Why I, a life-long Labour luvvie, am backing the Tories

For 40 years I supported Labour. Left was ‘the thing to be’ for the majority in my acting business – as it was for the BBC. However, some time in the last 15 years I began to find that ‘Socialism’ was a religion – and we all know that the inflexible adherents to religion often cause great suffering.

It was the unpleasantness that alerted me. Labour, I realised, was built on hatred; quite understandable in the days of uncaring coal-mine and mill- owners. But those days – apart from the odd rotten boss – have gone. Yet the hatred remains.

nye Bevan, the socialist darling of the Labour movement, famously said that he regarded the Tories as ‘ lower than vermin’. It was a vile remark that is still quoted with approval by many Left-wingers.

We see that same hostile, vicious spirit today in all the fashionable portrayals of the Tories as ‘Bullingdon Boys’ and ‘privileged toffs’.

The word ‘toff ’ is used by the Left with the same pejorative intent as, for example, the word ‘pleb’ – yet if ‘pleb’ was used in the Commons to describe anyone, it would bring a political career abruptly to an end.

A frequent visitor to my house i n London regularly used the expression ‘Tory sh*tes’ – often in front of my in-laws who were Tory but far from sh*tes. Educated, civilised people, they bore it in silence. Conversely, I have never heard Tory friends express hatred for anyone. Labour claims to espouse compassion, yet Labour Home Secretary, Alan Johnson declared that he was going to extradite computer hacker Gary McKinnon to the US, a fate from which the Asperger’s sufferer was spared only by the compassion of Johnson’s Tory successor, Theresa May.

Mr Johnson justified his action by saying: ‘ The Home Secretary is there to uphold the law; to put justice before popularity.’ Personally, I prefer May’s human decency.

Labour is fond of hiding behind the law.

For example, Tony Blair found a ‘legality’ for the Iraq war, with the result that hundreds of thousands died and Saddam Hussein was replaced by the jihadi terror group Isis (thanks Tone).

Labour devised thousands of new laws. That’s its method of government – penalty and impediment.

I remember a woman who ran a small business being asked on TV what she wanted the (Labour) government to do. Her cry came from the depths of her soul. ‘Just leave us alone!’

Tories know that leaving people and businesses alone to get on with their lives unimpeded by state interference is vital. It’s an approach that enabled the Tory-led coalition government to turn the economy around.

We were told it would lead to permanent recession and massive unemployment. Just the opposite has been true and we now have the fastest-growing economy in the western world.

CONSERVATISM is about enabling people to improve their lives; the understanding that individuals should move up the socio-economic ladder at least every generation. In contrast, Labour thinks it knows best. It doesn’t. People know best, both about their lives and their businesses, and the Conservatives understand that.

I fear that because Labour is blind to this, it will destroy aspiration in this country and return Britain to the destructive culture of entitlement that existed under Blair and Brown.

Through income tax increases and measures like the mansion tax, it will target those whose diligence and industry have brought them success. It will hit those of all classes whose only crime is to want to better themselves.

The fact is that it’s vital for the success of a country to have a thriving and growing middle class. If you want keep the class war raging and stay poor, vote Labour!