“Maybe the Labour Party isn’t for you”

[tabbycatstripy]

A writer on Twitter says she asked her local Labour Party candidate ‘the question’ on the doorstep. Apparently defining a woman wasn’t a problem for him. But when the prospective voter wanted to discuss single sex spaces (I think the example given was a single sex grammar school for girls in an area that has two for boys already, and whether it should have to admit ‘trans girls’) the answer was “Maybe the Labour Party isn’t for you.”

Already a bunch of TRA responses accusing her of stoking up the culture war.

When the fact on the ground is that there is ALREADY double the provision in place for male children that exists for female children, it is not stoking a culture war to ask whether even more of those resources should be given to males. It’s just asking questions about things female people care about.

But then maybe the Labour Party isn’t for me.

They say that people shouldn't shoe-horn issues like this into a local election, but they are representatives of a political party and at any point should be able to answer for where they stand within that party. Otherwise why don't they stand as independents?

I've not decided who to vote for, or whether to spoil my vote. We've got the usual LAB/LIB/CON option and the local Lib Dems are super proud to have their first non-binary councillor already so are completely aboard the work train. This ward has been Labour for years, but I'm not sure I could ever put a cross for the Conservative Party to make a point. What do do?

Has anyone told Labour that they actually require votes to get elected? Or that politicians are supposed to serve the people, not the other way around? They seem a little confused.

I've been on the streets doing a bit of #respectmysex campaigning in the last few weeks. From what I've heard Tory and LibDem are polite and take the pamphlets but Labour men aren't interested (just anecdotal evidence of 6 circumstances)

I bet they’re not interested. The whole Labour Party is soaked in this line of thinking, and they need to be honest about it and stop pretending a vote for Labour is a vote for the working class.

The working class isn't the 'working class' the LP is for. When you look at the TUs that dominate the narrative, they either represent what are now very well paid professional jobs and/or they under-represent the lowest paid sections of the sectors they stand for. The populist/protectionist stance and the downplaying of ERDF redistribution funding some of the wealthiest unions took on Brexit was shameful.

What a golden opportunity Mike Tapp had there. He had the mic - he could have distanced himself from the canvasser and reassured women that, as a Labour representative, he will uphold our rights. He could even have just made sympathetic noises. Instead he describes women's concerns for their legal rights as 'obsessive'.

‘When you look at the TUs that dominate the narrative, they either represent what are now very well paid professional jobs and/or they under-represent the lowest paid sections of the sectors they stand for.’

That’s true. The people who need more help are the cleaners, workers in hospitality and catering industries, delivery drivers, supermarket workers, retail staff . And what we get are the unions making pronouncements about pronouns.

Golden shower Tapp springs to mind, Floisme.

Well I either vote Labour who it seems wants to call me a bleeder from now on or the party who fantasizes about making me pay £40k if I need to call an ambulance. I can't afford to heat my home properly and normally I'd vote labour without a second thought whoever was running (Corbyn, Blair) just to get us out of this god awful situation but I currently don't know if I can vote for a party who thinks that women aren't real. Have to laugh from crying

I'm most certainly NOT voting for Labour

All the women i know feel the same.

From the candidate: "... I am disturbed that anyone can leverage trans issues into a local election. It seems obsessive." She didn't mention trans issues, Mike, she mentioned a local issue of particular importance to girls. It's a pretty simple question and the mock-outraged deflection/dragging in another vulnerable group to distract makes you look a bit questionable.

As for the "no Labour for you" schtick - it's still an issue that someone canvassing for this candidate and for the party said this on the doorstep -it perhaps makes sense if they were recruting new members. But canvassing for votes in the local elections, it's downright weird (and kind of stupid) to tell someone not to vote for your party/candidate.

Then again, maybe it's a deliberate strategy - they're hoping people will respond with "ha ha - I WILL vote Labour; youuuuuuuuu can't stop me!!" That's what my eight year old would do.

What "views on Israel/Palestine" does your father hold that make him unwelcome in the Labour Party?

