Quote:
Originally Posted by martyh
I don't think that the welfare cuts would have been popular amongst some members of society whichever way the conservatives had gone about it and that says more about sections of our society than it says about the conservatives .The cuts had to made for a variety of reasons not just because of the state of the economy and at least the cons had the guts to see them through
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Do you really think it's just that though? I would assume that people who were, and are, on various benefits are unlikely to have been Conservative voters (also let's remind ourselves the majority are genuine claimants).
There must be another reason the Tories are struggling. It could be that the recovery has been felt to an unequal degree and those towards the 'decent income but not rich' might not have felt it and feel resentful of that fact. Maybe the fact the recovery has been lopsided towards house prices means that those with assets have felt better off but those that aspire to get on that ladder feel further away than ever.
I think another part of it is UKIP. The Conservatives have struggled to keep some of their core supporters whilst reaching out to the more liberal/moderate voters. There is a sizeable amount of conservative voters who feel they've been let down over Europe, immigration and a general sense of conservative values being abandoned in favour of a more urban 'metropolitan' type of voter.
I don't actually know why really. Maybe it's just a general sense of dissatisfaction at all parties means the vote is split but as I said above this means Labour/SNP win as they have a wider appeal outside of England.