Even though an ex-colleague once called me a “dyed-in-the-wool” Conservative voter, I finished voting for that party long ago. After the fiasco of Brexit, I shall never vote for them again. I am a European with every fibre of my being, and that party took my European rights away from me (and everyone else, of course), and has impoverished my home country in so doing. So, as far as I am concerned, the curtains have closed on that party.
Then, after that disastrous Brexit referendum, along came Rishi Sunak, spending public money like a drunken sailor! He also introduced the undemocratic idea of a “generational smoking ban”, which I vehemently disagree with and for a number of good reasons. However, in short, one can say that it is not the job of government to tell people how to live their lives. Doing so is both illiberal and undemocratic. Furthermore, there are far more important things for governments to concentrate on if people’s health is their goal. But in fact, I don’t really think that politicians give a tinker’s toss about people’s health. What they care about is money. How much is smoking costing the NHS in treatment. But I have news for them: smokers contribute approximately £12 billion to the state coffers. To treat smoking-related diseases in the UK, it costs the treasury between £1.9 and £2.5 billion per annum. Clearly, smokers more than pay for any treatment they get on the NHS.
But I digress… another reason why I would never vote Tory again is because the party is so anti-EU. AND because the party wants to exit the ECHR. Leaving the ECHR would be a disaster.
Kemi Badenoch radiates neither magic nor sparkle for me, I’m afraid. Her vision for this country is diametrically opposed to mine. What she wants to do with this country is re-hash Thatcher’s policies. But it is high time that the Tories retired her policies. It is time for them to get creative. In any case, it was Thatcher and her sidekick Reagan, who sowed the seeds of the ginormous wealth gap in the West. So, do we really want to increase the gap between the have-nots and the superrich even more?
In my opinion, once upon a time, the Conservative Party was the only sensible party to vote for. But then the party started destroying itself, it started committing suicide in slow motion. The self-harm continues apace! — © Mark Alexander