Conservative landslide - how are we feeling as feminists?

It seems like the reasons for Brexit have been overlooked everywhere to me. I'd have thought it would be the #1 thing remain politicians and parties would want to think about, so they could address those problems.
Over the last three years, Leave voters have been pilloried as elderly knuckle-dragging racists, regardless of age, party affiliation or their own race. There were calls to remove the vote from the elderly "because they'd be dead soon anyway".
The Commons was largely Remain. The news media was largely Remain. The judiciary is largely Remain. There was a very real belief that Brexit could be stopped, or that an extra referendum would provide a Remain result, whereas what is just as likely to have happened is a second referendum would have had a higher percentage for Leave than in 2016, as voters who were undecided and erred on the side of caution got fed up at the EU's intransigence and TPTB patronising them.

I know Leave voters who are influenced by Remain voters but I suspect many Remain voters don't know any Leave voters and don't interact much with them.
Leave was "old, white and uneducated" except the large Lexit contingent, the non-EU immigrant Brexit contingent, the young people who voted Leave, etc. There was a shock, and then TPTB agreed to go with the simplified explanation because it worried them less. So they never bothered addressing the issues.

Labour was ejecting life long Labour voters from the party for lacking (in their eyes) ideological purity. They became an obnoxious, bullying clique and ignored and alienated working class communities. And are still doing it now. You cannot show contempt for people and expect them to vote for you.

As an aside, for those on Twitter please exercise extreme caution with trans activists on this, a few women (inc. GNC Centric) lost their accounts after engaging with this account - so if they pop up in your mentions be careful.

It seems like the reasons for Brexit have been overlooked everywhere to me. I'd have thought it would be the #1 thing remain politicians and parties would want to think about, so they could address those problems. Even if leaving was somehow avoided, if you don't change what led to the problem, it's just going to appear in some other guise, maybe a worse one.

You see the same issue in the US, people think if they can get rid of Trump, it will all go back to normal. The idea that he could be replaced by someone worse doesn't seem to cross their minds.

How involved does Cummings get outside of Brexit stuff? He is always on about listening to people outside of London and tuning in to what people actually think. He would see through the woke in a second. Or will he leave gov once he’s secured Brexit?

Excellent comment, Fallingirl. I noticed Owen Jones spieling about this on Facebook, doing his puddle deep analysis and deciding it was just all a brexit based misjudgment on Labour's part, with not even the slightest realization that asking why brexit might have happened in the first place.
Again, these people seem to think if you shout insults at people and they don't vote for you, it's because you weren't as consistent in your insults and you need to double down.

Wow, Poota, those tweets. I thought the first one was really far out, but the second!

MrsSnippyPants - that was the same one I saw.

And the Tories have moved away from business being their core principle to much more social Conservativism which appeals more to blue collar workers.

The FT did an analysis of last nights results and found that the biggest driver of seat changes was the blue collar vote. Not Brexit and not education.

It looks on the basis of that, very much a backlash against wokism.

This should have been obvious to Labour and LD political strategists: Brexit was a symptom of wider political issues not the cause of issues. The US voting in Trump and the culture war that has developed there and has increasingly raged here was the other big clue. It wasn't a trend restricted to the UK. Its in the US and Europe too.

I am wary that this could turn into a form of National Socialism brought to us by the Tories.

I also think any and all left-leaning people and politicians have to face the very unpleasant situation created by globalisation, where jobs have moved out, and people have moved in. This has created an employers dream, where they can largely determine their own rates of pay and working conditions. This has left ordinary people worse off, and scared about their childrens futures.

The left cannot keep pretending that more people looking for employment and fewer jobs to go round, is only a matter of being woke and kind to immigrants.

It is a good thing that people don’t want to be racist, but that alone won’t change the material reality of the multinational corporations employers paradise created by globalisation.

The left has shied away from even acknowledging that there is an issue, and focussed only on bourgeoisie Londoners where an influx of international workers is not an issue.

Thanks!

As others have said, the rage will be immense and much of this will go on (as ever) behind the scenes. The civil service are a major source of regulatory capture with countless civil servants being actively on the Stonewall / lobby group gravy train and I have no doubt they will be working behind the scenes, regardless of the democratic process.

