If we had a General Election now ...

[Dancerinthedark01]

Who would vote Tory and why?

@Dancerinthedark01

Why is it your business OP?

Because it affects my life and my kids’ futures. It affects every one of our lives here, if we live in the U.K.

It’s good to discuss these things? Is that a good enough reason?

Well anyone voting Labour, Lib Dem, Green, SNP or Plaid will have a massive impact upon the future of women and girls. What alternative for them is on offer?

@ilovesooty I think they can't answer because it's just tribal politics. Like the ones who say 'life long tory voter' ... as if your political views are just stuck in stone for 80 odd years.
We'll just end up with a constant tory government, with occasional changes of leadership and cabinet.
Every so often a rising star will take over the reins and convince people they are different but the same...

I'm a lifelong Labour voter, but I don't think they represent me now. I'd vote Women's Equality Party if they fielded a candidate in my constituency.

Are there no policies other than self ID that some people give headspace to?

That is unless they have a sensible candidate locally like Rosie Duffield of course. But otherwise who in good conscience could support Lab/Lib/GPEW/SGP/SNP/PC?

Like tory policies don't already hurt women ? Hasn't the issue about trans women sharing prisons with women come about under tory rule ?

[quote einekleinenachtarbeit]@ilovesooty I think they can't answer because it's just tribal politics. Like the ones who say 'life long tory voter' ... as if your political views are just stuck in stone for 80 odd years.
We'll just end up with a constant tory government, with occasional changes of leadership and cabinet.
Every so often a rising star will take over the reins and convince people they are different but the same...[/quote]
Good point.

I've generally voted Labour but if I lived in a constituency where the best chance of unseating a Tory would be a vote for the Lib Dems I'd vote for them.

What I don't understand is people saying they're voting Tory because labour are wrong on the trans issue whilst all changes to legislation that presumably the same people complain about have happened under a Tory government 🤔

@einekleinenachtarbeit

Like tory policies don't already hurt women ? Hasn't the issue about trans women sharing prisons with women come about under tory rule ?

Well said. Tory policies under this government hurt everyone except the very rich.

I vote Green if they field a candidate in my constituency. They don't always though so I have to toss up between Labour and the LibDems.

I live in a virtually rock solid Tory area. Our MP actually isn't that popular in the constituency (unlike her predecessor) yet still somehow manages to maintain or increase her majority here every General Election.

You could hang a blue rosette on anything or anyone you liked here and it would get into Parliament.

@Alconleigh

To answer the question what they have done; they didn't bow to pressure to reform the GRA to allow self ID. Which is huge. Have they improved the lives of women on a day to day basis? Of course not, unless those women are very rich. But are they keeping us actually existing in law? Yes. It's hugely important, not some sort of fringe issue.

I don’t see that as an active protection tbh. That’s my worry.

But, given that so much of what else they’ve done has damaged women then they don’t deserve my vote. Cuts to women’s shelters is a huge issue and disgraceful, to take one example.

@Maireas

I'm a lifelong Labour voter, but I don't think they represent me now. I'd vote Women's Equality Party if they fielded a candidate in my constituency.

I'd consider that too, if they set up here.

All too often I am only faced with the choice of Conservative, Labour, LibDem or UKIP.

I'm really stuck. I have never voted Conservative and I don't ever plan to.

The parties I would normally vote for now think that woman/female is a state of mind and have committed to introducing gender Self-ID. This is such bad news for women and girls, especially vulnerable ones, and their refusal to discuss it sensibly has lost them my trust.

Anyone who thinks this is no big deal isn't paying attention.

When there's a left wing party with some common sense, willing to engage with the question of how best to look after all vulnerable groups - including trans people and including women - then I'm interested.

If my labour MP replies to my email with
any sensible suggestions about this issue then I would vote for her, as she's otherwise been good.

Cuts to women’s shelters is a huge issue and disgraceful, to take one example.

I completely agree but under self ID men would be able to gain access to shelters by identifying as women. That to me is a huge worry.

Life long Tory voter here. I'm not sure if I could vote for them again given recent events, but Labour hate women so I'm not voting for them either. If Shahrar Ali had won the Green Party leadership election, I'd have given them a very sincere chance. For me, there is no credible alternative to voting Tory, so maybe I'll just have to spoil my vote. I've never felt politically homeless before, it's very unsettling.

@elodie77

Rishi is definitely electable. Regardless of his policies he could win an election.

Like someone said, there really is no hope

And you think Keir or whoever you vote for is going to be so great because.......?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58699072

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-policies-keir-starmer-conference-speech-b1929238.html

Keir Starmer is a former human rights lawyer, someone who is intelligent, trustworthy and who has integrity. We could do with qualities like that.

Starmer is the former head of the CPS. A terribly flawed organisation. The police call it the "Criminal Protection Service", or "Couldn't Prosecute Satan".

so you can stomach this administration?
They’re far from perfect but a million times better than anything the left can ever hope to field.

I think Cons would still take it even after the last couple of years

@Shade17

so you can stomach this administration? They’re far from perfect but a million times better than anything the left can ever hope to field.

So what are their positives then?

I'm pretty much screwed by Labour or Tory because I'm a woman, and I'm one of those low income, not aspirational types that just doesn't work hard enough apparently during my 40-50 hour weeks in a care home.
It's really down to a choice between those two because I don't think anyone else stands a real chance, and looking around at the state of things that are important to me, I'd probably vote labour, to get the Tories out, it'll be a cold day in hell before I vote Tory unless they do a massive U turn on just about everything.

I would vote Conservative for the first time in my life. They are no friend to women but for the time being they appear to know what a woman is. There can be no meaningful debate about how policies affect women without a biology based legal definition of what one is. I would otherwise describe myself as politically homeless.

The police call it...

And they're renowned for their sound judgement on such things

@ilovesooty @einekleinenachtarbeit

Completely ruined the country the last 2 times they were in power. Far worse than what this government has done in my opinion.

@WhiskyXray

You have to wonder how anyone could look around at this fucking omnishambles and say, "Yes please! Five more years of this shit, thanks!"

Probably when the alternative is Starmer waffling on about men with cervices.

I would vote Tory because even though I think they lost the plot in the pandemic with the amount of money they spent on furlough that went on for too long. Labour wanted it to go on for much longer than 18 months. Even though Tory paid 80 percent which was in my opinion a generous amount Labour were calling for higher payments. Labour also wanted Universal Credit uplift, which was always supposed to be temporary, to carry on indefinitely. The UK is in greater debt now that at any other time and Tory government have had to make tough and unpopular decisions but instead of supporting to get through tough time Labour refuse to do this even when they know cuts have got to be made as country can't afford more spending right now. I don't trust Labour with economy and while they have politicians like Abbott and Raynor, I never will.