Third female prime minister

[Tallisker]

Come on Labour, read the room

They dropped the shortlists, though. www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-drops-use-of-all-women-shortlists-general-election-legal-advice-unlawful_uk_622226fbe4b03bc49a9a2420

But, even when they did have them in place, the shortlists let men who think they were women apply
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-confirms-self-identifying-trans-women-eligible-for-all-women-shortlists-and-womens-officer-roles_uk_5b048276e4b0784cd2af3d32
So entirely pointless anyway

So, basically, they've never tried to move away from centring men.

I saw "she only won because he is Asian" repeated several times on a thread earlier. No basis in reality at all given the polling that implied Kemi Badenoch (a black woman, who you'd think ticks both of a Little Englander's 'no' boxes) was very popular with the membership.

It's painfully apparent that despite all of the talk of equality, Labour has never ever elected a woman as a leader. Brocialism at work.

Even bloody UKIP managed a female leader (granted, she lasted less than a month), yet for Labour the task is apparently too difficult.

What's wrong with tax breaks for SAHMs?

You're way off with this.

Truss will throw women under the bus as she will every group that she cannot benefit from. She is no role model. She is a louse.

Such a shame. Last thing we need is another dud female p.m.

May was booted out and I can't see Truss lasting.

Actually I think she will surprise people. Yes, she's wooden and perfunctory in her presentation style, but rather that than Boris's bluff and bluster.
I've always said that I think politicians should have a life before Westminster, rather than the Eton/Oxford/ PPS/Junior Minister etc route of the likes of so many PMs before.
I've just looked at the backgrounds of the cabinet team she has appointed and interestingly most of them have professional experience before Westminister. I think that's a good sign.

Rather than seeing her changing her position on things as 'flip-flopping' I think sometimes it is just pragmatism. In business things change and you have to change track and get behind a new project, new boss etc even if you don't always agree with it - it's a useful collaborative skill to have.

She has taken over a complete shitshow after Johnson, so it will be interesting to see what she makes of it.

Not sure if it's all been appointed but looks like her cabinet will make history in that there won't be any white males in it.

The tories are really streets ahead when it comes to diversity. I don't think she's throwing anyone under the bus. Sorry!

I would be willing to allow that it just hasn't happened by chance, the right woman hasn't been in the right place at the right time. No real fault of Labour who, rightly, should vote for the best leader, not just one who ticks that box.

It is interesting to consider why the shortlist approach hasn't served them as well as they might have hoped.

But I think this tendency of the LP to go around accusing the Tories of being racists and sexists, as if this has somehow been divinely revealed, is way past its sell-by date.

To the extent that members seem to really believe it, it comes from a reductive view of identity which sees all members of groups like racial groups as being the same and having broadly the same interests and opinions. And that is text-book racist stereotyping, but they are too naive to see it, because they've been told it's the progressive POV.

It may well be down to chance. But every single one of the five 21st Century Labour leaders has been from the same 50% of the population. That's stretching the odds a bit.

Top cabinet diverse, no white men what a change from recent make up

Kwarteng first to have PhD in economics too

It’s good to see

Charles Kennedy disagreed. He said Labour's benches looked more like society at large than the Lib Dems did.

Liz Truss is no Thatcher. Thatcher kept people she disagreed with in Cabinet . Michael Heseltine , Peter Walker , Ian Gilmour , Willie Whitelaw. They were talented - and less likely to cause trouble on the backbenches.

By contrast , Truss has sacked all the supporters of Sunak , though there is little between them politically. Comes across as petty, vindictive and small.

Isn't there a conflict of interest making Kwarteng Chancellor btw?

I did a little bet with myself as to how soon some bot would arrive to spout the “at least the Tories know what a woman is” trope. I guessed 10. It was 6.

Anyone who thinks that women’s rights have been advanced in the last 10 years of Tory government needs, in the words of another tired MN cliché, to give their head a wobble.

Well yes BitOut but it would be a big help if Starmer et al awoke from the sleep of reason on this issue.

The new cabinet is chock full of right wing ideologues. They all seem to believe you just cut taxes for billionaires and everything will magically improve. And Brexit is a great success.

Of course Colour Me Liz Truss doesn't believe in it. But then neither did BJ. Not having any beliefs , principles or even ideas of your own is a big plus in modern politics.

Nah mate. Many socialists criticise Labour because they are devastated with what they've become. ID politics are a regressive, individualist, capitalist wet dream. The left is eating itself over it whilst the right continue to be corrupt and ignorant, enjoying no viable opposition.

But yeah keep deriding us as bots. I think staying completely out of touch with the lives of the non-elite that Labour pretends it represents has been working great so far?

What Funny Talks said. I've been a Labour voter and volunteer since I was 18. Doubt I could ever bring myself to vote Tory, but won't vote for Labour in the next election unless they do a remarkable turnaround and deal with identity politics and the endemic misogyny in the party. My CLP is a cesspit of male entitlement and the new generation of young beardy blokes are worse than their mansplaining, patronising fathers and grandfathers. Beardy men are out to obliterate women and women's space on ideological grounds: their dads just talked over us and told us to make the tea, but they didn't want to erase us as a discrete category of the human race.

I'm developing a growing admiration and envy for the way the Tories read the room and adapt to survive. They're pragmatic and they know how to pull together. Labour is a shambles by comparison.

I really wish her well and look forward to even more concrete action on 'rolling back' the 'gender identity ideology' nonsense. Education and NHS are 2 areas where this needs to happen fast now she is PM.
Labour/LibDem is lost to me.....don't expect my x, if you do not respect my sex. Freedom of speech is the other area where the left has lost the plot.

This 👏

I think the roots of Labour in the trades union movement is inherently misogynistic - the unions have historically been all about skilled jobs for men. And as for the social justice aspects (welfare state/benefits, which are seen to benefit women), I think they actually turn quite a lot of women off. I would hazard a guess that whilst women want good public services, ultimately they want to know that they can get ahead themselves (obviously can't stick all women in one bucket). I think that women are best served by giving them the means for financial independence, including when they have children.

I think we're inching towards true equality when a women can be just as crap as a man and be PM :D

Agree with a PP: Labour wants to be right, whatever that means. The Tories want to be in power.

It seems she was the one behind stopping self-id going through, when under May, it had become one of those 'all party' policies thanks to Stonewall under the radar. That was a massive save on behalf of UK women and sensible men.
Johnson eventually got it and helped quosh the men in women's sport by speaking out belatedly; and child safeguarding with Cass Review etc.
It was fantastic how even Sunak (who had kept quiet on this issue) realised he had to come out with a women's rights statement at the very start of his campaign.

It's actually just a continuation of 'growing up'...maturing. I was discussing this with friends recently....the conclusion is that once you are older, you generally have a bigger stake in the continuation of the current economic system, so chaining yourself to railings over any cause looks far less attractive than in your youth and to be honest it never even appealed to me in my youth either.
The more you mature, the less black and white all issues become. It is easier to see shades of grey. I am actually now embarrassed by the intolerance of some of my earlier 'progressive' political positions.

My sincere hope is the new Home Secretary will get a hold of the police, the new Health Secretary will get a hold of the NHS and the new Education Secretary will get a hold of schools, and all insist on Stonewall Out. Wouldn't that be fab?

Yep that's what they need to do. They did manage to put EHRC on a better footing under Johnson but horrendous that EHRC wilfully chose to misunderstand their own legislation in the first place thanks to Stonewall's undue influence.
Apart from anything else, scrapping all the D&I stuff will save a fortune.