Oh god, Labour again.

[fakenina]

They are really determined to jump the shark on this, arn't they

labour.org.uk/about/how-we-work/nec-statement-women-shortlists-womens-officers-minimum-quotas-women/

Personally, I'll not be holding my breath.

Until Labour, the Libdems and the Greens
CATEGORICALLY state that self ID is woo
I shall remain politically homeless

Maybe it will take Labour's first 'female' leader to be a biological male; ideally a late transitioner, with a successful career behind them; plus two adult children and a left behind wife - for the penny to drop. I almost hope this happens.

I could weep it is so messed up!

Women need women to speak up for them in politics not me who think they are women!

Trans women have the lgbt angle to get their rights! Women's officer isn't the way to do it!

Though part of me hope they have a trans women get in and it is mainstream media, more of the 'normal' folk are England will start opening their eyes. It's never going to be a popular vote within the (old) Labour heartlands!

@Justhadathought

Maybe it will take Labour's first 'female' leader to be a biological male; ideally a late transitioner, with a successful career behind them; plus two adult children and a left behind wife - for the penny to drop. I almost hope this happens.

That actually made me laugh

So, “To hell with the law of this land. We’ve unilaterally instituted self-ID. Suck on that, women.”

Tsk. It's called "getting ahead of the law", you know!

'Anyone attempting to breach Labour Party rules and subvert the intention of All Women Shortlists, women’s officers or minimum quotas for women will be dealt with via our established safeguards, selection procedures and disciplinary measures.'

Didn't a male member self ID as a woman and put himself forward for something? And they said no piss off.

Read his own words http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3256772-Guess-how-I-got-suspended-from-the-Labour-Party

I think that statement is probably inspired by it!

Labour lost the plot a long while back. I actually suspect, as was the case with female leaders & PMs that the first elected transwoman MP will end up being a Tory and it will just sort of happen without a big fanfare or the misuse of something like AWS.

And the left will hate them because they are a Tory.

It's despicable. I'm a member and I despise it.

There is a transwoman Tory mp OvaHere, at least I think there is. She's big buddies with Crispin Blunt (so that tells you all you need to know). Can't remember her name

May have to correct myself. I think she's a Chair of something in the Tory party. Someone will correct me. It's been a long day

Do you mean Sue Pascoe? I didn't think they were an MP just influential in the Conservative Party membership.

Labour has a proud record of championing equality for women of all backgrounds, including BAME women, LGBT+ women, disabled women and working class women
Jesus, as at least a couple of those things I find that paragraph SO OFFENSIVE! It's basically saying "we champion "normal" women, and those other women too! Brown/ disabled/ working class women are JUST WOMEN not some strange exotic sub type! And that's quite aside from the nonsense of men being women.

Maybe it will take Labour's first 'female' leader to be a biological male; ideally a late transitioner, with a successful career behind them; plus two adult children and a left behind wife - for the penny to drop. I almost hope this happens.

I dread to think this would be hailed as Stunning and Brave ...

Didn't a male member self ID as a woman and put himself forward for something? And they said no piss off.

Sadly, that was because David Lewis, a real hero, was deliberately mocking the stupidity -- he said he identified as a woman every Wednesday! Good man. But he was suspended: he had blasphemed against Holy Writ so he had to be sacrificed.

This and Liz Truss are making a Tory out of me. Never, ever thought I'd say it.

I despise Tory politicians (with some honourable exceptions) and am sickened by the harm they have done while in power. But all the other mainstream parties except the Communists are trashing women’s rights as fast as they can. And a Tory has the chance of being in government.

So if a Tory candidate stood in my constituency,and made it clear they supported women’s rights, I would vote Tory for the first time in my life.

@zanahoria

Labour have never elected a woman leader.

Margaret Beckett was the first woman to run in 1994, she came third out of three.

Dianne Abbott ran in 2010, she came fifth out of five.

Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall ran in 2015, they came third and fourth.

Rebecca Long Bailey and Lisa Nandy came second and third last year

So six women have run and not one has even received more votes than a man

Maybe this is the way forward.

Get rid of AWS.

They don't seem to be overall bring in a lot of strong female leadership.

I wonder how much the defeat of the AWSL court case has made them more overt?

