Labour canvasser today

[SirSamVimesCityWatch]

I'm in one the constituencies with a by-election coming up.

Just had a labour canvasser (woman, mid/late fifties) knock to ask if I was voting. I said yes I would be.

She asked if I knew who I was voting for. I asked if she knew what a woman was. I told her I was a single issue voter and that was the only issue that was going to decide how I voted.

Her response: "I believe a woman is anyone who believes themself to be a woman".

I told her in that case I have nothing else to say to her, and closed the door.

I would have loved to have actually put some of the issues to her (rapists in prisons, assaults in mixed sex spaces, including schools, destruction of women's sports etc) but my heart was already racing and I knew it would be like talking to a brick wall anyway.

But anyway - at least that's a clear pile in the eye for the whole 'it doesn't come up on the doorstep' nonsense.

So, I'm either voting Tory or SDP.

I would say too - I don't blame the Labour Party for being in a position where they aren't going to be able to do a lot differently economically. The economic environment doesn't have much to do with the party that happens to be in power, in most cases.

And I don't especially blame either party for the insane reactions to covid, I've come to see that as a manifestation of a population completely psychologically unprepared to deal with normal life events like the possibility of death.

But the situation now is going to be economically very difficult for some time. The whole model of the NHS may no longer be sustainable with a modern attitude to health, which is very different than what existed when most socialized health systems were set up. No party will have it easy and it is going to take some creative thinking and leadership to try and get through it.

I agree with your very sensible posts

I’d prefer the two dc cap not to be lifted anyway.

As much as Starmer is hopeless and hard to take the middle ground economic policies are fine by me and inevitable.

The ridiculous tapping in to politics of envy policies, ie VAT on private schools, and self ID gender overrunning party is where I have most issue.

We’ll be in the same position, if not worse, and will have thrown away our rights.

We may well be the last country wrangling on this with hope not to.

Rudderneck counterintuitively in the long term we're actually headed for depopulation. I know it seems odd to suggest that when we still haven't peaked but the increase in population is largely driven by people living longer not by birth rates which are falling worldwide. No country has successfully reversed this trend.

The fertility window is relatively short compared with our life spans and a growing number of people are unintentionally childless because they miss that window.

As for the politics questions I'm feeling discouraged, I am (or was, it may have lapsed) a Labour member/voter dismayed by the kinds of things front bench politicians have come out with on this issue. I think I'm going to make my decisions based on local candidates by challenging all parties on this issue.

Whoever gets in, I think we are going to have to keep working for this either within parties or outside them. There isn't an easy choice.

Anyway, to return to my original point, follow up your original query. Standing for the Tory party is no guarantee that your candidate "knows what a woman is". Indeed the fact the canvasser didn't know the candidate's view on this a bit suss in itself.

I hope KJK prompts or someone actually asks direct questions to Starmer

And he answers

All this dancing around what is a woman in quotes from the left / Labour supporters doesn’t cut it.

Direct questions, on self Id and the rest. By god we need to move on from women have a penis or whatever we’re stuck at from the Labour / Lib Dem cronies.

Get them to spell out ramifications for women under their policies.

As far as I can gather, Labour has the same economic policies as the Tories? Without radical reform and investment, healthcare, the environment, public transport is likely to be the same regardless of whether the first or second eleven win the election.

You keep saying that.

So what are Labour going to do to put it right? Nothing. They're going to make it worse.

Analogy: I have two friends. One comes to my house & goes home with a £20 note which was on my kitchen worktop. I don't know if they picked it up accidentally or stole it, but when I mention it, they give it back & apologise. The other friend has never been to my house but they tell me that if & when they do visit me, they will steal everything they can lay their hands on. Which one am I more likely to invite into my house?

I'm not advocating that anyone vote Labour.

😂

It’s pointless. They want the Tories to lose which means Labour will win.

They can’t answer anything beyond that as they know Labour will be worse on this.

Not that I think @TooBigForMyBoots needs it but in their defence they’re not the one making predictions. From what I can see their posts are an indisputable record of fact.

OP, please choose the SDP if they meet your single issue.

Ha at this. Penny Mourdant is currently leader as they thought.

Oh hang on…

Penny Mordaunt isn't leader yet. Had Rishi not urged his supporters to vote Liz Truss she would be.

And all those old threads where you were running around predicting they would be in the leadership campaign

Nope. I’ll take facts but some people are just not particularly reliable

It would be quite the cosmic irony if Penny Mordaunt, a woman, is the one who facilitates Starmer, a man, in his direction to trash women's rights.

They both feel they're On The Right Side Of History here.

Well if people vote Starmer in or do their best to make sure the alternative is out they can’t complain after when it happens.

True and fair. Feeling better about my party membership now!

I don’t know, but I think the Tory party has had its little fling with a long on charm short on substance leader and having had its fingers burnt, might not want a repeat. Id rate Badenoch as having a better chance than mordaunt now. Sword related showing off notwithstanding

Fact: we are here because of the Tory.
Fact: even now, they've still not released guidance for schools.

Opinion: they're doing nothing more than blowing smoke up our asses on this issue.

I’d look at wider context for next leader

Mass displacement is only going to get more pronounced

Any party will need a leader that can get cut through as citizens won’t be ok with it, whether Labour or Tories are in

The ping pong on the bill atm is very interesting

I watched Starmer on Laura Kuensberg's show yesterday. That this guy could be let anywhere near power is scary, and that's just his bland beige nothingness re purging of any left wing principles of helping the more disadvantaged in society.

But knowing that despite being as sappy as one could on the economy and public services, he's hardwired on leftist ID politics, grievance race politics to start, but most critically his abandoning of material reality to follow the modern Left's playbook on trans politics.

I'm more sure than ever he'll achieve next to nothing on the economy and true class based lifting of the disadvantaged, but he'll be gagging to make his mark on his legacy in such things as a so-called trans conversion ban and draconian restrictions on so-called online anti-hate speech.

This will give him his warm fuzzy feeling, rather than anything meaningful like re-nationalising water, truly raising the living standards of the poorest.

I really mentally struggled with not voting Labour because of his take on trans, with so many reasons to turf the Tories out.

But I'll be damned if I'm gonna vote for nothing more than a duller version of Sunak while Starmer engineers irreversible change on trans law.

I really mentally struggled with not voting Labour because of his take on trans, with so many reasons to turf the Tories out.

But I'll be damned if I'm gonna vote for nothing more than a duller version of Sunak while Starmer engineers irreversible change on trans law.

I remember, during the last Labour government, saying to a friend that while Labour & the Tories would both be happy to see us all in the gutter, the Tories would at least leave us alone there, while Labour would stand over us giving us a patronising little homily.

It's for Labour to up its game & make the country WANT them & the future they would bring. It feels like they've thrown in the towel already & don't want to be in power.

There doesn’t seem to be anyone claiming Labour won’t be worse on this issue

The best pro Labour or left have is don’t talk about what they’ll do.

Since people know what’s coming, they can take responsibility when women are totally screwed NZ / Canada style

I agrée with this. He will go for what feels easy and appeals to his sense of the morality that should be enforced on the public. The Scots experience should suggest to him that this might not be an easy win but can he learn from experience?