Has anyone else been forced to become Conservative after all of this?

A spoilt vote is still a wasted vote though,” it’s not going to make any party change their stance.

Spoilt votes are counted. A good agent will read them and take note. Agree there's not much to be done about the lazy ones who don't think there's anything to learn.

I started a few years ago, mainly to try oust SNP, and will continue to do so - no other options. I don't see the relevance of people spoiling their votes - I don't suppose anyone reads them so why waste time going?

I am politically homeless. Would never vote Tory. Look how many things have gone to shit on their watch

What the hell is wrong with people? You'd re-elect a corrupt and cruel government just because they mouth some soundbites which appeal to your dislike of trans women?

Well I do think the most important thing is to vote for the person that understands science and has common sense, that's Rishi.

@SammyScrounge @HathorsFigTree you're buying into the culture wars. Politicians love it if they can gain support by stirring up this kind of thing rather than having to talk about the hard stuff - care, health, education, taxation etc.

And as a Bristol resident, I get really pissed off when people are the toppling of the Colston statue as some sudden mob action. Did you know that groups had been civilly, politely, gently trying to get the statue taken down for about twenty years before that? Or even a plaque added to acknowledge Colston's role in slavery. They got nowhere. In the middle of our city there was a man who traded in human beings, including children, many of whom died in squalid conditions on slave ships. Polite action did nothing.

I don't see how acknowledging the role of slavery and empire in our past is grovelling. It's fact, we just wanted to look the other way for a long time.

This board makes me so glad to be a feminist. It's opened my eyes to a way of thinking that took me far too long to get my head around.

But look at the bigger picture! Not only do the tories understand basic biology they are also against the change that's been happening in the last decade or so. I don't think it's right that like a pp said we're still grovelling over past "misdeeds" or throwing statues into rivers - slavery might have been bad but it's in the past and it's not like anything that bad really happened.

Also unless you're forgetting it doesn't actually matter what the tories do or don't do to improve the material conditions of women. All that matters is that they have understood it is politically expedient to say 'women don't have penises'. Who cares if women's lot is still in the gutter thereafter, it's important that they know we all have vaginas. Whether you as a vagina owner can afford to heat your home, feed your children and access healthcare is really not the point of a government.

Yes OP. I’m a floating voter and I am leaning towards voting conservative because of this very issue.

Both Labour and Conservative policy have many many flaws, so I might as well differentiate between them on a subject which I view as of fundamental importance - if I cannot trust a political party to protect my sex based rights then the rest of their policies are meaningless because nobody can confirm how they would apply to women.

The majority of NHS staff are left wing......

How do you know this? I worked in the NHS for years, all the people in senior positions read the Telegraph not the Guardian.

I completely get where you’re coming from. I grew up in a northern working class town where historically the conservatives did a lot of damage and was taught to hate them from an early age. But the GC issue is the number one issue I feel most strongly about and as such I feel like I’m left with no choice but to vote for them 😔

How predictable, putting the blame on women. Here's an idea: if you're feeling angry, go ask Labour what they've been smoking, and why they'd rather let the Conservatives regain ground than say something out loud that everyone knows to be true.

If Labour knocks on your door, show them clips of Lloyd Russell-Moyle yelling at Miriam Cates in the Commons and ask them how they think it makes them look.

Ask Keir Starmer why he's too big a scaredy cat to be seen in public with the utterly reasonable (but far too accommodating) Labour Women's Declaration.

Tell them they've still got time to sort this out but they won't for much longer.

Well said.

Forced to vote Tory my arse . This has all been happening under their watch or have you forgot. Families can barely afford to hear their homes and feed their children because of those maniacs and they have wrecked the NHS , so no, I won't be voting Tory. I don't you ever voted Labour anyway, OP.

Yes, the Tories have tended to let MPs have their own opinions o this and to speak about the.

I think it's clear by now that this is a good thing, even though it means that sometimes some MPs might not share your viewpoint.

I’m completely torn on this issue.
I have never voted Tory but they seem to be the only ones at the moment who at least know who / what I am.
The issue of womens rights is very important to me but not the be all and end all.
At the moment I am, however, thinking I’ll probably go Tory
If Labour come out with a better stance on biological woman's rights then I’ll vote for them.
It shouldn’t just be about one issue, I know, but I don’t want to lose everything we have fought for.

I'm politically homeless. I have my postal vote for the council election, I will be spoiling it.

I contacted the three labour candidates about something that had been put through my door from them and also asked what a woman was, I got a reply from one saying all discrimination is wrong one way or another and the other two didn't reply

I replied tot he one that did saying I could not vote for him and that he hadn't answered the question and that a lot of discrimination is actually good eg we don't let people drive on public roads until a certain age and with an appropriate licence and a couple of other things.

3 days later, no reply so I'm deciding what to write on my ballot.

For anyone thinking that is a waste of a vote, all candidates read / look at spoiled ballots as they have to agree they are spoiled.

No. There is literally nothing that would ever make me vote for the Conservative party. Nothing. I would spoil my ballot first.

Well put. I feel the same. The way I see it, the economy the NHS and other issues present us with fixable problems. The treatment of so called trans children is irreversible and can leave a child with permanent health problems. Really, there is no choice but a Tory vote.

I've spoiled my ballot for the last 5 years on the basis of self id rather than vote Labour (writing why in my ballot).

This time, well I'm still considering my options.

As stands Labour will not get my vote.

However this time round I'm prepared to go further and if it looks like a tight Tory/Labour fight in my constituency - then I'm ticking the blue box for the first time in my life and I won't lose any sleep over it.

I don't give a shit about past policy- I care about what the parties are saying now and only the Tories are being clear on no to self id and protecting single sex spaces.

I'm also way over about "the bigger picture". Personally I think screwing over 51% of the population is the fucking picture as is voting for a party that's be captured by an ideology that defies reality.

If other people want to vote for a party that can't grasp basic biology and think they have credibility over any issue whilst their politicians are making tits of themselves (or putting their misogyny on full display) to justify the erasure of women's rights then they can crack on, but they won't make me feel guilty about my voting choices.

Politicians need to listen

https://sex-matters.org/take-action/take-action-archive/respect-my-sex/

Yep. Lifelong labour supporter here prepared to vote Tory because of this. At least Rishi knows what a woman is and it isn’t someone with a penis.

@Anklespraying Exactly my point!!! If just 4000 nurses on circa £30k pooled their salaries they could afford to buy an MRI machine for a hospital. Moaning about long shifts and parking is a waste of the energy they could spend organising to club together! But that's left wing for you, just moan about everything then go on strike! Perhaps if nurses made a flask of soup at home instead of shelling out on Costa sandwiches they'd manage to make their salaries go further!

I've been voting Tory in Holyrood and Westminster elections since the inception of the Scottish Parliament.