Duffield: feminists turning to Tories

[ResisterRex]

This was in the Telegraph:

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/04/23/feminists-turning-tories-labour-making-idiots-womens-issues/

But has also been picked up by the Mail:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10748529/Labour-MP-Rosie-Duffield-says-party-making-complete-idiots-trans-issues.html

These are the women who revolutionised feminism after the suffragette movement, they are life long anti-Conservatives and the idea that they will abstain from voting or even vote Tory for the first time ever is desperately upsetting to them but they really do feel strongly about this.

This. It makes me feel sick, but it's either that or spoil my ballot, not vote at all!

My local councillors are less than useless but, being rural and parochial each of them has their loyal coterie, so nothing changes. Our incumbent keeps throwing his hat into the ring for Tory Leadership (and being laughed at). What the fuck do I do?

I'm not sold on defecting. Duffield's constituents voted for a Labour candidate. If you defect, I think you should call a by-election as that's the democratic and fair thing to do.

Rosie isn't wrong . I've heard many feminist saying they are voting Tory . These are women who would naturally vote Labour . I am an ex Labour ,stood as a council candidate twice but sadly,I can't vote for Labour. They disrespect women and their hatred of difficult (read questioning) working class women is so obvious. I will be spoiling my ballot . How dare they seek to remove the hard fought for rights that we have !
And for those switching to Tory - what the heck is Johnson doing for women?The Tories have introduced policies that have reduced our NHS to a shell ,seen food banks become normalised and fuel poverty an issue for working families . I can't vote for a party that is responsible for that.
As for gender ideology, the Tories have been in charge when male sex offenders have been sent to the female prison estate , after self iding as a woman. They have been the government which has allowed a woman to be raped in an NHS hospital and told that this could not have happened as there were no males in the ward . Self Iding trans women ( males) regard it their right to go into women's changing rooms ,toilets and hostels . WTF have the Tories done to protect us ? Hee Ho! It goes on all the time ! The government doesn't care . So no one to vote for .

I have my postal ballot sitting waiting for me to decide what to do with it.
My local Labour councillor is great. Really engaged does lots for the community. But I'm not sure I can bring myself to vote for her, simply because of this issue.
I'm one of the feminists Rosie is speaking about. Life long Labour voter, but this is the issue now that decides my vote. It actually doesn't bother me that in the bigger picture Labour might be'better'. If they refuse to acknowledge that biology matters then I cannot vote for them.

Pissed off and disappointed as I am with Labour over this issue, I can't think of anything that would entice me to vote Conservative, I must say.

I’ve just voted by post for the SDP. Sensible policies on the trans issue and palatable enough elsewhere. Chap’ll probably lose his deposit but it was either that, abstain or spoil the ballot.

I'm not sure this is totally correct - I have worked at ballot counts and the spoiled papers were scrutinised by the candidate or their agent as they are looking for any sign on the paper of intent when they might be able to claim it as a vote for them. And this was in a very strongly held Labour seat with absolutely no chance of it turning Tory, Green or LD.

I have to agree. Spoiled votes are pointless; no-one in power cares if you haven't voted.
Where I am a spoiled vote is a vote for the Tories, which I cannot abide.

I am hoping the tide is turning and I'm in a position to try and talk some of this through with people who might listen locally. (Not my MP, ha!)

Spoiling your paper is not the same as not voting. It's not as good as having a candidate you can actively vote for. But the candidates will notice in a tight election.

I will spoil my vote if there is no candidate whom I trust to represent me (which is not the same thing as agreeing with me on everything). I don't relish it but it's not the same as not voting and if, some election agents don't have the gumption to scrutinise a spoilt vote for free feedback, then frankly that's on them.

There is a lot of contraversy around Rosie's election to the seat in a widely Tory county. She holds a very slim majority and needs to get the backing of Tory voters to hold her seat. In the 2017 election she only won by 187 votes and there was some talk that it was only due to students at Canterbury universities voting for her that she got in. However she managed to increase her majority to 1800.

She does really understand the issues and has spoken of domestic violence in her past which might help shape her opinions. I wish more Labour MPs were like her.

I've been saying for a long time that Labour are in for a rude awakening at the next GE, when they suddenly realise that women make up a majority of the electorate, and that they've alienated so many dyed-in-the-wool labour voters. I think they're counting on Partygate to dissuade Tory defectors, without realising that for so many of us this will be a single-issue election and that in this Hobson's choice scenario, however egregious the Tories' behaviour was, Covid is in the past and a lot of us are laser-focused on protecting our rights going forward.

I've done it. I joined the Conservative Party a few months ago (hence the name change for this post).

This is after two decades of Labour/left-wing affiliation. I used to work for a Labour MP and was heavily involved in certain left-wing projects that I don't want to mention for fear of outing myself.

