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.

I sincerely do hope that the greens don't turn on us like the lib dems. Go muck in if you don't like specific policies. Both lib dems and greens are small - I think Clegg was monumentally naive about the purposes of a coalition but essentially a decent guy and therefore hopelessly outclassed. Don't think greens will fall into that trap. We can only hope.

i agree with many of the greens' policies, but i need to work out whether those i don't agree with are ones that i can stomach enough to vote for them. one of those is their stance on prostitution - i want to know more about that because on the face of it it is troubling, plus i want to find out what my own local candidate has to say on this and other matters before i decide whether to give them my vote

Question marks are not against Talk Guidelines. Troll hunting is.

i agree with you there lightning

Nobody accused you of being a punter. I just asked if you are one, as I did with Fayyive. It's a pretty relevant question in the context of a discussion on prostitution, particularly when the points being raised are largely lies promulgated by brothel owners, pimps and punters. If you think prostituon is so wonderful, why take offence at being asked if you take part in it?

when jodie marsh went to investigate prostitution in Amsterdam I think, though legal it still seemed exploitative and there was still trafficking.

FloraFox, it would be really good if you and your mates would acknowledge that Troll Hunting is against MN Talk Guidelines.

Obviously troll hunting is against the guidelines. I wasn't troll hunting though. Not all punters are trolls (NAPALT).

Buffy don't go.

yes trafficking was much worse, see also Germany

decriminalising some of the activities of the criminals who run industries like drugs and prostitution doesn't turn them into law abiding business people overnight and where prostitution is legal it isn't suddenly a desirable profession that appeals to young women and men, in NZ for example it's horribly stigmatising

The refusal to acknowledge that you are Troll Hunting when you are Troll Hunting is more of a problem than what I initially thought was your problem.

What does that even mean?

You said you appreciate unbiased opinions. The opinions of pimps and punters is not unbiased. It's a perfectly relevant question.

The Green Party policy on prostitution makes perfect sense to me. Everything about the party makes sense to me.

i have made a sort of resolution this year to write to my MP more on issues i think are important, so whoever it is likely to be the tory incumbent again will hear plenty from me

Morning all. This seems to be veering wildly off course. Any chance we could put aside the alleged troll-hunting and alleged troll-hunting-hunting for now and get back to the discussion in hand?

It would be useful if posters could respond to my link above. It's very relevant. But of course has been ignored.

I think the Greens are a bit like the LibDems used to be. They can make whatever policies they like because they never had a hope of getting into power. Now with the prospect of another coalition or minority government, the Greens might actually have some say. My problem is that I don't really understand which of their policies they would trade and which ones they would really stand up for. A lot of the policies seem to come from a jumble of different ideologies which makes it hard to assess what they would do if they were able to exert some power.

Interesting point flora - when lib dems chose their compromises they kept the things they had most in common with the tories (eg, raising the income tax limit) and lost those that were most different (Uni fees)

So worth considering if Labour/Tory got most of majority and then greens/lib dem/snp etc were minor in coalition what policies would they have in common to keep?

Agree re coalitions.

oh she would be great buffy, can we have a webchat with caroline lucas mnhq?

And/or Natalie Bennett?