Am I Still A Tory?

JUL
25
I had to put up with a lot of bullshit during the EU referendum campaign.  We all did, in one way or another.

Something that particularly pissed me off was the abuse that I and other remainers would receive within Tory circles.  As a member of Tory-only groups on Facebook (allegedly Tory-only as many members seemed to view UKIP very positively, for a party trying to damage the Conservative Party), I watched as relatively sensible discussions about any subject became nasty, vilifying discussions with spurious anti-EU arguments backed up by allegations of those of us that supported remain, such as that we were traitors, scumbags, and worse.

Since then I have had to put up with fellow ‘Conservatives’ supporting Donald Trump, supporting nationalising the railways, supporting industrial intervention – all kinds of political anathema to a liberal Conservative such as myself.  All anti-economic policies.

And I vote Conservative more for economic reasons than any other – after all I am quite liberal on social matters.
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I’ll give you some examples of what I have to put up with from fellow Conservatives:

“It’s about time someone destroyed Hillary Clinton. She’s much to hide. Julian Assange should be given a Knighthood for his services.”

EU – “They can get stuffed. They need us much more than we need them due to the balance of payments deficit. We tell them our deal. We don’t let them tell us their terms.”

“May and Trump will be a blast. VOTE TRUMP AMERICA!!!!!!!!”

“Why has Islam been allowed such power in the UK. Thousands of Jews arrived here in the late 1930”

“Liberals have said YES to Islam for too long. Just say NO for a change and feel better about yourselves”

“He (Obama) is making an issue of Islam, going out of his way to include Muslims in everything publicly. It certainly throws up a lot of questions…”

This is just in the last day.  So many uneducated/intolerant comments.  Don’t get me wrong there are people, like myself, arguing back in a constructive manner but I’ve really had to question whether I am actually a Conservative over the past month or two, mixing online with the sorts of folk that I find abhorrent – or at least the sort of folk that have opinions I find abhorrent.  Let alone un-Conservative.

I do remain angry about Brexit and I put most of the blame at the Conservative Party, with some help from UKIP and Corbyn.  I want to punish those who have put us in this position.

Immediately after the vote, when I filled in the Yougov surveys that I occasionally do, I said that I would vote Liberal Democrat.  Indeed they had a bit of a poll bounce.

But unfortunately, the Liberal Democrats seem completely unelectable under the very weak and whiny Tim Farron – and have a fairly uninspiring leftish economic policy that is anathema to myself.

Labour are a joke and would be under any leader.  Labour cannot be trusted with the economy so they are a simple no.

The Green Party are about as economically sound as the Labour party which says enough.

UKIP are UKIP, Farage or not, I cannot be associated with those bastards.

So by default, I am still a Tory.  It isn’t by passion any more.  They are the least bad option.  I should really remember that the Conservative & Unionist Party. To give it its full name, is a broad church.  I do accept that at least half of them will disagree with my pro-immigration view, for example, but there are levels of anti-immigration – when it becomes verging on the racist then I just find it simply unacceptable.

I can understand why the Tory party became known as the nasty party.  There are some people within the ranks that are abhorrent.  Some people that I find really unpleasant.  Though not a patch on some of the vile characters in UKIP or the left of Labour.

And I do have some hope since Theresa May was elected.

That is for another post, but had Andrea Loathsome been elected leader, that probably would have been the beginning of The Only Ex-Tory From Hull.

For now, I am still The Only Tory From Hull.