5 reasons I could never vote for the Tories

I don’t think I’ve ever been tempted but if I have that’s of the past. The ‘good’ Tories I remember like Michael Heseltine, Kenneth Clarke, even John Major seem to have left the scene to be relaced by UKIP clones. The old Macmillan idea of ‘one-nation Tories’ seems to the Tories of today to be an thing of the past. Maybe it’s woke.

I could never vote Tory now. Here’s my five reasons why not.

1 they think that Brexit is a good idea

After a while you realise that there’s no point in debating whether or not Brexit has been or will ever be good for the country. You accept that for the visible and vocal part of the Tory party just doing Brexit is a good thing. It doesn’t matter how much prices go up, how difficult it is for companies to export or how long the immigration queues are. Brexit is ‘done’ so we can celebrate.

I don’t see it that way. For me it’s important that people in this country do have a decent standard of living, that our companies can be successful internationally and that we can also enjoy the advantages of living so close to a land mass so rich in history, culture and diversity.

2 deep down they’re just a little bit, sometimes very, racist

The Brits are fundamentally decent people. We naturally defend the underdog, we are generous to those who are less able or who’ve fallen on hard times and we are vocal when we see injustice. The examples of neighbourhoods coming together to obstruct the deportation of foreigners who have come to live with us are great examples.

But the Tories seem to think that it’s a good idea to penalise those who are different and that they perceive as unwelcome arrivals to our country. The despicable treatment of the Windrush generation was one early example of what Ms May called a ‘hostile environment’ and the current Rwanda policy is the latest. The universal condemnation from the Bishops in the House of Lords should surely have caused its architects to think again.

3 the NHS is not safe in their hands

The NHS is the envy of the world but you’ve got to admit it’s a left of centre construct. That’s why although the Tories would claim undying loyalty to it they really don’t like the idea of a tax payer funded service that benefits everybody and gives no advantage to the private sector.

If the Tories really were committed to the NHS they would not be so hostile to it employing the staff that it needs and they wouldn’t be talking about reversing the funding that they had only recently said was necessary.

During the Brexit campaign £350 million was promised as a Brexit dividend. Not only has that not materialised but we’re not looking at the prospect of less money for the NHS, not more.

4 they’re cavalier about climate change

Of all the issues the UK and the world are now facing climate change is the number one. That doesn’t mean that other issues are not important, just that none of them are more important. And yet there are Tories who publicly disbelieve it and even those that do suggest that saving money on initiatives to address our net zero commitments is somehow a good thing to do.

You tear your hair out. It’s the future of our children and grandchildren. Is anyone going to have the opportunity to enjoy life as I have done?

5 it’s all about power

When you listen to the rhetoric you realise that the Tories don’t want power for a purpose, they simply want it because they want it. They will say anything, promise anything to get and/or keep power. It’s a comparatively recent phenomenon as best exhibited most recently by Donald Trump. The idea of conceding power graciously was just beyond him and Johnson behaved in a similar fashion. Sadly it’s difficult to imagine a future Tory leader showing the grace that John Major and Gordon Brown both did when they lost office.

My direct experience of the Tories is that they don’t like sharing power, they don’t like collaborative working and they don’t like coalitions. Witness the difficulties they had with the Coalition Government and the inability to live with the Remainers in their ranks before the last election.

The adage is ‘power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely’ and when you couple this with an electoral system which enable a faction of the party which gained power with just 44% of the national vote from a 67% turnout and you’ve got the dire system and choices which we have today.

I wrote the above a few months ago during the time the Tories were deciding who should succeed Johnson. In the end they chose Liz Truss and we know how that turned out. So maybe now I’ve got a 6th reason:

6 because they can’t be trusted with the economy

So much came together for the crash earlier this month and the subsequent unravelling of Truss’ premiership: arrogance, belief in Brexit, intolerance of contrary advice, absolute power. The Tories haven’t just tanked our economy, they’ve ruined our global reputations. But at least they’ve given everyone else a good laugh, If the situation wasn’t so dire I’d be laughing too.