For a more serious answer, "tory" is the nickname for a member of the Conservative party, the UK's major centre-right party. Much like in the US, they've been shifting further right in the past few decades and focusing more on "culture war" BS.

[–] towerful@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A Tory is the Conservative Party.
They are to the right. Although, if it's US politics you are used to they would probably be considered center or old-school right - not this new Right bullshit that's prevalent these days

[–] Reverendender@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So, their party revolves around thinly veiled plans to divert money to the rich, and tighten their control over the common people?

[–] towerful@programming.dev 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Pretty much.
Their whole deal is "fiscal responsibility", which apparently means applying austerity for about a decade and cutting huge amounts of public service budgets.

Mild tinfoil hat
Things like the amazing NHS end up underfunded (and leveraged as a bargaining tool, like when Brexit would give the NHS 350m extra per week). Obviously waiting lists get longer, some people maybe start seeking private care for some things. Then the Tories can turn around and say "the NHS is broken, people are using private care, we should sell off the remaining NHS and do the American thing. Think of the tax cuts!".
/Mild tinfoil hat

They also hate immigrants, want the old Rule Britannia/British Empire thing back, think dealing with climate change is untenable, a whole bunch of fun stuff like that.

[–] palordrolap@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Jeremy Hunt, current Chancellor of the Exchequer, literally co-authored a book on how to dismantle the NHS and replace it with a health-insurance based system.

He was Secretary for Health at one point too, and his policies didn't exactly rule out that he might be following the game-plan of that book.

There's no tinfoil hat needed here. The Tories are all but open about what they're doing at this point.

[–] towerful@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago

There's no tinfoil hat needed here. The Tories are all but open about what they're doing at this point.

I know, but a part of me has to believe that the government is working for the benefit of all it's citizens.
Otherwise, what the fuck am I doing here? The future is bleak enough with hyper-consumerism, class/wealth gaps and climate change.

[–] Reverendender@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sounds very American!

[–] towerful@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

Yeh, but less cult and more tea, crumpets and stuff upper lips

[–] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Torys have been buying up the land that NHS hospitals are on and jacking up their rents

...then railing on and on about the ever rising costs of health care

Playing the long game until some crisis comes and then poof, welcome to the American Health* care system, you give us everything you own and we'll give you 3 months to live. Maybe.

And forget about dental and vision. That's for rich people.

Seriously Neoliberalism is anti-nationalist. The rich fucking despise regular people and do everything they can to, first, ensure that they are getting the government contracts, and then B, looting all that money, saying government doesn't work and dismantling us back to fuedalism.

[–] Reverendender@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Russia ain’t the only country with Oligarchs anymore!

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Tory are a nickname for the right-wing conservative party.

Historically it has been used in a somewhat derogatory manner. If somebody is a Tory then they tend to engage in more right wing policies than a Conservative who tends to be more center-right. Although technically there's no actual difference and they're all the same party.

Anyway they've lately started calling themselves Tory in a weird "let's take the word back" way, so you can more or less now just use the two words interchangeably.

Internally they have a lot of infighting about this, because some of the Backbenches (politicians who are members of the party but are not actually in government, think the equivalent of senators in the US) are unhappy with the parties direction because they feel that going full on lunatic right wing nut job might harm their chances of getting reelected. And based on current polling data it would seem that they are correct.

[–] ColdSilenceAtrophies@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago

Tory originally came from an Irish word meaning robber/outlaw. 350 years on and they seem to be attempting to live up to it.