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.

There are hardly any transwomen in women's prisons.

So why are you fixating on this instead of terrible conditions in women's prisons and the problems for inmates in accessing desperately needed mental health care?

Unless you only focus on fringe trans issues because it's a bit of a hobby horse with you?

There have been enough to have several female prisoners and two prison officers raped, by convicted sex offenders pretending to be women. Two pregnancies were the result. Even one rape inside a prison is one too many.

"There have been enough to have several female prisoners and two prison officers raped, by convicted sex offenders pretending to be women. Two pregnancies were the result. Even one rape inside a prison is one too many"

Not unreasonable that if someone has a history of sexual violence against women they absolutely shouldn't be in a setting where they have access to vulnerable women.

Just one male in a woman's jail is one too many.

You can care about the terrible conditions of women's prisons, the lack of decent mental health care and all the other problems women face etc etc etc too. You can care about this AND not want any males to be placed in a woman's prison.

I can't believe this, and the reasons why, are so difficult to grasp but here we are.

Not unreasonable that if someone has a history of sexual violence against women they absolutely shouldn't be in a setting where they have access to vulnerable women.

History of sexual violence or petty theft. It doesn't matter. No males should have access to women in such a setting. Ever.

School fees are not the same as a mortgage 😂

It was an analogy. I think I would find it easier to move house than to move school.

Anyone with a penis should NOT be in a women’s prison. Full stop. It’s absolutely outrageous that women are being put at terrible risk. I can’t imagine the terror of being locked in a tiny prison cell with a predator.

Ok.

That's just my situation - I'm not that attached to the house. If some big financial disaster happened, I'd find it less disruptive to downsize. i'm not saying that's true for everyone.

"History of sexual violence or petty theft. It doesn't matter. No males should have access to women in such a setting. Ever."

So no men working in women's prisons? Including healthcare staff?

"Anyone with a penis should NOT be in a women’s prison. Full stop. It’s absolutely outrageous that women are being put at terrible risk. I can’t imagine the terror of being locked in a tiny prison cell with a predator."

I agree that nobody should be 'locked up' in a tiny prison cell with a sex offender. Male or female. Trans or cis.

Or is this 'everyone with a penis is a predator' post? So you're referring to all the prison staff as well?

I would say that no man - penis or not - should ever be in a women's prison. Not ifs, no buts.

And we might wonder why posters such as izimbra are so desperate to argue the case for men in women's prisons. Why on earth might that be?

I don’t really understand why transwomen in prisons remains such a concern?

Transwomen with a history of violence or sexual crimes are no longer held in women’s prisons. Transwomen with penises are also no longer being placed in women’s prisons (except in exceptional circumstances where they have been assessed as very low risk and have received explicit ministerial approval). According to the Telegraph, there were “fewer than 5” trans women in women’s prisons as on the end of 2023.

Starmer has said that Labour back prisons as being single sex spaces, so there’s no reason to think this will change under Labour.

Why is this still such a point of contention?

Because men have no place in women's prisons. I am not sure what is so difficult to understand about that?

So I think as a pp flagged; this isn’t really about making things better for women in prisons for you - it’s about getting those handful of transwomen out of women’s prisons on purely ideological grounds.

I think it’s also relevant to raise (given that people have been talking about violent acts of TW in prisons) that there has not been a single recorded instance of assault (sexual or otherwise) by a trans woman in prison since the 2019 reforms.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/damian-hinds-wales-minister-mps-england-b2286515.html

Given that there are now vanishingly few transwomen in women’s prisons and no assaults, can you understand why this issue is unlikely to be high on people’s list of priorities when casting their vote? (Particularly given there’s zero difference between Labour and the Tories on the issue?)

Honestly, it feels to me that the real-world situation has moved on, but the discourse on here has not.

So no men working in women's prisons? Including healthcare staff?

Scraping are you not. They are vetted to a high standard. I'm talking about criminals.

Ok

I’m wondering whether some posters on here are not biological women.

Not quite sure how to interpret the OK, but OK 😂

I think the answer to that is a very definitive yes.

it’s about getting those handful of transwomen out of women’s prisons on purely ideological grounds

Not sure that I would call biology an ideology tbf.
Presumably you think these men are ok to be there - purely on ideological grounds?

Now that the laws have changed (as they categorically needed to be) and assaults have ceased, it just isn’t remotely important to me.

get the MEN out of women's prisons if you want the vote

I agree it also whays more scary is the taxes they will put up. Lier was quoted today as saying wales is the blueprint for the rest of the country. Fml. Meaning they will reevaluate council tax bands and penalises ppl for extensions, bigger gardens and so on.

If Wales is their blueprint we are fucked