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.

Not to mention that anyone stupid enough to buy into this hogwash and call it 'inclusive' has no clue about equality or social justice and no interest in them as values. They merely identify as left. They are left in name only.

I'm a centre left voter, I'll wait for an actually leftist party.

Well done @SirSamVimesCityWatch definitely a hard boiled egg for you come the glorious 25th May. Some years ago I had a (middle aged male) Labour canvasser retreating from my door literally screaming TWAW when I (quietly) raised concerns about women being raped in prisons. I too am a single issue voter. I've spoiled a ballot with suffragette slogans and found an obscure centre left party to vote for (which got about 173 votes) but it isn't the same. I really really don't want to vote Tory but will I be driven to it?

I know this is not quite the same, but in the recent local elections I got a leaflet through my door from the Labour candidate. It gave his email address and invited people to contact him with any concerns or questions. So I did. I sent him a long email about my concerns about the proposed GRA. I talked about separate sex spaces, women's prisons, refuges, hospitals, changing rooms. I talked about women's sports and the danger to children. I mentioned how it was claimed that this never came up at the grass roots level and finally asked him the Staniland question. (OK it probably was a bit of a rant.) Guess what?

No reply.
So I guess that tells me everything I need to know about him.

Hard boiled egg will be much appreciated. Maybe leave out the reasonably priced love, though.

When Labour came round a few months ago I told them that I would never vote Labour as long while they were struggling to define what a woman was. To his credit, the canvasser said he had been asked this a lot and the local candidate was firmly in to TWANW camp but could appreciate why people felt they couldn't vote Labour. He looked pretty exasperated by the Labour leadership.

I must admit I was nervous about saying anything at first and the I thought 'sod it' they've knocked on my door and come to me. So glad I did!

In Spain the GE coming up next week will be very tricky for women and feminists. We can’t vote but Spanish friends are either pushing to vote for the left, or planning to spoil their vote . All we see from the left, despite reasonable economic policies, is the self identifiers being appointed as spokesperson on Feminism, rapists being given lighter sentences and sidelining of feminists on the other issues eg males having more right to assistance for “gender violence” with 10 men murdering women in 10 days, the priorities are very skewed indeed.

So you’ll vote to erase women’s rights and then worry about it? 🙄👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

And? Tories will tell you any lie to get your vote.

All this has happened under the Tories though? I don't get why any rational voter would want to give a vote to such a 2 faced party who are dumping on women left right and centre.

Good on ya

Would someone kindly enlighten me as to how exactly the Tories are the party to vote for when all these unwanted changes have happened while they are actually in power?

Which other parties were not wholly taken in by it at the time?

When did the opposition say 'hang on a minute, this is a really bad idea because....'?

If you want to actually look at this and the kindly is in good faith, consider western democracies and how gender ideology has risen throughout most.

Look at which political side supports that and the countries that have fully adopted it in laws, and media at times

The Tories did similar but look at recent moves away from it, frustratingly slow but there

Labour and Lib Dem’s have been clear on where they stand, well actually Starmer not that clear as he’s fence sitter extraordinaire but the parties have talked about TWAW or ignoring women

If you vote Labour or Lib Dem you’ll give them mandate and voila we are NZ, Canada etc

Good luck to those who think they can fight it after a GE. No chance. You’ll be toast if you do care about the issue. And dc up next.

I don’t get why any rational woman would vote for a party that says no one is talking about this and the rest.

If you want to hear where the labour front bench may be going on this issue it is worth listening to Wes Streeting on the latest News Agents podcast. He talks about the need for single sex spaces, recognises the Scottish GRA is a mess and even admits that women were gaslit over the issue. He says that you can't just legislate and just hope for the best. It is a very interesting discussion and he says a lot of things I have not previously heard from the labour front bench.

Streeting will say whatever the focus groups suggest is the most expedient thing at the time.

There's not a single Labour politician I'd trust further than the end of my nose right now. (With the exception of Rosie Duffield). Sleekit, the lot of them.

Are you in Kent?

@Igmum
I too am a single issue voter. I've spoiled a ballot with suffragette slogans and found an obscure centre left party to vote for (which got about 173 votes) but it isn't the same.

I'm wondering about the slogans. I intend to spoil my ballot, but it's easy for me to say that as Labour (who I'd otherwise vote for) always win here.

But I wondered if there were lots of spoiled ballots with the same slogan, would it get noticed? Picked up in the news? (Story fed to journalists?)
Just thinking of the one where someone spoiled their ballot with, er, a drawing, and it made the news as there was debate over whether to count it as a vote as it was next to a candidates name.

I'd make a thread but worried it counts as a crime or something to suggest others might use the same slogan!

If you are in a by election you have the chance to make a point. Most likely, Labour will win the by elections. But if the swing is smaller than expected, they will analyse why.

By election results won't change an 80 seat majority but holding your nose may make a strategic point. In the lead up to a GE.

Remember that in Scotland, Labour MSPs were WHIPPED to vote for self ID, despite all their amendments being defeated. Two women defied the whip, not a single man did. When Rishi Sunak blocked the Holyrood bill from passing, Labour's first instinct was to join Nicola Sturgeon booing and hissing the bad Tories. Until they realised that for once Scotland actually agreed with a Conservative government.

Regarding Labour MPs and candidates. My Labour MP is on the 'Women and Equalities Committee' ( Kim Johnson, Liverpool Riverside) and she's full on TWAW. She has refused a meeting with her constituents on this issue, and her aggressive office manager tells us " You're wasting your time. She won't change her mind" ( forget representation.....).

Anyway, I noticed the other day she has a icon at the top of her twitter account by her bio which says 'Followed by Mermaids'. I'm not a twitter user so am unaware if she has consciously inserted this icon to signal her support for Mermaids - or if this would appear even without her say so? Does anyone know?

Anyway - she's being followed by Mermaids and even after everything that has happened recently, she's not at all cautious about being associated with them.

She can fuck off. I really dislike her, very intensely.

The parliamentary Labour party is full of people like her. I'll certainly not be voting Labour any time soon.

Because one should vote for parties based on their current policies not their historic policies.

As far as I can ascertain, Labour's economic policies are the same as the Tories'. What will be gained by voting in a Labour government?

Outside of economic policy, they are (like the Democrats in the USA) probably more likely to wage wars abroad than the Tories; and it's not just that they support self-id - many of their MPs won't even speak to or reply to women who express concerns about it.

I respect anyone's choice to vote on a single issue but voting Tory is not a vote to protect women's rights. Their policies have made women in this country worse off over the last 13 years.

Public sector pay freezes affect women disproportionately (80% of NHS employees are women; in the adult social care sector, around 82% of workers are women; and around 76% of teachers in England are women).

One in five people in the UK is in poverty with women making up the majority of this group.

28% of households made up of a single parent and at least one child report running out of food and not being able to afford more on a regular basis.

How does this compare to Labour run Wales?