Angela Rayner says you can only be a Labour member if you believe TWAW

[jadefinch]

And has effectively also said that Women's Place and the LGB Alliance (essentially groups for women, gays and lesbians to meet and discuss women's, gay and lesbian issues) are hate groups and them meeting are hate crimes

The tussle and oh so predictable silliness over the Labour leadership is a complete gift to the Government.

Rory Stewart is a pretty shrewd politician and not afraid to break ranks. Wasn't he one of the MP's who voted against the Brexit deal (like Amber Rudd) who then had the whip withdrawn and effectively squeezed out.

CEDAW had things to say about state parties needing to do way more to ensure women’s equal participation in political life - this ridiculous pledge is antithetical to that.

www.wrc.org.uk/blog/public-and-political-life-article-7-cedaw

Even if Kier Starmer was GC - he's not going to go against the flow of what has already been established in the party.

I know people are looking for chinks of light; and for reasons to be able to vote Labour - but my suspicion is that it is going to be many, many years before they will ever get re-elected.......and given all that has passed - that may not be such a bad thing at all.

Let's be clear Keir Starmer deceased mother in law is most likely going to give him political coverage this week and he'll probably get away with not responding if this does go away by the weekend.

I don't mean this to be insensitive just realistic.

Cover not coverage.

I’m currently writing an essay about suffragists and party alliances. I’m starting to think that the Labour Party was less misogynistic in 1912 then it is now...

The Tory was Shaun Bailey. Yes he was wise enough not to get involved.

twitter.com/RLong_Bailey/status/1227607982076198912?s=20

Long-bailey tweeted this an hour ago my article in HuffPostUK on why there is no path to power which does not have equality and freedom of all women at its heart. We've always been stronger than the bully boys, our voices won’t be silenced and we won’t stop fighting for women’s empowerment

At this point I just think she is as thick as mince. She has just sided with the bully boys.

The cognitive dissonance is strong with this one. If there is any cognitive function at all, that is.

Debbie Hayton in The Spectator

blogs.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/do-rebecca-long-bailey-and-angela-rayner-have-a-problem-with-trans-people-like-me/

Appallingly, the pledges also name and attempt to shame two reputable organisations. Pledge 9 calls on Labour politicians to:

“Organise and fight against transphobic organisations such as Woman’s Place UK, LGB Alliance and other trans-exclusionist hate groups.”^

This claim is both outrageous and false. Trans people have attended meetings of both groups and even spoken from both platforms. So it’s astonishing that leading politicians would throw caution to the wind, adding their names to such a statement.

When I expressed my concerns to the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights, I was promptly blocked. Presumably this means the group have themselves fallen foul of pledge six. Only if you are the right sort of trans, it would seem

That's very revealing @timelady. My estimation of Debbie has gone up and down over the years, but this is definitely a good thing for them to be speaking up about. I think we have to be careful in the GC movement, not to end up locked in our own purity spiral. Glinner, Hayton, Posie Parker, - all flawed human beings - but then aren't we all?! On this particular matter we're all largely in agreement so let's park the rest until we've sorted this. Is my two cents.

Anyone pressed Starmer and Thornberry to commit?

Thornberry was pointedly being asked to commit to the pledge by the Labour Trans account on that Pink News Twitter Q&A she did yesterday. Not sure if she did.

Just seen on Twitter 10 pledges from Kier Starmer. Guess what one of them isn't? Should he be expelled now?

I did think it was interesting that it wasn't in there.

The tussle and oh so predictable silliness over the Labour leadership is a complete gift to the Government.

It is, yes. I have emailed my MP to say that I will never vote Labour again while these views are given any credence. One vote lost, in an increasingly marginal seat, one of those that remained red.

Where are our usual monitors correcting us and educating us on this thread ?

Kier knows...

And he will get away with it as well in a way that the others wouldn't because he is a man and we know that TRAs only really enjoy giving women shit over this.

our voices won’t be silenced and we won’t stop fighting for women’s empowerment

By removing all women's facilities and intentionally and aggressively excluding and punishing disabled women, women of faith, women of trauma, and any woman who wants privacy, dignity and to not be regarded as a support human. And not letting women gatekeep their bodies from males wanting sex on nasty grounds like 'I'm homosexual'.

Really empowering.

The woman's out of her tree.

But then I saw the tweet about "Yay us, 3000 people signed our lovely not terrifying, women hating, anti gay, Stalinist/Mcarthyist burn the witches at all pledge so it's a huuuuuge success" wholly ignoring that 23000 people by midnight had tweeted utter disgust and rejection of it. Bit of a ratio. But apparently in lala land that's ok.

Pink News are holding an LGBT leadership hustings on 20 Feb apparently...

Leadership of what?

Anyone using the words ‘women’ and ‘empowerment’ in the same sentence marks themselves out as anti-feminist

I must admit I'd seen Emily Thornberry was doing a Pink News interview and had assumed she would be signing up. But if she has, she seems to be keeping quiet about it on Twitter.

I'm not aying that means I trust either her or Keir Starmer to lift a finger for us. But what it does suggest - perhaps - is at least a level of political nous, which is kind of useful if you're hoping to be a party leader.

Isn't the televised debate tonight? I might even watch!

saying

Isn't the televised debate tonight? I might even watch!

mobile.twitter.com/katierazz/status/1227618802608885761
Katie Razzall
@ katierazz

I am hosting this tonight. Any pressing questions you want answered by these four contenders...? We want to get a sense of the kind of leader they will be and how they plan to change Labour fortunes

BBC Newsnight
@ BBCNewsnight
TONIGHT: Join us for the first televised Labour leadership debate.

I'm not aying that means I trust either her or Keir Starmer to lift a finger for us. But what it does suggest - perhaps - is at least a level of political nous, which is kind of useful if you're hoping to be a party leader.

Yes, this is it for me. Obviously I feel strongly about this issue, but what has got me more about the other candidates, and Jo Swinson etc, is that they just seem so tone deaf, refusing to listen, sticking their fingers in their ears and saying 'I'm woke, I'm kind, I'm woke lalalalalalalalalalala' at the expense of everything else. It's just not what you want from a leader is it?

At least Keir and Emily seem to be even slightly aware of what is going on outside the Labour bubble.