Yep.
the main reason there is more critique of Labour on this board than there is of the Tories is because many of us used to be members, activists & officers for the left leaning parties.
Obvs as a pure numbers game that means we are mostly Labour, but there are women here who have been personally fucked over WEP, the LibDems, & the Greens.
So clearly we have more knowledge about the inside workings of these parties and thus more to discuss when it comes to the nitty gritty of how things work on the ground.
That doesn’t necessarily mean we think the Tories are a better option, I doubt I would ever personally vote Tory (unless I ended up in the constituency of one of the handful of Tory Women MPs that really understands this issue, eg Miriam Cates) and that would be to send a message to higher ups (no doubt terfy women who aren’t usually Labour supporters would consider Rosie Duffield on a similar basis).
As it is I continue to help out the Labour women cllrs locally who I know and trust on an adhoc basis, but I wouldn’t waste my time on the party generally anymore and I’ve held branch and ward positions and spent hours and hours on LE & GE campaigns.
The final straws for me was seeing a female Labour activist of 40 years being harassed by studenty members and subsequently sidelined and ostracised by the same men who had relied on her voluntary labour (small l) for decades.
Followed up by MN posters who claim to be on the left finger wagging at those of us wanting to have in depth discussions about the issues without being told who we could and couldn’t speak to and what topics we had to toe the line on.
Seeing the TRA tactics come out of people, sometimes other women, who are supposed to be on our side was a horrific revelation.
I want free debate with proper grown ups who are willing to state their position and defend it (and admit when their wrong or when their argument is not quite fully formed).
I’ve always been inclined towards anti authoritarianism, I’m a Gen X, Daughter of Grunge, a Riot Grrl who is long past the Grrl phase of life. I’m horrified at how conformist the nonconformist alternative scene has become.
The Punk subreddit is absolutely full of little blue haired woke-os pronoun policing the shit out everyone, claiming to be ‘progressive’ and ‘on the left’ yet female musicians are still sexualised and mocked in equal measure and young female fans are still getting cocks pressed up against them in the mosh pit.
Only now the cock might be in a frock and if she objects she’ll be ostracised as a terf.
And for some unfathomable reason Sir Starmer, former head of the CPS would rather listen to these destructive little uber-authoritarian-university-twits-who-identify-as-leftist than female party activists of multiple decades standing, many of whom work, or who used to work, in the public services that Labour are supposed to care about. Teachers, HCPs, Social Workers, community librarians, care home assistants, prison officers etc.
Labour have shat on all of us, so it’s a bit rich to tell us to sit still and shut up and shat on some more just so we can be shat on by a Labour Government rather than just a Labour Party (and all the trade unions).
We have to try and work with whoever is actually in a position of power, and that means the civil service, the judiciary and the regulating bodies of our health, education and legal professionals, because the Tories are obviously shitting up the country and Labour will inevitably shit it up in a load of different ways, while probably not doing much to unshit the bits the Tories have already broken.
(I’m not actually convinced Labour can win a majority without Scotland anyway. Far more likely we’ll end up with a useless runt of a Labour minority government or another ill-fated coalition. The public has election fatigue and the Labour Party is on it’s arse financially and can’t really afford another GE without a massive injection of crony cash, which is the sort of thing most Labour voters want OUT of our politics)