The first round goes to the Tories……

tainted politics as always!

if anything another loud wake-up call – the system is Fucked – the party politics system is crap.

I have voted for all parties as I never vote for the party in power, and I have been know to vote twice – aghh – can a lawyer tell be what the Statue of Limitations is on voting twice? Just so I can sleep well in my bed

Justforfun

http://www.conservativefuture.com/cfpeople/profile.cfm?obj_id=90697

Thanks – and yes well done, it was wonderfully objective!

I tend to agree with you on everything you say, and just by personal anecdote also find that Asians of the 2nd and 3rd generation (not the 1st generation sergeant major golf playing Asian Tory stereotype) are increasingly voting for the Conservatives – and the point you make about how the values of the Tories can be seen as being almost a natural home for upwardly mobile middle class British Asians is a good one too.

this syed kamall fellow – phooey, looks like a conventional businessy type to me.

given labour’s got a pretty crap reputation, i still can’t see why anyone would join the conservative
party.

why would anyone want to be conservative rather than a liberal/progressive!

Anecdotal evidence would suggest that many of our parents and grandparents voted routinely for the Labour Party (I know mine did) – this is probably because when they entered this country they were part of the working class block that used to define Labour’s core support, and overwhelmingly lived in Labour constituencies. And to their credit, certain politicians on the Left have been effective at community outreach – Keith Vaz is a prime example.

However, the past 20 years has seen an incredible explosion of social mobility within certain sections of the BME community (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4434146.stm). As such, those old tribal allegiances have changed as increasing numbers of British Asians and members of the Afro-Caribbean community become part of the so-called aspirational and affluent middle classes, i.e. the kind of people who have traditionally formed the bedrock of Conservative support.

2nd and 3rd generation immigrants will increasingly make political decisions based on the same criteria as everyone else in the country – the economy, health, education etc. I’ve personally never subscribed to the theory that anymore than a handful of people vote according to some arbitrary ethnic criteria (whatever that may be), as opposed to ‘bread & butter’ issues.

I do think, however, that the kind of immigrant values many of us have inherited – a high propensity for entrepreneurship and a belief in smaller government amongst many others – sit most comfortably within the politics of the centre-right. On that basis, and given the emergence of a more ‘small l’ liberal conservative leader in David Cameron who is naturally at-ease with the diversity of Britain today, I believe more Asians will start voting Conservative.

Jay, I hope that analysis is objective enough for you!

Rishi – cheers for that, have added her now.

Labour is too smug these days and has pandered to communalist sentiment in some parts of country

Jay I think Sonia means she wants the word ‘communalist’ defined as you use it.

Martin – oh really. Is that person not on the CH list? Would you mind emailing me their name?

Hey Rishi, good to see you on here again. Understood, did wonder given you’re experience in running for an election I thought you’d make an ideal choice.