conrad]

I'm not a tory voter (lib-dem last few times, dunno who I'll vote for next time), but I was just wondering how it all felt. The feeling I get from these boards is that Tory voters are largely disappointed. I was just curious to see if that was born out by this poll.

It maybe a gamble to make the cuts, but there not made yet just planned over 4 years. The way I see it the conservatives have paid lip service to the bond market and are actually hedging their bets. Wise move as the UK will have to swift and stealthy in its monetry policies to protect ourselves in these volatile times.

[Dorkins]

These are not proper does-what-it-says-on-the-tin Tories, these are all mouth and no trousers Keynesians. See my signature for Osborne's public spending "cuts". They are the sort of cuts where you plan to spend more each year than last.

[pilchardthecat]

They lost me on the child benefit thing. Not because they have taken it from high rate taxpayers, but because they have further skewed the system in favour of dual income households by allowing them to keep it. Then they stood in front of the TV cameras and said it was fair for a family earning 50k to pay more tax and susidise, via this benefit, the one next door with 80k, who are already heavily favoured by the tax system.

They than justified it further by saying it was the end of universal benefit, and then proudly announced that they were going to carry on giving millionaire pensioners a winter fuel allowance and free bus passes. And then they stood in front of the cameras and said it was fair.

If Labour had got elected again, what whould be different? ****** all if you ask me.

As an ordinary working/middle class family, with one reasonable income but far from being rich, and therefore having been effectively the enemy of the state for the last 13 years, i really though something was going to change, and that the new government might actually be on my side..... now i discover this new lot hate me too.

Never thought i'd say this but i'm now entirely open to the idea of voting for some sort of extremist party next time.

[billfunk]

Give it time. It's a long game.

I get the feeling some people on here spunk themselves over any little policy announcement or leak. It reminds me of being on cricket forums when there is a test match on. As soon as a wicket falls there is inevitably a queue of muppets claiming "we've lost", "it's all over" etc.

It rarely works out exactly how people think it will after the first hour/session. I tend to find that those making the most bombastic statements early on are usually the most wrong.

(Hippo)

[dissident junk]

I am disappointed, but more about the left's reaction to these very lame Tory budget cuts than anything else.

I kinda didn't realise I lived in a country where people would genuinely think it was outrageous to suggest that someone should use a bus to look for a job, where it was horrendous that government would no longer subsidise people to have loads of kids they can't really afford, or live in houses no average working person could afford.

The left's reaction is, well, insane and, to be honest, it frightens me.

[Dorkins]

I get the feeling some people on here spunk themselves over any little policy announcement or leak.

A budget or spending review by the Chancellor is not "any little policy announcement", it's the unveiling of the Big Plan, or the parts of it that we get to see at any rate. The Big Plan is to increase public spending over the next 5 years and keep our fingers crossed that miraculous rises in tax revenues will close the gap. That is not very different from Labour's Big Plan, and in fact Osborne seemed proud to announce that he was actually planning to spend more than Darling was going to.

[Executive Sadman]

I voted UKIP. Probably would have voted tory if it was a marginal and meant labour getting kicked out.

Not overly impressed, but not surprised either.

Its just nice to have people, who even if they dont appear to 'get it' dont just speak crap all the time, like Jackboot Smith and Harriet Harman and Snot gobbler himself. Everythings relative, and relitvely this lot are gods compared to the PR machine that is zaNU liebour,

So i guess we have the lesser of the evils, the least bad.

[Caveat Mortgagor]

There is no option for 'growth of GDP is a red herring'. Gordon stifled true economic growth, and whilst that illusory economic chicanery is being unwound, gdp figures will not represent the true growth that hopefully will happen.

That aside, the cuts were too light, and just remaining neutral so far, verging on disappointment. If QE2 happens, please amend my vote to show disappointed.

Edited October 25, 2010 by Caveat Mortgagor

[Riedquat]

I am disappointed, but more about the left's reaction to these very lame Tory budget cuts than anything else.

I kinda didn't realise I lived in a country where people would genuinely think it was outrageous to suggest that someone should use a bus to look for a job, where it was horrendous that government would no longer subsidise people to have loads of kids they can't really afford, or live in houses no average working person could afford.

The left's reaction is, well, insane and, to be honest, it frightens me.

+1, and my views are generally left of centre.

The ultimate problem is that there is a serious lack of intelligence amongst large swathes of the country, and I'm thinking more and more that it's not down to natural lack of ability to think. The scary thing is that it becomes self-reinforcing - worse than the lack of intelligence is the anti-intellcualism that sometimes seems to be prevalent. The current generations are a lost cause, but if we're to have a future we need to concentrate on eduction (which will be tough in a time of cuts) in order that we don't make the same mistakes again, and don't get the same reaction to trying to deal with them. And by education I mean learning how to think, not just getting spoon fed facts. Funnily enough history was a good subject for this (when I was at school). A lot of it consisted of simply being presented with descriptions of the same event from all sorts of different sources and leaving you to put together an explanation of what actually happened, and why. You also had to justify why you trusted the ones you did more than others. You couldn't get away with just shouting out for whatever supported your prejudices.

[South Lorne]

I am disappointed, but more about the left's reaction to these very lame Tory budget cuts than anything else.

I kinda didn't realise I lived in a country where people would genuinely think it was outrageous to suggest that someone should use a bus to look for a job, where it was horrendous that government would no longer subsidise people to have loads of kids they can't really afford, or live in houses no average working person could afford.

