Why do people vote Conservative?
As someone who detests the Tories (the Conservative Party in the UK) and would never vote for them, I can, nevertheless, still see why people do. It’s pretty simple and understandable. Massively wrong, a terrible mistake…but there are some reasons. As they say, let me be clear...
1. If you are part of the infamous 1%, the super-rich its clear that any party supporting capitalism is for you. For such people there is no mistake - the Tories ARE their natural party. Easy.
2. If you are part of the National Readership Survey (NRS) ‘social class A’ of higher professionals, upper level managers, or B class of middle level mangers or professional etc (roughly 25% of the population according to GBCS, the Great British Class Survey) then you are often encouraged to see the Conservatives positively.
They are the ones that will take less tax of you than Labour. They are the ones that supposedly handle the economy better. They are the ones that keep the housing costs high. They will take less off you in death duty tax. They support private schools. You can afford private health care . You see yourself as better than folk in the class below you. You work hard. You studied hard. You are bright (so you think). You want your kids to be in the upper level classes too, etc. The Tories seem to be the party that supports that elitism.
There is also a racist aspect. Though most people in these groups avoid the violent racism of BNP etc, and support racial equality in theory, in practice the actual figures show a lot of difference in various aspects according to race. For example: “According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, fewer than 10 per cent of black students are at Russell Group universities (the highest level ones), compared to a quarter of white students.” The Independent, Jan 2012). I suspect that quite a lot of folk in this AB group see the Tories as a party that are better at keeping control of the country with white British people.
The Tories are also seen as the party of tradition, of queen, of respectability. and that still has some attraction for some people. So, for some people in this AB class group the Tories SEEM to be the best choice . And those classes are already 25% of the UK, if that research is accurate. so that a big voting block right there.
Actually, even for folk in those upper and upper middle classes the tories are only moderately useful. Their policies are decreasing the security of even solidly middle class jobs in various aspects of health at work, control over your own work, etc. The university fees are so high now that even old established middle class folk are struggling to help their kids, and then later to pay off their own debts, etc. The tories support a kind of social division that hurts the solid middle classes, as it is their houses that are burgled, their kids can also get attacked in the street. It’s the beauty of parks and rivers that they enjoy that are ruined by rampant corporate expansion, by more cars, more pollution, etc. And several other things that, in reality, make the Tories only partially positive for this group.
3. If you are in the ‘C class’, either C1 of folk like junior managers or lower level clerical or C2 of folk like skilled manual workers then the Tories really aren’t for you. That’s about 50% of the UK now, so still the biggest group. Getting their support, plus a it from the higher and lower groups, should mean that Labour win every time. but, clearly they dont’.
These are the folk that have been lied to by the Daily Mail, and cheated out of a decent education that would encourage their level of critical thinking skills. In this group you have been fooled into thinking that socialism is something bad, that communism is about making you into a robot. That the things that are on your side and support your ‘natural class’ are actually your enemy. This is yer full blast Orwellian twisting of the truth in operation.
Most open and violent racism is an element here. UKIP support was 51% from this group, and the % of those switching from Labour to UKIP trebled over the last few years. Now that UKIP seem to have imploded it looks like a lot of those C level folk are now moving to the Tories, not back to Labour. One of the reasons being that they seem to be tougher on immigrants.
And also the Tories seem to be closer to what a lot in this group feel about ‘welfare scroungers’, and more ‘hard’ on brexit. They seem to be the party of nationalism, or patriotism. Which noways means mostly English nationalism, since the Scots have turned overwhelmingly to the SNP, which has the unfortunate side affect of strengthening the tories ‘little England’ appeal to some folk in this group, and decreasing the labour seats in parliament by about 20%, at a time when they cant afford to lose any support.
Again, the thinking here seems very muddled and a lot of it seems to be focusing on stuff that really isn’t causing these people much trouble in reality (immigrants/islam/terrorism). and to supporting stuff that directly harm folk in this group (the tories decreasing spending on health, education, welfare cuts, job security, unions, etc.
From the Guardian, July 2017: "It might, though, be ill-advised to ignore the evidence that Labour has a big problem with people on lower and middle incomes, especially working-class voters in its traditional heartlands. Natascha Engel, a well-regarded MP, was unseated by the Tories in North-East Derbyshire, the first time that seat hasn’t been Labour since 1935. She says: “What we need to do is reconnect with our white working class voters.”
4. If you are in the lower levels of this NRS scale then essentially you are mad to support the tories - they hate you and they almost never make any policies that help you. That means semi skilled manual workers, casual unskilled workers, folk on benefits, etc. Just under 25% of the population, it seems. Yet in the group C2/D/E between 26% to 32% vote for the Tories, according to yougov.com research.
WHY do folk support stuff that seems against their interest? That is a classic question and a key problem of capitalism. It does seem to me that the reasons are that most people,in general, are cheated into not knowing what is in their interests. are encouraged to waste their time and energy attacking other ordinary people. are encouraged to focus on escapist entertainment that leads them away from an awareness of the society around them. are educated to not have very good critical thinking skills. are lied to and misled by the mass media. in their working lives they are encouraged to become followers who dont question the system. etc. These actually seem to be the cause.
Though, another aspect is that various left wing people and groups seem to have made a bit of an arse of things, in various ways. They often shoot themselves in the foot, as if the right wing corporate power shooting at them was not enough to deal with.
There is also the point that Jonathan Haidt, a professor of psychology, made: '"when working-class people vote conservative, as most do in the US, they are not voting against their self-interest; they are voting for their moral interest. They are voting for the party that serves to them a more satisfying moral cuisine." That's a point worth going more into, which I will do later...
