WOMAN'S HOUR TODAY!

Wow. Not because of the people who cared enough to think Brexit was a good idea?

Maybe the people who didn't vote didn't care either way?

I voted Remain but the Brexit vote was the beginning of a realisation that there are many in the middle / upper classes who actually think working class people are not entitled to democracy. Not really, because they're stupid and don't know what's best for them. And if they have evidence based opinions about immigration, really they're just secretly racists so all they have to say can be dismissed (even if they're BAME themselves).

I see more of this kind of thinking in Labour and the Lib Dems than in the Conservatives. It's authoritarianism and it never ends well.

dunBle wouldn't it make more sense to write directly to your candidate?

I'm screwed here.
Tory, who is an okay bloke, does listen to his constituents, but is a Tory with all that goes with it.
Labour, nice enough young chap, but flannels about what a woman is.
LibDem, we know what they think about women, but I don't know the candidate.
Green, I've met him and know a bit about him. Arrogant arse.
Reform, kill me now.

I'm going to write to both the Labour and LibDem candidates in the search for a clear answer on that really, really, REALLY tricky question, What is a woman?

I also don't agree with the SDP's support for Brexit but I'll still be voting for them, I'm never going to fully align with any party.

Excerpt from their manifesto attached.

They're the best of a bad bunch in my local constituency, so that's where my vote is going.

@Halfemptyhalfling if Labour lose because they can't reassure women that they will protect their rights and spaces against trans activists then they only have themselves to blame!

I live in a massively safe Labour seat, so it really doesn't make any difference if I vote or not. I'm writing by the Labour candidate on my postal vote "I wanted to vote for you, but while the leadership dismiss women's rights as a culture war, try to fudge the issue by talking about "safe spaces" rather than "single sex spaces and services", and treat Rosie Duffield so badly, I can't". It's a good job I've got very small handwriting.

Given how safe the seat is, it's unlikely they'll be scrutinising the spoiled ballots very closely, but I'd rather do that on the off-chance they do than vote for a party I find unpalatable as a protest. Sadly there's no Monster Raving Loony or Count Binface here either.

There will be no escape from abusive husbands and partners

At least if the Tories get back in, women will be able to set up female-only services, like JKR has with Beira's Place, without having to admit men with speshul gender feels as staff and service users. If Labour get in, all refuges and rape support services will become defacto mixed and hence useless to women.

If the conservatives get back in due to protest votes women's lives will get much worse. There will be no escape from abusive husbands and partners and the legal system and education will continue to deteriorate.

I will either spoil or go SDP although I think they were pro Brexit which I cannot agree with. But at least they don’t think it is a great plan to put men in women’s prisons which the incumbent Labour man does.

@LandHo , I like to think I'm a fair person.

I'm not going to discourage anyone from voting, even if I disagree with who they're going to vote for. Brexit happened because of the people who didn't vote.

No self respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex. As true today as it was 150 years ago.

@VoteLabour ”we'll just have to agree to disagree”, well that’s a pleasant first for me on MN. Fair dos.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g , if only it were that easy. She certainly left her mark.

@LandHo , we'll just have to agree to disagree about Mrs May.

I've been reading up about all the candidates where I am and only one will get my vote. The clue is in my username.

Vote for the best candidate for the constituency, or at least vote.

I believe that this is the epitomy of privilege when it comes to voting on this issue. I am GC and strongly disagree with Labour on this issue. I am also disabled by the abuse by men I suffered in childhood. I may survive a labour government, despite their misogynistic polices who will undeniably do damage. I don't believe I will survive another tory one who will continue their destruction of any support for the most vulnerable in society (mostly women).

As I've said in other posts; I'd rather be alive to fight against this ideology than dead due to all my support being cut off due to their attacks on the disabled. Reluctantly, I will be voting Labour but share the despair at their stance on this.

No, Independent, but she does appear to be an evangelical Christian employed by a church. I wish we had an SDP candidate. There are several candidates for various left-wing parties who talk more about Gaza than anything else. The Green chap is being investigated because of tweets which someone has reported for antisemitism.

@VoteLabour Perhaps fool wasn’t quite the right word. As people said at the time she would have made a good deputy head of a school. However, it makes no difference to me if Theresa May was “hard working”. Hard working means nothing if it’s in the wrong direction or no direction. I thought she was lazy politically, limited intellectually, out of touch and wasted so many years, just like Cameron, endorsing the status quo.

Probably blinked and missed her.

@LandHo , Cameron and May and Johnson and Sunak, what a bunch of out of touch and lazy fools. is not true.

Theresa May was a hard-working and respected constituency MP.

Your list seems to exclude one former recent Prime Minister.

I’ll be voting Reform. More of a protest vote I suppose though I support their policies on immigration.

The Conservatives have been lazy, complacent and simply appalling on every count. Cameron and May and Johnson and Sunak, what a bunch of out of touch and lazy fools.

Labour (though I wish say they would renationalise water and energy) are unfortunately largely a chaotic playground bunch of gullibles (with slippery headteacher Starmer trying to hold it together) and I believe their outlook would give even more fuel to the whole of the drift to mad identity politics we have, plus I can’t forget Blair’s dodgy EU project and Iraq war.

The Labour Party - which was formed as the political wing of the trade Union movement - has had its day in the sun when it truly represented something. Now it represents nothing and no-one, so falls prey to any passing fad or influence, however irrational.

All the main political parties - Conservatives, Labour, SNP, Greens and LibDems - have been complicit in this whole drive towards divisive identity politics and endorsing Stonewall’s dodgy agenda.

@Villagetoraiseachild , each vote counts. It's not a done deal until all the votes are in.

I have also been delighted to find the SDP are gender critical but left leaning on many issues. They are getting my vote too.

Thanks for that@JanesLittleGirl . That might be what I write on my ballot paper.
My ward is a done deal anyway, so what the hell.

Why is defining a woman so hard?

Has anyone defined what a man is yet?

Abusive men are really skilled at pretending to be good until it's too hard for you to leave. Often, violence only starts when the woman is pregnant. The idea that women have "a high degree of control" over whether they choose an abusive man, or end up stuck with him, is naive to say the least.

A woman's ability to leave an abuser is largely dependent on the State enacting laws that permit divorce, allow the courts to grant non-molestation orders, and allow feminist charities to operate single-sex shelters. When children are involved, the woman relies on the courts, an organ of the State, to mandate child support from the father. Whether a woman intends to rely on the father of her children or not, when it goes tits-up for her the State ends up being involved.

The State isn't benign but neither are many men and at least we can sack our MPs at the ballot box.