Pro Remain GC feminists - who are you voting for?

[Fantasisa]

Just that. I feel like the only option available to me is spoiling my ballot which is clearly a terrible waste.

I agree Floisme
I also hate the current trend of slagging off the other party, rather than focusing in what your own party can do.

Also agree with pp on the Lib Dems stance on prostitution etc being terrible for women. Why is there no party that I feel happy to vote for ? As a woman I am part of half the electorate. Half. Yet every party is prioritising men. Jo Swinson is a joke, sadly lacking in brains, and trampling all over women’s rights. The violent lesbians thing made me rage..the absolute idiocy of that comment.

Fair point, SirVix, if I were to lead a political party, it would be one to restore a functioning welfare state, to end homelessness (with children as top priority), to stop the absolutely horrific treatment of disabled people in this country, to clamp down on tax havens under British jurisdiction, to tackle violence against women, introduce the Nordic model ... but not to fob women off with gimmicky policies such as menopause legislation (Labour) which are clearly relating to biological sex but nobody can say that!

Flushed what are human rights if they are only for men?

Jo Swinson is a joke, sadly lacking in brains, and trampling all over women’s rights. The violent lesbians thing made me rage..the absolute idiocy of that comment

Jo Swinson is a nice middle class girl, of an age and generation that has benefitted from many of the gains that the women's movement has secured. Her feminism is rooted in fine ideas of 'equality', rather than in any analysis of structures of power, or an understanding of the real roots of women's oppression.

Flushed what are human rights if they are only for men

That's the thing!

I got involved in a lengthy discussion ( a rant if I'm truthful......) with a party activist out delivering leaflets. I mentioned the position of women and girls in India, China, Saudi Arabia...and was told that was " different" That "everyone knows the position of women in many countries is not good".

I said that as long as any woman anywhere was suffering thus, then so was I - here in the so-called liberated West. That if women anywhere are still subject to certain oppressions then we all were.

And that really is how I see it. Unlike Jo Swinson, I really don't think that there can be a hierarchy of rights or privileges. There can be no cultural relativism. Women's rights are human rights wherever they live.

pieceofpurplesky my political views are not at all inconsistent with my “claim to be a feminist”. I find your comment pretty rude actually, and not very helpful to the debate or the end game. I’m slightly right of centre, and like everyone else on this board I am less than thrilled with the options before me. Everyday sexism is rife in our society and is a problem that won’t be solved by one election, and I have no doubt that the Conservative party suffers from their fair share of it. Is everyday sexism a lesser evil than trying to actually erase women? I believe so.

Probably Labour. Lib Dem’s are too gong ho about self Id, and making it a positive priority. Labour are trying to fudge the issue, but I feel there are enough GC people in Labour Party to make a fight of it. Can’t vote Tory.

Labour. Chance of getting Conservative Party out in this seat. I am not voting on just one issue. I think this country is in a desperate state due to Tory policies and the Brexit referendum. Deprivation, homelessness, dangerous state of A and E, not to mention transport in this area have all made my mind to vote Labour.
Not to mention the dangerous and disgusting exaggeration of the reporting around Jeremy Corbyn and anti semitism. I am in despair at the state of our media.

LD.
both LD and Labour are putting transgenderism above sex re interpretation of the equality legislation so there's nothing to choose there. Likewise social policies aren't significantly different.
LD would at least try to stop Brexit.
I have been a Tory voter in the past. The current lot are mostly part of the brexiteer liars and I cannot trust a thing they say. Further the country can't recover unless someone makes real strides to equilibriate wealth and get more help to those who need it. I have more faith in LD to do that than Labour who seem to be about sound bites rather than figures.

Labour, for me. Today, that is. I may change my mind on the day and it end being "eeny meeny miny mo". (Have crossed out the LibDems). In a Tory safe seat, but I'll give it a go. Not what my Jewish friends would prefer I do, but, I do like the NHS.

I'm in the process of ordering some stickers for the purposes of spoiling my ballot. They will read:

Transwomen are men: women require single sex services, spaces and sports for their dignity, comfort & safety

I'm impressed with some SNP policies

That won't be the ones involving health , education or the police then.

Or , if you are gender critical, how does the Act about equal representation for women on the boards of public bodies sit with you?

I see that despite approving the introduction of the Nordic Model as policy at the annual conference about 3 years ago the SNP has done nothing about even starting to think about maybe doing some ground work on how it would work let alone introducing it.

And Mhairi Black- I note no one in the SNP hierarchy has taken her to task about calling women cunts.

Should all women spoiling maybe aim for a hashtag that can also be shared on SM? Maybe something like #votesforwomen ?

I'm genuinely surprised that so many women feel they cannot vote Labour. Possibly because I live in the North, but not quite into Scotland, I feel they are the only party worth my vote and that of women generally. Looking at Labour's record over the years and the current manifesto, I feel that the only hope of seeing an end to austerity, which disproportionately impacts women, is to vote for a Labour government (or Labour led coalition). Health services, education and social care are also high on my agenda.

