RicheyJames wrote:eastmidswhizzkid wrote:RicheyJames wrote:now this is what i don't get. are you saying that you would never vote for someone labelled as a conservative regardless of their stance on whatever issues are closest to your heart?
not exactly; more that i wouldn't vote for a conservative government because that would entail voting for the rest of their inevitabe policies. to be honest, for anything close to my heart to be favourably championed by the conservatives the probability is that: a) they are only bandwagoning another party's policy due to it's popularity b)they have no intention of standing by it (pan-political hazard i know) or c) both.
but political parties shift over time. it depends on what's important to you. a "moderate" tory party could quite easily be opposed to id cards and further erosion of civil liberties, commit to labour's spending plans on health and education, strengthen parliament's role in government and advocate a more robust approach to our relationship with america. these are actual proposals put forward by some of the current leadership hopefuls and right now they sound a damn sight more palatable to me than a continuation of the new labour project.
that would be a dilemma we'd have to face
if we were in a two party system.
If I remember from the various threads and polls on this forum around at the time of the election, if the result of the last election had been determined by HLers, then we'd have a LibDem government which, based on its manifesto (usual disclaimers apply), would take the same 'anti-authoritarian, with state spending on health and education' stance as described above, but without the less pleasant Tory policies of old.
If the National Front started claiming to be anti-racist, pro-civil-liberties etc I still wouldn't vote for them because I do not trust the members of that party. Same applies to the Tories - they can promise anything they want, but they do not have my trust.
When you vote for a party you do not do it solely on their manifesto - you vote for them because you think they'd handle any of the infinite possible events and crises that could occur in a manner which you would find agreeable. The Tories could never do that for me, because whatever their manifesto promises, their approach to politics/life is intrinsically different to mine.