Labour has failed women.

Great posts RedToothBrush .
I notice that the Labour party are also yet again in difficulties over anti - semitism. They don't seem to miss any opportunity to parade anti semitism and misogyny do they?

news.sky.com/story/jeremy-corbyn-admits-being-member-of-controversial-facebook-group-11281462

Also the Mail's article: www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-5485917/DAN-HODGES-Corbyn-anit-Semetic-pals-smashed-moral-compass.html

Short version of the above: If you find yourselves going arggghhh, why are the only party saying this is a pile of shit UKIP, its not cos you've lost the plot - this is why. Free speech.

I think this is where the difference between classic liberals and modern liberals really is showing up. Classic Liberals (and libertarians) are the champions of free speech and a free press.

UKIP and the LDs used to have an overlap in voters. These were the libertarians who believed in free speech. Some of them were frankly outright racist and deservedly should be called on it but at the same time I think there was something of a point here. It wasn't so much the calling out of racism, it was the way it was done.

I think my mind changed somewhat since the referendum. There were valid arguments which I did understand and did see in amongst the dog whistles. But the way in which they dominated it made it hard to argue or make a point against that.

I've gone much more back to my roots where my lectures said, beware of censorship of any kind as it can be used against you. I think I understand their point far better now than I ever did.

This is why I think the LDs have somewhat lost their way here. Vince Cable has been going on shouting about racists and isn't seeing past that. Its a mistake. In the same way Farron was forced out of the leadership for being homophobic on a personal level despite ALWAYS voting to the contrary.

Farron might be wrong, but as long as he is respectful of others way of life, you are never going to police his thoughts. It only leads to bitterness and problems. You have to argue the point in different ways (and clearly Farron listened enough to understand why he shouldn't impose his views on others and why his views were harmful to express).

Instead they have embraced this 'progressive liberalism' which is actually both undemocratic and illiberal in practice. And totally at odds with the name of the party.

The Labour Party has gone the other way slightly, shouting how progressive and liberal they are whilst at the same time Corbyn, last week actively and unashamedly embraced the racist tones of the former UKIP lot whilst also taking on an authoritarian tack on feminists without any hint of irony and no awareness of hypocrisy. Nor the harm which this actually does.

This is a difficult area to navigate, but the lack of self awareness and the huge political blindspots that have appears are the real issue.

People have simply forgotten the principles of liberal democracy and what it needs to function properly.

Woman's Hour on R4 just did a feature on why women are still underrepresented and less engaged in politics. No mention at all of changes to AWS and #LabourLosingWomen, and Labour were held up as being more hospitable to women. Pointless, misleading article and deeply disappointing. If I was able to stick my head above the parapet on Twitter I'd call them out on it.

I knew this sort of thing would happen when Corbyn got a nomination for leader and the angry male contingent on the supposed "far left" realised they had an opportunity to infiltrate the Labour Party.

They've been looking for such a chance for decades. One organisation and movement after another has been destroyed by entryism from these people. They will destroy Labour.

Another thing I'll just mention is about spoiled ballots. Although they are recorded, they don't have any real impact. The only people that see them are electoral workers and maybe candidates and election agents if they are there when a paper is being counted.

But what is noticed and poured over is party vote totals and where those votes have been cast (ie. which polling station) . Agents notice if their presumed vote totals are up or down significantly, particularly at local level and particularly if those numbers are down in what they thought was a solid ward.

So, if you want them to take notice, it's far better to vote for a minority party in your ward on roughly the same political page as you than it is to spoil your ballot. At local level, election agents and parties will notice if they've lost 100 to 200 votes in your ward and another party has gained them.

Yes. And because the whole thing is built on such a house of cards, it will just take one thing to catch the public mood and it will all fall down. We just have to hope this happens before women's rights are removed because we won't get them back for decades, if ever, if they are. And the transsexuals will be the awful collateral damage.

I think the threat to children will be their undoing too. Eventually this issue will touch the children of someone with real power who isn't drinking the kool-aid and they'll raise hell.

It's kind of funny, this whole time they've been blaming all resistance on feminists and assuming that as long as they can shut us up they're home free.

