Why Young Tories Are ‘Too Shy’
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As the great Winston Churchill once said, ‘If a man is not a socialist by the time he is twenty, he has no heart. If he is not a conservative by the time he is forty, he has no brain’. Despite Churchill’s wisdom, there are some young people who skip the first part and become teenage members of the Conservative Party. While there are a small handful of young Tory activists in the public eye, social media sites are typically dominated by Left-wing activism and support.
In the snap election of 2017, digital strategists stated that Labour massively overshadowed the Conservatives online and this Internet activism was one of many reasons why Jeremy Corbyn managed to force Theresa May and the Tories into such an awkward situation.
Being one of the last political parties to attempt to appeal to the youth, the Tories have only just seemed to realise that young Tories are very reluctant to fight for the party online. Theresa May’s chairman, Brandon Lewis, has described these online closet Tories as “shy” and said they are not “getting out there in the digital world”. Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Lewis vowed to equip younger voters with a “toolkit”, which will include graphics, gifs and videos, to “go out there and argue” for the Conservatives.
Clearly, Lewis does not understand the reason why young Tories are too afraid to express interest in Conservatism. It isn’t a lack of online resources why these young people are not arguing for the Conservatives: it’s because they will get absolutely lynched online if they do. Of course, many Labour MPs and activists receive online abuse too (particularly women and people of colour) but these people are much more likely to be defended by other Internet users.
The most recent example of how young Tories get floods of online abuse and/or confrontation for merely stating their views is the case of Sophie Warrener. In early December last year, the young Tory posted an image of herself and her best friend who votes Labour.
This is me and my best friend, Rose.
Rose votes Labour.
I vote Conservative.
However, we have not let our political differences get in the way of our 16 years (and counting) of friendship.
Be more like me and Rose. pic.twitter.com/VBwFhIbMG2— Sophie Warrener (@Soph_Warrener98) December 8, 2017
As you may be able to tell by the number of replies to this tweet, the Internet didn’t agree with Warrener’s logic. What started out as a selfie of two friends suddenly took over the Internet and soon, Sophie was sent hundreds of abusive tweets including rape and death threats.
If Brandon Lewis wants young Tories to engage in Internet debate or make their beliefs clear, his “toolkit” needs more than gifs and videos.