Conservative landslide - how are we feeling as feminists?

[Cwenthryth]

I feel very mixed this morning. So worried about what this means for public services, policing, NHS, social care, mental health services, housing, in-work poverty... all of which disproportionately affects women, either as those needing these services or picking up the pieces when dependents cannot access what they need. We now have an openly misogynist prime minister (we did before, but now he has a secure mandate), who won’t even acknowledge all of his children whilst slagging off single mothers, and has had the police called out due to neighbours fearing for the safety of his partner from what they could hear through the wall.

But there’s a tiny silver lining of it seeming that it seems very unlikely that self-ID would be brought in under this government, at least in the form the Lib Dems were touting for, so we are probably more secure on retaining sex-based rights than we would have been with any other result.

To be honest it’s not really much comfort to me right now.

I think the posters saying we need to crack on with providing sunlight and more sunlight are spot on.

We can’t let up or relax over the next 5 years. Self ID is not off the table with this government even if they are not talking about it now.

Wokeness is tribal, it will not quietly slink off to lick its wounds. They will be raging. Regulatory capture will be their way of pressing ahead with the agenda and demanding loyalty is shown from allies.

The Tories will be looking for a few ‘easy’ things to bring in that don’t cost the government much financially, to allow them to appear socially liberal and ‘kind’ on.
Those are usually policies that advantage men and harm women. Self ID could well be one of them.

The Tories will be looking for a few ‘easy’ things to bring in that don’t cost the government much financially, to allow them to appear socially liberal and ‘kind’ on

Chatty
I agree. The lobby are well organized and relentless and they clearly have influential allies in all parties. Also exploiting opportunities such as Brexit is a tactic. I am hoping that Swinson’s loss will highlight the GC issue as pivotal, but I think Johnson is quite capable of capitulating to this lobby for the reasons you cite. We need to lobby too to ensure this doesn’t happen

Agree chattylion

It's homophobic sexist nonsense which puts women back in their box which has a certain appeal to many.

However I caver that by saying that small town mentality is very much against regulatory capture and thought policing. It plays into the whole Rotherham scandal and the idea that no one cares about the daughters of certain communities. They are just woke collateral damage.

Women told you so?? I hope the left learned from this but I'm sure they're going to need it hammered into their thick skulls with emails and phone calls that this was a reason women didn't vote for them. That pandering to 0.6% of the population at the expense of 50% is bad math. As for the Tories, people are going to have to keep agitating them and doing activist work to get services or funding, per usual. Having a relationship with your MP really helps. Let them know your concerns and contact them regularly. They work for you.

The Tories will be looking for a few ‘easy’ things to bring in that don’t cost the government much financially, to allow them to appear socially liberal and ‘kind’
I agree but I don't think they will see self ID as a quick, feel-good win any more, not when even the BBC is allowing debate now.

But I'm sure the TRA lobby will have considered this. My guess is that what we'll see instead will be an even harder push to bring it in through the back door, and in some ways, that will be even harder to fight cos it won't be out in the open.

The thing that struck me when reading the manifesto, is it mentions the role of carers a couple of times and each time clarifies 'a role disproportionately carried out by women' but doesnt mention anything useful about changing that. one propsal is increasing unpaid carers leave to a week.

Liz Kendall I think would be a real outsider. Again from previous administrations. Bombed last time she stood for leadership

I'm not quite so well up on the mechanisms as you.....but would that be because momentum/Len McCluskey union votes were determining the outcome? Not sure?

Thing is , for me, some of the newer younger candidates who we saw a lot of during the campaign just don't do it for me ( Angela Raynor etc); and I'm assuming, therefore, that they also wouldn't for many of the 'lost', and abstaining, voters.

I think this presents an opportunity to consolidate what has been achieved on GRA and trans issues. Lots of new MPs from non woke communities. We need to start the lobbying. I read on Twitter all the GC groups are meeting to discuss tactics.
Who gets Women and Equalities brief is crucial but also who is on the Women's and Equalities Committee. They're cross party and elected, so with a new influx could more searching questions be asked out in the open.Hopefully it won't be Maria Miller.
I don't think self id will be rushed through after what has been said about getting it right. The confidence that things can be done undercover is surely over, thanks to the press. Probably the worst scenario is that the Tories stick their heads in the sand in the face of Stonewall's activities, which is why keeping up the pressure is essential.

Oh and freedom of speech in universities etc can now be dealt with, both Jo Johnson and Sam Gyimah were committed to it.

Labour hasn't engaged with its Northern heartlands for years. Ditch the woke, identity politics and Trots, or face oblivion.