Yes, quite. They've treated it as a factional lefty issue while failing to see that the downsides of transgenderism really haven't hit the general public yet. The endless problem with the left - blind to anything outside its internal factional issues.

RedToothBrush is right. There is a lot of money swilling about in free speech circles. Posie Parker's case will be of great interest to them.

And then there's the pragmatic man in the street. Not that bothered about "men in dresses" while those "men in dresses" are confining themselves to buggering about making me-me-me media careers or nicking abstruse women's roles in local political parties - but not going to be at all happy when those "men in dresses" take this as an open invitation to colonise every space going.

I think the crucial moment will come with a child scandal - a detransitioner will suddenly catch the zeitgeist, Mermaids will collapse in scandal, a girl will come home pregnant because some stupid org allowed mixed sex overnight accommodation for teens. Something. And then it will all be a domino topple.

I'm really in awe of all you women who can analyse politically, like this.

It's fascinating. Thank you.

This about libertarians and free speech alot of them are young. like milo; On a utube with julie biddel he looked quite adoring of her, Was strange. So that youth demographic might shake down. And the right have their identitarians too who have personal/polical issues. The youth left unity could fall apart if the right became louder. Right wing young people don;t become active unless they are really pushed though.

It's kind of funny, this whole time they've been blaming all resistance on feminists and assuming that as long as they can shut us up they're home free. They have no idea what's on the horizon if libertarians decide that this is a free speech issue.

And libertarians will be a lot less kind in how they speak about trans people than feminists have been, and a lot less concerned about protecting their rights too.

Going after free speak will rattle the cage of people like the Freedom Association Datun. They are (generally) right wing libertarians who are particularly concerned with free speech (Generally UKIP and Cons though there is a fair overlap with the political beliefs of some - but not all - Liberal Democrats).

They are also generally extremely wealthy and by nature despise the far left with a passion. These are the type of people who would stand to make money from big pharma, but for the most part they are already loaded and they also have political considerations which I think will come first, because they fear the current demographics.

#NoDebate and whats going on at Bristol University, will rattle their cages. So if its not already on the radar, trans will be soon, if this continues

They already want to see reform of libel law in the UK and believe that the use of superinjunctions and defamation law effectively acts as a limit on free speech and have set up Freedom Association Societies at a number of universities.

They are not generally the friends of feminists (one of the current council is the deeply unpleasant Phillip Davies - and there are plenty of other unpleasant faces on it) but i suspect there is a common cause here.

Given the other noises coming out of Corbyn's mouth, they'll only be too happy to put money in put the boot in.

To my knowledge David T C Davies isn't a member (though he could well be) but this is very much the angle he comes from in his Terfdom.

The right wing media share a lot of their values. This is why its getting oxygen. It will get a lot more, I'm sure especially since there does seem to be a lot of potential click baity revenue generating material available in relation to the subject. It lends itself to sensationalism in a big way.

Whether this will connect with younger demographics is another matter. This is precisely why Bergdorf blamed the right wing and not feminists... they know where the money is going to come from.

Yeah, you know what. It doesn't matter if a million women sign a trans support letter.

The freedom of speech part is what matters.

Because, once women can talk, the genie is out of the bottle.

As soon as the general public start googling #transgirls, autogynephilia, terfisaslur, transing kids and the cotton ceiling, that genie will not be going back.

The trans lobby have got nothing left in their arsenal.

They have done a real number on marketing their cause. But that is all they have. Smoke and mirrors.

Whilst everyone swallows the PR of victimhood, harmlessness, stunning and brave journeys, the hitching to the LGB wagon, suicide stats, and the brain sex nonsense, support is unsurprising.

Fortunately, none of these arguments bear the slightest scrutiny.

Which is why every single time another person increases their information on this subject, they get it immediately.

There is just too big a body of evidence.

Going after the censorship gangsters is all that is needed.

Most people, despite what they think of trans, still have a real problem with the shutting down of debate to this manic degree.

#nodebate is the Achilles heel.

