Labour party just came to my door...

[Terfnserf]

My labour party candidate just came to my door. I asked her to describe a woman and apparently it all depends 'how you are socialised' sputtered something about intersex and violence against trans She appeared not to know about TW on all women short lists, or TW being women's officers. I suggested she watches a few Magdalene Berns videos on YouTube. Unfortunately I am not very eloquent so not sure how I came across.

@ChangeOfTides
I missed a comma there. A transwo man who passes, bit of an oxymoron there

I'm In a safe Labour seat that the Lib Dems have their eye on... the next election will surely be one big wokey-cokey with lots of beardy blokeys... yay!

Oh wait, I'm a middle aged natal woman! Never mind. I'm sure they will let me make the tea or something.

Woman afraid of violence from woman who may actually be a well disguised violent man who identifies as transgender.

I live in such a safe Conservative seat that we have never - in the decade I've lived here - had a single canvasser from any political party. Apparently it's not worth the Labour party's time or money to even try and win here. Local elections are just as dull! My MP is very GC - and open about it - but he's as right wing as they come so not a chance in hell I'll vote for him. Must think of something to spoil my ballot with.

That suggests you want to give the response the voter wants to hear, rather than your (or your party's) actual opinion.

To be fair, if you gave the ”wrong” answer to a TRA, you might regret it. I might be careful too with that particular question.

Hopefully you gave her food for thought terfnserf.

I love the leaflet idea, definitely going to do that. And I'm planning to add that any candidate who can't define 'woman' or say why it's important cannot be trusted in any way shape or form with my legal rights and protections so I'll be voting for whoever's most likely to keep them out.

In the vast majority of cases this will not be true but hey, not holding myself to a higher standard than they have.

Also arf at the idea that canvassers who have chosen to do something inherently risky (knocking on strangers' doors) will suddenly come over all nervous because an obvious female (arf again at passing transwoman) asks a polite question. Uh huh.

Lysistrataknowsherstuff

Same here...nobody comes round ever

And ive lived here for 28 years

I did see an argument in a local town between a labour canvasser and someone who by the sounds of it usually voted tory

And i think there was a hustings in a local church hall...once

"In other words, please vote for me, I'll say whatever the fuck you want me to say."

That just about sums up my view of politicians today.

The main problem when knocking on doors is that you never know where the person is coming from, and there are a lot of people with a lot of different opinions. So if I knock on someone's door and they say "I'm annoyed about brexit" it could be because they're a leaver or a remainer

That's the point! People want to know what the party line is, not what you think they want to hear.

Last local election here, I sent a very carefully worded, completely neutral question on the "TWAW" statement to all the relevant local parties, linking to the most reputable version of any policy I could find from the national parties.

1: (bright young thing, she'll soon find out what AWS means...) came back with her earnest belief that TWAW and the most oppressed, most marginalized, most at-risk... She didn't reply to my (polite) follow up.

2: trotted party line but didn't sound too enamoured. I have since seem them all over local pride activities, but as a lesbian I suspect she's only there for the L and hasn't a clue about the T.

3: came back with a carefully worded statement but crucially commented that women need protection and it must be maintained. he and I actually had quite a good dialogue about the issues and he seemed interested and interested to learn more.

Can't help but feel that Labour is in the position that it is in (fucking dire) precisely because it cowardly frames questions that it doesn't want to answer as "asked in bad faith" and can therefore be dismissed.

Yes. If that's your avowed belief, have the gumption to stand by it for fuck's sake. Explain why you believe that, expand on why and use the power of persuasion to try and show me why you think my opinion is wrong - I am big enough to accept if I make mistakes when I learn new info. I can explain why I believe what I do, with evidence to back it up, without any hesitation, so why can't you?

Buzz thank you - that's exactly what I've been trying to articulate to myself. If you're going to stand by stupid fucking wokey policies at least make sure you can evidence and explain them. And if you can't, maybe allow yourself to consider that there might be a problem with them.

I'm really looking forward to the SNP coming round, my MSP is Shirley Anne Somerville so they should know all about the GRA.

The SNP always visit frequently during elections, their current parliamentary majority here is less than 500 with a strong labour candidate standing this time. Even Labour should come round this time as they will both be so desperate for votes.