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.

There doesn't seem to be anyone who can answer the question: what have the Tories done for women in the last 13 years?

Nothing. Presiding over the worst collapse in investigation and convictions of rape imho ranks right up there in awful dereliction of duty.

This HAS been answered, e.g. on pages 15 & 16.

In addition, one might look at the work of Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, a staunch & active supporter of women & children who's authoritative yet approachable & rather wonderful. The discussions she organised on women's issues were really good & she has so many useful contacts. Her swift letters have become the stuff of legend.

Is the left any better? I look at what the SNP are doing and it’s horrific imo

If we end up the same way well.. fuck that.

Other than that 30 free hours helped me and many other women. Plus SEISS saved my bacon

Am I correct you are male? For women getting access to cheaper childcare makes all the difference.

I don't think apportioning blame for how people choose to vote is any more helpful than finger wagging at anyone who doesn't support Labour. It's a dreadful dilemma - I still don't know what I'm going to do - and we'll all have to make the best decision we can.

Sunny, agreed. I'm just replying to a straight Q.
Everyone here is saying, give Labour a chance, you don't know for sure..well, Drakeford and Sturgeon show the way forward for left untrammeled power.

Pure incompetence laced with social fervour.
We have our Petri Dish with modern leftist allowed to cultivate.

The end result is pure cult of personality leadership, zero tolerance for dissent, and captured institutional groupthink.

Starmer may be a smoother, more palatable leader. But the rot is the same.

What's also becoming apparent, evident in Starmer's body language and UTurns, is that he doesn't want the job, Labour are singularly unprepared for power.

In this case, he may be more tempted to go for the easy win, the thing that gets him instant kudos for zero effort. The trans conversion ban and anti hate speech laws.

It's been answered many times in many threads, including this one, you just pretend not to notice and never answer those posts.

The thing is for me when you strip away the superfluous the economic policies are similar.

There’s little room to manoeuvre these days and if they dropped some of the more idiotic ones then fine.

But the social implications are really concerning me. And even worse everywhere else is doing the same so tie little terf island is dwindling.

So depressing and worrying

I know.

But they've commissioned a couple of reports and one of them has written some sternly worded letters. FFS.

Sunny, I watch the law and objective measures tighten against TRA...Forstater, Bailey, OU etc...the Cass Report, the EHRC advice, one sports body after another, the implosion of Self ID in Scotland/S35 challenge, the report of seven nations pediatricians slating the lack of rigor in trans youth medicalisation.
.

At the same time, the trans tarmac hitting the material reality tarmac meaning trans messaging is getting more skittish and extreme ie more anxious it's losing the argument with institutions and the public...Mika Minio faux breastfeeding, Sarah Jane Baker furore, lists of left wingers supporting these two as long as your arm.

And in the middle is the govt and political leaders. I'm any sane world, a leader and political elite would look at the tsunami of bad outcomes soon to come (the lawsuits will be unlike anything we've ever seen, so complicit have our ruling classes been), the warning klaxon of Cass, the sheer narcissism on display...and bring policy back to a sensible equilibrium (zero tolerance of bullying of those unhappy with their bodies, but strict adherence to material reality and sex based class distinctions on safe spaces, sports etc).

But no, our governing elites are tacking away from what Cass and Sarah Jane Baker teach us, and to capitulating to the narcissistic crowds.

Quite! In fact because the economics are so dire & they’ve said they’ll basically stick to what the Tories are doing, they’ll go for the easy and as they’ll see it ‘cheap’ win. It’s like why the corporates will shove signs on all their loos saying they’re gender neutral but not do anything for equalities that requires spending any actual money like modifying peoples or equipment for people with disabilities

making self ID law will look to Labour like an easy quick cheap win

I believe that if Starmer makes it in 2024, there'll be a two step process.

Trans conversion ban allied to anti hate speech laws in 2024-28 first term, mandated by policy written in 2024 manifesto.

Stepping stone to some version of Self ID in 2028-2032 second term, winning that term in 2028 will be "justified" by the UK population being content with the previous legislation, the elites will claim they're linked, a "one-two" step.

Right now, the only way I see this not happening is if Starmer govt collapses mid term precipitating a Tory govt led by Badenoch or Cates.

However, the law of unintended consequences in politics is that Mordaunt is Tory opposition leader in 2025/6, not Badenoch or Cates.

And we all know what that means...

What are you basing that assessment on?

The state doesn't turn on a dime, it just doesn't. The political ministers do not have direct control over a great many parts of the state, that's by design and overall it's a very good thing. They can't just go directly interfering in bodies that are meant to have some level of independence.

