Conservative landslide - how are we feeling as feminists?

On another thread a there are posts saying the northern thing is not an issue.

I’d like to see that criteria assessed and if they don’t have it put one in that asks can the new Labour leader stand up to a harsh media? Really think about how they come across and what their weaknesses are.

Sorry that sounded more ominous than intended

And hopefully the perception of Momentum online is not really accurate as regards their real life presence.

Just coming back to this thread.

Does anyone else find Momentum quite scary? The utter convection that they are RIGHT and that anyone who disagrees is not only wrong but morally defective... overlaid by an undercurrent of threats and coercion. But then a very positive “solidarity, comrades!” sheen on top.

I know the police force has been politicised. I hope the military has not and will not be.

whilst the public pensions are guaranteed by taxpayers
They've been fucked with too. I am not public sector but I know the police and the home office have had theirs changed.
Plus the people I know in the public sector earn considerably less than their private sector equivalents so it's swings and roundabouts. There are well paid seemingly pointless civil service jobs for the right kind of bloke/ woke woman, but likewise there are even better paid private sector jobs for the right kind of bloke/woke woman too.

Oh and I’m also not forgetting Brown s pension raid which drove private final salary pensions to close down, whilst the public pensions are guaranteed by taxpayers.

what about the theft of 50s women’s pensions?

There's something particularly unfair about pensions being fucked with. Maxwell nicking all that money, big employers going bust, the 50s women and the closure of all the final salary schemes.
It's ok for the big man to change an agreement if it doesn't suit him, but we could never do likewise.
Imagine the old endowment mortgage type of scenario, except the householder pays nothing each month. A promise is made to pay the bank at the end. Then the householder decides nah, I'll pay 60% instead. Can you see the bank standing for that?
Or people deciding not to pay taxes because it didn't suit the family budget?
Or only paying for half the shopping? We couldn't move the goalposts like that.

Things like that happening make people lose faith in any government, and the system of government. Same with food shortages or power blackouts or rampant inflation. People lose faith.

Ironically the signs TPTB were planning to ignore the referendum result (same goalpost moving) made people more politically motivated not less, because there was a chance to influence it. Pension theft was never on the table to be discussed, it was just done by those who thought they knew best.

Not sure Angry. I was young then so the waspi pension thing did not come on my radar. Was that on New Labour?

By the time I was in my 30s I just remember thinking I’m never going to be saving enough to retire and I’m not even sure if we will still have a state pension by the time I retire. Still think that.

IIRC ftse index hardly changed from 2000 to 2010, so even though I was saving monthly, it seemed futile.

2008 financial crisis, under Labour ‘s watch ( not necessarily saying that s their fault).

Bear in mind her constituency has quite a lot of uni students in it, not sure how GC stuff would affect her.

Lucy Powell used to be my MP and I don't particularly like her. She seemed a bit insincere and dismissive of anything that didn't involve identity politics or the local buses (IME).

bollox what about the theft of 50s women’s pensions?

Is there an argument for a two-term maximum?

Yes I also remember the Sleaze and moral corruption that took down the Tory government. I believe corruption is what happens when a government has been in too long. New labour coming along was like a clean start and clear out.

Oh and I’m also not forgetting Brown s pension raid which drove private final salary pensions to close down, whilst the public pensions are guaranteed by taxpayers.

Greatly relieved. We'll have a stable government for the first time in years, the self-id nonsense is off the table, and we have more female MPS than ever before. I just hope that Boris will get Brexit done in the best way possible and sort out the SNP.

I'm also hoping that the spectre of a misogynist, anti-semitic and patronising left-wing dominated Labour government is now also gone.

I've wondered similar, Kitten. But I was young before neoliberalism rotted everyone's cultural brains, so perhaps not?

Yes, Maybe Doctor, I was considerably older but I won't forget that day. My first general election was 1979, when Thatcher got in. We had 18 years of Tory rule and who knows, we may be in for another 18 years if Labour can't get their act together. As someone upthread said, it's highly likely that I'll live the rest of my life under Tory administrations unless I move.

It would actually be quicker and easier for moderate Labour to split away, rename themselves and start again.

And yes, time and again on Friday and yesterday I found myself wondering what would have happened if David Milliband had been selected instead of Ed.

My partner and I have been spending the day looking at places to live in Scotland

If the separatists get their way I will be considering a move to the north of England

You could do a house swap.

