Nope to labour

[Mrsdeehoang]

I was considering voting for Labour, but their manifesto proposal to change the VAT on private education has made me reconsider. I'm not financially well-off, just about managing, and I took on two jobs to afford the fees for my son’s private grammar school. Despite our efforts, he couldn’t get a place in any of the five local state schools due to oversubscription, and our appeal was unsuccessful. We were instead assigned a school outside our area with a poor Ofsted report. Faced with this choice, I opted to work harder to provide him with a better education privately. The proposed VAT changes would make it even harder for families like mine to manage.

For me, Labour doesn’t seem to understand that not everyone who sends their children to private school is wealthy. I don’t like the Tories either, but I would rather vote for them than for Labour.

@BrigadierEtienneGerard

They vote Tory anyway. They pretend to support women but they don't, they choose the issue where the are supporting as it requires no real agency from them to drive change.

A bit like why Trump and his allies are all over the trans issue but anti-woman in almost all their other policies.

Or, they can be pissed off at Labour AND not vote Tory/realise the Tories are no friends of women.

Wild.

@AccidentallyWesAnderson

But then those aren't the ones attacking Labour with "At least the Tories know what a woman is" are they?

Absolutely this. “ In my world” as if that means anything. So bloody blinkered!

@Lifelikinotdothinki

But that's from "your world".

Go ask 100 random women what their top 5 issues are this election. GC issues will not be in them, yet on MN its been the no 1 issue for at least half a decade.

Go and look at J K Rowling’s thoughts on this. If it’s not an issue for random women, then it damn well should be.

I've read JK Rowling's thoughts on this and agree wholeheartedly.

However, JK Rowling is now in a position where she can think that this is the major thing impacting women at the moment.

Ask 100 random women in the street and it won't come top 5 at all.

"Nah it's women at the bottom of the pile, the ones in prisons, the vulnerable rape victims now having to share spaces with men because of the 'it doesn't affect me' brigade, "

What percentage of women in these situations are 'having to share a space' with a transwoman?

"the ones who have spent their lives dedicated to sport to then miss out due to cheating males."

If you're worried about unfair and unearned advantage in sport, could we talk about the impact of going to fee paying schools? Because it has a much, much greater impact on the likelihood of someone becoming a medal winner than the inclusion of transgender women in women's sports.

Anyway - back to the issue of private schools - would anyone who's strongly against the imposition of VAT address the issue that I raised, around private schools having the capacity to significantly reduce costs and thereby fees by increasing class sizes.

@izimbra

Someone once made this point to me about sports and private schools and it really made me think.

Then I realised that actually, its the sports that you need very specialist equipment for that they excel at.

Its why there are very few private school footballers. All you need to play/practice is a ball and a little bit of space.

Thanks for your time

Well, presumably that would involve making existing staff redundant if you wanted to increase class sizes immediately to compensate for increased VAT. Would probably cost a lot in redundancy pay, as well as having the obvious effects on the individual staff.

But the majority are wealthy and some are extremely wealthy...

Like I said, you can say what you like on an anonymous forum without fear of being cancelled in real life. If it's been an issue on a site predominantly for women for 'half a decade' then you can bet that it features in the lives of women too, not just in your world.

I asked a couple of women in my work as a starter and was enlightened to see that the self ID issue was very important. Of course if they were to be vocal about it no doubt some hard of thinking person would be along to scream transphobe at them.

I'm in Scotland though where the Koolaoid has well and truly been drunk. I don't want however people to vote Tory because they can say what a woman is (at least they can). Just want Labour to get a grip.

Anyway, you can get back to arguing about private schools and VAT.

And if you are very good at a fairly niche sport that requires expensive equipment (easier - though still requiring dedication - as less people will be doing it) then further privileges open up for you in the form of full scholarships to US universities.

I know. This guy has been on here for days claiming to be standing up for the masses and then he comes out with this!!! My jaw nearly hit the ground.

This thread is a good example of how women fail to support each other on crucial matters relating to being a woman.

It’s very sad that we can’t stand shoulder to shoulder and support each other.

"I know. This guy has been on here for days claiming to be standing up for the masses and then he comes out with this!!! My jaw nearly hit the ground."

If there are 34 million females and at most 50K trans women, the vast vast majority of whom are just trying to quietly go about living their lives, how can this be a threat 'to the masses'? Statistically, numerically, the existence of trans women in women's spaces can't be an actual material problem for 99.9% of women. There simply aren't enough of them.

I think the problem with GC is that they spend so much time thinking about, posting about, protesting about transgender women that they've lost all sense of material reality.

"This thread is a good example of how women fail to support each other on crucial matters relating to being a woman.

It’s very sad that we can’t stand shoulder to shoulder and support each other."

If that was the case no woman would ever vote Conservative.

Yeah carry on criticising other women.

If there are 34 million females and at most 50K trans women, the vast vast majority of whom are just trying to quietly go about living their lives, how can this be a threat 'to the masses'?

Even if its just one man in a women's space, its one man too many.

@Lifelikinotdothinki

"Yeah carry on criticising other women."

I'm not 'criticising women'. I'm criticising GC's framing of transgender rights as an issue of crucial importance to women. Not all women share your opinion when it comes to transgender issues. You don't represent me.

It’s unpopular with a tiny fraction of the population.

I would vote on the overall picture and what kind of society you want your children to grow up in if I were you. But vote for who you want. The Tories have cooked their goose.

"If there are 34 million females and at most 50K trans women, the vast vast majority of whom are just trying to quietly go about living their lives, how can this be a threat 'to the masses'?

Even if its just one man in a women's space, its one man too many."

You remind me of those people on the far right, who when you point out that that it's not fair to argue that Asians shouldn't be allowed to immigrate to the UK on the strength that some Asians in the UK have been involved in grooming gang activity, respond with 'don't you care about children being raped?'.

BTW - if we're talking about transgender women, it helps to refer to them as trans women, so we're all clear about who we're talking about.