I'm not too worried about changes to the GRA as more and more Labour women are starting to recognise the dangers of self ID and the affect this is already having on the most vulnerable women in society. Many women of my age that I've spoken to thought that GRCs were given to transsexuals who had had full surgery, were taking hormones and wished to have a quiet life being accepted as women. It's only after becoming aware of the antics of TRAs and their allies that they start to question the ideology. It's also worth remembering that it was the Tories that introduced the GRA reforms in 2016. The GRA having been put in place after a European Court of Human Rights ruling in 2002.

Even though I'm the most fervent of remainers, I think that Corbyn's neutral stance is a good one for a potential PM to take, especially in a party that prides itself on demicracy. The PM and government have to represent the whole of the country not just half of it, the idea of going back to Europe and trying to find a better deal then when we know the terms of our exit have another vote makes sense to me.

Finally, on anti-semitism and the press handling of it. As a child in the 60s & 70s I heard casual anti-semitism in the playground although I didn't recognise it until later. I've never heard it since apart from usage by far right thugs and conspiracy theorists, most of whom are also far right in their views. I certainly don't think that Corbyn is antisemitic, his record does not suggest it, no matter how hard certain people try and make it so. Having never personally witnessed any anti-semitism in the Party, I'm heartened by recent research which found that there was far less anti-semitism on the left and that members of other parties and the public at large were far more guilty.

I'm therefore proud to be able say I'm voting Labour on Thursday, even if I have to be carried in on my sick bed.

Sorry for the essay!

I'm in a Tory/SNP extremely marginal (though SNP predicted to win). I am not in favour of an independent Scotland but would have voted SNP if my candidate had given a flying fuck about women. Unfortunately he seems to be a misogynist who hasn't signed the women's pledge so he can fuck off. I might have voted lib dem before the GRA reform nonsense. So I will probably spoil my ballot with a gc phrase. We are so marginal that someone might give it more than a passing glance.

I'm in a LibDem / Tory marginal seat. With no joy in my heart whatsoever, I'll be voting LD. Looking at the policies and track records of the two parties in the round, I'm closer to the LDs - though a very long way away on some crucial issues, including self-ID. I respect the decision of others to spoil their vote, but just don't feel I can do that in my own situation.

I respect the decision of others to spoil their vote, but just don't feel I can do that in my own situation

As we don't have compulsory voting then of course that decision has to be respected although it's really no different from the decision not to vote at all.

The idea that a "gender critical" message is going to stand out from the other green crayon diatribes and drawings of penises is fanciful.

The concept of not being in favour of Scottish separatism but spoiling your ballot and probably allowing an SNP win seems like cutting off your nose to spoil your face.

I kind of agree with you, Velvet. But realistically, my choices are Tory and SNP. One of those 2 will get in. Probably SNP. My Tory mp was very supportive when I met him about women's rights, but he pretty much always votes with the government, so a vote for him is a vote for Boris and his immoral puppetmasters. (I think Boris is more liberal than he lets on but his primary motivation is his career, so he'll go where that takes him.) I am caught between a rock and a hard place.

DP is a non-voter - never has.

She's going to spoil this time.

Having never personally witnessed any anti-semitism in the Party, I'm heartened by recent research which found that there was far less anti-semitism on the left and that members of other parties and the public at large were far more guilty

I live in Liverpool where two Jewish MPs have now stood down from the Labour party. Louise Ellman ( my MP) and Luciana Berger. both were effectively bullied out by members of their own constituency parties. It has always been clear to me, from many years spent around those on the left, that the left's obsession with Palestine, anti-Capitalism and anti-Americanism very often does segue into general anti semitic tropes Scratch the surface and they are all there.

There is a lot of bullying going on in various local constituency parties since Jeremy Corbyn was elected. It is not so much that he is anti-semitic, but that a whole wave of hard leftists have now re-entered the fray; along side the new generation of young Momentum members and candidates. They are hounding out anyone who they perceive as a Blairite, or anyone who voted for the Iraq war, for example.

Having never personally witnessed open heart surgery, I believe it exists...

To all those thinking of spoiling your ballot to send a message - do you honestly think that it communicates anything useful? Spoiled ballots are thrown away; it's not as if your rejected candidates are going to read your messages and agonise over them.

If you want to engage with candidates about GC issues, which I agree totally is vitally important, then email them, ring them, turn up at hustings and question them, write to them. Hold them to account. But don't waste a vote, it's not the place to articulate these issues with any kind of effectiveness.

I don't expect them to read them. I'm only going to write None. At most they will think that mine and the handful of others will be votes they could have won.
It's about not being able to face myself in the mirror knowing I enabled any of this shit by giving them my vote.

And not giving them the satisfaction of driving me away from the ballot box.