I'd be interested to see if anyone has made a website that examines political promises and tallies them up with the outcomes (if any).
For example; in a manifesto a party promises to increase nurses' pay by 15%, but when in government fight the union and only end up giving them 3%.
I've been thinking about why working class people vote Tory, despite them never, never making good on their promises, and would like to see the data on what they do actually provide.
@DJDarren
You've led me to a train of thought only tangentially related to your points, but I'll post them here anyway...
The Tories have spent most, if not all of the last 13 years convincing people to vote against an imagined reality rather than for what can be seen.
The argument seems suggest the world is getting worse for everyone, and we've made it less worse than they would have. Even though the counterfactual hasn't happened.
@DJDarren a couple of things - firstly, how are we defining class? Cultural and economic social classes no longer align (e.g. many “traditional working class” folk are well-off homeowners while a lot of “middle-class” graduates are barely making enough to survive), so I think that may explain a couple of things. Secondly, even if we’re going by the “traditional” definitions, then I think the culture of deference plays a part - forelock-tugging working-class Tories have always been around
@DJDarren I agree - trouble is, I don’t think those of us who work actually do make up the majority of the electorate, given the % of retirees/ landlords
@eleanorrees Oh yeah, there's always a "good" reason for their failure. But, like, these fuckers have had 13 years to actually do some of the positive shit they've promised, but haven't actually. They've had incredibly strong governments, and even then were somehow curtailed by the woke mob.
@DJDarren I think a lot about a woman in a "red wall" northern town who was interviewed in the run-up to the 2019 election, saying she was going to vote Tory "because we desperately need change". The interviewer pointed out that the Tories had been in power for nearly a decade, and she said angrily, "Not around here they haven't!"
@DJDarren@eleanorrees People in the north temporarily lending the Tories their vote is one thing (and I'm not defending it!), but why is that they're held up for the most criticism whilst lots of working class areas in the south east and parts of the midlands vote Tory every single time?
What have the Tories ever done for the working class in, say, Essex or Suffolk? There'll still be the same slew of blue on the map after the next election, though, same as always.
I'd also like to see evidence of whether government policy has actively made things worse for regular working class people, or whether we're just basing our feelings on vibes.
I'm pretty sure they have, and things genuinely are financially shitter because of policy, but around an election it would be very useful to have solid figures to point at.
Because there just isn't any good reason for any working class* person to vote conservative that I can see. Not one.
They overpromise and underdeliver every single time. But still, the voters fall for it and give them another chance, as if the evidence suggests this time will be different. Except, it's never any different. Tories promise X&Y, then just...don't.
Pure evidence alone isn't enough for people to reject Tory dogma. Because that evidence won't get printed in The Sun or the Mail, unless Sir Keith Steamer has come to some agreement with the Murdoch press, the way Blair did.
@DJDarren Car culture/dependency is a big factor. Since the days of Thatcho, its been easier for the working classes to own a car, and what were once viewed as luxury European cars are now common on our streets and even young/new drivers can just about afford them.
Working class folk fear that left wing parties will make motoring more expensive and/or introduce further enforcement of traffic laws and restrictions on driving (although we've already seen petrol reach £2 a litre under the Tories)
@DJDarren I'd think the growing number of people working full time and in receipt of benefits points at things having got worse for working-class people.
Not to mention the shrinking of public services like library, youth services and green spaces, and the ever-decreasing amount of local authority housing forcing people to rely on private landlords. And don't get me started on the cost of higher education.
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