I find it equally astonishing that people vote Tory. I live in a Tory area with Lib Dem as the only serious competition, but where I live there is a lot of wealth, so I can understand the Tory vote because of the historical benefits that Tories offered to the wealthier classes. I'm more concerned about the vote on here, where Tories also lead the votes, bearing in mind that most people on here are Fiat owners, it's certainly not a majority wealthy forum.
As far as wealth is concerned Tories current policies no longer benefit the wealthier classes greatly more than any other party, but for some reason most people don't change who they vote for with changes in policy. Why is that? Obviously many people do change who they vote for, otherwise the same party would stay in power at each constituency at each election, with the exception of minor changes due to new people adding to the electorate and others moving away/dying, but those changes could only affect minor swings.
So rather than change their vote due to changes in policy, most people change their vote based on who is popular at the time, so in fact most people vote without any need for knowledge of the candidates or their policies, which as far as I am concerned completely undermines the power of a democracy.
Since the start of this campaign, I have been going out of my way to research manifestos and any changes in policy from local and national government and it is really not that easy to get reliable up to date information.
In all the Party Political Broadcasts I have seen on TV, heard on the Radio, I have not heard any mention of a single policy. We seem to be approaching the showbiz style elections of the US. It's all about popularity not policies as far as the big parties are concerned, the policies seem secondary. It's as though the policies are just created as something to have as a background, so that people don't think they don't actually have any policies.