I’m scared I’m becoming a Tory.

My understanding of UK politics has always been basic and can be summed up as Labour is good and Tories are evil.

Throughout school and university all my opinions came from this basic premise. If you were a Tory I assumed you were an entitled sniveling brat with no empathy. If you were Labour, you were of the people, you cared about the lower fringes of society. You were doing the noble thing.

It didn’t help that at the time both my Mum and Granddad were local Councillors for the Labour Party. I grew up helping them shove leaflets through people’s doors and stuck red stickers to my school blazer. Red meant Mum or Granddad won and that there was cause for celebration at home.

However, things started to get confusing when I was on a graduate scheme for a FTSE 100 and found myself surrounded with Tories. Worse still the majority of them were smart, funny and witty human beings with genuine souls. The other thing that drove me crazy at first was that some of them were poor! On reflection, poor is not the right word, I guess what I mean is that some of them were lower class and not on a middle class income. I didn’t understand, weren’t they voting against their best interests?!

Then I discovered two things. One, I hadn’t bothered to explore any actual policy outside of my basic premise. Two, Margret Thatcher was working class. I appreciate these statements are underwhelming and are things I should have done and known but I didn’t because to me parties where black and white. I saw no need to get the grips with the grey.

I realised that one of the ‘poor’ Tories I know was actually financially better off in terms of taxes he paid when the Tories took control. I also realised that there are strong values within lower class Tories of meritocracy and hard work. A sense of earning your way. A sentiment which I strongly agree with although I think it is slightly naive as hard work alone is not enough.

I guess my parting thoughts are that I have realized that my black/white thinking was weak and harmful. I immediately shut off when anyone blue opened their mouth and have probably missed out on a world of healthy debate. My commitment to myself as onerous and time consuming as it may be is to read the actual policies and make decisions based on them rather than vote with an outdated concept of right and wrong.

However, I do deeply believe that those who are more affluent in society have a responsibility to support those who aren’t. I am not sure if that view is inherently Labour, but I guess I’ll find out.

Also, if you feel the need to send the above card to anyone in your life you can buy it here.