As someone who detests the Tories (the Conservative Party in the UK) and would never vote for them, I can, nevertheless, still see why people do. It’s pretty simple and understandable. Massively wrong, a terrible mistake…but there are some reasons. As they say, let me be clear...
1. If you are part of the infamous 1%, the super-rich its clear that any party supporting capitalism is for you. For such people there is no mistake - the Tories ARE their natural party. Easy.
2. If you are part of the National Readership Survey (NRS) ‘social class A’ of higher professionals, upper level managers, or B class of middle level mangers or professional etc (roughly 25% of the population according to GBCS, the Great British Class Survey) then you are often encouraged to see the Conservatives positively.
They are the ones that will take less tax of you than Labour. They are the ones that supposedly handle the economy better. They are the ones that keep the housing costs high. They will take less off you in death duty tax. They support private schools. You can afford private health care . You see yourself as better than folk in the class below you. You work hard. You studied hard. You are bright (so you think). You want your kids to be in the upper level classes too, etc. The Tories seem to be the party that supports that elitism.
There is also a racist aspect. Though most people in these groups avoid the violent racism of BNP etc, and support racial equality in theory, in practice the actual figures show a lot of difference in various aspects according to race. For example: “According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, fewer than 10 per cent of black students are at Russell Group universities (the highest level ones), compared to a quarter of white students.” The Independent, Jan 2012). I suspect that quite a lot of folk in this AB group see the Tories as a party that are better at keeping control of the country with white British people.
The Tories are also seen as the party of tradition, of queen, of respectability. and that still has some attraction for some people. So, for some people in this AB class group the Tories SEEM to be the best choice . And those classes are already 25% of the UK, if that research is accurate. so that a big voting block right there.
Actually, even for folk in those upper and upper middle classes the tories are only moderately useful. Their policies are decreasing the security of even solidly middle class jobs in various aspects of health at work, control over your own work, etc. The university fees are so high now that even old established middle class folk are struggling to help their kids, and then later to pay off their own debts, etc. The tories support a kind of social division that hurts the solid middle classes, as it is their houses that are burgled, their kids can also get attacked in the street. It’s the beauty of parks and rivers that they enjoy that are ruined by rampant corporate expansion, by more cars, more pollution, etc. And several other things that, in reality, make the Tories only partially positive for this group.
3. If you are in the ‘C class’, either C1 of folk like junior managers or lower level clerical or C2 of folk like skilled manual workers then the Tories really aren’t for you. That’s about 50% of the UK now, so still the biggest group. Getting their support, plus a it from the higher and lower groups, should mean that Labour win every time. but, clearly they dont’.
These are the folk that have been lied to by the Daily Mail, and cheated out of a decent education that would encourage their level of critical thinking skills. In this group you have been fooled into thinking that socialism is something bad, that communism is about making you into a robot. That the things that are on your side and support your ‘natural class’ are actually your enemy. This is yer full blast Orwellian twisting of the truth in operation.
Most open and violent racism is an element here. UKIP support was 51% from this group, and the % of those switching from Labour to UKIP trebled over the last few years. Now that UKIP seem to have imploded it looks like a lot of those C level folk are now moving to the Tories, not back to Labour. One of the reasons being that they seem to be tougher on immigrants.
And also the Tories seem to be closer to what a lot in this group feel about ‘welfare scroungers’, and more ‘hard’ on brexit. They seem to be the party of nationalism, or patriotism. Which noways means mostly English nationalism, since the Scots have turned overwhelmingly to the SNP, which has the unfortunate side affect of strengthening the tories ‘little England’ appeal to some folk in this group, and decreasing the labour seats in parliament by about 20%, at a time when they cant afford to lose any support.
Again, the thinking here seems very muddled and a lot of it seems to be focusing on stuff that really isn’t causing these people much trouble in reality (immigrants/islam/terrorism). and to supporting stuff that directly harm folk in this group (the tories decreasing spending on health, education, welfare cuts, job security, unions, etc.
From the Guardian, July 2017: "It might, though, be ill-advised to ignore the evidence that Labour has a big problem with people on lower and middle incomes, especially working-class voters in its traditional heartlands. Natascha Engel, a well-regarded MP, was unseated by the Tories in North-East Derbyshire, the first time that seat hasn’t been Labour since 1935. She says: “What we need to do is reconnect with our white working class voters.”
4. If you are in the lower levels of this NRS scale then essentially you are mad to support the tories - they hate you and they almost never make any policies that help you. That means semi skilled manual workers, casual unskilled workers, folk on benefits, etc. Just under 25% of the population, it seems. Yet in the group C2/D/E between 26% to 32% vote for the Tories, according to yougov.com research.
WHY do folk support stuff that seems against their interest? That is a classic question and a key problem of capitalism. It does seem to me that the reasons are that most people,in general, are cheated into not knowing what is in their interests. are encouraged to waste their time and energy attacking other ordinary people. are encouraged to focus on escapist entertainment that leads them away from an awareness of the society around them. are educated to not have very good critical thinking skills. are lied to and misled by the mass media. in their working lives they are encouraged to become followers who dont question the system. etc. These actually seem to be the cause.
Though, another aspect is that various left wing people and groups seem to have made a bit of an arse of things, in various ways. They often shoot themselves in the foot, as if the right wing corporate power shooting at them was not enough to deal with.
There is also the point that Jonathan Haidt, a professor of psychology, made: '"when working-class people vote conservative, as most do in the US, they are not voting against their self-interest; they are voting for their moral interest. They are voting for the party that serves to them a more satisfying moral cuisine." That's a point worth going more into, which I will do later...