Anneliese Dodds: what has happened to her?

Well Izzard anywhere near government will mean we will have PM Farage in 2029.

Fucking hell he'd probably have me voting for Reform. Shudder. He made Farage sound rational and reasonable at the 'Battle of The Thames 2016'.
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I expect the delay is due to some parliamentary uncertainty about whether Eddie Izzard can be titled Lady Izzard on his elevation to the HoL, given that the upper house was very clear that changing gender would not override primogeniture. It would mean one rule for hereditary peers and another for appointed peers.

Harriet Harman?

Just seen this from the Fawcett Society - they're waiting too.

Labour committed to bringing in a Secretary of State for Women and Equalities last year, and we very much hope they will deliver on this commitment in coming days. [2/2]

I didnt know this. I really think he can't find anyone capable to take it on.

They should call it: Minister for Advancement of AGPs and Dismantling of Safeguarding, the way things have gone and will go.

That didn’t answer my question. How would voting to have less employment rights or reduced maternity/paternity leave or fewer holidays or unpaid sick leave help W/C people ?
What you’re essentially saying is that working class people want simplistic solutions to complex problems and that’s ok why shouldn’t they. Using the birch might be a popular punishment and one mooted by Reform UK because it appeals to the ‘hang ‘em high’ brigade but in reality it solves no problems.
And in a way you’re sentimentalising them. They hate shirkers maybe but like the rest of the population they’re happy to turn a blind eye. I know because I’m from a solid council estate W/C background as is DP.

I wonder if somebody wants to rename the role ‘Gender and Equalities’? And someone else is resisting?

It’d reflect the Select Committee’s name as well.

Maybe starmer could ask the guy who got the period advisor job in Dundee to advise him?

I think the natural inclination, and the Stonewall advice, is to lose the word 'Woman' from the role - but they are anxious about doing that - and for good reason

What a good idea! Are you going to contact Sir Keir to suggest it? 😀

Cultural factors are as important as economic factors. Lots of working class people believe in discipline, hard work, taking responsibility. They want to see law and order in action. They have little sympathy for shirkers and/or free-loaders. If you are living on a large housing estate in which kids on dirt bikes are running wild and terrifying their neighbours.......you tend to think not " Poor kids, they have nowhere to go". You think " Little bastards need bringing into line, and quick"

Whenever I've seen Dodds perform in the House of Commons I've been decidedly unimpressed, so I'm not entirely surprised or sorry if she hasn't been given the hot seat. But I also feel for her a little - the way it's being dragged out in public like this must be humiliating for her.

I can't imagine what's causing the delay - well I can but it would be pure speculation.

Even suggesting that they have 'leaders' would be quite offensive to most, I suggest. It suggets that people can't form their own evaluation of matters without someone else to do it for them.

I suggest people who have a natural political inclination tend not to require others to think for them. That people who are feeling and thinking the same sorts of things at the same time is what creates a movement.

This is how I personally found other women who were shocked and angry about what was happening in the name of trans ideology. We didn't require the Daily Mail to get us together ( as is sometimes suggested). We found each other through force of attraction.I personally felt all alone; made a phone call, and all of a sudden found that lots of others were feeeling the same as me.

That’s all well and good but their leaders very much are part of the elite sadly. Two very very rich men who don’t give a shite about them or this country. What working class person would logically vote to have less employment rights or an insurance based NHS or less maternity leave ?

Hmm.

Maybe Starmer has offered the position to someone (maybe more than one person) and they've all turned down the position.

Given that its effectively, now a poison chalice of a position after this election, maybe thats the issue.

Christopher Lasch wrote about this in the 90s too - I recently read his book The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy and it discussed these issues in great detail. Even though it was a bit dated, and mostly concerned with American politics, it very much resonated with me as an analysis of the way we started to do politics here in recent decades.

To get back to Anneliese Dodds -
Labourlist has now been updated, and Dodds is listed as Development Minister
in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Which looks like a demotion to me. She was a Shadow Secretary, now she's just a Minister.

Well, the advice comes from a man so I’m sure Kier’ll take it seriously 😏😬

It's also about this intellectualised snobbery which is very dismissive of anything which isn't presented in a certain intellectualised way. That is also why Cass is starting to cut through - it's everything we've said here and has been ignored because it could be dismissed because it wasn't intellectualised and in a format that was acceptable to this new political class. It's all about data collection and formalisation. Which I actually support but only to a point.

Matt Goodwin describes the rise of the "epistemic class" that shapes the prevailing culture, conversation, politics, arts, policy in a way that means all that they survey is familiar to them but unrecognisable to others outside that group. (This overlaps with Rob Henderson's observations about luxury beliefs for which the harms accrue to others, and not those that espouse them. And Mark Fisher's Vampire's Castle.)

