Kemi Badenoch knows what a woman is.

[SeaweedPop]

Adult human female.

In the next general election Kemi would get my vote for prime minister. Never before have I voted Tory, but I do believe that I am ready and willing to die on this hill.

until I read she would reduce the size of the state

She wants schools to reduce their spending on surplus staff etc. This is so she can cut taxes. I imagine she thinks this is applicable to other areas of public spending too.

I would love her to spend a week in a school and then tell us where we can reduce the surplus. We are on the bones of our arses. No private school would be thinking this way with budgets so stretched - they put fees up.

If you have a child in state school, or plan to have one in the future, you'll regret a vote for her.

Yep she will decimate public services, many of which support vulnerable women, but as long as she says what you want about the definition of a woman

I have voted Labour (or Lib Dem tactically) all my life until this idiocy raised its head. I’m no Tory. However, all the Tory shroud waving about shrinking the state did get me thinking. We have a rapidly ageing population with a shrinking income tax base. If we want to protect services for the most vulnerable and the NHS, something will have to give. I’m not on board with many Tories’ thinking or their policies, but there is some truth in public spending being an issue we need to address. Like all the #BeKind stuff, MPs could show some leadership by shouldering the same crap pay settlements and reduced employee benefits as the rest of the public sector: You first!

Yep. That's the point though isn't it. Public spending seems to get oddly reduced to the social care and welfare state (largely). So in Cameron's austerity we saw adult social care budgets in local authorities slashed by a third, and look at all the problems with that sector.

I remember listening to a more or less podcast with an analyst getting pretty sarcastic about how pathetic a difference to public spending that kind of local authority cut makes. Especially compared to the pain it causes. When there is a lot of other public spending that could be cut. But the debate never seems to move on!

Very concerned about her alluding to cutting the degree requirement for nurses.

For goodness sake this stuff is getting ridiculous. Have you actually read her views and policy ideas? Or has she just said the buzzword you like to hear and do you’re all in? It’s absolutely ridiculous. Why don’t you start looking at what will actually affect women in this country - economic policy, childcare, domestic violence help provision, money in healthcare and not be so bloody minded.

And at some point you might want to look at the type of people you are consistently aligning yourself with and think about what that might mean.

Well schools could save money by for example not outsourcing RSE to dodgy organisations? Just a thought

What? Surely that would be a good thing? It would mean more people could access nursing, and maybe a return to old fashioned nursing focused on patient care?

Nurses never used to have degrees. My friend was a sister for 50+ years and went on to train them. She had to get a degree whilst training others who already had them. She had to fail a lot of them. In her opinion the degree was worthless, wasted time and gave her a lot of confidence.

I'd rather have a nurse that trained in the way my friend did looking after me than one who was in the modern way. She's an excellent risk assessor, has very good instincts for when patients crash because she goes by physical signs and not book-learning checklists.

Patronising much?

She's a terrible candidate with a nasty history of attacking people for petty reasons (women, as it happens). I am always pleased to see black women achieving in politics but that's the only positive I can think of for her.

Stop telling women how they should vote. Nobody is owed my vote, and if they treat me with contempt I will return the favour.

You could say that about every one of the candidates, but unlike Penny, she is not a lying cockwomble who will say anything to get elected and then lie about saying it

I've watched my school go from great to actually thinking the next round of cuts will make things dangerous due to austerity.

I couldnt vote for someone who said 'superfluous staff'

Kemi Badenoch has some seriously wacky ideas about ‘anti-wokism’ and so be very careful. This is someone who not to be trusted with our rights incl womens rights.

Not every candidate has hacked a senior Labour politician's website or described a journalist asking questions as 'bizarre' while publishing their correspondence.

Her smaller state rhetoric is clearly deeply felt and will affect women most.

This. @SeaweedPop this shouldn’t be the hill you die on. She’s right wing as fuck and I don’t care what words she uses, she ain’t on your side.

This

Very concerned about her alluding to cutting the degree requirement for nurses.

I completely agree with her. People shouldn't be getting into debt to do the job. Just train and pay them.

I’d certainly like to know a lot more about Kemi Badenoch and how she sees the function of the state in respect of British poverty. I’d like to see some detailed ideas.

To me, her current high-end political beliefs don’t seem to have any clear and close relationship with addressing actual social problems in the UK.

I agree with her about women being female, but so do the vast majority of British people to be fair.

Mordaunt is the outlier here, and has done a lot of damage behind the scenes. I don’t think newspaper editors like her btw.

This.

My feminism cares about poor and vulnerable women. Trans is not the only issue that affects them by a very long shot.

The job a nurse does has changed hugely in the last 50 years. What used to be done by a nurse is now often done by a HCA who does not have a degree. Nurses do more complex work these days.

Cutting back public services and aiming for a smaller state is the very essence of conservatism. They all think that. We should not be surprised. So any acknowledgement about womens’ rights stands out. I still wouldn’t vote for any of them. Labour should be taking note of course, if they continue with their current approach.

Her proposed policies will hurt the economy and further spiral out quality of life downwards, and the poorest will be affected the most (and over half women), so no thanks.