Who the hell are we supposed to vote for in the Labour leadership?

[Polynerd]

I was really enthusiastic about voting for Lisa Nandy before she took this ridiculously authoritarian stance on the trans issue. But all the others seem to have signed similar pledges. Should I just not vote?

[BlackForestCake]

I might vote for Thornberry just to try and wreck it for the front runners. They are all awful. They're all worse than Corbyn.

[Polynerd]

Didn't she sign the pledge though? Also isn't her past stance on trans issues dodge?

[Lumene]

Thornberry or Starmer are the least worst option.

And anyone but Rosena for Deputy.

[Lumene]

Oh god except Angela Rayner definite no for deputy also.

[GeordieTerf]

All four members have stated that women don't exist. Three of the four have signed a pledged to remove gender criticism people from the party. They don't want feminists.

[BlackForestCake]

There is no least worst option. Just have to hope it all blows up in their faces as soon as possible.

As an aside, there are more female candidates in this leadership/deputy election than in the entire history of Labour leadership elections to date. Not that that's any consolation.

[Novina]

I can't vote for any of the candidates for leader. And so far the only deputy leadership candidate who hasn't lost my vote is Ian Murray.

[BeaStoic]

Has Starmer signed the pledge?

[ErrolTheDragon]

Has Starmer signed the pledge?

He signed a different pledge - not branding womens organisations as hate groups but still TWAW.

[BeaStoic]

Oh FFS! I'm glad I didn't waste £25 re-joining the Labour party to vote for him.

How many trans people are there in the UK? I know there are about 30 million women and girls- we just don't matter.

[BlackForestCake]

In a sense it is fascinating how a relatively small number of people espousing a ludicrous ideology have nonetheless managed to get all the leadership candidates genuflecting before them. Lobbyists will be studying this for the next ten years. Neither Militant nor Blair nor Momentum ever managed to take over Labour's top leaders so completely. NATO, nuclear disarmament, trade union rights/power, any of the issues that Labour has fought over for years, none ever saw such complete surrender to the demands of a lobby group.

[Fallingirl]

Someone pointed out to me tonight, that it doesn’t even matter that much, who is elected at the moment, as the next Labour Prime Minister hasn’t even been borne yet.

[BeaStoic]

It is fascinating, BlackForestCake
I don't see how it's a vote winner either as, I would bet, the vast majority of the population don't want a "bloke in a frock" using the women's loo in M&S.

[wellbehavedwomen]

NATO, nuclear disarmament, trade union rights/power, any of the issues that Labour has fought over for years, none ever saw such complete surrender to the demands of a lobby group.

Get a group of men, allow those men to define themselves as uniquely vulnerable, suggest removal of rights that only affect women to compensate for that vulnerability, and watch as people eagerly fall over themselves to comply. Women are socialised to meet male needs, and men are socialised to regard any women who deviate from that as abhorrent.

This is also a campaign that allows men to vent hatred towards women, without any social or resource costs, while feeling great about themselves not in spite of, but because of it. Witch hunts were a thing for a reason: they satisfied certain needs.

It doesn't matter, because Labour won't be electable for a very long time. Which is also terrifying in its own right, given the NHS and education systems are on the verge of collapse, the climate emergency is barrelling towards us, and Dominic Cummings seems to be staging a not-so-quiet coup. We're all fucked, it seems.

[BeaStoic]

This - from Keir Starmer's Twitter feed - made me smile
Just what voters in Sedgefield are crying out for

[Floisme]

I don't have a vote but what I take from this debacle is that none of them will lift a finger to support women but that Starmer is the most mentally agile and understands the laws of defamation best. So him but only if you held a gun to my head.

[HermanHermit]

agreed @lumene. But Thornberry still isn't on the ballot. And you're so right on deputy. Rosena has been running the entire thing as a personal popularity contest with all the maturity of a Mean Girl and all the experience of a workie

[ChattyLion]

What wellbehaved said.
I’m so horrified by this. We have a climate emergency and essential public services being starved off. So, so much actual urgent shit to do politically.
Instead the political priority is busily signing up to misogynistic homophobic luxury beliefs and silencing women.

[HermanHermit]

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan
@DrRosena
And before anyone asks for clarification: Trans women are women, it’s their right to self-identify. I’m uncompromising on that.


amazing tweet from someone who expends so much energy reminding people that she was once briefly a doctor.

[ZenNudist]

They are all hopeless. Kier might be the best bet electorally but lets face it they probably aren't going to last until the next election.

Im giving up on Labour.

[Babdoc]

I’m still chuckling at the wonderful post on Twitter that was on the lines of:
“We’ve pissed off the Jews, the Brexiteers, the Northerners, the Scots, the Welsh. Who else can we possibly offend?”
Rebecca Wrong Daily: “Hold my beer!”
I still maintain she’s a Tory double agent. Either that or the Labour Party are writing the sequel to their “longest suicide note in history”!

[Polynerd]

Well thanks ladies, this has been nothing if not depressing! Just to clarify, have any of the deputy candidates not signed the pledge?

[Tootsweets23]

Ian Murray for deputy! The leadership, god knows, they are all awful in my view.

[ScarlettBlaize]

As a left-wing Jewish gender-critical woman, it's been an upsetting experience to see how there is essentially no concern about Labour's antisemitism among the majority of the gender-critical community.

I wish that people would join the dots and understand that it's not a COINCIDENCE that the same factions are threatening/bullying/endangering both women and Jews.

[Thelnebriati]

I left Labour and this is why. They were never this enthusiastic about tackling Antisemitism or dealing with the rape and sexual assault allegations. Its obscene.