Gender Criticals - how are you going to vote in the election?

[ProfessorFlitwick]

My political views are centre-left. I am genuinely unsure how to vote in the next election because I am absolutely not voting for any party that supports harmful woke ideology. I am curious to hear how other GCs are thinking of voting next year?

If I had the chance I’d vote SDP. My natural home would probably be the Green Party but now they have sold themselves out to gender identity ideology and given up on all their original values, I have given up on them.

I might spoil the ballot or not vote. It makes no difference what I do, I’m in one of the safest Conservative seats in the country.

The number of spoiled ballots is always recorded.

I don't have a UK vote any more but I'd be struggling to know who to vote for if I did. I hope somebody is sending a link to this thread to Starmer.

Could you say exactly who, and why you know this?

Conservative, with reservations. Absolutely cannot vote for any of the others and my local Conservative MP is one of the better ones.

just to elaborate on this (I’ve been a party-nominated observer at the count before).

All the ballots are first sorted into piles, a pile for each candidate and a pile for the spoiled/confused ballots.
After all the candidate piles are sorted/counted into bundles the election agents & candidates are invited to scrutinise the spoiled ballots. If it’s a very close call on the clearly marked ballots the scrutiny of the spoiled pile can become intense (more likely in a local election where it can truly come down to a handful of votes, but marginal GE seats may also be intense).

Examples I have seen that have been fished out of the reject pile

All candidates have a cross except for one that has a tick (incorrectly completed, awarded to the ticked candidate)

Ballot has comments on each candidate, ‘Massive Tosser’ ‘Big Tosser’ ‘Giant Tosser’ ‘Little Tosser’ ‘Least Tosser’ - Least Tosser’s election agent was able to argue that the voter has a clear preference for their candidate.

Most spoiled ballots I’ve seen say ‘None of the above’ or ‘ Youse lot are all the same’ or are just scribbled over/crossed out, indicating ‘none of the above’.

so spoiling a ballot in a way that both ensures it gets seen by each candidates election agent but still indicates a bit preferred candidate may be possible, no guarantees though.

While no records are kept re: spoiled ballots, anything with a clear message should at least be seared into the mind of candidate and agent, plus party observers and vote counters (council employees) and will hopefully get people talking (although an extremely TWAW candidate/agent combo may not willingly feedback to other party members).

The total number of spoiled ballots is tallied, so an unusually high number should also pique the interest of party campaign organisers & candidates.

I genuinely love count night - quite sad that our locals are no longer counted immediately after ballot closes, but are instead counted the following working day (presumably for financial reasons? Can’t expect daytime employees to ballot count between 10pm and 3am without a decent overtime rate…)

Personally, I probably wouldn’t ballot spoil if I weren’t living in a super safe seat or if a small party that genuinely represented my standpoint existed. (Left of centre, but in old-fashioned, non identity politics, working class community based terms, ie what is disparagingly called ‘Blue Labour’)

No, that's not the case for me. The problem for me is that the Tories are fucking women up in a million ways. The fact that they are largely on the right side of the TWAW debate doesn't negate the fact that they have cancelled surestart centres, made it much harder for single parents (mostly women), are preparing to cut benefits, have never thought about how any policies affect women (including throughout Covid). What they're doing to the NHS affects women - our healthcare, our children (as primary carers) and often as carers for elderly relatives. As a small business owner (often dominated by women) I get little or no support.

As a woman, I feel more disenfranchised now than at any point in the 20+ years I have lived in this country. My concerns do not seem to be their concerns.

So while the trans issue really does worry me, I am enough of a grown up to know that no political party can be perfect or meet all of my needs. Spoiling my ballot doesn't magically lead to some new, better, political party entering the fray and I think it's childish and pointless.

@NoMoreRedWineforFreda Thank you that's really interesting.

This. Absolutely.

Don't know.

My choice here is between SNP and Tory.

Both of those statements - Tories have been in power since 2010 and GI is more of an issue now than ever - are true. However, as far as I'm aware the roots of the GRA go further back to the time of Labour, not least because it was passed in 2004 under Blair. (I'm sure I read somewhere that it was a pay-off for not legalising gay marriage? Which, in case we forget, David Cameron managed to get passed. Much as I don't agree with a lot of what he and Osborne did in terms of austerity, I take off my hat to him for managing to get that through Parliament).

