For those of you who know me well, know that I am generally quite a shy person. However, when it comes to politics, I am certainly not a shy Tory.
For me it was always a clear choice. Why would I not vote Conservative, after kick starting our economy, cutting income tax, extending the Right to Buy scheme, getting 2 million more people in work, and halving our deficit as a percentage of GDP? Voting for Labour would have caused economic chaos, threatened our economic recovery and risked disuniting our nation with a Labour-SNP alliance. Some people call it scare mongering, I call it reality.
Shy Tories, the term commonly used to describe undisclosed Tory voters, are the group of voters who are said to have won the General Election for the Conservatives. Up until the eve of poll (if not on polling day itself!) the polls were forecasting the Conservatives and Labour as neck to neck, with the possibility of another hung Parliament. So what suddenly happened?
The outstanding victory for the Conservatives on May 8th showed that many Tories were unprepared to declare their ideals to the polls as loudly as the Left do. There is still a lot of taboo to support the Conservative Party, particularly amongst young and ethnic minority voters. Tories are still deemed as inherently bad and fiscal discipline is referred to as greed. For me it is now second nature to be referred to as “Tory Scum”, “Nasty”, and “Traitor”. Most Tories I’m sure are used to this reaction.
Much to my annoyance, the Left have always portrayed a self-righteousness and held the “moral high-ground”. During the last campaign, I still recall the number of voters who were afraid to put up Tory posters in fear of being victimised and I met so many people who said they were voting Conservative, “but not to tell anyone!” So is it any wonder why so many voters were afraid to say they were voting Tory?
This trend was particularly clear in North London amongst the Gujarati community, where their vote really came out on the day helping to keep Harrow East, Hendon and Finchley and Golders Green blue in an increasingly Labour city.
However, when it came to the day, I was delighted that people voted by their conscious. In the end it all came down to common sense and clear, concise policies, which is why more people voted for the Conservatives than any other party. Although the next day I was not surprised when the anti-Tory reappeared, despite the Tories securing a clear, outright majority.
