Who to vote for as a feminist

[WorkingBling]

I am really struggling ahead of the elections. I have decided that commitment to feminist principals needs to be a strong part of my voting decision making process. But I honestly am not sure this helps.

Lib dems have terrible track record and while I like nick's wife, I can't vote for a party where there's only one woman I am impressed by.

Instinctively i am more of a labour supporter but with the exception of Harriet H I honestly feel underwhelmed by their female representation and view on women.

This leaves the conservatives. There are a number of woman in the party who impress me. But Dave doesn't strike me as a man who really believes in feminist principals.

Help please. All you lovely informed women must have some thoughts.

Tei that's a good point. Doesn't that mean though that you might as well vote Labour or Tory?

I think most of the smaller parties would think that the LibDems have messed up their coalition, as evidenced by their near annihilation in the polls. A lot of that has to come down to them losing the points where they differed from the Tories.

I'm not sure the Greens or UKIP are going to make that much difference in the end. If the latest polls are to be believed, the SNP may be the third largest party by some margin. They are currently polling at 55 seats. Polls in December had the LibDems at 20. I can't see the Greens getting more than a handful of seats. The big question is what will happen to UKIP. It is possible the SNP will have more MPs than all the other small parties combined (including even the LibDems). That will be interesting.

The coalition aspect does make it more complicated, because of course you don't know how precisely the chips will fall should there be a coalition agreement

Though I suppose by voting for the smaller parties you then might possibly help to boost their clout in coalition talks

The prospect of the SNP attempting to dictate policy for the whole of the UK , as opposed to merely ignoring the wishes of 55% of the voters who voted against independence, is terrifying.

Sturgeon do far has shown contempt for the democratic process and has continued to peddle the lie that No voters were scared/ stupid/ selfish.

Agree with flora about the unpredictability of coalitions. Think I read somewhere that the LDs will be putting their policies in priority order this time to avoid another student fees style PR disaster.

UKIP-Tory coalition 'the nightmare ticket'

If the Tories end up as the biggest party but without a majority, it's got to be a Tory/UKIP coalition of some sort. The SNP will never agree a coalition of any sort with the Tories or they will be dead in Scotland.

It could be that the Tories are the biggest party but a Labour / SNP coalition would form a government. In that situation, I ponder that it would need to be a formal coalition, not just a vote by vote agreement.

Or if the Tories are the largest party and Labour can't form a coalition, I suppose the Tories would form the government but they might be defeated by a Labour / SNP voting block. If the SNP continue their policy of not voting on English matters then the Tories won't be able to pass legislation that affects Scotland (although Nicola Sturgeon has indicated they might change that) without Labour and/or SNP.

Sturgeon has said the SNP will interfere in purely English legislation.

I'm not sure which would be worse , the SNP or UKIP try to be kingmakers (to use Salmond's preferred egotistical phrase)

Rupert Read from the Green Party has been getting it in the neck from transactivists. I'll be interested to read his fuller response.

www.independent.co.uk/news/people/rupert-read-green-party-candidate-apologises-for-offending-transgender-people-9997956.html

Green for me if a someone stands.
If not,for the first time ever I may have to spoil my vote.

The SNP will only "interfere in purely English legislation" the same way Labour, LibDem and Tory MPs representing a Scottish constituency have always interfered. Why the horror at the SNP?

SNP might be rUK's best hope of saving the NHS from total privatisation. Is that a bad thing?

I'm going to vote Green. On majority I agree with more of their policies and manifesto than all other party's put together.

The SNP has no real interest in anything other than taking Scotland out of the Union.

I am a member of the SNP. I voted for Philippa Whitford to be the SNP candidate for Central Ayrshire. I bloody love Philippa.

She is an intellectual heavyweight.

She was my Consultant when a breast lump was investigated and I've seen her make speeches during Women For Independence meetings. She's ace.

In fact, every woman that I have met or listened to at Women for Indy meetings has been inspiring.

Green for me too. (Disillusioned ex Lib Dem voter)

< Another one who was planning to vote green but definitely will not know I know about their prostitution policy.

So labour I guess.

It's been conservative every year before.

*now I know

I have not attended any although I know a couple of women who are heavily involved with this. They did not inspire nor convince me.

What they said before the refererrndum was just regurgitating Salmond's " it'll all be fine, don't worry " mantra. Afterwards it was largely vitriol about being betrayed by the ignorance and greed of the No voters.

Feminism is an illusion. There are no homogenous sisterhoods in the political imagination. Class is the driving factor that determines which women have rights and which women are left struggling. Currently child poverty is the highest ever recorded, this will mean lifelong trauma for many females. Domestic violence refuge's have closed due to cuts and many women have now lost the right to legal aid. Millions of women are stuck in 8 or 16 zero hour contracts with no work rights and many women are having to go without food in order to feed their children.

We need a civilised government that acts in the interest of the majority regardless of gender.

A point against Greens is that they want to legalize prostitution? Well, surely that would be better than the current situation wouldn't it, and make it easier to identify trafficked women?

What are the Tories and Labour planning to do about prostitution? If they have any better ideas I haven't noticed them during all their years in power.

Something has to be done. No political party can click their fingers and make prostitution disappear, and realistically as it does and will continue to exist I would like to see it made as safe for the sex workers as possible.

Prostitution is legal in the UK, Gatorade. Within certain parameters.

There are already effective laws against trafficking and sexual exploitation of under 18s. I don't see how criminalising prostitution outright is going to help those who are trafficked.

"I would like to see it made as safe for the sex workers as possible."

Agree.

I don't think many people see where the Greens are coming from. They aren't wanting to decriminalise prostitution for the benefit of men, they want to do it with the best interests of prostitutes in mind.

The Nordic model I think would deter prostitutes from calling the police against a client if it were necessary. Being exposed as a prostitute would put her at risk of losing her home, referred to social services and risk losing her children, being arrested for "running a brothel" (if she was working with anyone else). And all for what? All that risk so the police would come and give the client a small fine if anything (the punishment in Sweden if caught buying sex).

Under decriminalisation prostitutes wouldn't have to worry about what I mentioned above and wouldn't be deterred from contacting police if needed.

I see precisely where the greens are coming from on this; I don't agree that it is the best way to protect women in that situation

Ah, ok, I should have googled it myself instead of trying to piece things together from the thread!

(Bowing out now, I'm going to have to do much more reading before I can have an informed opinion on this. Still planning on voting Green though.)

Just an observation here: Surely the main reason that women generally don't contact the police when men do stuff to them - whether the women are prostitutes or not - is that the police aren't interested and women know that.

I agree Petula I don't want measures which facilitate prostitution and make it look anything like a valid career choice.