Third female prime minister

[Tallisker]

Come on Labour, read the room

What a ridiculous criticism. A significant proportion of the Conservative party liked Boris so why would she alienate them? She is in the same party as him.

I'm not remotely sympathetic to her politics, but I still feel massively relieved that we have a prime minister who knows what a woman is. This is the insane situation in which we find ourselves.

I sure as hell hope she doesn't give Kemi education!! Her ideas for that were some of the worst I've ever heard, and essentially involved old-fashioned ideas about large classes taught by one teacher and tough if you can't keep up or have special needs of any sort.

I care less about them 'knowing what a woman is' at this point than I do with them having decent health and education policies. I'm sure all the politicians know what women are, really, but they will all say whatever it takes to get women's votes - whether they follow through or not, or whether they actually care, is quite another matter. So I'm not using that as my deciding factor on voting. I don't really trust any of the parties on the issue, so I've kind of eliminated it from voting decisions, and hope that pressing for change with whatever government is in power will result in the policies that I hope for. I have no reason to expect that will be any more likely with one party than another, really. So I'd rather vote based on health, education, economic policy, foreign policy etc.

Those are gold star journals alright 🙄

And honestly, if you want to advance feminism you’d be better off not picking in-fights by throwing gleefully throwing accusations of misogyny around with gay abandon, with a good dose of sneering scorn thrown in just to make sure the recipient understands their being put-down. It’s attitudes like yours that put women off calling themselves feminists. And that’s where the greatest harm is.

I agree with this completely

I find the people who are unable to even acknowledge the diversity of the candidates ‘cos Tory a bit daft

this type of thinking ...tribalism...is what started my parting with labour. The younger left think that screaming and throwing insults will persuade people to let labour govern.

I won't vote tory, but I can't vote labour anymore.

For that reason, I hope she does a great job and I'm certainly not standing on the sidelines like most on this thread hoping for her to fail.

also seen it said (and it's true) that you wouldn't see labour fielding a non white non male candidate. Labour want to baby and patronise women and people of colour but not give them any actual agency or power.

HOw come everyone is so disparaging - she hasn't said anything yet......

I don't think there is any real evidence of this. Male PMs also inherit serious problems at times. It is a pretty common scenario, which faces about half of PMs one way or another.

Just because she's female doesn't mean a thing! She has no progressive policies for women (she wants to give tax breaks to stay at home mothers)! When a woman is in power, who truly wants to bring about reform for women then I'll celebrate!

Totally apart from what Truss might do, this is a very interesting phenomena that is worth looking at. I think it makes a lot of progressive people a little uncomfortable though. Many have believed a narrative that says that conservatives, and especially members of the CP, are sexist and racist, and when they see evidence that they are willing to vote for those people it seems inexplicable.

I think how Truss does may depend on who she surrounds herself with, but we'll see. I don't think she'll clearly lose against Starmer though.

What makes you think that recognizing women's childcare labour isn't progressive?

There's a reason we've ended up in a place where people think being a woman is just about what you wear and your form of address.

It used to be the case that a woman had to be twice as good as a man to have any chance against a male candidate.
The fact that the Tories have twice been willing to elect a mediocre woman shows how far they have come towards true equality.
Labour have never managed to overcome their own misogyny to elect any woman at all, despite having had a few fairly capable ones over the past 30 years, since the Tories first chose (the excellent) Margaret Thatcher.

What makes you think that recognizing women's childcare labour isn't progressive?

Making it easier for women to stay home and look after the children isn't progressive.
It's going to lead to more women out of work for longer, therefore doing more menial jobs when they return to work due to lack of experience or up-do-date skills.

It's great for women who want to stay home with their kids for a while. Which a lot of women do.

Ex Corbyn supporter proposes to vote for the puppet of the erg Liz Truss in a future election wow......bang go those lifelong socialist principles 😂

We need to not celebrate a woman for simply being a woman. She should be celebrated on merit, but that is impossible with Truss.

Yes, she knows what a woman is, but that is just about her only redeeming feature. And whilst that is important, a good PM needs to be so much more.

I agree,@MangyInseam
This is not a terrible idea, depending on the details, and with amendments. Supporting a stay-at-home-parent, rather than SAHM (although that is who it would usually be in practice) could be helpful as long as it doesn't (as is the case in Germany) force women to enact traditional childcare roles when it doesn't suit that particular family.

@FunnyTalks and @MangyInseam
I agree about the diversity issue. Racism and sexism are not the preserve of either right or left.
I will be open-minded about Liz Truss. Deeds not words, etc.

The best thing about Truss becoming the third woman PM (not to mention Kwarteng succeeding Sunak as Chancellor and Braverman succeeding Patel as Home Secretary) is that it exposes sanctimonious, patronising lefties who preach to the rest of us about diversity and equality as the hypocrites they are.

Don't know about anyone else, but I'm just sick of women only being put in charge when shit has hit the fan.

I'm hoping Truss will be robust and sensible when making decisions/policy. I don't think she's very good at public speaking, but perhaps that won't be the be all and end all.

And yes, it is interesting to see the Tories field so many diverse candidates, while Labour flounder about talking wiffle.

Likeability and being good at public speaking aren't the most important criteria for being a good leader. I too will wait see what she does before offering an opinion. Have to say though, that I can't see any issue at all with offering tax breaks to stay at home mothers (or parent). Hard to believe sometimes that this is a parenting chat room

Exactly this. But that's them all around.

Their last words as they die from hunger and freezing to death will be: 'at least she knew what a woman was'.

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

This.

Who cares male or female. It would just be nice to have someone competent.