Conservative manifesto; no mention of GRA

[MrsSnippyPants]

Long grass it is then. I'll be asking my ppc what happened to those consultation responses.
The word 'gender' does not appear anywhere, FYI

ZuttzeVoot indeed so. Same-sex protections for women have been so far eroded as to be rather meaningless, plus we are at a stage where even stating that a woman is a biological female puts you at risk of losing your job.

Manifestos are all about stuff you are going to do, not stuff you aren't going to do. If they don't intend to reform the GRA, there's no point at all in referring to it.

In their section on crime, they say:

"We will protect people from physical attack or harassment whether for their sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or disability, and expand funding for and protect places of worship. We will vigorously combat harassment and violence against all religious groups, and against LGBT people. We will ensure that those who work in countering extremism are protected from threats and intimidation. We will ban public bodies from imposing their own direct or indirect boycotts, disinvestment or sanctions campaigns against foreign countries. These undermine community cohesion."

It's notable that they list many of the protected characteristics, but not gender reassignment.

Not relevant to this debate, but that last bit is clearly aimed at stopping local authorities etc boycotting Israel.

I like the proposal for integrated domestic violence courts so criminal and family matters are dealt with in parallel. I think I'll be voting Tory for the first time ever, not least because my current labour MP is an awful misogynist who spouts TWAW and calls those who object bigots.

They actually use the word "sex"? They may have just won my vote...

Wow, that does not mention gender identity at all.

Linking up civil courts and criminal courts is excellent but many domestic abuse cases do not ever come to court, particularly in Scotland where corroboration is required, and actually providing legal aid where mothers have been told by Social Services to stop contact but still end up bankrupting themselves in family court to ensure it stays stopped would be a step forward too. The system is so disjointed that linking criminal and civil proceedings, whilst a valuable step, really is only one part of it.

If your mind is ‘boggled’ because I have correctly pointed out that the Conservatives are not ‘right wing’ I can’t help you.

Here a few different definitions of what 'right wing' means.

"Someone with right-wing politics would have a political position that views social inequality or social stratification as natural, normal, inevitable or even desirable. They will typically defend this political position on the basis of tradition, natural law or economics. Therefore, people with right-wing politics view society having hierarchies and the inequalities that result as being the natural outcome of traditional social differences or the result of competition in market economies"

"People on the right believe that the best outcome for society is achieved when individual rights and civil liberties are paramount and the role — and especially the power — of the government is minimized"

"Lower taxes; less regulation on businesses; reduced government spending; balanced budget"

"Right-wing populism, a political ideology that often combines laissez-faire capitalism, nationalism, ethnocentrism and anti-elitism, is sometimes described as far-right. Right-wing populism often involves appeals to the "common man" and opposition to immigration"

If this election is seen/is a choice between -

(1) Remain supporting parties (in their various shades) who will introduce self ID

Vs

(2) Right wing party who have doomed the country to austerity and will push to hard brexit but who may not introduce self ID

The huge operative word is if because I suspect very few people see it in those terms. I certainly don't.

I see it as a choice between an extremist, misogynistic, anti-semitic,
intolerant Marxist/Momentum led party and the Tories. The current set of Tories could be better (I'm thinking now fondly back to John Major whom I didn't vote for at the time) but they sure as hell aren't as awful as Corbyn, McDonnell, Butler et al

This is great news. We are having an impact. Keep pulling.

Typical Tories... Start something they then can't handle i.e. the GRA reforms and then can't handle the fall out so just quietly move away from the mess they've made... wait a minute, isn't that a bit like.. Brexit?!

I for one am glad that they are backing away from this tbh.

I wonder if any party members are going to raise this with Conservative HQ given that there are Tory GC voters out there. Does anyone actually know if there are many conservative GC women/supporters out there?

Are there any Tory groups to discuss Women's Rights like there are in other political parties? I see that there are at least two petitions doing the roads from two other major political parties in support of women but not from the Conservatives.. why is that exactly?

The Tories do not have a Dawn Butler spewing anti-woman rhetoric all over the place - that I know of that is - so that could be one reason why?

I too am thinking now of voting Tory instead of spoiling my ballot. If we lose on women’s rights now it will be incredibly difficult to get them back. I then need to hope that Lib Dems and/or labour sort themselves out so I can go back to voting on economic policy. I could not have conceived of ever being in this situation.

The conservatives are the only party who will push back on self ID.

There is Maria Miller.

The Conservatives are not ‘right wing.’

Haven't laughed this hard in a while. Thanks for that.

I see it as a choice between an extremist, misogynistic, anti-semitic,
intolerant Marxist/Momentum led party and the Tories

Completely agree with this.

The idea that Boris, Michael Gove and Priti Patel et al think TWAW is laughable. Penny Mordaunt didn't make the cut, and I expect that was the reason.

The Tories are very aware of gender issues. Not just Mail, Times, Spectator and Telegraph, but the wonderfully named ‘Conservative Woman’ has run some great GC articles.

(Conservative Woman sounds like the sort of magazine you could leave in all sorts of random places and get the same sort of reaction that you might get from sticker woman.)

Plus Andrew Gillian now works as an advisor for Boris.

I think that the fact heavy punchers like David Davis (not the TC one) are now speaking out suggests that self ID is not on the Tory agenda. They have a long enough to-do list with legislation squeezed out by Brexit, and indeed with Brexit itself.

The conservatives are the only party who will push back on self ID.

They have been in power for almost 10 years. Penny Mordaunt and Maria Miller certainly weren't pushing back and Amber Rudd and Liz Truss have done nothing to push back against e.g. schools getting rid of single sex toilets.

I agree that on this issue they are better than any of the alternatives, but they haven't addressed the issue either, and there have been plenty of opportunities over the last 2 years.

My local Conservative MP replied to my email in total agreement regarding problems with self ID and has been gc on twitter so he'll get my vote.

I agree that on this issue they are better than any of the alternatives, but they haven't addressed the issue either, and there have been plenty of opportunities over the last 2 years.

This, please don't think that this is any type of guarantee that the party won't introduce self ID, just that out of all the parties, they might not while the other big ones definitely will.

The conservatives are the only party who will push back on self ID.

Let's not forget that they were the ones who promised to introduce it in the first place. They were perfectly ready and willing to go ahead with it - it was only the campaigning of groups like Woman's Place UK and Fair Play for Women that led to the huge negative response to the consultation and hence a quiet decision to ditch it.

That in itself isn't good for women and children if they aren't going to tackle the way organisations are misinterpreting the EA.

Exactly this. Unless the Conservatives promise to tighten guidance around the Equalities Act, we are fucked. Self ID is creeping into every area of society.

In my opinion a party that will do nothing right now is better than one which will remove rights. it means that for a while everything is the same and the push back can still happen, we can't throw away the steps that have already been made.