(July 4, 2024 at 12:16 am)Pat Mustard Wrote:(July 1, 2024 at 5:51 am)emjay Wrote: Good to know and shows how out of touch I am. I have been considering voting Tory, on the groumds that going forward I'd rather the opposition be centre-right than far right, which looks like what it would become if the Tory party were completely wiped out. But that may turn out to be a moot point if the Tory party intends to move further to the right, ie with the likes of her, after the election to woo back defectors to Reform, as has been suggested may happen. So I'm still no closer to deciding how to vote here (not that it practically matters in my constituency, given that it's a projected landslide for Labour, but nonetheless I want my vote to sit right with my conscience). I just can't bring myself to vote Labour, cos I don't really trust them or know what they stand for. I don't hate them but not once in this election have I felt any positive desire to vote for them either. So still a real tough decision and only three days to go.
On the bolded bit, the tories are centrist in the same way Franz von Papen was, i.e. only in that they assert they are the whole time. If you look at their policies and utterances (the latter when not keeping up appearances) you find that they are extremeist, racist and in denial of reality.
Nonetheless I consider them more moderate than Reform... I've barely been able to tell the difference between them an Labour over the last few years etc. Whether that guy on channel 4 was a plant or not doesn't really matter because even if he was, that party still attracts just as many people who would happily say stuff like that without batting an eye, and that's what I'm opposing. I thought some of what Reform said was reasonable, but at the end of the day I can't get around this aspect, and hell, they have Anne Widdecombe on side; she's always been a thorn in the side of gay rights. In contrast, the Tories haven't seemed particularly homophobic over the last few years. So, I voted Tory today partly to oppose Reform and partly to oppose, or to be the preferred opposition to a Labour Party who is largely an unknown quantity to me, and very different from the Labour Party I used to vote for in the past. I accept it's probably a futile vote but it's the only possibility that sits right with me. Also, again I know I'm in the minority, but I actually like Boris Johnson... he is about the only Tory I have ever really liked... and I have appreciated his approach to Ukraine, so I think I'm most comfortable with the Tories for defence: the other parties again are unknown quantities on that for me.