For much of the last half century, the new elite, whose families often descend from the professional and managerial classes, benefitted far more than others…
Shaped by their privileged family backgrounds, their educational qualifications, and their much greater ‘cultural capital’…the new elite hoovered up most of the gains from Britain’s embrace of hyper-globalisation and a political economy which was rebuilt around them, which both demanded and rewarded their skills.
They’ve benefitted culturally, too. After flooding into the creative, cultural, knowledge and public sector institutions, becoming a new “epistemic class” which creates, filters and determines what is or what is not acceptable or desirable within the national conversation, the new elite watched the prevailing culture be completely reshaped around their far more socially liberal values, tastes, political priorities, and interests.
Increasingly, when they’ve looked out at the institutions and what they create -the television programmes, films, adverts, books, museums, galleries, columns, and the national conversation more broadly- they’ve seen their worldview staring back at them while millions of others struggle to recognise their worldview at all.

https://www.mattgoodwin.org/p/rise-of-the-new-elite

Just to chip in about independent candidates - I voted for one after a lifetime supporting Labour, and it wasn't entirely a protest vote. I genuinely liked the idea of an MP who lived in the neighbourhood, who wouldn't have one eye on a ministerial post, whose only ambition was to represent their constituents and who would have to answer for any parliamentary decisions primarily to their neighbours and local businesses rather than to party whips.

Yes there would be drawbacks - if all MPs were selected this way, how would your form a government or an opposition? - but it's still an idea that has a lot of appeal to me in the current climate.

Where I live, and I imagine in a lot other places too, a substantial section of the politically motivated working class population became radicalised as a result of Covid and the lockdown. Actually, I think it had already started before even that. They certainly do not appreciate being referred to as racists and bigots, or now as cranks and conspiracists. They very much see themselves as being anti establishment.

I actually think that this vote is less about a distinct emerging Muslim vote, but more about a movement towards grass roots groups putting up Independent candidates in their local area to represent local interests.

There is already a growing trend for this in local politics. I expect that to not change.

I think one of the themes I'm seeing emerging in terms of opposition is also the narrative about the liberal elite having regained control - now this needs a bit of explaining but one of the things that came out of Trump and Brexit was this concept of the educated politician or official who didn't see things from any other viewpoint and was too arrogant to see criticism from where it came from and instead wrote it off as stupidity or bigotry. That's not simply about wokeism though. That's about education and an attitude to less well educated. The nature of this got noted as being similar to a reinvention of a class war somewhere else.

Starmer has so far appointed a number of figures that I think are probably going to go against that. Firstly Patrick Vallance as Science Minister. His pet interest isn't disease control which he's known for, but green issues. Now obviously this is an area that we need to be tackling but equally as a figure his role during COVID kind of plays into the infamous comment by Gove during the Ref about 'having enough of experts'. The ridiculous nature of the COVID restrictions hit the NW particularly hard with regional restrictions which made no sense and a sense of not understanding the reality of the workers who kept everything going.

Youve also got the return of Alan Milburn. His work in reforming the NHS was lauded but he also played a fair role in privation and PFI. So I think his return is controversial to say the least (Open Democracy have already been expressing concern about conflicts of interest too).

'Wokeism' isn't just about identity politics in my opinion. It's also about this intellectualised snobbery which is very dismissive of anything which isn't presented in a certain intellectualised way. That is also why Cass is starting to cut through - it's everything we've said here and has been ignored because it could be dismissed because it wasn't intellectualised and in a format that was acceptable to this new political class. It's all about data collection and formalisation. Which I actually support but only to a point.

If it is close minded and doesn't think to ask the crucial question of 'what are we missing? Have we covered every angle? What might not show up in our research and data? Why might it not show up?' then you miss a huge part of the issue.

Speaking to people very politically removed from me, I always find this really interesting. They have problems and issues that are valid and unaddressed, but are recognised. We have a grievance culture thats formed around it and allowed clever politicians to harness this and establish narratives that don't necessarily reflect issues but suit their agenda for power. This is because other parties have failed to adequately recognise the grievance, instead dismissing it or misinterpretating it because of a lack of capacity to listen to anything that doesn't come in 'approved language' or at a certain standard.

I still think there's been a massive lack of understanding of what the Brexit vote represented and why it happened. Those issues haven't gone away. It was never actually about Europe. Only 7% of voters voted with actual EU only related reasoning (research done shortly after the vote). It's a fascinating statistic and one that I've not really seen reflected on anywhere.

Absolutely, Labour's majority will not translate into an easy ride at all. Now they have to contend with multiple vectors of opposition.

It's really not about votes in parliament.

I will keep saying this, cos it's important to grasp,
It's always about the next election and getting votes.

The Conservative party have an identity crisis. They are likely to look towards this areas but as a separate choice from the more extreme elements of Reform.

If they can position themselves as that, then Labour may lose votes.

Equally UKIP previously capitalised heavily on Labour votes in the past, particularly in northern towns. There is still that potential for Reform to take this.

Labours position is a lot more fragile than they will admit.

Labour can rely on the newly enlarged LIb Dem ( And Greens) party for support and votes when it comes to getting gender identity stuff through parliament, but no so the Conservatives ( what remains of them) , not so Reform.

Also it will be interesting to see how the newly elected Muslim Independents evolve - into being having to be representative of more than just the Palestinain cause/anti Israel position they were elected on. I cannot imagine this Muslim electorate are going to be too much enamoured of gender identity politics, or certain other forms of 'wokeism', either