Reasons to be cheerful/not despair?

Most didn't really actively want any of the parties at all, this was always going to be voters choosing the least worst option and the country needs change. Labour are in, but the Tories have the opposition which is much better balance than the LibDems would have been for women, children, reality and sanity in general, and Labour know they got the seats but not much of a pickup in vote: they are not riding high on an enthusiastic supportive electorate, just one wanting the country to stop being so shit. Sadly we - and Labour - are going to see many voters realise this isn't going to be the land of milk and honey they hoped for.

We're not where we were a few years ago: the word is out there and the articles are openly in the papers, any decisions made are going to be vigorously discussed, women's rights were heavily involved in this election, it probably got the Tories into opposition despite everything, and if Labour completely blow it in the next couple of years by proving they're out of touch mad misogynists, then women's rights are going to figure even more heavily in the next one.

The important thing now is not to sit down, or shut up, or step back in being clear; misogyny isn't going to wash in this country. I'll wait now with interest too to see how Starmer builds on his last minute panic declaration that women should have men-free spaces regardless of identity, because if he does another flipflop this early in power it's going to do his reputation no good at all.