Greater London Authority Elections

This is a really interesting reply.

twitter.com/RejoinP/status/1380203491768074241?s=20

'Admin' says that the Rejoin EU is generally opposed to intolerance and bigotry (who isn't, after all?) and they let their candidate tear into SSA, including straight-up accusations of 'attacking the rights of the trans community'.

Leaving the party free to disassociate themselves from his views in future. If they need to.

They have been starting to do some coverage of candidates on local London news, and it seems that the current Mayor is getting way more air time.

Poor Lawrence Fox standing in Trafalgar square was only shown saying it was time to open up London our freedoms are being taken away. On the other hand he may not have anything else to say.

FFS, I just want to be able to vote based on a candidate's stance on transport, environment, education etc. I shouldn't have to check whether or not they know and publicly acknowledge what a woman is. Batshit howling bonkers state of affairs that we've been forced into.

Safe Schools Alliance have some questions for mayoral candidates
twitter.com/safeschools_uk/status/1379857711735713799?s=21

I like the Animal Welfare Party but Binface sounds good too Artemisia gentle.

Not trying to defend WEP or any individuals members, but at the moment nearly all of the main stream media report as though TWAW.

Day after day there are news stories about "cruel" treatment of trans people in America, the terrible cost to a TW of being nominated for a Women's prize, and so on, and so on.

Over and above the actual trans issue it is so utterly depress how women are seen as not having any individual value.

It still astonishes me how the media just meekly went along with the demonising of JKR.

And those who do stand up for women's sex based rights are too often as not doing it to be anti woke rather than any deeply thought out position.

Beginning to think that women have been cancelled.

As a general point, I have tried to troll engage with most of the candidates on Twitter and only Count Binface bothers to reply.

Binface might get my first choice. He's a big advocate for homelessness charities which I think is important given how many homeless folks are here. His policies are specific not wishy washy general crap like "jobs jobs jobs".

I am stuck with my second choice. I cannot decide.

Safe Schools Alliance have a set of five questions for mayoral candidates safeschoolsallianceuk.net/2021/03/26/london-mayoral-elections-2021-our-5-questions/

“ Apparently the Tory candidate is not getting any support from Tory HQ. Not sure if it is him or they think it a lost cause.”

Husband and I had separate letters (we live together) from Rishi Sunak telling us to vote for Shaun Bailey. Complete with multiple photos of Rishi Sunak - one with Shaun Bailey and one as a letter head.

[quote peak2021]@Cwenthryth unless it is in the constituency vote, you cannot vote for an individual on the London Assembly.[/quote]
Oh I thought you had one vote for your area of London (for an individual) and one list vote (for a party)

and the work of the WEP unravelling

Where was this work? I must have missed it.

@Cwenthryth unless it is in the constituency vote, you cannot vote for an individual on the London Assembly.

Have the WEP published the results of their biggest ever consultation on self ID? I mean if it was such a huge ground breaking piece of work, surely you’d want to get it out there 🤔

Hmm I’m surprised that Reid claims she has stayed neutral on the issue of gender ideology threatening women’s sex-based rights! Maybe she has been very careful to not put anything on the record. I don’t personally think she would have had any direct input to the WEP Exeter admins shutting down the SW WhatsApp group, it happened very quickly. She hasn’t commented publicly on the issue AFAIK

twitter.com/cwenthryth/status/1378972087726051332?s=21

twitter.com/fodohpf/status/1378744353481486339?s=21

The leader of the Women’s Equality Party saying she lives in fear of being “cancelled” if she says something wrong on gender. FFS. Honestly - let them try. The women’s movement would still have your back if they did. I expect the TRAs were delighted with Jo Swinson and the LD’s TWAW position - but look how that panned out electorally.

Not directly relevant to us here in the capital, but a WEP candidate in Glasgow has publicly supported the single sex exemptions in EA2010 in a hustings there yesterday. I may be persuaded to vote for an individual GLA candidate if she similarly publicly supports single sex services and is at least not explicitly pro-GRA reform for self-ID. I really do want to support WEP they just make it so bloody hard!

Was Reid in any way responsible for a WEP gender-critical group on WhatsApp being shut down? (discussed in another thread) Was it shut down so Reid could continue sitting on the fence about this? Is the redefinition of ‘woman’ in law and policy merely a ‘distraction’?

I don't suppose the Telegraph asked her what a woman is.

From an interview with Mandu Reid in the Telegraph

One of the biggest challenges for Reid has been navigating the debate over transgender rights, which she describes as a “toxic, ugly, difficult chapter”. Last summer, the WEP ran the largest consultation on self-identification for trans people. “It’s a fault line,” says Reid. “Polarisation is an increasing problem."

She has been careful not to come down on either side of the debate, but, to coin a phrase, is instead living in a constant state of “fear pressure” – “It’s like peer pressure, but different,” she says. “I feel it most keenly when I'm doing something when the stakes are high and the margin for error is small.”

She believes women are treated more harshly than men when it comes to sensitive issues. “I feel that I have less leeway than others to make mistakes and get things wrong,” she says, before criticising the Labour and Conservative parties for not doing more on the trans debate.

"I'm sick and tired of women having to do all the hard labour all the time to deal with difficult, intractable issues that affect the whole of society," she says. "But I don't want to inflame the situation and distract from the fact that every year in this country 80,000 women are raped. If the WEP gets completely bogged down in the quagmire of this issue, then we're not serving trans women, we're not serving any women."

Does she worry that a misstep in the trans debate could lead to her being cancelled – and the work of the WEP unravelling?

“I feel like it's something that could happen at any time,” says Reid. “People are shut down at a really unhealthy rate, which has a net negative effect on our ability to grow and learn. It's damaging and a shame. I hope that trend doesn't stick around.”

www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/mandu-reid-running-london-mayor-feel-like-could-cancelled-moment/

@PotholeHellhole thank you for sharing this. May have found someone to vote for given the Greens have lost my vote.

Reading this thread with interest and have just written a blog post reflecting these issues and the feeling of political homelessness that many on here feel.

I’m involved in party politics, and find these discussions really interesting. I feel we need to listen to the mumsnet hive mind a bit more!!

Blog post here if anyone’s interested...

thesandpitshop.com/sandpit/what-women-want-mumsnet-insights

That's really awkward. That's what I object to, as well.

I would be reluctant to vote for an SDP candidate if I felt that Brexit had been the SDP's main attraction to them. We've seen how single-issue party members can drag parties off-course.

I would otherwise have gone SDP, but I’m struggling with the fact that the anti Brexit element seems to be a big thing for the candidate, when that’s the one thing I don’t like about their policies.

I think I’m edging towards Binface and the Animal Welfare party.

The rest of them are diversely hopeless.

I am very much enjoying the UKIP candidate actually being called Gammons though 🤣 did he change it specially?