Would you vote Conservative at the next election?

[cheeseismydownfall]

Obviously this question isn't really relevant if you vote Conservative anyway!

Over my 25-odd year voting history I have voted Lib Dem, Labour and Green. I consider myself left wing and would never have considered a Tory vote. But if the principle parties maintain their current positions on women's rights then for the first time ever I will consider a Conservative vote at the next election - not simply because this one issue trumps everything else (although I personally feel very strongly about it, education, health and the environment are still hugely important to me) but because I simply don't trust the critical thinking skills of any party who have allowed themselves to be so thoroughly hijacked by the trans rights agenda and attempt to silence dissenting voices.

Anyone else feel this way?

[Dances]

Thanks Saucery

[Carlottacoffee]

Dance the superiority complex runs strong through PrincessConsuelaVaginaHammock -who ever they are.
Pot, kettle, taking it on yourself to give opinions about whether other people should post

I just thought maybe you should step away as your posts were getting odd. Your last posts confirm that tbh.

What party do you stand with and I’ll make sure I never align myself with it if this is the standard of members they have

[PrincessConsuelaVaginaHammock]

@Carlottacoffee

*Dance the superiority complex runs strong through PrincessConsuelaVaginaHammock -who ever they are.
Pot, kettle, taking it on yourself to give opinions about whether other people should post*

I just thought maybe you should step away as your posts were getting odd. Your last posts confirm that tbh.

What party do you stand with and I’ll make sure I never align myself with it if this is the standard of members they have

None at present. Like the very large majority of the UK population, I'm not a member of any political party. And if your take on the topic, understanding of the UK political system and arrogance during this thread are remotely representative of Conservatives generally, those of us who won't vote for them are evidently doing the right thing.

[WendyHoused]

I couldn’t vote Tory - it’s women staffing the NHS, disproportionately using it, needing the welfare state, using SureStart that the Tories dismantled.

I don’t think they are allies of women. It’s luck that we have someone against TWAW in Women and Equalities; thenTories gave us Maria Miller and the GRA reform in the first place.

I’ll keep badgering Labour, WEP and others to represent the interests of women over TRA, and hope the wind changes.

[AnneOfCreamCables]

Is it impossible to have any threads on feminism, politics or serious women's issues without certain posters resorting to personal attacks?Reducing everything to personal vendettas is tedious for those of us who do want to engage with the issues.

[Carlottacoffee]

None at present. Like the very large majority of the UK population

47,587,254 voted on 2019 GE
13,905,520 voted for Cons
10,282,632 voted for labour.

Every one else got squashed.

So not sure where you get the idea from that the large majority of people have no party.

Any way have a good night ...

[DreadPirateLuna]

Tories gave us Maria Miller and the GRA reform in the first place.

Why do people keep forgetting this?

[Carlottacoffee]

@DreadPirateLuna

Tories gave us Maria Miller and the GRA reform in the first place.

Why do people keep forgetting this?

I’m hoping they didn’t realise what a monumental fuck up it was going to be - then they’ve slowly back peddled hoping no one would notice. Where as the other groups flipping well ran with it!

Maybe they will give an Asda style apology like the one they’ve just give Baroness Nicholson. That would be nice can you imagine!

[megletthesecond]

No. I'm a lone parent.

[Goosefoot]

@scotsheather

Never in a million years. They may know what a woman is but that doesn't make them an ally to our needs or how austerity specifically impacts women.

I'd vote for the best candidate in my area outside the Tories depending on how blind they are to mens demands.

Your post is really a jumping off place - but my issue with looking at austerity this way is that you won't know what affects women if there are no statistics based on sex, for example. There will be no argument that women as a group need to have their needs considered if there is no sex based sense of what a woman is.

The other thing that strikes me is that you couldn't put a slip of paper between Tory austerity and Labour largess, not when they've actually governed.

[Dances]

We didn't forget. It was already mentioned upthread. But at least they pulled back they saw the harm it will do, or just the political disaster it would be with their core voters. The rest of the parties have jumped on it, big style.

I think some of the anger in the thread is because it was assumed that any manner of shit was expected to be thrown at women and they would simply take it... left wing women would never defect. Well no, this is a protest vote from my perspective, and if enough women do it too, it will be a fairly clear message.

I'm not alone in this by any means.

Waiting for the 'scab" thing next, I care not a jot.

[Perro]

No. Their values are in no way aligned to my own.

[Reader1984]

Never have, never will.

[Goosefoot]

@DreadPirateLuna

Tories gave us Maria Miller and the GRA reform in the first place.

Why do people keep forgetting this?

A lot of people think it was a thing of the moment that would likely have been put forward by whatever party was in. It was more a matter of what organisations were influencing policy.

