I've been a member of the Conservatives since I was 16, have been on campaign trails, gone to party conference and have obviously always voted Tory. This isn't because I'm in favour of dog-eat-dog and am a racist, heartless b****** as many of us conservatives are portrayed. It's because I believe in conservative values like family, property ownership, decency, sovereignty and defence of the realm.

For the last few months I've been completely and utterly put off this toxic party which I used to support so fervently. The opposition that they have is so weak that they have an opportunity to not sell out their souls and revamp this country and take away dependency on the state.

What I see is nothing of the sort. This government is full of rhetoric and shallow on substance.

I do mortgage advice, and I'm seeing with my own eyes that their over regulation of mortgages and intervention in the market of Buy-to-Let isn't helping first time buyers in the slightest. It sounds good in the Guardian, but like most interventionist policy it doesn't actually work.

Their whole selling point is economic responsibility, and yet the budget deficit is still far, far too high. Far from fixing the roof when the sun is shining, which is what they accused Labour of failing to do, as soon as a positive economic forecast came out (ie in the latest Autumn statement) the Chancellor can go on what can only be called a spending spree. This, coupled with the absolute shambles that was the working tax credit saga, has convinced me that the guy has completely lost the plot. He should be sacked.

And the final straw...

Their "hard line on immigration" is a complete f*cking joke. Conservatives are meant to be against "big ideas" in the state, and free movement of people over borders is absolutely huge. How can they go through this phoney negotiation for EU membership, get NOTHING on immigration and look themselves in the mirror and their membership/country in the eye and say that we should stay? What a disgrace. Cameron has many achievements, but this EU farce will tarnish his reputation. Even if we vote to stay in it will be begrudgingly and IMO will not see the end of resentment towards the EU.

I've gone from not even thinking about who to vote for, to being one more f*ck up away from voting UKIP. F*ck em, if you alienate your core support as much as they are, you'll eventually see them leave for someone else.

They've become the new Blair and Brown, they only ever do things for tactical effect, rather than standing up for what they supposedly believe in.

My question is...

Is this how true Labourites feel about those two? A sense of near shame that they represented them? I'm starting to understand why they voted in Corbyn.

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.

Pretty much how I viewed Blair and Brown, the capitulation of the representation of the people to the representation of corporate interests.

The 'buy to let' is simply another stealth tax aimed at people who've made an investment that has paid back to them. If it was aimed at people who owned more than three properties, I could see it. But those affected will be those who just have 'done alright' for themselves.

Same as New Labour. The governments go after the soft targets, the you, me and everyman. Large corporate interests and wealth manage to avoid paying their 'fair share' of tax, whilst increasingly individuals are penalised for make a 'bit extra' for themselves.

Obviously, my politics are very different to yours, given I'm very leftist (even so, I believe in immigration control and rent control though for very different reasons). I see rent control being better implemented through a reasonable amount of 'council property availability' to serve as competition on private enterprise.

Edited by jamiemartin721 (18 Feb 2016 2.04pm)

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]

You turn threads into "Willo threads" by posting that you aren't going to post which is self-aggrandizement in the extreme

When you have a party leader who can't remember which fecking football team he is supposed to support then you know you are in trouble.

Thing is that none of the of the other front-runners look any better. George Osborne? Theresa May? Michael Gove? Boris Johnson? Jeremy c***?

The only thing keeping them in power is that they aren't the Labour party.

It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.

The Tories are trying to grab the middle ground of politics.
In short they want votes like every other party and place that way above principle.
Of course, they have the unwanted problem of trimming all the overspending and unnecessary layers of administration that Labour always create which, needless to say. makes them look "mean".

The party of the working class and all being in this together was also just a little ott!