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Original poster

“Maybe the Labour Party isn’t for you”

85 replies

tabbycatstripy · 02/05/2022 13:52

A writer on Twitter says she asked her local Labour Party candidate ‘the question’ on the doorstep. Apparently defining a woman wasn’t a problem for him. But when the prospective voter wanted to discuss single sex spaces (I think the example given was a single sex grammar school for girls in an area that has two for boys already, and whether it should have to admit ‘trans girls’) the answer was “Maybe the Labour Party isn’t for you.”

Already a bunch of TRA responses accusing her of stoking up the culture war.

When the fact on the ground is that there is ALREADY double the provision in place for male children that exists for female children, it is not stoking a culture war to ask whether even more of those resources should be given to males. It’s just asking questions about things female people care about.

But then maybe the Labour Party isn’t for me.

OP posts:
UsernameNotAvailableHmm · 02/05/2022 18:31

I'm most certainly NOT voting for Labour

ratintherain · 02/05/2022 18:31

Well I either vote Labour who it seems wants to call me a bleeder from now on or the party who fantasizes about making me pay £40k if I need to call an ambulance. I can't afford to heat my home properly and normally I'd vote labour without a second thought whoever was running (Corbyn, Blair) just to get us out of this god awful situation but I currently don't know if I can vote for a party who thinks that women aren't real. Have to laugh from crying

Original poster
tabbycatstripy · 02/05/2022 18:17

Golden shower Tapp springs to mind, Floisme.

OP posts:
Original poster
tabbycatstripy · 02/05/2022 18:16

‘When you look at the TUs that dominate the narrative, they either represent what are now very well paid professional jobs and/or they under-represent the lowest paid sections of the sectors they stand for.’

That’s true. The people who need more help are the cleaners, workers in hospitality and catering industries, delivery drivers, supermarket workers, retail staff . And what we get are the unions making pronouncements about pronouns.

OP posts:
Floisme · 02/05/2022 18:14

What a golden opportunity Mike Tapp had there. He had the mic - he could have distanced himself from the canvasser and reassured women that, as a Labour representative, he will uphold our rights. He could even have just made sympathetic noises. Instead he describes women's concerns for their legal rights as 'obsessive'.

DogInATent · 02/05/2022 18:12

The working class isn't the 'working class' the LP is for. When you look at the TUs that dominate the narrative, they either represent what are now very well paid professional jobs and/or they under-represent the lowest paid sections of the sectors they stand for. The populist/protectionist stance and the downplaying of ERDF redistribution funding some of the wealthiest unions took on Brexit was shameful.

Original poster
tabbycatstripy · 02/05/2022 17:21

I bet they’re not interested. The whole Labour Party is soaked in this line of thinking, and they need to be honest about it and stop pretending a vote for Labour is a vote for the working class.

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MidCenturyClegs · 02/05/2022 17:17

I've been on the streets doing a bit of #respectmysex campaigning in the last few weeks. From what I've heard Tory and LibDem are polite and take the pamphlets but Labour men aren't interested (just anecdotal evidence of 6 circumstances)

TheGreatATuin · 02/05/2022 17:11

Has anyone told Labour that they actually require votes to get elected? Or that politicians are supposed to serve the people, not the other way around? They seem a little confused.

GertrudeKerfuffle · 02/05/2022 17:08

They say that people shouldn't shoe-horn issues like this into a local election, but they are representatives of a political party and at any point should be able to answer for where they stand within that party. Otherwise why don't they stand as independents?

I've not decided who to vote for, or whether to spoil my vote. We've got the usual LAB/LIB/CON option and the local Lib Dems are super proud to have their first non-binary councillor already so are completely aboard the work train. This ward has been Labour for years, but I'm not sure I could ever put a cross for the Conservative Party to make a point. What do do?

SirSamVimesCityWatch · 02/05/2022 16:56

The labour party is determined that vast swathes of the electorate are nasty, ignorant bigots. They don't want to taint their ideological purity by appealing to any voters they have deemed unworthy. Unfortunately they also don't seem to have worked out how to count.

MangyInseam · 02/05/2022 16:53

tabbycatstripy · 02/05/2022 14:23

‘I was shocked to find out recently that my parents, who were members of the Liberal Party here in my country, joined the Conservative Party.’

Liberalism (the thing the Liberal Democrats used to stand for) isn’t that far removed from economic conservatism. Under Johnson (until about now) it wasn’t that far removed from what the Conservatives were doing. Now with the immigration strategy and Policing bill that’s become more questionable. I can vote for liberal conservatives but probably not for the current direction of travel. I’m not hugely pro-immigration (or anti) but that Rwanda policy is cruel and probably illegal.

