Vote for local Tory candidate or spoil vote?

They won't. Not with the huge projected landslide. What will hopefully happen is that enough sensible people will be present in the opposition.

An overwhelming majority is never a sensible idea. I don't think any Government is good if they are allowed to govern unchecked.

Go with whoever is going to do the best work in your constituency. I'm sorry to hear about the popularity of Reform, that must be frightening. Let's hope it comes to nothing.

We really don't know what Labour will do, a lot of this is whataboutery. We know what the Tories will do, that's for sure.

Labour have said they'll implement changes from the Cass report. They said there's no self ID and they're going to respect the EA.

I guarantee that if we get in another Tory government, this feminist utopia won't happen. The Tories are not suddenly going to wake up and start investing in women. They're not suddenly going to start speaking out on the infringement into women's spaces. How do I know this? Because they never have.

Thank you @ifIwerenotanandroid, @cupcaske123 and @Brefugee

I expect I will continue to oscillate between Green and Labour all the way up to entering the election booth.

I don't think our area is an easy one to predict due to the sudden popularity of the Reform party which is expected to do very well in this demographic, and the independent candidate who will potentially taking quite a bit of the farming Tory vote.

What have the Tories done for women

Well, there was preventing self I’d in Scotland, the Cass report will be very significant (unless Labour bury it), and of course England has very much held a line compared with eg left wing administrations in Australia, Canada, even Wales and Scotland….. but 🤷‍♀️

I’m not voting for them because I think they are a good option

We already know they're not a good option. So you're voting for more of the same. Gotcha.

Not a lot, I’m not voting for them because I think they are a good option I’m voting for them because the thought of the damage Labour & Lib Dem’s in power will do to womens rights terrifies me.

Although tbf Theresa May has done a lot to encourage more women to become MPs and she has done (and continues to do) a lot of work nationally and internationally to reduce human trafficking and modern day slavery.

This misses out the bit where @Untranslatable said ' However, like a stick of rock he is Labour all the way through and I do not believe he would vote against the party line.'

That's the problem I had with our generally excellent LD MP once the Coalition was formed. Our MP followed the official line & so they didn't represent our views (or even their own).

It's the problem with our system. Are you voting for a PM, a party, a set of policies or a local representative?

as to a landslide? meh. I want a massive turnout. We need that.

But i remember Brexit. And how the predictions went all pear shaped. So I won't be placing any bets (!) until after i see the results (so not at all)

@Untranslatable - in your case I'd vote Green. Or check what the tactical voting website says and go with that to keep Truss out.

I think a Labour landslide isn't going to happen. They will probably win, but it'll be much tighter than people are thinking. There are a lot of undecideds and there's not even a week to go.
I have a problem with Labour and women's rights, but I cannot take another round of the Tories being cunts. And I think Labour will change their tune once/if they get in anyway.
I don't feel like now is the time for a protest vote, basically.

Our Labour candidate is a very dedicated local councillor and would represent our area well

This.

I am very glad to see this thread. I'm also struggling.

I live in Liz Truss's constituency and usually vote Green.

This is usually a Tory safe seat, but IPSOS are currently predicting a three way tie between Tory, Labour and Reform.

I usually just vote for who I consider to be the best local candidate (Green), but given voting predictions I am feeling the pressure to vote Labour to keep Reform out.

I cannot vote Truss. Her stint as PM aside, she is and has always been a simply awful local MP. I know she has been vocal in support of sex-based rights, but she would be vocal in support of hanging if she thought it would get her elected.

Our Labour candidate is a very dedicated local councillor and would represent our area well. However, like a stick of rock he is Labour all the way through and I do not believe he would vote against the party line.

Our Green candidate is a GP, hardworking local councillor and party health and social care spokesperson. She has been outspoken in defence of the Cass report and has urged the party to take it seriously and follow its recommendations.

We also have an independent candidate with a broadly centre-right manifesto running as a Tory alternative. He has had massive support from farmers.

Lib Dem candidate is a lost cause.

Reform candidate initially presented himself as a local teacher and didn't seem too bad, but has now relaxed a bit and let his true colours shine through on his X (has been asking Tommy Robinson & anti-Islamic accounts to retweet stuff and lots of wake up patriots type rhetoric)

Plus candidates for Communist, Monster Raving Looney and Heritage.

What would you do??

I'm not getting into the Tennant debacle and derailing the thread.

The new rules around prisons is no help to those who've already been sexuality assaulted. The EA already protects women's spaces. And the Tories have pretty clearly demonstrated their contempt for women under brutal cuts, lack of legislation and ubiquitous trans ideology.

Why do you think David Tennant publicly announced at an award ceremony to give him a prize LGBTQ+ ally trophy,

that he wanted to
Kemi Badenoch not to exist and to she shut-up?

And do you not know what happened to Baroness Falkner when Lemi Badenoch wrote asking for her opinion about clarity in the EA?

Fid you not hear some new rules around prisoners announced by the Conservatives after Isla Bryson and the Scottish debacle?

Neither have the Tories. Labour weren't in power when the EA was ignored. This has been going on for years. We've had men in the women's prison estate for years. The Tories stood by and let boys get into girls changing rooms at schools and allowed women to be deplatformed and a harmful ideology into schools.

Under the Tories, a woman was told she wasn't raped in hospital. That's how far the teeth of this ideology have sunk in while presided over by the Tories. The EA already protects women yet people have been ignoring that for years. Why have the Tories let sex predators into the women's prison estate?
Tinkering with the EA won't stop it from being ignored.

They've said that they'll continue to respect the Equality Act.

They don’t even understand the issue with the Equality Act, or they purposefully pretend their isn’t an issue around the interpretation of Sex in the act for their own purposes. This is despite that fact that a case is having to go to the Supreme Court over precisely that point.

I would dispute that Thatcher did zero to help women. Policies aside, the fact that she was a Prime Minister and a successful one at that (in terms of maintaining political office) did a huge amount to raise expectations of girls growing up in the 80s of what was possible for them. It also impacted men and their attitude towards what women could achieve.

I kinda meant Tories have had 3 women prime ministers and Labour have had none. Labour is the working man's party.

rofl. Labour isn't for the working class. (i agree it's not too spiffy for any women tho)

But as for Tory women PMs: Thatcher was expected to be useless, and was put in as a fall guy. More fool them. She wasn't a feminist and did zero to promote or help women in any way at all

May - i think she thinks her heart is in the right place. But she was also put in to be a fall guy while they waited for something better. OK on DV, not particularly good for other women though and I wouldn't call her a feminist.

Truss - she was put in to make her look stupid and STFU. Not sure what good it did having her as PM for the Tories at all. I wouldn't call her a feminist. She is a fan of Late Stage Capitalism and not much else.

No they're not. Their manifesto states that they'll make the process easier but that a specialist is still required, not a GP. They've said that they'll continue to respect the Equality Act.

I must have missed all those Tories expressing their outrage at men already in women's spaces, which has been going on for years. Tinkering with the EA won't change current attitudes. They've already proved they don't give a toss.

They are. They have said as much quite clearly - a letter from a non specialist (activist) GP is no more of a barrier than making a declaration. And they have also said once a man has one they can use women’s ‘safe spaces ‘. Labour whipped MSPs in Scotland to vote for GRR.

I think comparing the SNP to the current Tory party is pretty meaningless. Labour aren't bringing in self ID.