Labour work out the demographic they need to win

[lanadelgrey]

www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/03/i-want-to-give-mid-life-women-a-voice-labours-anneliese-dodds-on-menopause-careers-and-the-wi?amp;amp;amp

Realisation dawns, but not nearly enough is my thought.

Absolutely!

Absolutely @GloomyDarkness .

I can picture an episode of The Thick of It where some young spad thinks up "the menopause!" in the back of a cab.

Couldn’t agree more with these posts here - why are they promising something that we haven’t actually asked for instead of giving us our actual rights back?

The more I think about it, the more suspect it becomes, and it is patronising as hell. It’s a firm ‘no’ from this aspiring hag.

'the British public does recognise that sex isn’t the same thing as gender and they have particular areas, for example when it comes to refuges from male violence, where it is important the Equality Act is held to'.

And how exactly are they planning to do that, while criticising and blocking any and every effort to keep such places single-sex, or even accurately state the sex of those present?

Precisely.

This is Labour's election to lose, and on current performance that is exactly what is going to happen.

“Well, I have to say that there are different definitions legally around what a woman actually is. I mean, you look at the definition within the Equality Act, and I think it just says someone who is adult and female, I think, but then doesn’t say how you define either of those things. I mean obviously, that’s when you’ve got the biological definition, legal definition all kinds of things…’

EB: ‘With respect I didn’t ask for that. What’s the Labour definition?’

AD: ‘Oh I think with respect Emma, I think it does depend what the context is surely. I mean surely that is important here. You know, there are people who have decided that they have to make that transition. You know I’ve spoken with many of them. It’s been a very difficult process for many of those people. And you know, understandably, because they live as a woman, you know, they want to be defined as a woman. That’s what the Gender Recognition Act, again a Labour government brought into place.’

But the people whom she is so concerned to define as a woman (sic) won’t benefit from the menopause concessions, will they ? Or maybe they will be able to claim them anyway , because you know, feelings.

This could be about doling out crumbs to the various interest groups without angering the other interest groups? Or an attempt to do that. The wokerati will not accept support of single-sex spaces for women or the biology-based definition of 'women' and 'men', but they won't mind discussion of menopause, especially if it can be treated as gender-neutral.

I'm afraid that Labour doesn't need to address the gender identity theology in order to get elected, given the economic situation and the mess Tories have made.

I agree with others here that the focus on menopause is not an uncomplicated issue here as it suggests older women might be unreliable workers etc, even though it might draw more attention to the supply chain problems with HRT.

I can picture an episode of The Thick of It where some young spad thinks up "the menopause!" in the back of a cab.

I snort-laughed at that

Seconded.

Reminiscent of the pink bus if you ask me.

It's literal violence to remind me of that

To paraphrase Anneliese Dodds, "Look, a squirrel!"

Until they know what a woman is they cannot possibly help us.

I think someone already summed it up for me.

No self respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex

Labour has made it very clear in recent years how little respect they have had for women's voices, especially middle aged women.
Hubris if it turns out that it's those votes they need.

😂😂😂😂

Yeah, a bunch of petrol station flowers is not going to cut it. At this point, Starmer arriving down a mountain on skis with a rucksack full of milk tray would not cut it.

Honestly, this just looks to me like another worthless hoop that businesses will have to jump through that will do fuck all for anyone. It will maybe create a few consulting jobs for certain types of otherwise useless university grads.

I can't imagine anyone who is actually trying to run a business that has some kind of real productivity will welcome it.

Dear Labour leadership,

Until you define women as people with a material biological reality who are adult, human and female you can FUCK OFF AND DO ONE.

Sincerely,
A Middle-Aged Woman

I'm another one who feels very uncomfortable about this sudden focus on menopause. I think it's about women being a 'problem' or an 'issue' because of our ovaries. It's yet another way of removing our sex, and instead merely defining us by our organs, changing as we age.

Labour can fuck off unless they accept that woman=adult human female. We're more than menstruators, cervix havers, and now, menopause sufferers.

“Workington man” didn’t want to vote in all the nonsense that came with Corbyn. No one believed the true red Labour area would go blue. Until it happened. They seemed to forgot women live in Workington too and get a vote!

In the true red areas of Islington and Camden boring old mums are meeting online and in cafes and pubs. They won’t be voting for all the nonsense that comes with Starmer. Come to my doorstep and tell me what a woman is.

Wondered if this tweet would have a second outing. It has:

twitter.com/lascapigliata8/status/1631713354489241600?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

The menopause plan is the squirrel they need to divert from Dodds' plan to expand "hate crime".

This. Saves typing

I'm sure businesses will be all for hogtying themselves up in even more red tape/employment law and time lost to allowing women time off to deal with the menopause, which can last years for many women. So i imagine they will lose votes there.
It's not as if every woman experiences it at the same age, for the same amount of time and with the same amount of severity.

Did bobblehead dodds explain how that would all be factored in to setting law at all? i very much doubt it!
In all probability, menopause is just a word she's heard, with no real knowledge of how it affects women.

As for the working class vote in red wall areas, i'm not in the least bit convinced they've won any seats back.
That meme of a pic of a manual worker, covered in grime from a hard days graft, next to a pic of izzard, just about sums up the distance between who the labour party was set up for and who it represents now, the gulf between the two couldn't be any wider - from coal soot to max factor! Says it all really, doesn't it?!
The WI, hardly the place to be, for the working class, is it?
The labour party are so lost in a jungle of their own making, they could never even find the rubicon again, let alone cross it back again.
The labour party, to all intents and purposes is dead, deceased, ceased to be - a la monty python.

Dodds announced this week that Labour would require workplaces to produce action plans to support staff going through the menopause. But it is NHS waiting lists and chronic illnesses that are often pushing women out of work, even when they would prefer to stay.

Absolutely this.

Women would cope better with the menopause, if they were not fighting men for HRT, during times of shortages.

Labour have decided that a sacred caste of men are more vulnerable than ALL women for some reason