@cocoapopfan
Some great posts on this thread. Hope somebody in the Labour Party is reading them.
There's been a lot of discussion on Mumsnet on how to vote when it seems any vote is just enabling parties who are ignoring women's rights. But maybe the thing to do is to join a party (any party) and then contact the GC/women's rights group within it (I think they all have them). Then you can find out and vote for candidates who are GC locally and nationally, even if you don't want to get actively involved.
Locally, a few people can make a big difference.
The problem with this is that whilst the LP's attitude towards women stinks and has impacted some women to leave the party/remove their vote it's not the crux of the party's woes.
Of course to many on this forum it's a make or break issue wrt where you put your cross on the ballot paper but in the context of the wider voting public it's not a deal breaker.
The concern LP policy on Self ID creates is simply yet another, but lesser reason not to vote for them.
The big issue was, and remains Brexit and its aftermath.
The LP massively misunderstood the voting intentions of vast swathes of its northern voters in the initial campaign and then post referendum continued to "remain" (pun intended) tone deaf to these voters by repeatedly trying to block the leave process.
I'm doing so they effectively said "you were wrong and we know better than you".
Voters didn't like that and stuck two fingers up by voting Tory, a party that had also taken the wind out of Labours sails with its "levelling up the north" campaign.
Does it matter that they might not deliver on this? Well in context at least they are talking about it...what did the last Labour Govt do to address the North/South divide?
These voters made the switch and guess what - the world didn't end. They gave Labour a bloody nose and they liked doing it because most people can't stand being patronised and "educated".
As per previous post I made below, the Conservatives are incredibly pragmatic about policy. It's not a matter of values or the past, it's about what wins votes right now.
Labour by contrast are mired in history, values and dubious ethics rather than policy that's relevant to addressing voter concerns.
Starmer going big on Tory sleeze and the LP wondering why it didn't resonate....
Fact is most people don't care (even if they perhaps should) about who paid for fancy interior decor.
Negative campaigning very rarely works because it indicates you have no policies that resonate with the electorate of your own - and right now Labour have very few of those plus a recent legacy of betraying long standing voters by trying to stop Brexit.
It a mess and frankly I can't see a way through it whilst the membership retains its very left wing majority and the power it's able to exert over the Parliamentary Labour Party.