Gays and lesbians 'more likely to vote Tory'

[andy]

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/conservativelogo.jpg[/img2]Gay and lesbian voters are now more likely to vote Tory rather than Labour, a poll has suggested.

The survey of 1,800 gay men and women found 30 per cent said they intend to vote Conservative at the next general election.

It was conducted by the Gaydar consumer panel for the Outright Consortium last month.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats each took 18 per cent of the vote, while 17 per cent said they will not vote and nine per cent were undecided.

At the last general election in 2005, 33 per cent voted Labour compared to 21 per cent who voted Conservative.

Unsurprisingly, 73 per cent said the next election will be fought on the state of the economy. Ten per cent said unemployment would be a key issue and five per cent cited immigration.

Fifty-nine per cent of respondents felt Gordon Brown was not doing a good job as prime minister.

In terms of finance, 24 per cent of those questioned were most worried about losing their job in the recession, compared with 20 per cent who were concerned about paying their mortgages.

However, 22 per cent said they were not worried at all.

Although 71 per cent blamed the banks for the recession, 72 per cent said they were not planning to change financial services providers in the near future.

Just over half (51 per cent) said the recession had impacted on their spending, with 35 per cent admitting to making the biggest cutbacks in their social lives.

[sox-and-the-city]

Doncha just LOVE statistics??

Apparently breathing gives you cancer, as 100% of cancer patients breathe or have breathed at some point...

Making cutbacks in their social lives?? Everyone does that when the money runs out. Only last week in my flat we had a dinner party with only ONE kind of venison pâté, only one bottle of rioja, cava instead of champagne AND for afters the cheeseboard only had brie and boursin on it. And we had to use Jacob's cream crackers to save money.

It's a hard knock life being a student, huh??

Sad thing is, a Tory government by its very nature will be FAR better able to restore the economy to a satifactory state. Maybe we'll have to put our pride behind us and get our economic heads on for a few years...

[marshlander]

Tories, will do what? That's like calling on heaven to help us!

[CardShark]

Its about time we had a change, let someone fresh take a look at things.
I say its about time for labour to get the fuck out!

[sweetlad86]

I would never vote for the Tories, cant you remember what happen through the 1980's???

I would normally vote for Labour but at the moment I'm not even bothering voting for any of them as they are all the fucking same. The last time I vote there where only three choices Labour, Tories and Lib Dems and I wouldn't vote on any of them!

[marshlander]

I would never vote for the Tories, cant you remember what happen through the 1980's???

I would normally vote for Labour but at the moment I'm not even bothering voting for any of them as they are all the fucking same. The last time I vote there where only three choices Labour, Tories and Lib Dems and I wouldn't vote on any of them!

I fully understand this dilemma. There is such little apparent difference between the major parties at present that it is often a case of voting for the least-worst, rather than the party best suited to the job. I am not a big fan of Labour, but to trust the Conservatives ... ? I can't begin to imagine it!

[joseph]

i voted before.

[ardus]

I wish I knew which of the parties had done what in your country in the past, because then I would have an opinion worth hearing, today I am talking because I think it's rediculous to suggest that gay people will support one political party or another.

Richard

[fredv3b]

I wish I knew which of the parties had done what in your country in the past, because then I would have an opinion worth hearing, today I am talking because I think it's rediculous to suggest that gay people will support one political party or another.

Here is a very quick, somewhat biased and highly controversial run down on what parties have done what. Please all feel free to correct and flame me.

I will restrict my comments to the Westminster Government and Parliament, the Scottish Government and Parliament does have some relevant powers but has not really used them.

There are only two parties of power in Westminster: Labour and the Conservatives. The Liberals haven't been in power since the early 20th century, the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists and the various parties from Northern Ireland are, for obvious reasons, not parties of power in Westminster.

Have the conservatives done anything to 'earn' the 'gay vote'? No not at all, the only pro-gay legislation they passed the last time they were in government (that I can think of) was reducing the age of male homosexual consent from 21 to 18 (compared to the heterosexual age of 16). The Tories also passed the infamous 'Section 28' which prohibited Local Councils from 'promoting homosexuality' in practice this meant that teachers avoiding saying anything about homosexuality, didn't tackle antigay bullying, sex-education was entirely heterosexual, etc. So on the face of it there is no 'gay reason' to vote Tory. However the Tories have changed a great deal in the 12 years they have been out of Government, their latest leader, Dave Cameron, is clearly 'pro-gay' and they have supported pro-gay' legislation brought in by Labour. In addition the basic Tory philosophies of personal Liberty and self-reliance, I think do tend to (or at least should) go down well with gay voters - even if society doesn't accept you fully you are free to lead your life as you see fit, set-up your own businesses etc.

Now let us consider the Labour Party. Labour has done a HUGE amount to 'earn' the 'gay vote'. Repeal of section 28, equality of age of consent, rescinding the miliary gay ban and, most importantly of all, the Civil Partnerships act, which gave us almost all the rights and privilidges of Marriage.

There is no question looking at past action and on a 'gay-only' basis then gay voters should vote Labour. However people don't vote for the past, they vote for the future. Would a Labour Government pass much more 'pro-gay legislation' than a Tory one? I doubt it, much of what can be done has already been done. Labour would certainly have a tendancy to pass more laws against 'homophobia' whereas the Tories would tend to allow freedom of conscience and freedom of speech and not believe in 'thought crimes'. Would this difference make much difference to the everyday lives of gay voters? I doubt it.

However gays are not just gays they are also people with Mortgages, people with jobs who fear redundancy, people who worry about crime and the National Health Service, people who pay Taxes, etc. Given the strong lead that the Tories have in the opinion polls amongst heterosexuals is it any real suprise that many gays have decided that looking towards the future there is not much of a 'gay-difference' between Labour and the Tories and looking at non-gay issues they would like a change of government?

[marshlander]

I wish I knew which of the parties had done what in your country in the past, because then I would have an opinion worth hearing, today I am talking because I think it's rediculous to suggest that gay people will support one political party or another.

I agree with you on this, but the evidence is plain enough. Blair's Labour government introduced the most important changes in favour of equality that lgbt citizens in the UK have ever seen. There is always a chance that these changes could have been introduced by the Conservatives, but voting records suggest they would probably have been far more, erm, conservative.