Only indicative breakdown I can find so far Countess but it will be interesting to see how it compares with the actual figures.

lordashcroftpolls.com/2019/12/how-britain-voted-and-why-my-2019-general-election-post-vote-poll/

sorry - more men voting tory than women.

Countess I saw a breakdown infographic of this information, and it was pretty much as you say - I've been looking for it again but can't find it. ( but probably on either the Guardian or WIngs)

I'll keep looking for it.

I am looking at an objectively unpleasant situation and feeling oddly hopeful that there are lots more people deciding to get stuck in to change things for the better. I feel a little better than I did last night.

But you know what? Laurie Penny and the rest of the Momentum Twitted bubble still have no clue. Here she is having a paddy because humility is too easy, and she must instead do the noble thing of just despising all the people her tribe failed to convince and can't control.

I am intrigued to see what the voting breakdown by sex will turn out to be.
My impression was that a lot of women were not voting Labour rather than actively voting Tory, and the voters I have seen on the news who said they used to vote Labour but voted Conservative this time have all been men - but that might be the journalists looking for a particular type.

Does Jess Phillips have a chance at the leadership?

I'm quite pissed about her cowardice on self-ID, but hoped she was keeping quiet to do the necessary work for women behind the scenes.

think this presents an opportunity to consolidate what has been achieved on GRA and trans issues. Lots of new MPs from non woke communities. We need to start the lobbying. I read on Twitter all the GC groups are meeting to discuss tactics.

YY.

Very depressed. Women will be disproportionately affected by the cuts in services and all over Facebook I see women vowing to carry on the fight for a better society. I feel like saying don't bother duck, this society hasn't given a stuff about your needs, why would you grind yourself into the ground. And yet what choice is there? Women will be expected anyway to be the carers and the unpaid nurses when they dismantle the NHS and cut school days even shorter. Not that the other lot would have been much better, but for different reasons. Might move north of the border! Women like Joanna Cherry and Joan Mcalpine make it worth it there.

Gyimah defected to the Lib Dems and failed to be reelected. Yes I know but as a Tory University Minister he was pro freedom of speech, that's a legacy anyone taking on the role will need to address or be pressed to deal with. It would be popular.

Sam Gyimah

Gyimah defected to the Lib Dems and failed to be reelected.

I’m not saying that self ID will be rushed through any time soon- we’ve got at least a couple of years of Brexit stuff to get through Parliament. But if and when that gets done and everyone’s been exhausted by it, the government will want some cheap, fresh-looking social measures to look ‘in touch’ or ‘socially progressive’ as the country starts to expect our government to deal with domestic policy issues again. By then, we’d also be heading towards a 2024 General Election.

If we don’t keep up the pressure on self iD, legal transition for under 18s etc, then these could look like wins to the government by then. The big, powerful usual suspects will be starting now, building relationships with them, telling them that these are modest changes that will make a huge difference to people’s well-being. We also know surrogacy law reform could be coming in future. I’m sure there’s other stuff I haven’t thought of.
So it’s very reassuring that we are all talking about engaging soon with the new MPs and new government in different ways.

Labour hasn't engaged with its Northern heartlands for years. Ditch the woke, identity politics and Trots, or face oblivion.

Oh and freedom of speech in universities etc can now be dealt with, both Jo Johnson and Sam Gyimah were committed to it.

I think this presents an opportunity to consolidate what has been achieved on GRA and trans issues. Lots of new MPs from non woke communities. We need to start the lobbying. I read on Twitter all the GC groups are meeting to discuss tactics.
Who gets Women and Equalities brief is crucial but also who is on the Women's and Equalities Committee. They're cross party and elected, so with a new influx could more searching questions be asked out in the open.Hopefully it won't be Maria Miller.
I don't think self id will be rushed through after what has been said about getting it right. The confidence that things can be done undercover is surely over, thanks to the press. Probably the worst scenario is that the Tories stick their heads in the sand in the face of Stonewall's activities, which is why keeping up the pressure is essential.

Liz Kendall I think would be a real outsider. Again from previous administrations. Bombed last time she stood for leadership

I'm not quite so well up on the mechanisms as you.....but would that be because momentum/Len McCluskey union votes were determining the outcome? Not sure?

Thing is , for me, some of the newer younger candidates who we saw a lot of during the campaign just don't do it for me ( Angela Raynor etc); and I'm assuming, therefore, that they also wouldn't for many of the 'lost', and abstaining, voters.