Labour ‘must fix its trans stance to win the next election’ - party needs to clarify its policies to be closer to the public’s views on the debate

[IwantToRetire]

Labour is trying to position itself as the party of the centre-ground of British politics. It has identified middle-aged, suburban women as a target demographic to win over ahead of the general election.

Labour strategists have studied polling that shows how a gender gap in voting has emerged since 2010, whereby women are on average more likely to vote Labour.

But the polling notes that Labour’s advantage is “specifically among women under 50”, while the Tories lead in women over 50.

It comes as a network of Labour activists and staffers prepares to relaunch itself next month as a think tank that will produce monthly reports on how the party can appeal to its target voters.

The organisation, called Labour Together, aims to come up with a raft of policy recommendations that reposition the party as “socially to the Right and economically to the Left”.

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/18/labour-must-fix-trans-stance-win-next-election/

Maybe he couldn't take the risk of being seen with a GC woman?

I mean, c'mon now! All he hears on the doorstep etc is everything except women's concerns re gender.

Why hang out with the most GC member of his party, if not the whole UK (certainly on a par with Kemi Badenoch)?

I dunno. Given the hate for the Tories I think Labour have a pretty good shot regardless of all the trans nonsense. Most people don't really give much thought to all the gender stuff.

@TorqueWrench you've resurrected this thread just to tell women that we're wrong and nobody cares about us or our rights, really
Are the labour party that scared of all the recent polls that prove the exact opposite (ie everyone cares about men in women's anything and everything).
You do realise that everyone knows that the emperor is naked and that Starmer can't be trusted with anything

I hate the Tories but Labour brought in the Gender Recognition Act in the first place, don’t forget that.

The Gender recognition act should never have been brought in. It has fuelled a movement which has resulted in girls being given mastectomies and toilets becoming a no go area for girls.

I predict that Labour will continue to fudge, avoid and prevaricate and it will become one of the big, ongoing thorns in the side for them...the one that simply will not go away. And as more and more evidence piles up of the harms being done both to children and to women, the pressure and the discomfort will only increase further. People will have to be made accountable for their evasions and others for their continuing positive endorsements of a damaging and radical ideology.

Labour is going to have a lot on their plate when/if elected. It is easy to hide when on the shadow benches, and easy to point fingers - not so easy when you are the party in charge.

Welsh Labour refer to women as cis women in their publications so expect doubling down and erosion of women’s rights.

I agree, the issue boils down to “ are you off your trolley or are you sane?” Why anyone would vote for a party that has gone completely nuts is beyond me, if they would tell a bare faced lie about something so fundamental then how could you ever believe a word that comes out of their mouths again? These people could be in charge a country at war ffs!

There is an ongoing campaign to make out that the U.K. is JUST like the US, where there is a clear left/right divide on trans issues. The fact that this doesn't work here - our gender ideology problems started under a Tory government, and the first people pushing back were lefty feminists - doesn't stop some from trying their luck.

If I recall correctly, lefty feminists pushing back, such as WPUK, were described as a 'hate group' by a Labour trans rights charter that called for their (WPUK) supporters to be driven out of the party. I also recall that the charter was endorsed by a number of leadership and deputy leadership candidates, including Angela Rayner and Lisa Nandy.

(Edited for more clarity)

I believe problems began with the GRA and aspects of the EA, both of which were brought about under Labour.

But that aside, I agree with you and would like to add that in the U.K. the Communist Party has a reasonable stance on women/sex and gender without being “far right” obviously.

In a March 2023 statement opposing the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill, the party stated that

"The Communist Party is the only political party with a coherent political analysis of sex and gender. Gender as an ideological construct should not be confused or conflated with the material reality of biological sex. Gender is the vehicle through which misogyny is enacted and normalised. Gender identity ideology is well-suited to the needs of the capitalist class, focusing as it does on individual as opposed to collective rights, enabling and supporting the super-exploitation of women.

For me it's not so much "trolley vs sane" as "will you deny reality if it doesn't match your ideology because you ultimately believe the ideology has the greater truth through its moral rightness, that messy reality will fall in line if we all just believe hard enough, and anyone trying to push the focus back to reality is motivated by at best lack of understanding and at worst a nefarious desire to stop the better future promised by the ideology "

And the latter fucking terrifies me because it's the mindset that does terrible terrible things to real people in the here and now because they believe it's justified to bring about a theoretical better future.

And now they are derided as "head girls," often on this very board. So they can't win with either tribe - which is an excellent reflection of where women's rights actually live in the endless right/left nonsense.

Well spotted on that Communist Party quote. That's pretty much the sort of thing I've been looking to sign up to!

To be fair the "heads girls" description was a direct response to disparagement of Kellie Jay Keen who is fighting the same corner from a different aspect. She herself is criticised often for the opinions of others, yet remains single issue women's rights. I think again and again those who speak publicly need to stick to the issues rather than their own tribal affiliations.

This is why one reason I have a lot of time for Labour Women's Declaration. I've never seen them disparage other women fighting the same fight.

The one thing I feel increasingly strongly about is that I will not be told how I vote. I don't know yet who I will vote for, but I will not have it dictated to me by a man.

The nonsense spouted by men of privilege, such as LOJ and Jonathan Liew and certain MPs recently, suggests that because their views differ from mine I must therefore be "right-wing" (the same with JKR and Julie Bindel - women who have always stood at the heart of left-wing politics in a far more proactive and discernable way than either of those Guardian males).

Women in this country died and were tortured so that I could have the vote. Men do not get to define my politics or the politics of any other woman.

The fact the major political parties have responded and are responding so poorly to this crisis facing women will almost certainly feed into how I and so many other women choose to cast our vote in this election but it will not change our politics.

We can only hope that, some day, our politicians distance themselves from this misogynistic movement and that those who championed it might finally gain some insight into which wing they - not I - belonged to.

Well said, it terrifies me too.

I agree with you both

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Lefty feminists were also derided as a hate group by Tories such as Christian Blunt, Maria Miller, Penny Mordant - but they all get forgotten because it's convenient for staying on message.

Women's rights are a progressive task, because traditionally women didn't have rights. That's why there has been an alliance between progressivism and women's rights for the past few decades, because you needed to have a mind for change to believe women were worth anything at all. Gender ideology has disrupted that, and the right is making hay while it can (ie before everyone remembers that they believe in manly men who work and womenly women who look pretty and defer to their husbands, a la Lauren Southern).

It's going to be interesting to see how fast the interest in women's rights will be dropped as the centre left distances itself from genderism. Who knows, maybe we'll go full horseshoe - after all, it was Jamie Willis who came out as Britain's first transgender MP after his car accident in which he was found intoxicated & wearing feminine clothing, which demonstrates that the Tory MPs do indeed claim social firsts in unexpected ways.

How can we trust Labour? Dragged us into the Iraq war and now their war on women.

As someone before said, for me the trans issue is about safeguarding children. The large number of vulnerable children with mental health issues who have jumped on the social contagion issue that changing your gender will fix all those issues. It won't. They need help, counselling, accepting themselves not feeling the need to chop healthy breasts off, taking puberty blockers etc. Many are autistic or have other diagnosis and need care.

The very loud men in dresses are ridiculous. The children with issues are completely different.

Got me it’s trust. If they have merrily been looking us in the eye and telling us that humans can change care they are liars, very very stupid or bought.

I also recall that the charter was endorsed by a number of leadership and deputy leadership candidates, including Angela Rayner and Lisa Nandy.
And Thornbury.