Yes, people do tend to forget the extreme level of sleaze in the dying years of the Thatcher/Major government. Minister after minister were caught having affairs, in some cases the very same ministers that vocally criticised single mothers! Archer went to prison. Aitken went to prison. It felt like a never-ending tide of bad behaviour. Then along came Tony Blair, offering youth, optimism and a promise of social change.

I walked through Westminster the day after the 1997 election. It was a beautiful May morning, I was 21 and it felt like a new dawn...

Timelady he really did.

My partner and I have been spending the day looking at places to live in Scotland

If the separatists get their way I will be considering a move to the north of England.

I've always considered Mandelson a creep of the first order. "The Post-Democratic Age"? WTF? Did he really say that?

I canvassed for Labour in my local area most days for the last three weeks. I did so because my MP is incredibly hard-working, someone who grew up in her constituency and wants the best for her people. She's also a passionate remainer as am I. I had to hold my nose – I'm as concerned as the next woman by Labour's misogyny and self ID – but I looked at the alternative and there was none.

I canvassed in mainly traditional working class areas and was dismayed by the number of people who you might have expected to vote Labour but were adamantly anti-Corbyn and many of them very pro-Tory. There was no logic to it. They'd complain about the NHS and Universal Credit and then tell me triumphantly that they were voting Tory and I could fuck off.

We got our Labour MP back in with a larger majority than before so the awfulness has been slightly mitigated. I'm still trying to get my head round the number of working-class Tories we encountered, the apparent lack of critical thinking and the hard-line Momentum member I canvassed with who lives in social housing in London and also owns a home in this area. I mean, when did being hard left mean you had a second home, thus depriving a local person of accommodation?

I feel as if I need therapy, frankly. Part of me, knowing how many traditional working class people voted for a party that will make life even more difficult for them now and for decades to come, feels released from the need to care. That Terry Pratchett quote is wonderfully apposite.

My partner and I have been spending the day looking at places to live in Scotland. We have friends who are seriously considering going too. None of us have to live here and Scotland seems marginally more sane and marginally (barring self-ID) more in line with our core beliefs. I'm sad it's come to this.

Was it Mendelssohn who said they have no issues with people getting filthy rich. There was Iraq, multi culturalism, mass uncontrolled immigration, any attempt to talk about immigration was ( still is) shot down with xenophobia, racism etc.

He also informed the electorate that they were now entering a post democratic age, where professional politicians would make all the decisions according to what was good for the proles, and people could just shut up and be done to get on with their little lives and leave it all to the professionals.

That's the root right there of the utter contempt for the electorate, reality and other people's lives and opinions, plus a belief that those not on message shouldn't be entitled to vote or have human rights etc. Which is straight out of the 1950s Stalinist hand book. What his ego was too big to realise, was that when he informed the electorate that they were entering a post democratic age, most of the electorate entered a post politician age.

And then lost Scotland due to perceived London elite priorities. The Red Wall decline also began under Blair

Well, yes! New Labour did bugger all for Liverpool, as another example. Liverpool's renaissance didn't begin until it received EU funding for transformative & critical infrastructure developments. It was also New Labour that conceived of HS2 - and promptly left Liverpool off the northern leg.

I think it will be harder to get her to listen to the GC argument though

If true, it rules her out then....( Lucy Powell)

I remember that optimism when Blair won - I knew his priorities didn't align with mine, but the government he was replacing was so bad, and I figured that at least having Labour in power would create the possibility that change could happen, and that wiser people in the party would keep him honest.

I've been having a bit of a moment wondering if my younger self would have fallen for Momentum. I was as radfem then as now so I think the gender stuff and the sort of pathetic pandering misogynistic bollocks represented by Owen Jones and his mate with the tshirt would have pushed me away over time, but in the beginning? I'd like to think the authoritarianism would have even without the misogyny, but it seems like once you're in it's a bit like being a Scientologist, to the point where I'm not sure if people really believe what they're saying or if it's themselves they're trying to convince, or they're just hoping to avoid their erstwhile mates going after them. I don't think it's a coincidence that there aren't many older people involved in Momentum though, proportionally. I had a younger friend who was super keen when they first arrived and joined the party to vote for Corbyn, and even then I was going "hmm, dunno about this lot".

Just trying to figure out how this happened really. It's clear that Momentum is electoral poison, and also clear that they themselves don't know or can't admit that.