Spoilt votes - post them here so that the parties/papers can see them

[MrsFogi]

I know there is a split of opinion about spoiling ballots vs voting for the least bad option.

If you do decide to spoil your ballot it feel free to post a photo of it here (be careful not to include any information that identifies you and in particular not to include the ballot's unique identification number) in case any of our loitering journalists wish to pick up the story or in the hope of giving the parties/candidates some pause for thought.

In case it is of interest (and you want a place to post your views for/against spoiling ballots), there have been a number of threads about spoiling ballots, a few links below:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3751902-Spoiling-my-ballot?pg=2 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3749890-Can-we-talk-spoiling-ballots-again-sorry
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3743237-advice-on-spoiling-ballot
Advice on Spoiling your vote

While I understand people spoiling ballots I cannot in good conscience not vote to try to get the tories out and end the austerity that is causing children to starve and not have heating in their homes. I just can’t do it. The GC issue seems so middle class when I think of people actually starving and not having enough money to be warm due to conservative policies. That’s how I feel.

think of people actually starving and not having enough money

Apologies for being a little facetious, but if self-id comes in, women can kiss goodbye to any hope of pay equality, because the male type of women - "coincidentally" paid more - will drag the averages up and be exemplars of how "women" aren't discriminated against.

Ditto getting jobs or promotions in the first place - any woman of childbearing age can kiss nice career enhancing moves goodbye when the male woman is never going to need maternity leave.

Pretty much anything that supports or prioritises or advances women in life can be negated, when male women prove the issue simply doesn't exist any more.

How's that going to affect women who already have it worse off?

I wouldn't dream of telling anyone how to vote.

Why on earth would you think that pointing out the lack of utility of spoiling is anything at all to do with recommending a party (whether major/minor/fringe) or an independent.

I think there are websites which claim to align your priorities and preferences to parties. So that might be the place to start if you decide to vote after all

No, that really is stretching it. Most people living on the breadline don’t give a shit about the trans issue or aren’t aware it is happening. They are living day to day trying to find enough money to feed their children. Austerity needs to end now. If you spoil the vote it won’t stop one of the parties getting elected. I know which one I would prefer. I accept that not all will feel the same though.

Getting a bit sick of the 'think of the children' posts from people who don't seem to care about the scary trend towards experimenting on kids via puberty blockers - leading to bone density issues, leading to cross sex hormones, leading to loss of sexual function and fertility, leading to healthy organ removal.
I'm spoiling my ballot.
Bite me.

The GC issue seems so middle class when I think of people actually starving and not having enough money to be warm due to conservative policies. That’s how I feel.

I get that. But it is poor disenfranchised women who will suffer most from these policies. Women in refuges, women in prisons, women whose children have MH issues or SEN, the women who have told us that middle class students come to lecture them on identity politics when they are trying to do outreach work, elderly women on hospital wards, women in psych wards. This is not a middle class issue at all

No - Its not a middle class issue shesdressed the middle class women will be able to buy their way out of this shit show.

Bit of a cop out answer that. You know you are telling people to vote (as opposed to not vote/spoil). You know our reasons for not voting, i.e., the total failure of any party to protect women. So give me a reason to vote. Let's try this by a process of elimination. Would you rather I voted Tory or spoiled my ballot?

So women who can take a stand, for and on behalf of themselves as well as the women who are unable to for whatever reason, are to be chastised as "too middle class", are they? Is that what you'd have said to the suffragettes?

My vote is mine to give or withhold as I see fit. No political party is worthy of my support because of their undemocratic attack on the existence of sex and the oppression women suffer because of their sex. All the parties have been complicit in allowing the infiltration of government policies by Stone wall, of allowing the medical experimentation on children without question.
I will not consent to this abuse of democratic processes by awarding any of them my vote.
'No' is also a political statement.

the middle class women will be able to buy their way out of this shit show.

Absolutely. And Jo and Dawn and the whole lot of them cannot even see that. It makes me so fucking angry.

Asking people to vote is asking us to put our name to something that we really fundamentally disagree with. They will take it as an endorsement.
If we don't vote - it will be taken that we don't care.
I don't care if one other person sees my spoiled ballot and starts to wonder. It's better than the alternatives.

The GC issue seems so middle class when I think of people actually starving and not having enough money to be warm due to conservative policies. That’s how I feel.

Which is why I've spent 30 fucking years working in homelessness. I've tried to make sure people have a home and food, for three decades. Am I allowed to use my vote only for those people who aren't actively trying to destroy my ability to define myself and impoverish the country? This time that's no one.

FWIW I'm not spoiling but I'd go to the barricades for the women who choose to.

I'm pretty sure I'm spoiling my paper too.

I cannot in good conscience vote for any of them.
I will know.

I also disagree that this won't send a message. The threads and circulation of photos of spoiled papers (postal) will have a digital footprint.

The threads and circulation of photos of spoiled papers (postal) will have a digital footprint.

There are enough journalists, public figures and even politicians that will see be lurking on threads like this and use their platform to talk about it.

I live in a safe seat. Safer than safe. It is much more effective for me in terms of sending a message to the political class that women matter to take the chance of enough women spoiling their ballots and my effort being reported in the national press, than it is to waste it on any of the candidates, since the winner is already assured.

And even if this wasn't the case, I can fill in my ballot paper in whichever way I fucking well please.

It never ceases to amaze: the reaction that non-compliance in women provokes.

*Who the fuck do you think actually gives a shit8

How many swear words can you get into one sentence? Yeh! I'll vote for the winner. It's votes that count.

There is nothing more middle class and self absorbed than identity politics.

Well I'd happily tell people to vote. Because I think it's important to have a voice and use it. Even if no party overly impresses me, living in a democracy and voting in a party is important

Yes, we've all been there.....but voting should not be a reflexive action, but a considered one - else it means nothing but a box ticking exercise. I look forward to the day when a 'None Of the Above' box exists as a legitimate vote. Better still - I long for the day when someone appears who I can vote for wholeheartedly, or at least without major reservation

*There is nothing more middle class and self absorbed than identity politics
*

Please expand....Because for most of us here the trans ideology is the apotheosis of Identity Politics: snuck in under the radar when nobody is looking, and all debate and democracy silenced. The TRA movement is one of the most hideously undemocratic movements ever.....

And that is without factoring in all of the other unsupportable issues.

There is nothing more middle class

Is that some kind of 'gotcha' - where people are supposed to bow down in shame and obedience, by any chance? People with more important things to consider than 'personal identity', such as feeding themselves and paying their bills, and so on......have no time for identity politics.

The fact that trans activists have heavyweight support behind the scenes doesn't change the fact that it is the embodiment of ID politics.
It literally erases women as a class.

I'm torn between spoiling and voting labour.
I cant vote labour due to them supporting self ID. However, our local labour candidate has fought to keep my daughters nursery open and appears to be active to try to improve the town. Not sure what the conservative who is actually in office has done recently. I don't know the labour candidates personal stance is on self id, but obviously they tend to have to stick to the party line.
So I will probably spoil my paper. In my opinion spoiling is better than just not voting. They do report the numbers of spoilt papers (I've seen it on the results for previous elections).

Well I always knew I was middle class
Obviously ballot spoiling seals the deal.
Like others, I live in a safe as safe can be labour area. They've always got in since voting started. My spoil wont matter to anyone except me. I will always know I sodding tried to keep women safer.
If you dont want to spoil, be my guest, go vote for whoever, but dont talk down to us like were "only" women. We matter, my daughter matters , all cunty type women matter.

My local Labour candidate is GC, so I shall be voting labour.