But in this case, it took a good 10 years for this stuff to really infiltrate our public institutions and civil service. There is a whole generation of younger people in these institutions now who only know that way of thinking. They've set up many of the systems to work in the favour of their view of the world.

It will take another 10 years to really turn it all around. It's very much the old tanker analogy. It's a wide, slow turn, but the UK, or England anyway, is in the turn now. Assuming no one changes the direction of the ship again, it will slowly come about.

I think Morduant is done as a candidate for leader, her last go drove that nail into the coffin quite firmly. She may not know that, but no one serious will back her.

"...assuming no-one changes the direction of the ship..."
...that's a pretty big assumption.

What are you basing this assessment on?

I have taken the views and opinions expressed on this thread, the current opinion polls and the most recent social surveys and loaded them into the most sophisticated AI analysis engine available (aka my own hopelessly unstructured guesswork).

Labour will have a majority of about 100 after the next election. This means that there will be approximately 180 newly elected Labour MPs. The vast majority of them will be SJWs aged between their late 20s and their mid 30s. They will have no tradition of respect for leadership or loyalty. Does anybody see KS resisting their demands for self-id, amending the EA to remove single sex protection or the banning of trans conversation therapy?

In return Labour will find that the financial constraints are such that they will be unable to make any difference at all in the things that really impact us such as healthcare, welfare, social services or education.

We are actually doomed to dystopia.

Shit, I wish I hadn't just written this. I now feel really depressed and I don't think that a box of Teacakes will cheer me up.

Women may really be forced into JSO type slow protests. I can see the late 2020s being massive upheaval.

My prediction, not AI but sheer hunch, is that the country goes back to the polls in 2026, and elects a Badenoch or Cates led Tory party, that will be unequivocal in support of women's rights here.

Just check out Matthew Goodwin's take on the culture war, the Tories have to take a stance here to have any chance of relevancy and electability.

I'm grimly beginning to wonder if it might take the dystopia to get the 'it doesn't affect me/I'll strip with any male who asks me' women and the remaining sane politicians up off their bums and doing something about it.

If Labour win, this is going to be ten times harder, and it's going to get one hell of a lot uglier. But we may end up with a meaningful, useful opposition and a women's rebellion that is strong enough to make more of a difference. Particularly as we've seen the 'women's rights' that the Suffragettes achieved was really nothing more than a few surface gestures.

Women really need to be realising: if it's been this easy to remove your sex based rights and your right to equality of access with men, how bloody easy will it be to use the same tactics to remove your vote?

Nice women get undressed with men with dubious agendas and don't say anything. Nice women shag men even if they're homosexual. Nice women don't mention reality. Nice women unquestioningly enable and pretend they can't see the problems. Nice women don't want equality or sex based rights. Nice women don't want a vote. It's a little, natural step.

On the other hand Europe is swinging right wing. Hard. The pendulum has been forced right over and it's going to swing back. Tolerance and indulgence of luxury beliefs is going to be hard to keep going in the current European situation, and the general public world wide are starting to get fed up of having stuff rammed down their throats and being told sparkly bullshit.

Tory MP Mike Freer is at it again. "Human rights" (by which he means trans "rights") "really are not debatable". Once again he likens women's concerns about males in their safe spaces to male homophobia in the eighties.

He has previously condemned the "horrible debate on body parts" (ie being concerned about transwomanly penises) as dehumanising people.

This totalitarian misogyny is a cross-party affliction.

The U.K. does feel an anomaly atm with so many in Europe going to the right.

I’m amazed at how little is being discussed with what’s coming generally but no party here will avoid migration being a huge concern for citizens.

After this economic policy will have very little room to move, with a small dusting of envy policies or something like the IHT policy

Than this gender bollocks. The last croak of authoritarian left. It’s depressing as hell but women are strong here. We can do it, get rid of it.

Funny how people like Mike Freer never think about women’s human rights when they put forward the idea that even debate is wrong. Oh yes, I forgot, we’re support humans so don’t count.

Historically all parties were broad churches, with certain factions dominating. With the Tories, the Eurosceptics have held sway since Thatcher.
But I don't detect any party line on trans with the Tories, Mordaunt and Cates are equally able to speak up.

I don't see any freedom in the Labour Party here, no way could you have Lloyd Russell Moyle and Rosie Duffield on the same panel.

There is enforced groupthink that is totally unhealthy for democracy.

There's only so many piss-soaked duck-faced protestors in see through frocks and rapists in women's jails and 15 year olds getting mastectomies can happen before everyone in the country has first hand knowledge of at least one of these things.

We know how it tends to go.