DEAR STUDENT DIRECT,
I’M PROBABLY going to hell for this, but I'm going to agree with a Tory. The Left tend to become an angry bunch when confronted with a Conservative effectively tearing to shreds everything we hold dear. It tends to bring out a tone that just makes everyone defensive, resentful and in the end gets us all nowhere.
Yes, as a mad, (metaphorical) beard sporting, hairy shirted lefty I do find my fists clenching when I hear Conservatives bang on about things like the NHS (which would never have existed if Labour hadn’t won in 1945), but you know, it doesn't help. I'm not going to waste time arguing with a student who has clearly got a trust fund in Jersey.
Far better to remember that Tories will only be in power if we VOTE them in. All the people across Britain who were sold the "dream" of Thatcherism and now live in estates populated by fourteen-year-old mums desperately trying to flog the council house that is now worth less than their Primark hoodie are the ones who need to be spoken to. Tories are just scared people - scared of losing their money, and scared of next doors kids. People are pretty nice really so go on, hug a Tory! Who knows, you might even turn one...
Laurence Sharifi
DEAR STUDENT DIRECT,
THE TORIES indeed ARE Thatcherite - just watch the documentary Michael Portillo did the other day and sees how far up her arse the entire party still is. And please, please go to Sunderland for an afternoon and have a look at where "no such thing as society" gets you. Or indeed come to my house in London and explain to me why a whole community lives in contempt of one another to the point that stabbings and daylight robbery is just taken as another pain in the arse.
Not even Adam Smith did what Thatcher did - at least he believed in a social contract. You are wrong: the Tories haven't changed. Your article has done nothing but remind me why I hate them.
Laurence
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