The Tories hate gays.  OK, of course not all Tories, and not all gays.  But while David Cameron has been busy trying to pack his rebranded party with black, gay and female MPs, papering over the cracks isn’t working for the Tories. In the last couple of days headlines which follow the shocking Grayling B&B comments expose the party as hypocritical – parading minority members to present a modern face to the public while the reality is very different.

Yesterday, two high profile gay members of the Conservative Party defected to Labour, disappointed by the Tories.  One of them, David Heathcote, was a prominent Tory campaigner in Huddersfield (just up the road from where I live). Speaking in the Huddersfield Examiner today, he says that he feels let down over the Grayling affair, as “None of the senior party leaders came out to speak against Chris Grayling, even though his comments were contrary to party policy”.

More damaging to the Tories, though, is Anastasia Beaumont-Bott’s defection. She is the former head of David Cameron’s gay campaign, and now says that “the ideals David Cameron put forward… a Conservative party which believes in change … is  an elaborately executed, highly marketed deception”.  Beaumont-Bott says she was bullied as a teenager, called abusive names like “Dyke. Lezzer. Freak.” She therefore decided she would make a stand against discrimination, but found that when she joined the Tories, other members made constant references to her sexuality. Her complaints about discrimination and smears were ignored within the party.

Her full statement can be read in The Mirror.  One thing she mentions is David Cameron’s voting record, and this is where the most chilling facts are found. Cameron has voted against lesbian IVF, and gay adoption, as well as famously voting against the repeal of section 28 (which bans the promotion of homosexuality in schools) as recently as 2003.

And it is this voting record which really shows the Tories for what they are. Grayling’s statements can be painted as an individual opinion, the defection of two public party members can be painted as a “betrayal” of the Conservative Party, but not even the slickest PR machine can hide the fact that the Tories have consistently voted against gay rights. I found this wonderful chart from informationisbeautiful.net on The Guardian’s website today (I can’t find the original on the creator’s site), which shows how the cabinet and shadow cabinet respectively voted on recent gay rights issues. [Click to enlarge.]

And if this doesn’t highlight the difference clearly enough, mygayvote.co.uk shows that the Tories have only provided an astoundingly low average of 27% support for gay rights issues in parliament, compared to a more respectable 97% from Labour, and 96% from the Lib Dems.

Reason #2: The Tories consistently vote against gay rights.

A customer in my shop yesterday, when I told her about my 21 reasons blog posts, commented: ”Only 21?”

And as I lay last night in bed wondering which, of all the many many reasons not to vote for the modern nasty party I should kick off with, (of such salacious activites are bed-times now comprised – except on Saturdays of course, when Babyfather and I indulge in our weekly spot of doing the Guardian Weekend Quiz), a timely tweet from @mrchrisaddison brought to my attention the coruscating and scathing article written in The Times yesterday by JK Rowling.

“The single mother’s manifesto“, as the article is entitled, remembers how the Tory Party castigated single mothers, painting them as young and irresponsible, getting pregnant only to “sponge” off the benefit system. Ms Rowling remembers how, recently left alone with her 4 year old daughter, sometimes not having enough money to buy a tin of baked beans to feed her hungry child, she worked, retrained, started writing her books, and brought up a child single-handedly. Yet she was made to feel as though she were to blame for her situation, and recalls how, as a single mother, she was a “hate figure to a certain section of the press, and a bogeyman to the Tory government” She recalls “The Secretary of State for Wales, John Redwood, castigated single-parent families from St Mellons, Cardiff, as “one of the biggest social problems of our day”. (John Redwood has since divorced the mother of his children.)”

Under Labour, the vilification of single mothers stopped, or at least slowed down. The introduction of Child Tax Credits and Working Tax Credits helped remove the main barrier to returning to work: the prohibitive cost of Child Care.

George Osborne said on the Chancellor’s debates two weeks ago that “Tax Credits are a luxury we cannot afford”.

Sure Start Centres provided a hub where mums, dads and carers were able to access services in one centralised place. Education, housing and childcare advice could all be sought in one place, at the same time as taking your child to drop in classes.

David Willets (the Tory’s Universities and Skills spokesman) revealed in January that the Conservatives plan to shut all but a few of the 3,197 Sure Start Centres.

David Cameron has sought to rebrand the Conservative Party, steering them away from the “nasty party” image which follows them like the nasty whiff which trails behind Johnny Fartpants.  However, the reality is that in removing valuable services for all families, in adding tax breaks for married couples  (even if it is a risible £150 per year), the Tories have shown their intentions clearly – support will be there for people who choose to be part of an institution which as modern Britons many of us find unnecessary.

People like me, who choose to run a family, and to show my commitment daily in the support and love I give them rather than in an institution which means nothing to me, are being told that we are not as worthy as those who decide that those vows do suit them. We live in an era in which families can be diverse, flexible, functional. But under the neo-nasty party, staying in a marriage (whether happy, indifferent or even abusive) sees you rewarded with £150, which you lose if you leave the marriage, take on the extra cost of more than 1 dwelling, and try and bring your children up by yourself.

Reason #1: The Tories will defend outmoded “traditional” family values to the detriment of any other family unit.

It’s 23 days until we elect a new leader, and despite all my reservations, despite all their errors, despite feeling betrayed by many of their actions in the last 13 years, I have never felt more certain that I should vote Labour.

I am not going to go into the reasons in this post.  I will post a new reason every day for the next three weeks, starting tomorrow, and hope that even if I just persuade a handful of people, it will make a difference. I know I have a tendency towards being bombastic when I argue about things which are close to my heart, and I hope that if I do this, it doesn’t alienate any readers. I just really believe that the Tories are the party which will look after the fewest people if they get in.

There are a few resources which should get you thinking about how to vote – a couple here now.

The first compares how you feel on issues and matches your answers to the party which best represents that: http://www.votematch.org.uk/2010/index.php

The second shows your “Voter Power”.  http://www.voterpower.org.uk/. This shows that:

“In the UK, the only voters with any real power to choose the government are those who live in marginal constituencies.

Less than 20% of constituencies can be considered marginal.

The rest of us have little or no power to influence the outcome of the election.

In fact, statistical analysis by the nef (the new economics foundation) shows that one person in the UK does not have one vote…

…it’s more like 0.25 votes.

In some ultra safe constituencies the value of your vote falls to practically zero.”

And I’ll start with my reasons tomorrow.