The left's reaction is, well, insane and, to be honest, it frightens me.

...good points....many on the left need to emigrate to North Korea to experience the extreme Socialist ideal.....

[billfunk]

A budget or spending review by the Chancellor is not "any little policy announcement", it's the unveiling of the Big Plan, or the parts of it that we get to see at any rate. The Big Plan is to increase public spending over the next 5 years and keep our fingers crossed that miraculous rises in tax revenues will close the gap. That is not very different from Labour's Big Plan, and in fact Osborne seemed proud to announce that he was actually planning to spend more than Darling was going to.

Fair play.

But if the current Big Plan doesn't work I'm sure Osbourne has another and another and another. I would be more interested in him telling me his thoughts about Big Plans 2, 3, 4 and 5 than 1.

But I guess I will have to wait.

[South Lorne]

Fair play.

But if the current Big Plan doesn't work I'm sure Osbourne has another and another and another. I would be more interested in him telling me his thoughts about Big Plans 2, 3, 4 and 5 than 1.

But I guess I will have to wait.

...he has already stated direction can be tweaked at budget times....his detailed thought will be set by the performance during each phase....

[Stars]

They lost me on the child benefit thing. Not because they have taken it from high rate taxpayers, but because they have further skewed the system in favour of dual income households by allowing them to keep it. Then they stood in front of the TV cameras and said it was fair for a family earning 50k to pay more tax and susidise, via this benefit, the one next door with 80k, who are already heavily favoured by the tax system.

They than justified it further by saying it was the end of universal benefit, and then proudly announced that they were going to carry on giving millionaire pensioners a winter fuel allowance and free bus passes. And then they stood in front of the cameras and said it was fair.

The hilarious thing for me was that in all the media coverage given to the fairness or unfairness of the reform, not one mention was made of the low income people with no children being taxed to provide to either group.

[abharrisson]

I do think making cuts was necessary but I do think the Tories have uncharacteristically missed the PR iniative.... they have made great play about the cuts and have taken the oprtunity to change things rather than just cut which is all well and good... I do however think that they are playing catch up when it comes to peoples confidcence and are allowing labour to feed fear with their 500,000 civil service redundacies and 500,000 private secotr redundancies message.

I wish they would give us more info... for instance something like £680 M was spent in 2007..... £740M or soemthing of that order will be spent in 2014... in other worrds this is a budget cut to some degree rather than a current expenditure cut.

I do wish they would illustrate more often how reckless Labour were in growing the public sector so fast, the point being that many of those in public sector work now should really never had that job to fill becasue the govt shouldn't have expanded so far.... equally many new labour services should never have been introduced and so should not be seen so harshly as a cut now.... basically we have had nutters in control for many years and that doesn't mean the new environment will be harsh... just normal.

I am starting to see more flim flam and cracks emerging... for instance is the pupil premium being funded by new money or re-allocating respurces from better-to-do areas to poorer areas... I think it's likely to the latter. Where we have children from families who care about their education and are willing to pull their won weight helping their children ( encouragement, help with homework etc etc) I am more than happy to fund them to a greater degree, but where we have parents who couldn't care and kids who don't often bother to turn up I struggle to see how spending more on their education is going to help... those problems are more deeply social and need different and myriad actions to start to resolve them.

I think the jury is still out and Cameron has done I suspect a good co-alition job but perhaps not such a good Tory job as yet. In the current environment I am not one of those who hate having the lib dems around but I do hope we see clear policies coming through and that we don't lose the PR battle with labour.

[Authoritarian]

The hilarious thing for me was that in all the media coverage given to the fairness or unfairness of the reform, not one mention was made of the low income people with no children being taxed to provide to either group.

Quite, parents earning over £43k were complaining about the unfairness of it all because they were no longer being given tax rebates child benefit, unlike parents on lower incomes.

What they failed to mention is that they were now paying the same amount of tax as those with no kids, despite using more services.

Screwing over working, renting, childless adults seems to be the name of the game in this country.

[sammysnake]

I'm disgusted that the Tories haven't cut way deeper, far quicker.

Yes I know the claim about cutting to deep will truly ****** things up, but even so! What we have is a farce.

The only way to restructure the brains of the retarded benefit whores or the left wing non working class is huge shock to the system, being gentle only encourages them that are actually worth bothering about.

As you can see I'm disgusted at the little social engineering project Labour instigated in the last 15 years. Dependency on the state has distorted reality.

[Charlie The Tramp Returns]

I don`t like sixth formers running the country or sixth formers leading the opposition.

[Executive Sadman]

I voted UKIP, but anyway.

Dissapointed at everything getting watered down...but still simply relieved that liebour didnt get in. Brown, frankly, scared me. I honesty think if labour had been re-elected there would be parity with the dollar by now and id be paying >£2 a litre for petrol. At least.

[Fawkandles]

Nothing unsurprising here. Tory voters are never going to be delighted by sharing government with the libdems, but under the circumstances they're doing good imho.

Tory VOTERS and tory supporters are two different breeds. The voters seem pleased relative to supporters given the whole middle ground 'newness' of the party, whereas supporters want sounder policies.

Personally I feel relief at not having labour in power, and my feelings toward the tories will change with time, up or down. Still confused about why they don't like grammar schools anymore though.