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

Some cognitive dissonance here on this thread. Fact is of all the main parties the Conservatives are least awful on this issue. Is there really any argument against that? lib dems are a total
Lost cause and labour likewise and they appoint men as women’s officers. \(ツ)/¯. I realise it’s a bitter pill but there it is. Ports in a storm and all that.

There is Maria Miller

Yes, was about to mention her. Her performance in the select committee meeting to which WPUK had been invited was pretty dire regarding the GC position.

I realise it’s a bitter pill but there it is. Ports in a storm and all that

A port in a storm?

To me the Conservative party has always been about harshness; lack of compassion; moral judgment; protecting existing privilege; cutting taxes for the well off and wealthy, while reducing public spending; austerity; decline in public services; appeals to self interest.......Just no!

I'm going to be judged as hell here - how can anybody who is a feminist possibly vote conservative?

Their policies and actions are awful for women, disabled folk and minorities.

Yes, I like all of you want a government to whom "Woman: adult human female" isn't perceived as an act of aggression. It's really important to me... but even if they had the perfect GC approach, I couldn't hand on heart vote for them if women's rights were an influencing factor in the way I vote (and they are).

Judgey* not judged (although maybe that too! )

Port in a storm my arse, the Tories started this. The Conservatives introduced the idea of self ID. This has been the most socially disruptive, divisive govt I've lived through.
A homeless person dies on the street every 19 hours, and don't ignore the disabled people who have died after their benefits have been cut.

There is hardly a single decent politician left to vote for.

Their policies and actions are awful for women, disabled folk and minorities

Yes, I recall the phone call from my mother in which she was in floods of tears and despair being threatened with the Ian Duncan Smith's 'bedroom tax'. They have one bedroom too many - according to Tory policy - and would be forced to pay a tax ( for a party who loves to cut taxes for the better off) out of an income she does not have. A home she had lived in for 40 years.....the misery and the wilful infliction of pain on vulnerable human beings is more than I can take.

Select committee members are appointed by MPs in parliament, not the government. They're there to hold the government to account.

I'm not making excuses; Theresa May was hopeless and her decision to elevate Ruth Hunt to the HoL was unforgivable imo.
However, there's a new lot in charge of the Tories now and I'll be astonished if there's not a much more GC ethos now. They will be well aware of the arguments put forward by FPFW and WPUK and will have read the mood of the general public.

I had a very sensible email from my Tory MP on this. he's one of the 21 who rebelled and has said he'll stand against a no deal Brexit.

i've been spoiling my vote for about 18 months now, but this GE feels too important for that. but the only party I can possibly vote for are the conservatives and I don't bloody want Boris Fucking Johnson to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

But I'm starting to gain a keen understanding of how people ended up voting for Donald Trump.

how can anybody who is a feminist possibly vote conservative?

No fucking clue. Their policies ideologies and actions have damaged the most vulnerable, the poorest and the least abled for years. They are led by a cabinet which has forefronted as HoC leader a man who is anti-choice and worse, a woman who wishes to bring back the death penalty, and a prime minister who lied and lied to push a right wing agenda to get us to leave the Eu. And all of that will be ignored with a convicting of oneself that they are indeed centrist, and that actively voting for a party out to get a hard brexit, and fronted by the likes of JRM and BJ and PP is a-OK. I was going to spoil my ballot but after reading some of these voting-Tory-holding-nose posts I am back to drawing board to think really hard about that decision again.

Wasn't bedroom tax originally a Labour Idea?

However, there's a new lot in charge of the Tories now

Yes, like the self serving Priti Patel who thinks the British are the"laziest people" on earth.....and Dominic Raab, who wasn't aware, until prompted, of the importance of the Dover/Calais crossing to trade with Europe. Jacob Rees Mogg who secretly thinks that the lower classes have no common sense - because they don't use their own judgment and simply obey the authorities ( as good citizens do), while lounging horizontal on the front benches in a display of complete and utter arrogance; and Boris Johnson with his feet, literally, on the table at the Elysee Palace......

