As an actual Tory (not popular around here I'll admit) I'm amazed at how Boris' attempt to make everyone happy has resulted in across the board hate. It's the same mistake that Theresa May made, so surely you'd think he'd understand that.
Expecting Boris to have mandated mask usage in February is bizarre, not a single country or health authority anywhere was even considering doing that back then and remember - all the scientific studies said that masks were of unclear or no value in stopping the spread of flu, one of the closest analogues. So that's some pretty serious Captain Hindsight behaviour going on here.
https://archive.is/xfHiL#selection-407.27-407.105
and, although the title is pretty fierce, it does seem to be well-argued and b/c today it was revealed that the author is someone who works for Fauci at CDC!
Great experience! Thank you for providing level headed and well articulated responses to the widely spread mass hysteria.
I also learned a lot, special thanks for pointing Thomas Howell's books. Reading now the 'A Conflict of Visions'.
1) David Camerons right to own policy was very favourable among young adults who felt like they will never be able to own a home. I had a friend of mine tell me that he "selfishly" voted tory because of that policy.
I didn't have the heart to tell him where the money came from.
2) Tories are good at projecting a feeling of "control" and making their opponents seem a bit chaotic or not as clear. Their opponents do not help themselves here.
This is my own observation, I see often that tories will speak clearly with a single voice and paint labour as being "in chaos" or that labour is seriously divided on key issues.
3) People are generally afraid of immigration. Tories are on the anti-immigration side of things publicly (though, this is betrayed by their actual policies, because immigration brings a lot of wealth to the country.)
4) People don't like taxes, and see the cuts to public services as "eventually coming to them". This was told to me by my friends father who voted tory.
When I was younger I definitely favoured Labour, but drifted towards Tory/Brexit party when Brexit happened. I don't particularly like giant power structures and want small government - Labour will never give me that. I also strongly identify with core conservative values, even if the Tories don't project them very well, I don't see an alternative.
Sibling comment is fairly on point.
TL;DR: "The least worst" party (imo).
- Pro free speech (or as The Guardian like to describe me, "free speech extremist")
- Equality of opportunity (but not "positive" discrimination), NHS and safety nets fit here
- Proud of our country and history, and acknowledging the bad parts without trying to destroy them
- Capitalism/free markets over intense regulation
- Pro small business and anti corporatism
- Self responsibility
So definitely not the current Tory party, but more ideologically aligned with me than any other.
For now, I'd definitely ask you to consider if supporting the current party (which as you note is antithetical to some of your values) might damage the country or move it too far away from your ideals?
I generally feel let down by all the major political parties, so I've been attempting to vote for whoever will do the least harm but it's so hard to figure that out these days :/
In other words, taking the Covid issue head-on and making decisions in spite of what the media reaction would be may be something that the same group of people could support?
What we have now is a PM and Govt being criticised from all 'sides'. A classic example of trying to please everyone and actually pleasing no one, if you like?
I don't think they would have, though, at all. The "get Brexit done" sentiment is mostly popular amongst people who discount the chance of Brexit having any significant impact on their lives (there's polling on this; the most pro-brexit people are also, oddly, the ones most likely to think that Brexit won't actually do anything much in terms of practical impact on their everyday lives). Whereas decisive action on covid would have been, in the short to medium term, far more disruptive than what has actually been done.
Actually that last sentence may not be obvious. On his blog, Dominic Cummings made a rather important point about the UK and EU that largely escaped notice: the EU is broadly unpopular with a clear majority of the British population. The idea that the EU sucks is widely accepted. The referendum was a (somewhat) close match only because a significant proportion of the people who don't like the EU and would have wanted to leave feared the terrible consequences they were promised.
People who genuinely support the EU as a project has never really got higher than about a third of the population:
https://dominiccummings.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/screensh...
This is why the EU/Remain strategy during the campaign was so unrelentingly negative. The message was consistently not the EU is great and we should stay because it makes sense, the message was the UK's nominal allies will inflict great punishment if it leaves. This was a rather cynical but understandable political calculation when you see the polls. Fear motivates. It nearly dominated and caused Remain to win.