I’m not saying that self ID will be rushed through any time soon- we’ve got at least a couple of years of Brexit stuff to get through Parliament. But if and when that gets done and everyone’s been exhausted by it, the government will want some cheap, fresh-looking social measures to look ‘in touch’ or ‘socially progressive’ as the country starts to expect our government to deal with domestic policy issues again. By then, we’d also be heading towards a 2024 General Election.

If we don’t keep up the pressure on self iD, legal transition for under 18s etc, then these could look like wins to the government by then. The big, powerful usual suspects will be starting now, building relationships with them, telling them that these are modest changes that will make a huge difference to people’s well-being. We also know surrogacy law reform could be coming in future. I’m sure there’s other stuff I haven’t thought of.
So it’s very reassuring that we are all talking about engaging soon with the new MPs and new government in different ways.

Sam Gyimah

Gyimah defected to the Lib Dems and failed to be reelected.

Gyimah defected to the Lib Dems and failed to be reelected. Yes I know but as a Tory University Minister he was pro freedom of speech, that's a legacy anyone taking on the role will need to address or be pressed to deal with. It would be popular.

Very depressed. Women will be disproportionately affected by the cuts in services and all over Facebook I see women vowing to carry on the fight for a better society. I feel like saying don't bother duck, this society hasn't given a stuff about your needs, why would you grind yourself into the ground. And yet what choice is there? Women will be expected anyway to be the carers and the unpaid nurses when they dismantle the NHS and cut school days even shorter. Not that the other lot would have been much better, but for different reasons. Might move north of the border! Women like Joanna Cherry and Joan Mcalpine make it worth it there.

think this presents an opportunity to consolidate what has been achieved on GRA and trans issues. Lots of new MPs from non woke communities. We need to start the lobbying. I read on Twitter all the GC groups are meeting to discuss tactics.

YY.

Does Jess Phillips have a chance at the leadership?

I'm quite pissed about her cowardice on self-ID, but hoped she was keeping quiet to do the necessary work for women behind the scenes.

I am intrigued to see what the voting breakdown by sex will turn out to be.
My impression was that a lot of women were not voting Labour rather than actively voting Tory, and the voters I have seen on the news who said they used to vote Labour but voted Conservative this time have all been men - but that might be the journalists looking for a particular type.

I am looking at an objectively unpleasant situation and feeling oddly hopeful that there are lots more people deciding to get stuck in to change things for the better. I feel a little better than I did last night.

But you know what? Laurie Penny and the rest of the Momentum Twitted bubble still have no clue. Here she is having a paddy because humility is too easy, and she must instead do the noble thing of just despising all the people her tribe failed to convince and can't control.

Countess I saw a breakdown infographic of this information, and it was pretty much as you say - I've been looking for it again but can't find it. ( but probably on either the Guardian or WIngs)

I'll keep looking for it.

sorry - more men voting tory than women.

Only indicative breakdown I can find so far Countess but it will be interesting to see how it compares with the actual figures.

lordashcroftpolls.com/2019/12/how-britain-voted-and-why-my-2019-general-election-post-vote-poll/

As others have said, the rage will be immense and much of this will go on (as ever) behind the scenes. The civil service are a major source of regulatory capture with countless civil servants being actively on the Stonewall / lobby group gravy train and I have no doubt they will be working behind the scenes, regardless of the democratic process.

Thanks!

And the Tories have moved away from business being their core principle to much more social Conservativism which appeals more to blue collar workers.

The FT did an analysis of last nights results and found that the biggest driver of seat changes was the blue collar vote. Not Brexit and not education.

It looks on the basis of that, very much a backlash against wokism.

This should have been obvious to Labour and LD political strategists: Brexit was a symptom of wider political issues not the cause of issues. The US voting in Trump and the culture war that has developed there and has increasingly raged here was the other big clue. It wasn't a trend restricted to the UK. Its in the US and Europe too.

I am wary that this could turn into a form of National Socialism brought to us by the Tories.

I also think any and all left-leaning people and politicians have to face the very unpleasant situation created by globalisation, where jobs have moved out, and people have moved in. This has created an employers dream, where they can largely determine their own rates of pay and working conditions. This has left ordinary people worse off, and scared about their childrens futures.

The left cannot keep pretending that more people looking for employment and fewer jobs to go round, is only a matter of being woke and kind to immigrants.

It is a good thing that people don’t want to be racist, but that alone won’t change the material reality of the multinational corporations employers paradise created by globalisation.

The left has shied away from even acknowledging that there is an issue, and focussed only on bourgeoisie Londoners where an influx of international workers is not an issue.

MrsSnippyPants - that was the same one I saw.