That's true, these days though the Liberals and Conservatives here are roughly analogous ideologically to Labour and the Tories.

The idea of my mother even voting Conservative was a real shift.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 02/05/2022 16:49

Maybe the Labour Party isn’t for you

Yes, maybe not. You won't be wanting my vote then, I'm sure.

GoldenPineapple88 · 02/05/2022 16:04

I've realised, sadly, the Labour Party is not for women anymore.

I'll be very interested in our local election results as I suspect our (usually safe) Labour representative will get a shock...

Original poster
tabbycatstripy · 02/05/2022 15:57

No, it’s not.

And considering many local councillors then go on to ask for our votes as MPs, it’s not at all surprising that we want to know where they stand on issues not limited to local issues. They don’t have to tell us but we can ask whatever we want.

OP posts:
Beamur · 02/05/2022 15:55

why would anyone refuse to answer such an obviously important question?
It's not that unreasonable really is it?

MrsSquirrel · 02/05/2022 15:52

The Labour party really don't want votes from people who even mildly disagree with them do they?

It seems they don't. Call me naive, but I thought the whole point of campaigning was to get elected🤔

AmaryllisNightAndDay · 02/05/2022 15:51

He is (quote) ‘disturbed that anyone can leverage trans issues into a local election’ and says it ‘seems obsessive’.

Funny that. I thought local authorities were responsible for schools, public toilets, care homes, carers, disability services, rape crisis services, refuges. All things for which the correct application of the Equalities Act matters a lot. But maybe it only matters to women.

“Maybe the Labour Party isn’t for you.”

I already decided that this year it isn't, and my postal ballot is in without Labour. Mostly because my Labour local election candidate works for an organisation that has very publicly not made good use of the single-sex exemption. I do fantasise that in secret she wants a public outcry or legal challenge to sling out the individual(s) concerned but as an employee she can't say so... but in reality I doubt it. I suppose she's as down with the programme as the rest of Labour. So this year she's right off my voting list.

Original poster
tabbycatstripy · 02/05/2022 15:48

‘They're determined to paint this as a fringe issue. Let's see what happens when the results are in.’

Even if it is a fringe issue, it’s a legitimate and genuine question: how should society balance the rights of the girls who want the grammar school place in the girls’ grammar school against the boys who want the grammar school place in the girls’ grammar school?

Why would anyone refuse to answer such an obviously important question?

OP posts:
Beamur · 02/05/2022 15:44

the candidate for the ward has replied to the writer on Twitter. He says he didn’t speak to her. He is (quote) ‘disturbed that anyone can leverage trans issues into a local election’ and says it ‘seems obsessive’
They're determined to paint this as a fringe issue. Let's see what happens when the results are in.
The Labour party really don't want votes from people who even mildly disagree with them do they?
I was looking at my postal voting slip earlier today and trying to decide who to vote for. Despite a very capable Labour councillor seeking re-election I think I am going to vote for the party least likely to win. That way I haven't wasted my right to vote and for me, it's a protest vote rather than a spoiled paper.

5zeds · 02/05/2022 15:43

*Maybe the Labour Party isn’t for you.”
if you are an female or love one I think he’s probably right.

AlisonDonut · 02/05/2022 15:28

I left in 2018. Not seen any reason to rejoin.

Also my OH who has been a red card holding Labour party activist left last year. Never ever thought he would do it but he did. And is not going back.

DogInATent · 02/05/2022 15:24

They stand for middle class social justice zealots.
I don't see the middle-class appeal. The level of aspirational policy of 1997 is noticeable only by absence. They really need to decide what they are and stick with it. The only way they'll win power is as a progressive centre-left party, but that upsets the Isreali boycotting never-kissed-a-tory wing.

I'm increasingly thinking that the only way to get the representative government you want, is to vote for whoever will deliver electoral reform first and who you really want the election after that.

Floisme · 02/05/2022 15:20

Don't forget the part where we say, 'Yeah maybe you're right and the Labour Party isn't for me any more', and they tell us we've still got to vote for them cos otherwise we're endorsing the Tories.

Artichokeleaves · 02/05/2022 15:06

tabbycatstripy · 02/05/2022 14:02

‘Seems like they don't want socialists, feminists, those who are working class. Who do they stand for?’

They stand for middle class social justice zealots.

That about nails it.

The Labour Party isn't for me, either.

As a matter of fact no political party is currently representing anything that I feel is 'for me'. However I will vote for the one least scary in terms of rampant anti-woman zealotry.