Statement from Labour Women's Declaration labourwomensdeclaration.org.uk/news/lwd-response-to-nec-statement-on-womens-representation-28-01-2021/

While I'm as aghast at this as anybody, surely it's worth bearing mind - for those insisting that "thank God Labour will never win", "they've lost my vote" etc. - that it's only Labour that HAVE all women shortlists at all, and the proportion of Labour MPs that are women is much higher than the proportion of Tories, largely for that reason.

Sadly we live in a two-party system where neither party will ever live up to everything you want. Surely a party with an imperfect mechanism to improve women's representation is better than one without such a mechanism at all?

@FifteenToes

While I'm as aghast at this as anybody, surely it's worth bearing mind - for those insisting that "thank God Labour will never win", "they've lost my vote" etc. - that it's only Labour that HAVE all women shortlists at all, and the proportion of Labour MPs that are women is much higher than the proportion of Tories, largely for that reason.

Sadly we live in a two-party system where neither party will ever live up to everything you want. Surely a party with an imperfect mechanism to improve women's representation is better than one without such a mechanism at all?

No. AWS is an awful idea.

At the moment at Westminster Conservatives have 40% women ; Labour 47% ; SNP 7% and Liberal Democrats 3% so AWS isn't even making that much of a difference.

And of course the Conservatives can point to their 2- nil lead on female leaders and PMs.

Labour had the first female Home Secretary in Jacqui Smith- the Tories have had Theresa May, Amber Rudd and Pritti Patel. May was , I think, the longest serving Home Secretary apart from Alan Johnston. There's never been a female Chancellor and I don't have time tonight to check the other Great Offices of State.

On the face of it, I think it seemed that AWS could be an effective way to encourage more women into politics. It seemed to actually help with that for the LP in a real way. As a policy it's only justifiable so long as it seeks, and is effective, at redressing an imbalance. And even then there is a reasonable argument that they are discriminatory and should not be used even if they have the intended effect.

But given that it doesn't put Labour all that far ahead in terms of female MPs, and the lack of quality candidates for leadership roles, you do have to ask whether it is actually meeting that bar of being effective, whether that approach relates to the lack of female leadership or is just ineffective at promoting it, and whether some other approch might work better.

It makes me laugh (albeit a sad, hollow laugh) how many people on here were adamant that Keir Starmer was secretly on the GC side, that he had to hold his cards close to his chest and only once he was elected could he then slowly restore sex based rights.

I still have no idea why anyone thought that, and never been more gutted to be proved right, as Labour under him is even bloody worse!

At least the others had the integrity to be upfront and honest about their determination to do away with our rights.

Sees like some people are glutton for punishment, reminds me of an abused puppy going back to its owner, only to cry out at getting another kicking

@MissBarbary -

No. AWS is an awful idea.

At the moment at Westminster Conservatives have 40% women ; Labour 47% ; SNP 7% and Liberal Democrats 3% so AWS isn't even making that much of a difference.

Sorry but on the numbers you're wrong, by a long way.

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/general-election-2019-how-many-women-were-elected/

"Of the current 220 women MPs, 87 are Conservative (24% of all Conservative MPs, up from 21% in 2017). 104 are Labour (51%, up from 45% in 2017), 16 are SNP (33%, down from 34% in 2017) and seven are Liberal Democrat (64%, up from 33% in 2017). There are also six female MPs amongst other party groups."

The proportion of Labour MPs that are women is OVER TWICE that of the Conservatives. I do have some reservations about AWS but it's undeniable that in increases women's representation.

The lib dem number is interesting, but if I remember rightly prior to 2017 they had NO female MPs at all. Would be interested to find out more about what they've done (if anything) to change that, but with so few MPs in total it may be a random by-product of small sample size.

@Blakes77

Labour has a proud record of championing equality for women of all backgrounds, including BAME women, LGBT+ women, disabled women and working class women Jesus, as at least a couple of those things I find that paragraph SO OFFENSIVE! It's basically saying "we champion "normal" women, and those other women too! Brown/ disabled/ working class women are JUST WOMEN not some strange exotic sub type! And that's quite aside from the nonsense of men being women.

It reminds me of Biden and his ‘poor kids can be just as successful as white kids’ comment.

I wonder how much the defeat of the AWSL court case has made them more overt?

Yes I thought that.