Ed Davey as Leader of the Opposition is SO CLOSE

[noblegiraffe]

The final MRP poll from Survation puts the Lib Dems and Tories within a gnat's whisker of each other.

Sam Freedman says:
'“If any doubt arises as to which is or was at any material time the party in opposition to Her Majesty’s Government having the greatest numerical strength in the House of Commons, or as to who is or was at any material time the leader in that House of such a party, the question shall be decided for the purposes of this Act by the Speaker of the House of Commons, and his decision, certified in writing under his hand, shall be final and conclusive.”

So if one party is clearly ahead then their leader is LOTO. But if it’s more complex - say, the Tories won 75 seats and the Lib Dems 73, and then two Alliance MPs from Northern Ireland said they’d sit with the Lib Dems - well the Speaker will have to get involved and make a call.'

The thought of the Tories losing so badly that they don't even get to be the official party of opposition is within our grasp.

I've heard that the Lib Dems now think they have a chance of winning places like Witney where they didn't think they had a hope at the start.

https://tactical.vote tells you who to vote for to get the Tories out and make them irrelevant.

What exists today as a one time only opportunity is to GTTO.
In doing so women's rights will be safeguarded for a generation.

Rejoice!

And I'm saying that what exists now is utter nonsense.

Clearly, the blame doesn't wholly lie with Labour. I recognise that we live in strange times where the concept that people should have the right to change sex (even though no human in the entire history of mammalian evolution has ever actually changed sex) has been retrospectively imagined into international human rights laws which were created the best part of a century ago, and this makes it nigh on impossible for a country such as the UK to not have a legal mechanism for allowing someone to change their legal sex.

I do get that. Believe me, I do.

But it should be possible to do this in such a way that respects the imaginary letter of the law (imaginary in the sense that you have to read between the lines to see it) in the international treaties that we actually signed up to, whilst also respecting the fact that women should be allowed to have language, spaces and sports which are just for us, and which we are not required to share with any male person who believes he should have access to them. I am really mightily sick of hearing from the likes of Labour and the Lib Dems that the current law (that Labour introduced) doesn't go far enough to protect trans rights, when the reality is that it gives trans identifying people rights no other group has whilst doing fuck all to protect other groups from the consequences of that.

And when we try to talk about the consequences for us, when we try to say "hey, women's rights are human rights too you know", David Lammy calls us "dinosaurs who hoard rights" and Ed Davey says, "ew, please don't vote for the Lib Dems, you bigots".

And that's why, after 14 years of Tory misrule - and I absolutely agree that they have to go - I feel so negative about the prospect of what is to come. Because women have been politely banging this drum for a while now, all the polls show that the general population is sympathetic to trans rights but nonetheless broadly gender critical, and yet these supposedly progressive politicians just do not give a shit.

It depresses me that my daughter has to grow up in a world where she's taught that if a man says he's a woman then she has no right to a dissenting opinion on that and no right to say no to him.

You do know elections are held at least every five years, right? And that there's no such thing as "safeguarding women's rights for a generation" even if Labour were going to do that, which they aren't?

We had had 3 Prime Ministers since the last General Election.

The result today will define UK politics for a generation, with many voters voting for a party they have never voted for before. Such a change is huge.

Rejoice!

Labour will win today because people are fucking sick of the Tories (with good reason). This is not the dawn of a new golden age, sadly.

Labour will win today because they have a leader who has carefully and thoughtfully rebuilt his party and built a team who are ready to lead the country to a brighter future.

Rejoice!

Let's hope you're right and I am wrong.

Either way, it would be nice if these men could at least tone down the animosity towards women who don't agree with them.

As usual, completely failing to address the fact the Conservatives have presided over this nonsense, in fact put forward self ID and only were prevented by brave women campaigning. And Reform is stuffed to the rafters with misogynists.

I'm so looking forward to this being pushed as a "right/left" dividing issue being in the bin. Then maybe women can work together on standing up for our rights without people constantly going on about "lefties".

@MissScarletInTheBallroom

And I'm saying that what exists now is utter nonsense.

Okay. Whether you think it's nonsense or not is irrelevant - it's the law, unfortunately.

Do you think you could decrease the frequency of the 'women with penises' posts at least?

Why?

@MissScarletInTheBallroom

Why?

I should have clarified that: the posts that suggest Starmer and/or Labour think women can have penises.

1. It's misinformation
2. It irritating to see that women think other women could be so gullible to fall for it
3. Over and over again

It's not misleading.

You just don't like people talking about it because it calls these people's credibility into question.

Has it really not occurred to you how much your continuous banging this drum is turning people off? Post, after post, after post all saying the same thing. Maybe we should all stop responding to you and leave you talking to yourself.

You are not required to respond.

Similarly, everyone telling me I need to vote Labour or Lib Dem for the greater good made me determined not to in the end.

Where the country was literally split half and half? No he wasn't right. It's been a disaster thanks to 52% voting for it.

The part that is misleading, is when posters suggest that Labour or the Lib Dems would be worse on women's rights than the Tories are and have been.

I mean when it comes to the different parties and women's rights, we're all really just debating whether shit on toast is nicer than shit with Weetabix.

Well said

Actually the part where people say whoever in Labour "thinks women can have penises"
Kemi Badenoch also talks about "legal women" who aren't "biological women" aka women with penises. Yet she is seen as the Great Hope for GC women and posters like missscarlet aren't constantly posting "Kemi Badenoch/The Tories think women have penises".

The fact is that some males are legally women. Therefore some women have penises. Implying only "the Left" think this and that they think this because they've lost touch with biological reality is misleading.

Hopefully after today it's going to decrease in frequency though. Most people I think are intelligent enough to see through the bollocks

That is simply not true. Many parties have a range of policies that will enhance women's rights. The Tories and Reform Ltd by contrast had and have policies that will harm women's rights, such as leaving the ECHR.

Of course it is true. They just have different plans for how to shit on women.

I cannot in all good conscience vote for a party which thinks women who want single sex rape crisis support are bigots and that rapists should be housed in women's prisons if that is what they want.

There is no good reason for any politician to think these things. And no good reason for women to trust any politician who thinks these things.

I want a non misogynistic party to vote for and there simply isn't one.

Yes this implication that womens rights starts and ends with trans inclusion is infuriating.
Prosecuting rapists, dealing with online violent and degrading porn, providing proper childcare and SEN services, dealing with poverty are all things that will improve the lives of women vastly more than men. But let's ignore that and obsess about trans inclusion instead 🙄

Out of touch and hopefully out of time.

Of course it won't stop being an issue after the election. It will just become more difficult to get women's rights on the table once there's no longer an election coming up.

Labour are not misogynistic. If you think accurate statements about the legal situation are misogyny you have had a sheltered life.

What the Conservatives did during Covid was misogyny.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67286997.amp

Reform candidates calling women the "sponging gender" is misogyny

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjmmrwexv4ko.amp

Female isn't supposed to include male. This really shouldn't need to be said. Trans people are already included everywhere they are supposed to be included and some places they aren't supposed to be included.