I'm regrettably likely to spoil my vote. Our Labour run Council is currently knee deep in a multi million pound fraud. Our borough is so badly managed, we have I'm told, the second highest council tax rate in the country. We don't hear from our councillors until election time where they crawl out and try to tell us how marvellous everything is. They've been stonewalled and my ward labour Councillor is a transwoman Sophie Green (she/her).

We're a very diverse borough of multi faiths, and wealth ranging from mega rich to desperate poverty.

Lib dems are a no go and the Conservatives well I just don't want to give our government any ideas that I'm supportive of them.

As someone said on another thread:

For the men, not for you

Yep and they're happy to let us know we're not welcome in their club.

Don't know what I'm going to do on Thursday. I'm absolutely furious that I've been put in the position of probably having to waste my vote.

Yep.
The Labour Party is not for me.

Sadly the LibDems are not for me either, since they made it abundantly clear to me that my views were distasteful.

The Conservatives are not for me, either, since I find many of their views distasteful. Though they have shaped up impressively on the Ukraine.

Luckily we're not having elections here this time around, because I wouldn't have a fucking clue who to vote for. I just want a centre/moderate left party that a) knows what a woman is and b) hasn't been captured by other batshittery.

By the tone of his response, and despite his protestations, one would not be surprised if he had said it. With his slap down to the woman on the issue itself, it doesn't seem a leap that he said the same on the doorstep. Such a curl of the lip towards women's concern about what is going on!

Imagine him saying to any other class of people who are concerned with their rights; (equality, safety, dignity and privacy) 'oh you're being obsessive bringing this up'. Effectively, shut up and stay in your place.

‘With his slap down to the woman on the issue itself, it doesn't seem a leap that he said the same on the doorstep. Such a curl of the lip towards women's concern about what is going on!

Imagine him saying to any other class of people who are concerned with their rights; (equality, safety, dignity and privacy) 'oh you're being obsessive bringing this up'. Effectively, shut up and stay in your place.’

I agree. The absolute gall of him. He doesn’t deserve to make decisions for anyone if he can’t recognise the basic autonomy of voters to care about what they care about.

Ideological purity has come first ever since the Momentum years.

Imagine him saying to any other class of people who are concerned with their rights; (equality, safety, dignity and privacy) 'oh you're being obsessive bringing this up'. Effectively, shut up and stay in your place.

Yes, shocking. And imagine a political party invested in silencing Rosie Duffield and not this mysognynist. Scary.

Calling people who express concern about gender ideology obsessive is the new way of attempting to reframe what we say/put us down. People have started attacking me by telling me I'm obsessed only fairly recently. I suspect it's because GC views have now reached critical mass. In the past I could be cast as the lone, batshit old feminist eccentric: now I'm part of a wave of hysterical, obsessive women.

I feel completely disenfranchised. I am so frustrated with all of them.

I'm a Green Party Member. Attend conferences, vote on motions etc. But where I live, because of our so very flawed electoral system have always voted Labour. I live in a Tory safe seat area.

This year, having written to all my councillor candidates with the question from the #respectmysexifyouwantmyx campaign, I thought I'd give everyone a go. Local politics being very different to national etc. Guess who came back to me wanting a conversation? A polite, elderly Tory gentleman.
Someone who worked on the Board for my local NHS Trust, decades ago, fighting for single sex hospital wards (he had heard of Kate Grimes). We had 2 long conversations the 2nd over a cup of coffee. He didn't know an awful lot about what was going on - but knew enough to talk about how gender ideology may need to be challenged at a local level - ie where they could challenge this in schools if not an academy-run service, how they could write to medical health services in support of the elderly having single sex support provision in care homes.
This wasn't a Johnson/Dorries 'win the vote' by making Starmer look like a "women can have a penis" fool; this was a man interested in what a woman had to say.

Labour, Lib Dem and Indie candidates either didn't respond or gave me TWAW nonsense.

So this year for the local elections I'm voting for this Tory. He respected my sex.