And yes, further action by TRAs has happened on Tory watch but a) I think this ties in very much with trans rights being seen as a good idea and a "kind and progressive" thing to do, something we've seen played out across the whole of society. And b) at least they seem to have realised the problems around the issue and are trying to put it right (guidance in schools etc). And c) the Tories have rejected changes to the current GRA, changes which would have made it easier for people to change their gender.

So I would reject the notion that this is the Tories' fault. And of course GI is more of an issue now, the chickens started to come home to roost following the 2004 GRA/the implementation of the Denton's Playbook/Stonewall's campaigns, and women had to start fighting for our rights, identities and safeties. The reaction to that ranged from "Pipe down, wims, you're not important and you're not being kind" to job losses and death threats, so we fought harder and shouted louder to make our voices heard and raise awareness of what was happening. This would have happened regardless of whoever was in power, but I'd argue that under Labour it would have been a lot worse.

The Tories might have been in power when all this kicked off but does anyone think that Labour will be anything other than full-on TWAW once they're in power? Look at RipxNutmeg's threads on Twitter/X with Labour MPs' quotes. Look at how Starmer has had to be dragged screaming and kicking to the realisation that women don't have a penis (and he's still clinging onto the fence on which he was sitting). Look at how Rosie Duffield is being treated.

Leopards don't change their spots. They just camouflage them when it suits them.

My politics are hard left. I will be spoiling my ballot. Former Labour member.

Conservative. Swearing all the way. I don't want them or their policies, they are just the least bloody dangerous out of a really, really dire field.

I will vote against Labour. So Tory it is I guess.

I vote Green locally as we have Green councillors some of whom are quietly GC and one who signed the GPWD.
They are too crazy nationally. I wouldn't say I'm torn because I could never bring myself to vote Tory, and we have one of the few remaining Red seats in the Blue Wall. I think it's a case of hold my nose and vote Labour. The MP is excellent as a constituency MP and we could get a misogynist Tory (unlikely to get LibDem and the shape of the constituency means we won't get Green either).

Brilliant post. All very true

Labour so easily could do the right thing by women and earn my vote.

But they won't. Because they are a bunch of misogynistic dick panderers who prefer Eddie Izzard's right to harass teenage girls in the queue for the ladies toilets than Rosie Duffield's position on keeping rapists out of women's prisons.

They have shown their colours.

Once women lose the right to define ourselves independently of men, the lives of women worsen. This is what the Labour Party stands for.

I will actively vote to keep them out.

Mr Starmer is an intelligent man, he knows all of this and cares more about the men's rights lobbyists than he does about women's rights.

When a person, or a political party shows you who they are believe them.

I was edging very slowly back towards Labour when the news about Rosie Duffield's continued persecution broke.

Same here. I had intended to spoil my ballot paper until then, so I guess that's what I'll do. My constituency has been very Lib Dem for years, but no way am I voting for them again. They are full-on TWAW, although I seriously doubt my local candidate is.

Politically homeless.
I feel like of Tories get in again, I'll be kicked by a hobnail boot, if labour get in though...

I'll be kicked by a size 11 Stiletto worn by Mike the 17stone pasty addicted plumber.

I'm getting kicked either way, so what does it matter.

Conservative. No way in hell would I vote for women-hating Labour. Our rights will disappear completely with those cultists.

Mr Starmer is an intelligent man, he knows all of this and cares more about the men's rights lobbyists than he does about women's rights.

Yep. It's ridiculously naïve to paint Labour as well-meaning but a bit clueless. Do we think for one moment that Keir Starmer (or indeed pretty much any man) wouldn't know what a woman was if he were in the market for a new girlfriend?

Just lost long post (!), but Not Labour, short of a sea-change in attitude (and I am a LP member). Will never vote Tory. Could be spoilt ballot for the first time ever. Unless there's a Communist or similar.

Is there anywhere that tracks the views of MPs and candidates on this issue?

I'll admit that when the Tories announced their latest punitive measures against the disabled, I wavered as this will affect me personally.

But then I discovered that Starmer and Liz Kendall have said that these (frankly cruel) measures "don't go far enough" so screw it. There's no reason for me to vote Labour and plenty of reasons not to. I probably won't bother at all. It's all hopeless.

Conservatives. I'm not a natural conservative and ready to vote for Labour whenever they decide to pull their head out of their arse.