Sheffield Central Labour Candidate - Abtisam Mohamed vs Eddie Izzard

Not to derail from the seriousness of the discussion but the above comment did make me smile a wry smile!

What medical transition has taken place?

An opportunism transplant?

I’ve no doubt izzard will be selected & also win

and I can’t wait to see the sunlight pour in…..

but it really pisses me off that as usual a woman is being pushed aside so a man can live his ‘best life’

I bet Keir Starmer is crossing all his fingers that Abtisam Mohamed gets selected. Imagine putting all that work into avoiding an issue only to have it blown wide open by Eddie Izzard

Izzard states that she's genderfluid, like she's not a binary trans person, though she has medically transitioned somewhat.
What medical transition has taken place?

You have an ‘actual out’ trans person in Parliament, Jamie Wallis, surely you embrace JW under the trans umbrella?

I would hope that something everyone could agree on!

Like, I don't know. Like, I would hope they would use their eyes and ears and do their own research of the candidates.

Izzard states that she's genderfluid, like she's not a binary trans person, though she has medically transitioned somewhat. Obviously I'm desperate to see an actual 'out' trans person in parliament, but Abtisam Mohamed seems good too - there's also another candidate, Abdi Suleiman, who seems great. All look like they'd make excellent MPs.

WRT KJK as an independent candidate, like, she wouldn't get her deposit back - it's a relatively progressive area with lots of students, how do you think they are going to react to someone with no connection to the place, who has made islamophobic remarks in the past, is far too au fait with the far right and froths with hate at trans people on her YT channel? Like, really?

I saw this earlier
Abtisam is a local candidate with experience of community work

regardless of anything else, that makes her the better candidate in my eyes. I don’t know how the selection process works though.

I like Eddies video but there’s no mention of any community work at all.

Do current 18 - 21 year olds have much of an idea who Eddie Izzard actually is? Other than for being trans? I imagine most of his comedy will have passed them by, he is probably more recognisable in that age group for his acting/voice work.

I'm about 20 years older than most current students and Eddie Izzard is old enough to be my dad.

if Jean is still a Labour member she won’t be allowed to stand against an officially endorsed Labour candidate and retain her membership.

I'm not sure I'm convinced about PP standing in Sheffield. I think I'd rather see a local woman up against Izzard. Isn't Jean Hatchet in Sheffield? I know there's a lot of ill feeling between the 2 of them and I'm not always a fan of JH (last time I saw her on here I seem to remember getting told off about something, probably PP related). But if she has that local connection, JH could really capitalise on Izzard's parachuted-in celebrity status.

I suppose it's too much to hope that JH and PP might sit down together and come to an agreement?

I've no idea whether JH is even interested in standing by the way, just musing out loud.

There's no chance of KJK winning but I doubt that the mainstream media would be able to resist reporting on a a new age woman like EI debating a blonde bombshell like KJK. The sunlight would be flooding in. Bring it on.

Not sure why Izzard is bothering with a campaign - can't he/she just self-identify as Sheffield's MP?

If it shows up the batshittery, it’ll be worth it (because the Greens would be forced to be more cautious about their own batshittery too).

EI has been out canvassing in my constituency (a few years ago, pink beret phase) which is an extremely safe Labour seat with a parachuted MP. Canvassing here is the easiest kind, knocking on registered Labour voters in marginal wards to make sure they are deffo voting - there is no persuading the opposition-style canvassing. No need for a celeb to show up on a Saturday morning.

My MP is not standing again and her already selected replacement is the current leader of the council. His replacement as Labour group leader has also been selected, so as long as Labour keep council control, the LG leader will be the council leader too.

Like Sheffield Central the winner of the candidate selection is pretty much guaranteed to get a seat in Parliament so I would hazard a guess that EI has been exploring safe seats with likely-to-retire-soon MPs for a while now.

EI is very single minded (look at the marathons! And learning new languages purely to perform a stand up show) so Sheffield Central is no accident.

That we already had an obvious replacement for our MP in the local ranks will likely be why EI shows no interest here now.

If Eddie Izzard is selected, I hope the resulting campaign will shine a very bright light on Labour's batshit position regarding gender self ID and women's rights, and on their behaviour towards dissenters. I also hope that any counter campaign focuses on these issues rather than on Izzard personally.

Can't see KJK winning, more likely help the Greens in.

Happy to see Eddie or any other trans identifying person stand for selection or election in a democracy.

Would be interesting to see how this goes. A future dinner party question: is Eddie Izzard a woman? More sunlight perhaps?

My question would be should transvestite men like Eddie belong within the term trans woman?

Not enough people know about all this, it will at least force MSM conversations.

It is all a bit of a joke though, I presume EI has to this point shown very little interest in local and national politics, yet here we are.

I don't think that's fair - Eddie has been somewhat active in the Labour party for about decade. I at least remember his name popping up for various internal position ballots, when I was a member.

(Never got my vote cos I'm too far to his left.)

He/she is a Blairite.

I look forward to the chaotic news coverage...

Ah I see.

To be honest, if she does this, it shows what she is about. She knows she doesn't stand a chance of winning, she knows that if/when she comes last the TRAs will have a field day and massively take the piss, she knows she is putting herself up for ridicule from certain people. But she is willing to do it anyway, because her goal is to bring awareness to the issue and she will do that in any effective way she can.