Anyone actually excited about a Keir / Labour govt?

[roarrfeckingroar]

I'm typically a Tory voter (one nation Conservative, just right of centre, nothing radical) and gender critical, so I'm wary of a Labour government. I worry they'll leave the country worse than it is now.

However, I absolutely agree we need a change. Things can't get much worse, can they? Idiots like Boris and Truss have made a mockery of what I understand of the Conservatives - namely economic competence - and I can't vote for them this time. I don't know who I will vote for.

Listening to LBC this evening, I hear a Labour MP talk about how Starmer is offering an "exciting programme" of change and I just don't buy it. Maybe he will he better, maybe he won't, but my real question is is anyone genuinely excited about Labour, or just looking forward to the back of the Tories?

I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that Labour hate women. Half the Labour shadow cabinet are women. If they are elected we will have our first female Chancellor of the Exchequer. Their policies on improving childcare provision will, primarily, benefit women (as well as the children of course). They run various schemes to get more women into parliament.

I’m excited at the prospect of voting out the Tories!

Yes glad to see Tories gone
Now hope SNP can go too!

This is exactly how i feel

I notice the "they dont know what a woman is" thing has turned up on this thread.

I would just like to suggest that the current government are experts on knowing what a woman is.
They have included a Deputy Prime Minister who thinks that misogyny against men and women is bad.
A Home Secretary who thinks its a bit of a laugh to give his wife date rape drugs.
And so on.

For that reason I am excited to have a Labour government.

Yep particularly first para. More politicians like Osborne, Whittome, Lammy and Drakeford.. depressing

@jgw1 I have asked many friends / family this question and just one person is excited, the rest just want some sort of change and Labour's the only viable alternative. They don't feel enthused by the offering or the characters.

Would it in your view be more accurate to say that a government that has inacted a whole series of policies that disproprotionately negatively effect women hates women?
Perhaps a government that has for instance defunded the criminal justice system so that rape is effectively decriminalised?

Give me "boring and bland" every time over what we ve had since 2016.

I think the whole TWAW thing has been taken out of all proportion, as a stick to beat Labour with, remember, whatever they say, they sought to tax panic rooms, have cut DV services and have done zilch to reform or repeal the GRA.

But at least Labour have far more women as MPs so presumably these women trust Labour or they'd join the Tory party.

Labour also didn't have a minister watching porn in Parliament either or was he pulling a tractor? sorry watching one.

The available evidence suggests that the SNP are working almost as hard at destroying themselves as the Tories are at destroying themselves.

Exciting times ahead with competent stable government that doesn't have to make enemies of minorities for votes.

No

Not really. There seems to be very little difference between the current Conservative and Labour parties, so I don't think we'll see much change. Also, Governments are far more affected by external and international affairs (pandemic, foreign wars, international economy) than by anything they can cook up by themselves.
If Labour grasped the nettle on the NHS and undertook to end it's current funding structure/make it more professional/ bring in an insurance system then we might see real change, but I doubt that they'll have the guts.

@jgw1 but Labour's policies involve the legal curtailment of women's rights.

Not just a few men who are out of order, absurdly juvenile and can be pursued and prosecuted under laws designed to protect women..

Labour is proactively damaging those laws. That's much much more serious.

What specifically are they doing?

what policies, genuinely want to know.

Starmer thinks some women have a penis. Hardly the sign of intelligence.

Personally I'm hoping the Party of Women makes itself a party soon, and fields candidates near me. If they do, I'm voting for them, if not then conservatives.

I think it is Schrodinger's policy.
Labour has no policies.
Labour want to introduce policies that destroy women's rights.
(Never mind that the Tories have spent 13 years destroying rights - heck the Tories openly want to abolish the Human Rights Act).

That is what a law introduced by the Tories says, so he is legally correct, anyone who says differently doesn't know what the law says.

Now one might not agree with that law, but that is a completely different discussion.

No not particularly, but I’m not really looking at a government to excite me, I just want them to be vaguely competent.

I am excited though, about being shot of the most venal, corrupt, divisive and amoral government we’ve ever seen here. Not sure if that’s the same thing.

I'm GC and I actually thought Keir was very clear about protection of women's spaces today. Others have suggested he wasn't, but that wasn't what I heard when I watched his speech and questions in full.

Yes because it's the only option. Especially for me - I live in a marginal Lab/con seat.

No.

Starmer isn’t Tony Blair and excitement isn’t what he’s offering, or even trying to offer. His pitch is integrity & competence, and to be a safe pair of hands after 8 years of chaotic political dysfunction from the Tories since the EU referendum.

For Labour leaders to win, the most important quality they need is to be trusted not to screw up the economy. The fact that the Tories have already screwed it up so spectacularly helps, of course, but it also means that Labour will inherit an absolute shitshow. Fixing the appalling mess this country is in will be a massive challenge for Labour, particularly as most of them have never worked in government before.

I am a floating voter and always slap bang in the middle. I was going to vote green, but there seems to be too much trans anti women in fighting. I will go with the most credible environmental agenda I think, depending upon who has the best policies. I do think that it's time for a change and that the NHS needs much more focus. That said, I don't buy into the whole over simplification of 'tory scum runs down the NHS'. The amount invested in it is usually index linked and fluctuates whichever party. And labour introduced a lot of outsourcing that led to semi privatisation under Blair. I know that COVID made it hard to invest in it and the police. However, I think that labour will inject more money into it. Kier doesn't excite me, but he seems fine and the best option.

No. What I want is a good quality independent to stand in our area. Neither of the big parties fill me with glee. The Greens are laughable.

This 👆 with bells on.

And there is no denying it. It’s a shambles.

People have short memories too.

No, I'm definitely not excited at the prospect.

I think a Labour Gov will be a disaster in many ways, not least of which is their disregard for women's rights.

I think Starmer is much too easily swayed by whatever he thinks the latest 'in' thing is, so he's fallen for the gender ideology nonsense. I fear he'll be just as easily led on other issues. No actual principles, just whatever he thinks will gain him power.

However....I live in Scotland, in a constituency that Labour could possibly take from the SNP at the election. The SNP is SO disastrous, in every way (incompetent, amoral, corrupt, self-serving,...did I mention incompetent?) that I'm going to vote Labour in the hope the SNP will lose badly and Scotland may become a bit more sane.

Really, I feel disenfranchised. There is no party I want to vote for. I'm voting for the least-worst option, somewhat reluctantly.