Rutherglen and Hamilton West

[SerendipityJane]

Labour win. Tory vote missing in action. SNP well and truly spanked.

Hmm, remind me, did Labour in Scotland support Sturgeons Self ID bill? Yes, yes they did. Did Tories in Scotland oppose. Yes, yes they did.

My point is that gender politics wasn't a high priority for voters here. And likely won't be at the GE. Unless the calculation is that all the GC women voters stayed at home/some voted Tory.

GC women in the UK are gonna have to work out how to tackle Labour's moves on GI once Starmer moves into No. 10 next year. Because reservations won't stop them getting elected.

The Greens got a whole 600 votes!

But yes. The SNP are done for.

We need to focus on Labour, next. Agree.

My point is that gender politics wasn't a high priority for voters here. And likely won't be at the GE.

No shit Sherlock. Even on these boards it's a minority pursuit.

That's if Labour manage not to bankrupt themselves before the GE...they could be looking at a £4M bill if they don't manage to put this self-inflicted and inconvenient court case off until after it.

Labour spends £2m taking Corbyn staff to court

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a0d2c73e-63bf-11ee-aae8-b941e584b333?shareToken=8b358a017c34c92c6b515f9a625d1a02

I think that while the gender woowoo is a big issue for the SNP, there are a few other big issues also dragging them down. The police inquiry, Sturgeon, indepedance, poor performance for Scotland, Yousaf being in charge.
There's two ways this manifests; people swapping votes to another party, but more importantly people not voting because "they're all a shower of shit".
The turnout of 37% down from 66.5% last time. That's almost half.
I think this is the way it's going to go at the next general election. A bunch of gender critical people who can't vote Tory and there is no women's rights other party to vote for are either not going to vote, or spoil their papers. Other threads here on MN are full of gender critical women who have been left politically homeless and can't bring themselves to vote for anyone.
I see this almost record low turnout being repeated at the general election. This will mean that each person who does vote and not spoil their paper in protest is going to have more of an impact.

I've just read Helen Lewis Bluestocking substack on Starmer. He is no Blairite in terms of policy, his early social justice activism doing pro bono legal work is testament to that. I believe he genuinely is a trans ally. But like Blair, he's laser focussed on winning, and if that means he u-turns on stuff like Self ID he will.

The Q is, how he reconciles these opposing tensions. TRA rights which don't gain any votes and potentially erode female support at the polls, and his genuine concern for trans policies.

I don't believe that Starmer is a true trans ally in the sense that trans activists mean. I don't think he believes that trans people as a group deserve to have their demands met more than any other group. In fact I suspect that until recently he saw trans rights as such a peripheral issue that he was happy to take a lead on policy priorities from activists and 'experts by experience', in the same way as political parties have often done on a range of issues such as disability rights, welfare reform or tackling domestic abuse.

Most of the charities who lobby on such issues do have genuine expertise and an evidence base and tend not to recommend legislative changes that impact negatively on other groups. They also try not to get the current law wrong or lie about it. With trans rights political parties, and governments, have shown a complete lack of due diligence. The techniques in the Dentons report are nothing new, but they've previously been used by those lobbying for change that doesn't have damaging effects on others. Starmer, May and other politicians made assumptions (based partly on their own prejudices) and have been far too credulous and gullible. They saw it as an easy win, were lazy and were taken in. Anyone who has woken up and now needs to do a U-turn will find it far from painless.

blogs like WingsOverScotland have completely changed the narrative

perfect Nicola ran away and almost destroyed the party in doing so

and then there was a posh camper van in front of her m-i-l’s house

months of islands cut off by ferry problems

Lorna Slater and her stupid handling of DRS

rumours getting stronger that Alex Salmond was fit up

everyone sick of Mhàiri Black

Isla Bryson….

SNP are done. I say this as an SNP voter.

And Rutherglen has had its own transwoman in the headlines : https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/scottish-news/20117273.rutherglen-naked-attraction-star-told-police-i-hope-die-covid/

It's certainly a three pipe problem.