Why?

Why would anyone want to vote Tory at the General Election?

It's an easy question to answer; there are people out there who don't feel they've done a bad job. For all the scandals, corruption, waste and contempt they have shown the rest of the country, there are people who will think that Labour will do worse. Quite what they're definition of worse is can't really be quantified, but there are people out there who are lifelong Tory voters and they simply cannot see themselves wanting to vote for anyone else; not even Reform.

I was the same. Not about the Tories but about Labour. I've voted Labour at every election bar one since my first vote was cast; 1981 to 2017 equals nearly 40 years of support and very little to be happy about. I couldn't imagine voting for anyone else and then I moved to Scotland and realised that there was an alternative. Maybe not the ideal one, but as Labour has lurched to the right since 2019, the SNP represents the closest I can hope for that align with my own politics.

What puzzles me about Tory voters is like Labour they're almost unrecognisable to the party I grew up with. Margaret Thatcher would probably be spinning in her grave at this bunch of corrupt chancers and you don't realise how much that pains me to say. So why do ordinary Tory voters think that sticking with this shower of shit is the only option for them? Do they really think that anyone else is going to be worse than the last eight years?

You could argue that the core Tory vote are people who are well off; who don't really worry about the cost of living crisis and view anyone who doesn't live in suburbia as oiks. I watched a video about voters in a town I lived next to in the 1980s - Radlett, in Herts - and the arguments coming out of the Tory voters mouths ranged from "But Angela Rayner is so awful" to "We need stability" - this says to me that it's a mixture of snobbery and ignorance. Snobbery because Rayner is from Manchester and ignorance because the last decade has been anything but stable.

The thing is everyone is worse off because of the Tories; even Tories are. Yes, they might not even notice the way food and energy prices or the general cost of living has escalated, but unless they only use helicopters to travel by (and aviation fuel has doubled in price), they still have to use the roads, which are now more dangerous than an oik with a machete. They still have to exist and even if private schools have been exempt from the decay, their children are growing up in a world that is so divided and unhappy they can't avoid it. Everything is worse than it was 10 years ago. Nothing is better. There's no sign that anything is going to improve. We're living in a country that is isolated, unhappy, fearful and angry about almost everything.

So why would these people who vote Tory want to keep this mob of shysters in power? Do they think they're going to benefit from it? Is it all about greed or is it more about conditioning? I know people who really believe that all the other parties are going to make things worse. Worse than what? I want these people to tell me what is good about living in the UK at the moment. Just one thing.

I do agree with the Tories on one thing, but not for the same reasons. I do think a Labour massive majority would be a bad thing. Not for democratic reasons, but because we really need more representation in parliament and this General Election is fast becoming the perfect place to elect one of the minorities parties. I'm not saying it will or even can happen, just that it's the best time for it to happen. It would be great if we had 50+ Liberal Democrats; 10 Green; 20 independent MPs; 40 SNP MPs and much fewer right wing parties. It would be a very positive move by the electorate if - like a couple of European countries recently - they told the far right to fuck off; that they only represent the most ignorant and dangerous people and these people should have an appropriate voice - a small one that is largely ignored by decent people.

We're never going to get Proportional Representation in my life time, so we need today's young and disaffected voters to look at alternatives and give them a chance. If Labour really can win by 200+ seats, then the best advice I can give you is Vote Tactically, especially if a minority party has a chance and if they do have a chance try and persuade others to vote the same as you. There are at least four seats in the UK at the moment that could return a Green MP, it just needs voters of the other minority candidates to hold their nose and elect something or someone different. The same applies to Plaid, to the SNP, to progressive Independents and even the LibDems. Having a multicoloured parliament might be good for the country. Maybe ten years down the line we might be ready to have a Rainbow Coalition in charge who will do things for the many and not the few? Wouldn't that be refreshing?