It was hard, and I reflected upon it for months. I spoke at length to an old school friend of mine, who understood what I was considering.

The moment came when a civic colleague of mine, female, who I admire tremendously for her "get things done" attitude and her passion about education revealed she was a member of the party and was gender critical, as were a number of the women in the party at a local level. The relief I felt was extraordinary; it wasn't just me shouting into the wind.

Then they asked me formally to join.

It may be the wrong decision. I may regret it in the future. But there comes a point where you have to plant your flag in the sand, and I realised that, because of certain other issues I wanted to investigate, I needed really to join a party again -- and I just could not consider Labour or the Lib Dems as a possibility because of their attitude to safeguarding, womens' rights, and ethnic and religious inclusion, as revealed through the ill-thought out implications of their gender policies.

I could never stand behind a policy that disenfranchises women from civic space.

And I know I have ostracised myself from my former fellow travellers. I am not a Tory at heart; I'm old Methodist Labour.

But that political world no longer exists, so I must try to do what I feel is right under an umbrella that doesn't not fit.

I emailed my Labour candidates last week - one of them called back and we had a long and - I think - pretty productive conversation. He did say that they have been asked about this quite a bit... which is encouraging. Keep speaking up gang!

He was thoughtful but with talking points about being kind and vulnerable groups and intersex people and complicated issues, and I gave him some questions and specific scenarios that obviously brought him up short and made him think about the implications of that 'kindness' and who is expected to actually do all the being a doormat to accommodate others kind.

My goal is to make damn sure the parties hear that this is a vote-determining issue.

This is the one main issue that I will vote on at the next election.
The parties are all much of a
muchness on all other issues these days and you can't believe what any of them promise during election canvassing anyway. But this is currently distinguishing the Conservatives from Labour and is the number one issue in my book. So as it stands, I'll be voting Conservative.

I think we must remember that this election is for local councillors who make decisions on local issues.

local issues such as all gender toilets, rainbow zebra crossings, provision of sporting facilities, schools, council housing.

The MPs and government won’t change, but they will pay attention to the voting preferences.
if you vote in gender critical councillors the message will start to get through
If we make women’s issues central to our votes the political parties will take note and they will be chasing the people who use their votes.

She's right. I've never voted Conservative in my life but I will at the next election, purely on the "What is a woman?" question. If Keir Starmer thinks men have cervixes he's not getting my vote.

I absolutely can't bring myself to vote Tory, but I left the Labour Party after the 'rights hoarding dinosaurs' debacle. There's no point in voting Labour in my constituency anyway, but I refuse to pay them to represent everyone except women and girls.

I've spoiled a couple or three ballots now in the last few elections. I'm not prepared to do that again. I want to be heard. I like my current labour councillor and I think he could make things happen if he tried a bit.
My vote for Tory will be completely lost here where a monkey in a red rosette would win, but I cannot vote for a party that doesn't know what I am.
And the last time I spoke to the local labour fella his first thought was to be kind. Then he segued to how much he does blah, local not national blah. And I thought but if he was told to make all bogs gender neutral he would without question. And that annoyed me. No thinking involved, no arguing back, no thought to the women affected. If you are that dim then I dont want you.
I am sick and tired of not being listened to and I will no longer wait til "after the revolution sister "

I'm so fed up and still don't know what to do on May 5th.

My Labour MP upset me dreadfully with his mealy mouthed, patronising, cut n paste reply about my concerns. Insinuations of being ignorant and transphobic when my own daughter has medically transitioned.

Women are perfectly capable of having deep compassion for individuals while at the same time wanting to uphold the protected characteristic of sex and protect single sex spaces. Such intellectual paucity from Labour.

I really don't want to spoil my ballot again. I'd really rather not vote Tory. This is the most disenfranchised I've ever felt.

Women in prison and homeless women don’t have the vote and they were the first to get landed with the Trans.

Voting is my first choice... but I need to find a candidate who isn't deluded (about what a woman is)or willing to accept law-breaking and corruption from their leaders.

Spoiled votes are counted and do indicate lack of satisfaction with any choice. This is recorded and is a clear signal to both sides that they missed a potential vote and that a voter is unhappy about something important.

Not voting at all suggests indifference.

💐SisterWendyBuckett I’m so sorry for the hurtful ignorance of that Labour MP. It’s amazing how unkind people can be whilst telling us to be kind. It makes the hierarchies involved very obvious and of course women are at the bottom, even when they are in a desperately sad situation.

I’ve checked with someone I know who works in the elections office regarding spoilt ballots.
and I quote
”They’re put into a separate pile, but it’s a waste. Basically the same as not voting “

@TheLeadbetterLife Thanks for the link to Matt Forde's interview - Rosie always comes across so well.