Why was Margaret Thatcher a strict Tory when she was from a poor background.....?

I just watched Iron Lady and enjoyed it, athough I see that Thatcher was from a pretty poor family unlike most Tories, however, she turned out to be a strong conservative. I couldnt determine whether her parents were Labour but assume they were.

I don't think her beliefs came out of a self-interest or short-sighted parochialism. She wanted what was in her mind right for Britain, not specifically the poor people of Britain but Britain as a whole.

Also, I dispute that she was a Tory. I think she was much more of a classical Liberal.

Class should not determine your political stance. Being poor doesn't mean you can't vote Tory or be a Tory if you agree with their principles and doctrines.

I'm from a poor working class background and I'm a Tory.

What do you like or believe in with regards to Tory party?

I imagine there is a pretty strong correlation between income and voting habits tho

Fellow genuine Tory here, I agree with him that we should ban JSA and instead bring back the workhouse so claimants can clean the chimneys for soup instead, with all the money now saved we the elites will use will spend that money on hunting rifles instead so then when those workhouse workers ask for more soup we may hunt them in a big open field on horseback as for those on housing benefit rather than actually building any smaller houses or flats I plan to throw them out onto the street to beg because of course if I did build some more houses to meet demand I would not be able to jack up the prices and give another bonus to my mates so they can destroy viable small and medium businesses.

In summary shoot the poor and raise my annual salary.
That's my current long term economic policy what do you think?

Pic related me.

I wouldn't say she came from a poor background. A relatively modest one, yes. Her father owned two greengrocers. They worked hard, but provided what was probably a relatively comfortable (if not affluent) upbringing.

Besides, there is strong working class Tory support. Sunderland, a working class city, has strong areas of traditional Conservative support for example (mind Thatcherism helped to destroy some of this). Particularly One Nation Toryism, which Thatcher certainly wasn't a believer in, I should say!

Just because someone is working class, or lower middle class, doesn't mean they can't be a Conservative.

By the way Thatcher's family was a Liberal family, at least on her father's side. Though her father stood as an Independent candidate in local government elections which was not unusual at the time.

Baroness Thatcher's ideas were largely inspired by her Methodist background. This encouraged people to take responsibility for themselves and their families first. Genuinely unfortunate people like lepers etc would be given assistance but poverty was assumed to be a permanent feature of the world.

Same reason I am, I suppose.

Broadly speaking, your background is where you're from, your politics represent what you hope for in the future. It makes absolutely no sense for your background to define who you vote for, especially if you're from a deprived background (although I accept that for some reason, a lot of people do let their background govern their voting habits).

The only people who seem worse off under the Conservatives are those who have had their benefits cut. So in that sense they might vote Labour, but you have to wonder what kind of aspirations cause people to vote for the party which gives them the most free money.

Turns out he's been banned. No surprises there then

Fellow genuine Tory here, I agree with him that we should ban JSA and instead bring back the workhouse so claimants can clean the chimneys for soup instead, with all the money now saved we the elites will use will spend that money on hunting rifles instead so then when those workhouse workers ask for more soup we may hunt them in a big open field on horseback as for those on housing benefit rather than actually building any smaller houses or flats I plan to throw them out onto the street to beg because of course if I did build some more houses to meet demand I would not be able to jack up the prices and give another bonus to my mates so they can destroy viable small and medium businesses.

In summary shoot the poor and raise my annual salary.
That's my current long term economic policy what do you think?

Pic related me.

Hi Gideon,

What happens if some of the hunting rifles were to somehow end up in the hands of the proletariat? Do you have a contingency plan in such an event?

hate how Labour have tried to portray the rich and poor as enemies in the hope of inciting class war.

Suprisingly only for a minority. For A, D and E class voters (really rich, unemployed, disabled/can't work) there is a strong correlation. For the middle and working classes however Labour was able to win B class voters in 1997 and 2001 and in 1987 Thatcher actually got 45% of C2 voters (pretty much the sub £20k earners) and even in 2010 39% of C2 voters voted Tory.

The Conservatives are doing this now, see the whole strivers vs skivers thing

Don't worry we all have Jetpacks and a beach house in the Caribbean.

Where do you think your pension went?

They don't want a rich vs poor war

She was a Tory probably because of all the mess she grew up with under Labour during the 70s. She new that Britain was stagnating and she chose her politics based on that. She believed the poor would benefit from her policies.

Mmm they want a poor vs poor war

Well she failed in that. She cut spending on services such as health and education. Yet spending under her actually rose by an average 1.1%. Creating mass unemployment will do that I suppose. And I mean... shutting down an industry while simultaneously cutting education funding? I can't see any other outcome than swathes of Welfare Dependency.