Want to be Politically active - despairing over which party

[Blessingsdragon1]

I'm probably naturally a Libdem or Green - as a radish femenist have issues with both parties. I want in the face of brexit and the Tories to become a member of a party again. Are you still a member of a mainstream party and how do you square your rad fem ideals?

Think I might stick my 'woman = adult female' sticker on my ballot paper. There is certainly no one to vote for.

To me though self id is currently one of the most pressing issues there are other equally important issues that affect women on a daily basis. Employment laws, maternity leave, minimum wages public sector wages , benefits etc and so it's either green or Labour for me as the Tories have worsened the lives of many women I know.

I completely see your point but, for me, the erasure of women as a class is more important. Employment laws, maternity leave, the wage gap etc will all be affected when we cannot state what a woman actually is.

yes but while women are in poverty or struggling many women who would fight the ridiculous and dangerous ( but complex and abstract ) self id issues are more concerned with the realities of surviving poverty and day to day shite.

I have an idea. I don't know whether other women will go for it.

It is a way of alerting political parties to the fact that women are serious about wanting the restoration of the sex 'female, before a General Election.

In brief, we try to persuade women to turn out for the local elections in May, to write a slogan or spoil the ballot paper.

In May 2019, there will be thousands of local council seats up for grabs. Turnout is low and the stakes are high for control of city, town, country and county halls. Even in 'one-party rotten boroughs' where voting for another party seems futile, the ruling party still needs the legitimacy of a convincing win.

If we can make out mark (literally) in a wide-spread grassroots action at the ballot box, we will leave political parties with something to think about before a General Election.

I think that’s a great idea. I have always voted, sometimes by holding my nose and going for the least worst option, but if nothing changes in the major parties between now and the local elections in May then I will be scrawling ‘Woman: adult human female’ across my ballot paper, as will my OH.

Or get one of Posie's stickers and do it which is my plan. They are just the right size for a ballot paper!

Apparently, I side with the Lib Dems.

I'm in Wales.
I started getting interested in Plaid Cymru, last year - until the then PC leader, Leanne Wood, said TWAW.

Plaid Cymru completely lost me then, if TWAW.

PC have a new leader now, of course - Adam Price. Don't know his thoughts on this issue so far.

I’m hoping for an independent candidate I can back. There was a really interesting woman who stood as an independent in my area last time and did quite well. She seems to have views that align with mine. No idea if she would stand again but I think I’d rather vote for people not party so would be hopeful of a decent independent candidate. Both parties have become too polarised and extreme imo - we now have far right vs far left - and the LD have decided to self destruct just at a time when they could actually be a credible middle ground alternative. It’s all a bit bleak!

The candidates in my area are enmeshed in local politics.

It's very incestuous, with the same faces showing up time and again on different committees and religious organisations.

They've all sold their souls to the various party manifestos and curry favour with visits to mosques, gurdwaras, temples, churches, halls and synagogues.

There would be no hope for an Independent candidate here.

Independent candidates are a good idea. I live somewhere where they weigh the votes for the incumbent party rather than bother counting them so perhaps a sticker on the ballot paper is the way forward.

I have no idea. The greens have shown they have no ability to prevent t themselves from being groomed - they aren’t a safe pair of hands.
Labour are anti woman, anti Semitic and moving down a path wrt free speech that find totalitarian.
LD are anti woman.
Tories have driven asset stripping, austerity and politics which have lead to Brexit.

So I don’t know. If there was a party that valued free speech and autonomy like the tories, and decent environmental credentials, hadthe sense to drive the economy towards R andD, and had social/economic policies that balanced job creation and social cohesion of vote for them. As long as they could say wat a woman was....

I don’t think any of what I’d like from a political party is extreme is it? Basically be fairly centrist, don’t destroy the environment, create a fair welfare state, run economy responsibly, try not to start any major wars and don’t strip half the population of their rights.

I wouldn’t assume that the tories will take a GC position is pressed if that is your concern. The party is run by idiots (although they all are I suppose). I would just start your own.

@bowlofbablefish but a party that valued autonomy wouldn’t take the kinds of economic measures that you describe because they are rather anti autonomy. Automomy and freedom demand financial responsibility. Either you leave people alone to make their own choices by keeping taxes (particularly punitive taxes like taxes on Petrol or sugar) and benefits/services to the minimum required by a well run/safe/compassionate to those that are genuinely weak state. Or you interfere with personal liberty in order to generate enough tax to provide essential services to everyone (rather than just those who need it). State action and personal freedom are in competition.

I've been lib dem in the past (never a member) but simply because of how my local set up is, I'm tempted to join and do some active work on the local mp in order to wake a few up to this.

Personally I think so many are in the dark.

The WEP really should know better.

Others are mostly just being 'woke' with no depth analysis.

I like the coordination idea, but wonder if we could do it as emails to all the parties? Form wording saying I as a woman will vote for the party who shows they know what a women is... If there were thousands of us doing it we might make a mark?

I just joined the Monster Raving Loony Party. Seriously.

I agree with Pam.

Unfortunately, on the issue of self ID I think the Tories are the least worse option because they are most likely to kick it into the long grass, while Corbyn appears to have drunk the kool aid.

The question is whether this or other issues are more important.

At the moment no party appears to have a good Brexit policy - both Tories and Labour dominated by men arguing that Juncker just needs a damn good talking to from a man.

State action and personal freedom are in competition.

In extremis yes. I get your point. But there is a path to be trod that balances the two. Or is possible to have a functioning democracy that doesn’t fuck up the environment and still allows decent fiscal management. I’m not advocating for autonomy in a kind of ‘zero state involvement’ way - I was actually thinking more of it in the context of things like bodily autonomy for women (which oddly the zero state involvement types in the US don’t seem to like v much..)

I don’t think there is an ideal country. Aspects of the Scandinavian/Nordic bloc are appealing, bits of various EU countries are. We were doing fairly OK until recently IMO - the last ten years have seen a real shift and not for the better.

All candidates and their agents have to view every single spoiled ballot to agree that it is spoiled - so if you write something on, they will definitely read it.

Regarding membership - while I respect and admire those who have left stating this as their reason, policies can only be changed from the inside - all the left leaning parties have secret groups of TWAW resistors - possibly the Tories do too (I don’t know enough Tories to comment).

I have no publishable thoughts on the clusterfuck that is the entire cross-party response to Brexit.

Didn't know that, Betty. Will definitely spoil my paper and say why, then.

Regarding membership - while I respect and admire those who have left stating this as their reason, policies can only be changed from the inside
Agreed, but it pained me to pay membership fees to the LP and I didn't/don't have the time to engage in a meaningful way with party members. I'd love to be able to devote the time to debating (even if it got me thrown out) but with that not an option, I was tacitly accepting their craziness by bankrolling it and I couldn't stomach that.
Incidentally they wouldn't let me leave - the LP is pretty disorganised when it comes to quitters and I was still getting emails etc from them until I replied to each individual and explained I'd already left (and stopped my direct debit).

I was tacitly accepting their craziness by bankrolling it

Exactly. If you pay membership you explicitly support that party and, by extension, its policies. And even if you have the resources to be active in that party, your chances of influencing policy are virtually nil.