Who to vote for as a feminist

A point against Greens is that they want to legalize prostitution? Well, surely that would be better than the current situation wouldn't it, and make it easier to identify trafficked women?

What are the Tories and Labour planning to do about prostitution? If they have any better ideas I haven't noticed them during all their years in power.

Something has to be done. No political party can click their fingers and make prostitution disappear, and realistically as it does and will continue to exist I would like to see it made as safe for the sex workers as possible.

Feminism is an illusion. There are no homogenous sisterhoods in the political imagination. Class is the driving factor that determines which women have rights and which women are left struggling. Currently child poverty is the highest ever recorded, this will mean lifelong trauma for many females. Domestic violence refuge's have closed due to cuts and many women have now lost the right to legal aid. Millions of women are stuck in 8 or 16 zero hour contracts with no work rights and many women are having to go without food in order to feed their children.

We need a civilised government that acts in the interest of the majority regardless of gender.

I have not attended any although I know a couple of women who are heavily involved with this. They did not inspire nor convince me.

What they said before the refererrndum was just regurgitating Salmond's " it'll all be fine, don't worry " mantra. Afterwards it was largely vitriol about being betrayed by the ignorance and greed of the No voters.

*now I know

< Another one who was planning to vote green but definitely will not know I know about their prostitution policy.

So labour I guess.

It's been conservative every year before.

Green for me too. (Disillusioned ex Lib Dem voter)

I am a member of the SNP. I voted for Philippa Whitford to be the SNP candidate for Central Ayrshire. I bloody love Philippa.

She is an intellectual heavyweight.

She was my Consultant when a breast lump was investigated and I've seen her make speeches during Women For Independence meetings. She's ace.

In fact, every woman that I have met or listened to at Women for Indy meetings has been inspiring.

The SNP has no real interest in anything other than taking Scotland out of the Union.

I'm going to vote Green. On majority I agree with more of their policies and manifesto than all other party's put together.

The SNP will only "interfere in purely English legislation" the same way Labour, LibDem and Tory MPs representing a Scottish constituency have always interfered. Why the horror at the SNP?

SNP might be rUK's best hope of saving the NHS from total privatisation. Is that a bad thing?

Green for me if a someone stands.
If not,for the first time ever I may have to spoil my vote.

Rupert Read from the Green Party has been getting it in the neck from transactivists. I'll be interested to read his fuller response.

www.independent.co.uk/news/people/rupert-read-green-party-candidate-apologises-for-offending-transgender-people-9997956.html

Sturgeon has said the SNP will interfere in purely English legislation.

I'm not sure which would be worse , the SNP or UKIP try to be kingmakers (to use Salmond's preferred egotistical phrase)

If the Tories end up as the biggest party but without a majority, it's got to be a Tory/UKIP coalition of some sort. The SNP will never agree a coalition of any sort with the Tories or they will be dead in Scotland.

It could be that the Tories are the biggest party but a Labour / SNP coalition would form a government. In that situation, I ponder that it would need to be a formal coalition, not just a vote by vote agreement.

Or if the Tories are the largest party and Labour can't form a coalition, I suppose the Tories would form the government but they might be defeated by a Labour / SNP voting block. If the SNP continue their policy of not voting on English matters then the Tories won't be able to pass legislation that affects Scotland (although Nicola Sturgeon has indicated they might change that) without Labour and/or SNP.

UKIP-Tory coalition 'the nightmare ticket'

Agree with flora about the unpredictability of coalitions. Think I read somewhere that the LDs will be putting their policies in priority order this time to avoid another student fees style PR disaster.

The prospect of the SNP attempting to dictate policy for the whole of the UK , as opposed to merely ignoring the wishes of 55% of the voters who voted against independence, is terrifying.

Sturgeon do far has shown contempt for the democratic process and has continued to peddle the lie that No voters were scared/ stupid/ selfish.

The coalition aspect does make it more complicated, because of course you don't know how precisely the chips will fall should there be a coalition agreement

Though I suppose by voting for the smaller parties you then might possibly help to boost their clout in coalition talks

Tei that's a good point. Doesn't that mean though that you might as well vote Labour or Tory?

I think most of the smaller parties would think that the LibDems have messed up their coalition, as evidenced by their near annihilation in the polls. A lot of that has to come down to them losing the points where they differed from the Tories.

I'm not sure the Greens or UKIP are going to make that much difference in the end. If the latest polls are to be believed, the SNP may be the third largest party by some margin. They are currently polling at 55 seats. Polls in December had the LibDems at 20. I can't see the Greens getting more than a handful of seats. The big question is what will happen to UKIP. It is possible the SNP will have more MPs than all the other small parties combined (including even the LibDems). That will be interesting.

And/or Natalie Bennett?

oh she would be great buffy, can we have a webchat with caroline lucas mnhq?

Agree re coalitions.

Interesting point flora - when lib dems chose their compromises they kept the things they had most in common with the tories (eg, raising the income tax limit) and lost those that were most different (Uni fees)

So worth considering if Labour/Tory got most of majority and then greens/lib dem/snp etc were minor in coalition what policies would they have in common to keep?

I think the Greens are a bit like the LibDems used to be. They can make whatever policies they like because they never had a hope of getting into power. Now with the prospect of another coalition or minority government, the Greens might actually have some say. My problem is that I don't really understand which of their policies they would trade and which ones they would really stand up for. A lot of the policies seem to come from a jumble of different ideologies which makes it hard to assess what they would do if they were able to exert some power.