That google doc link:

As reported by the mainstream media "A radical feminist group in Labour is threatening to leave, after the party announced it would be backing trans people standing on women-only shortlists."
www.rt.com/uk/420739-transgender-labour-feminist-walkout/

THEY USED A RUSSIA TODAY NEW ARTICLE.

Just seen on news that Debbie Abrahams has been forced to step aside whilst she is investigated for bullying - she has strenuously denied & said that she has been horrifically bullied by people from the leaders office over the last few months, and that she's considering legal action.

Does anyone know anything more on this?

(I'm inclined to believe her over them tbh, Corbyn's team aren't a very nice bunch).

Anyone else seen this?

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSen0qfOsgvEaXcVITM79oAw7aI96H9G5Mau50lPU7r39sD5yA/viewform

The yougov 'don't knows' for women clocked in at 23% this week.

Its been running at 20% or less since the first week in January when it was 22%. And the one in January was an outlier. I went back to October and every other one was constantly 20% or under.

This weeks one could be another outlier. But it may not be.

This is the figure to watch atm, not the % for Con / Labour or the headline figures.

I raised a half an eyebrow at it...

yes the Conservative started it, but they have gone veeeery quiet now and I think they're on the brink of canning it - let's face it, Corbyn has hitched his wagon to the trans cause now so they can't suddenly go trailing after him.

I am starting to wonder if this was a plan. Tories start the ball rolling knowing full well the majority of the public will find it batshit. They know Labour will attach themselves to it in the name of 'inclusiveness'. Then Tories back off, leave labour flailing losing support left right and centre and without any realistic prospect of ditching it without huge backlash. Tories sit and laugh.

I'm another woman who has no idea who i will vote for now. Can't vote green (non-men ffs) . Won't vote Labour ever again. The misogyny, the horrible dismissal of women by men like Owen Jones on Twitter. The anti-semitism too. All really vile. My general politics are not Conservative and I've never voted for them, but I've reached the point where I would vote for them, if they were talking sense on this and supporting women. I don't know how Plaid stand on this (I live in Wales). I'm going to find out. The obvious choice for me would be the greens but nope. Where do the Lib Dems stand on this? What does Jess Phillips think? She seems pragmatic, and she's certainly clever and does some good work for women.

You just need to think about what has actually happened so far.

Women in the Labour Party have had to give up spaces reserved for women in favour of transgender people. Heather Peto, for example, has been on two different AWS, has stood for Parliament and has a place on the Jo Cox Women in Leadership Programme. I'm guessing there are very few biological women in the Labour Party who have managed to do all that.

Men in the Labour Party, on the other hand, have not given up even one tiny thing (there are no transmen who have been given positions of responsibility in the Labour Party).

This isn't about equality for transgender people, otherwise we'd be seeing similar numbers of transmen being chosen to stand for Parliament and the like.

Look at what has actually happened.

Men (and only men) being given positions of power.

Men (and only men) being free from having to accommodate transgender people.

Where is the equality in that?

The whole problem seems to have arisen after asked women whether they support trans rights. Majority said yes.

But this is where you have to be careful about oversimplifying.

I'd hazard that if you asked them to define who was trans they'd give a different answer to the Labour party. Thats a bloody big mistake to make if you are Labour.

When properly informed, women are going, hand on a second, thats not trans rights. Thats mens rights.

Women do support trans rights but they also dare to identify the concept of women on their own terms and have rights too.

Stuck in your echo chamber refusing to listen to that isnt a good look for any political party.

I deliberately omitted "cisgender" from the start of my quote as I felt it undermined the tone.

The announcement delay is interesting because it seems to have been a last-minute decision. What changed?

I have just read the article and am glad it was written but feel frustrated by this phrase below because he writes 'cis women' rather than 'women' or 'biological women' which makes the whole idea of 'cis' seem standardised which I cannot stand.
"Having secured, after much difficulty and conflict, a historically high level of representation in the Commons, cisgender women"

@DrRadfem
I asked a question tonight about the silencing of women at #IWDLewisham #IWD2018 #WomensDay

Yes and two women spoke in support after and nobody against. The tide is turning, sisters 🌊

I don't know how to post the film, but excellent question, no film of answer yet.

Deservedly, she got a round of applause.