Wasn't bedroom tax originally a Labour Idea?

No, it was a coalition 'idea', as far as I'm aware.

Are there any Tory groups to discuss Women's Rights like there are in other political parties?

My Tory MP told me that she is a member of a feminist group of Tory MPs. They have apparently discussed GRA reform in their group and lots of them see the problems. She rather indiscretely reeled off a whole list of GC Conservative MPs, who I won't name as none of them are publicly "out", but some of them were pretty senior.

Their policies and actions are awful for women, disabled folk and minorities

Cough Peter Hain Cough Remploy Centre factory closures that put thousands of disabled people out of work.

There are broadly two schools of thought opposing GRA and self ID.

1. One is the sort mumsnet comprises of perhaps, where the objections rest in fighting for sea based rights

1. The other kind (looking at UKIP votjng jn laws here) - are the likes of Richard Littlejohn, Rees Mogg or many a Daily Mail columnist. They are against “all this trans stuff” just as they have been against pretty much anything LGBTQ. My in laws are totally against TWAW but NOT because of any argument they share with so-called TERFs but because they are mini Richard Littlejohns, who hate gay people with venom, who are anti choice and who think the Tories have lost their vote as they “are too centrist”. My FIL has looked me in the eye - me a brown skinned immigrant - and said “we take in too many Indians and Pakistanis” and spouted praise for Farage. He is anti TWAW as anti TWAW one can get. FOR THE WRONG REASONS. Not over my fucking dead body are he and I on the same side.

So, I do not see how anyone can vote conservative whilst believing they have feminist, left wing or liberal values. There is no answer but political homelessness at the moment but voting for the Tories is not the answer.

Sex based rights ffs

Prime Minister Corbyn?
Chancellor McDonnell?
Home Secretary Abbott?
Foreign Secretary Thornberry?
Women's Minister Butler?

That's a better option?

Actually, if Labour do win the election, I predict an internal coup with Corbyn being ousted (on health grounds) and McDonnell taking over (like Ken Livingston did on the GLC)

So, I do not see how anyone can vote conservative whilst believing they have feminist, left wing or liberal values.

I'm not sure they are left wing now, at least not in it's current form, most are horrified by what it's become.

Prime Minister Corbyn?
Chancellor McDonnell?
Home Secretary Abbott?
Foreign Secretary Thornberry?
Women's Minister Butler?

That's a better option?

i like John McDonnell - but no - I'll be spoiling my ballot. I 'd love to vote Labour - but cannot for several reasons, including, of course Gender Self ID. Dawn Butler represents everything that has gone wrong with the Labour party for me. Although there are plenty of others. She's supposed to be the women's minister.

I simply cannot vote with integrity for any of them

I simply cannot vote with integrity for any of them

I think a whole lot of people will be joining you in spoiling your ballot.
sometimes It is absolutely the best thing to do.

Utter respect for anyone spoiling their ballot. But to actually opt to vote conservative whilst claiming to be feminist in any way shape of form, including using GRA as reason to look past the injuries conservatism has wrecked and trying to claim they are now centrist is just not ok.

Would any party or group be in this current TRA hell if it hadn't been for the Tories setting up the GRA consultation in the first place... i don't think so.

The Conservatives have set something up so incredibly divisive and now people are going to vote for them as they're the most GC!

Whoever was in government would have been lobbied by TRAs to introduce self ID, the difference is other parties would have probably done it already. At least the Tories are having the sense to back away from it.

I'm going to be judgey as hell here - how can anybody who is a feminist possibly vote conservative?

I'm almost too scared to write this (in much the same way that I'm often too scared to challenge trans ideology) but I'm someone who thinks of themself as a feminist but not a socialist. I'm one of those awful people who will be voting Conservative in a couple of weeks time. My reasoning is that I honestly believe the policies and pledges of the Tory party are way preferable to those of Labour for the working class women, men and children in the area that I live.