[wellbehavedwomen]

@lakeswimmer

The authoritarianism. The nauseating self righteousness of many Labour politicians. And voters. The tedious demonisation of Conservative voters as literally Nazis. This is said by people who are so politically and historically illiterate, it is laughable. When Labour constituencies which had voted Labour for a hundred years switched parties last December, one would have thought it might be a catalyst for a sober review of what they are doing and why it is alienating millions of voters. Zero evidence of that.

This ^ I'm a centrist who's voted Lib Dem and Green in the past but have either not voted or spoiled my ballot at the last two GEs because of their views on women's rights. I'm dismayed by the way anyone who has a different opinion to the woke left-wing is dismissed as a bigot/transphobe/racist etc with no debate allowed. So many people believe their opinions are actually right that anyone with a different opinion is wrong rather than someone who's come to a different conclusion to them.

I can't stand the current narrow mindedness and intolerance of different views dressed up as moral high ground. It shows a total inability to consider alternative views/different perspectives and is utterly tedious.

This.

I won't vote for a party that won't allow dissent, and indeed seeks to expel those who voice it. They've turned on Trevor Phillips and Karen Ingala Smith. People who achieved more for the vulnerable than they ever have, will or could. But they are insufficiently ideologically pure, and must be punished to warn others to remain silent.

My husband's Jewish. We're both feminists. We're both wholly committed to freedom of conscience, belief, and expression. There is no possible way either of us can vote for Labour right now.

Silencing dissent and demonising views that differ to your own, and claiming that people who deplore transphobia and racism, but disagree on the wisest means to redress those are bigots and must be silenced at all costs and everyone else re-educated into their own way of thinking... that's not morally virtuous. It's totalitarian, and therefore intrinsically and inherently evil. It's as though the student union idiots you recall from college days just never grew up, and are now running Labour.

I'm not willing to sign over the country to a bunch of zealots with contempt for everyone else. If Starmer can turn the ship, nobody will be more delighted. But that's an open question, and if he doesn't, then they will never be electable again. Blaming women for voting for what we regard as the least awful option doesn't change that.

[BabyItsAWildWorld]

It's not only the left's attitude to women that has alienated me, it's the authoritarianism.
I grew up in the height of the Cold War so I always knew the tendency was there but, to my shame, l let it go because I wasn't on the sharp end of it. Well now I've had my comeuppance and it's hard to convey how disturbing I've found it. It has shaken me to the core and made me question everything I used to believe.
Totally agree.

I might vote Tory. I wouldn't vote labour again until Keir Starmer has demonstrated that he's rid the party of the authoritarian streak which has been exposed and which I find very frightening.

For me now the central issue is free speech. Above the GRA or women's rights, as it's the removal of free speech and the shutting down of valid viewpoints with insults (as seen on this thread BTW) is what has led us to this position of the definition, and therefore rights, of women being eradicated.

That has become for me above all else. I used to think free speech as 'a generally good thing' but now I realise to a free society it is everything.

[vivariumvivariumsvivaria]

I might vote for them.

They are the only party willing to stand up for single sex spaces - my liberal political parties don't give a shit about my safety and hard won rights.

But, yes, I feel dirty about even considering it - but, I find these are strange times.

[Carlottacoffee]

@BabyItsAWildWorld

*It's not only the left's attitude to women that has alienated me, it's the authoritarianism.
I grew up in the height of the Cold War so I always knew the tendency was there but, to my shame, l let it go because I wasn't on the sharp end of it. Well now I've had my comeuppance and it's hard to convey how disturbing I've found it. It has shaken me to the core and made me question everything I used to believe.*
Totally agree.

I might vote Tory. I wouldn't vote labour again until Keir Starmer has demonstrated that he's rid the party of the authoritarian streak which has been exposed and which I find very frightening.

For me now the central issue is free speech. Above the GRA or women's rights, as it's the removal of free speech and the shutting down of valid viewpoints with insults (as seen on this thread BTW) is what has led us to this position of the definition, and therefore rights, of women being eradicated.

That has become for me above all else. I used to think free speech as 'a generally good thing' but now I realise to a free society it is everything.

Really good points

[doubtfulguest]

Nope.

[NorthernIrishFeminist]

No but I'll be spoiling my vote again before voting Labour, Lib Dem or Green. Lib Dem & Green are a never in my lifetime will I vote for them again. Labour would need to admit they let women down and apologise so probably a never in my lifetime

Obviously as a feminist I'd not be voting for DUP either, I'd probably vote alliance if I was voting in NI

[NorthernIrishFeminist]

I held my nose and voted Labour election before last as I thought Labour was lesser of all evils for society and socialism is closest to my personal politics but I won't vote for a party that has loudly declared they do not want me to vote for them

[Jeanhatchet]

No

[Jeanhatchet]

No

[pinkpinecone]

No! They are an absolute disgrace. Boris Johnson is completely incompetent and compulsive liar.

Will prob vote Labour, liking Starmer so far

[pinkpinecone]

They have handled covid really badly which will likely mean some serous damage to our economy. The furlough was done well but that's it. They've lost credibility.