Keir Starmer to end Tory Culture Wars

[Sausagenbacon]

Oh what a relief. Where would we be without him?

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/exclusive-keir-starmer-says-he-will-end-tory-culture-wars-if-he-becomes-prime-minister_uk_6666d7d2e4b02fc48bf3ec39?d_id=7763591&ncid_tag=tweetlnkukhpmg00000001&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=uk_main

"I'll end the Culture Wars" means that people who protest about radical reworkings of society to do the bidding of niche and aggressive lobby groups will be silenced.

It's authoritarianism wearing #bekind garb.

Culture war is a lazy way to dismiss subjects you don’t want to talk about.

I just can’t wait to be able to make appointments for my children to have a dentist appointment, a GP appointment when I want it, hospitals with no waiting lists, Junior doctors paid the required £35 p/h, thousands of nurses and teachers recruited. Maternity care a priority… a social house for everyone that needs one
and no tax increases to pay for any of it 👏

As If….

Another thing that Starmer's comment reminds me of:

In May, in a CNN town hall, Trump said, “I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours.”

This! I’m beyond fucked off with women’s genuine concerns around safety, privacy, dignity and down right fucking fairness being hand waved away as ‘culture wars’ with a side order of “this never happens” (whilst ignoring the massive pile of all the things that never happen actually happening)

just fuck off with that patronising bullshit

I think he's trying to come across as serious and decisive, not wasting time arguing about minor issues.

Its a political decision to reframe safeguarding and womens rights as minor issues.

Well, maybe. Would be nice if that's the case.The trouble with your interpretation is that the only issue he actually mentioned is "trans rights". So there's that.

I'm glad you started this thread @Sausagenbacon. Can someone explain 'culture war' to me, genuinely? I'm sure I've been understanding it wrongly, or at least misunderstanding this current usage. It seems to be everywhere.

Where’s that? Is the full interview somewhere?

I love how the culture war is divided down the lines of people who continue to believe in material reality and those who just went off on one in a navel gazing, post-modern blaze of language games with no regard for the harm done to those harmed in its wake. And somehow it's posited that both sides are behaving in bad faith. It's mental.

This.

I expect he means by ignoring women.

Men like him know that's always an option. Most of the progression of trans wants (trans people have the same rights as everyone else) has utilised behind-doors lobbying and old-boys network style influence to get to where we are today. I think he hopes to return to that, keep everything out of the press, and the silly, ordinary women will stop making a fuss.

Still probably have to vote for them because the thought of a libdem coalition is frankly far more terrifying.

Can someone explain 'culture war' to me, genuinely?
I think it means insisting on talking about things that the speaker doesn't want discussed.
Pesky women eh?

🎯

thecritic.co.uk/lefty-mens-failures-have-radicalised-women/

If that's what he meant, I'd be very happy. It's absurd for the government to be involved in minor issues such as what songs are sung at Last Night of the Proms or whether Gary Lineker should be allowed to tweet about asylum seekers.

"Culture war" is a hard term to define, but if it broadly means "getting aerated about the BBC Proms" then it's fair enough to expect government to stay out of it. But trans issues? They are very far from being a culture war. How can you describe putting rapists in women's prisons or carrying out double mastectomies on troubled 19-year old girls as a "culture war"?

He said he'd end the 'Tory' culture wars.
He's going to say that opposing genderism is a Tory standpoint and throw Lefty women who oppose this under the bus.
The culture wars are not a Left, Right issue, they are a women's rights issue.

He's going to give the bullies what they want to save himself the bother of standing up to them.

What infuriates me is the refusal to engage in a meaningful way with the issues underpinning the 'culture wars'.

Legal immigration isn't a worry of mine. I am not worried about the country losing its identity and I love being around people from different cultures. My own family is a melting pot of different races and cultures. I recognise that others don't feel this way. Different people have different appetites and tolerance of difference. Some would prefer to live in a more homogeneous society. To dismiss this preference as 'culture war' is what, in my view, leads to people moving further right.

People who know their concerns are not driven by racism get angry and hostile from not being understood. This is how many GC women feel when concerns are dismissed. It's the same thing - dismissing concerns without understanding or addressing them and denigrating the concern holders.

The term 'culture wars' gives the user, in their mind at least, a free pass not to engage in the substantive discussion. It is a more sophisticated 'no-debate' tactic.

Nothing good will come of leaving swathes of people feeling misunderstood and dismissed!

Brilliant as ever. "If you tell a certain type of man that you value female-only spaces, he will start waffling about genital inspections, clown fish, toxic debates, intersex people, policing people’s femininity..." is so true it hurts.

If Kemi was my MP, I’d vote for her. Women’s and children’s rights aren’t part of a culture war. Keir Starmer has been really good on antisemitism in the Labour Party, which proves he can be principled and tough. So I take from what he says that he doesn’t care enough about women and children to pay attention to what’s really at stake. Therefore I will not be voting Labour.

I'm not a fan of sending expensive books to politicians - they can afford to buy their own copies, and the ones that are sent to them probably end up being pulped. But I do wish someone close to him could prevail on Starmer to read The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht if he wants to understand what being "exhausted" by what he considers "culture wars" really means. Every woman who wrote in that book, and so many more, want to live and let live, but they couldn't being themselves to back down in the face of this current assault on women's rights, despite in some cases ferocious attacks. That's what exhaustion is, Mr Starmer. And no, you riding in on your white charger telling everyone to quieten down won't cut it. I'm certainly no fan of the Tories, but calling their belated attempt to defend women as a category who can hold and exercise rights on that basis a 'culture war' is lazy and ignorant.

Yes, he doesn't actually mention the trans issue himself, it's the journalist who mentioned it, not Starmer.

As far as I know he hasn't been asked a direct question about the issue at any point in the election campaign. I can't think of an instance anyway.

I do wish someone close to him could prevail on Starmer to read The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht if he wants to understand what being "exhausted" by what he considers "culture wars" really means.

It seems Carolyn Harris might be close to the Starmers:

"A family friend, the Labour MP Carolyn Harris, agreed they were “very much” characteristic of a woman who balances her husband’s (sometimes too) mild manner. Lady Starmer is, Harris said, “literally the yin to his yang”."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/10/why-lady-victoria-starmer-is-being-kept-off-the-trail/

She was dismissive of issues in schools, so you wonder if she would read such a book or brush it off as a culture war/not happening etc

https://x.com/safeschoolsuk/status/1658931402002386948?s=46&t=WHoOZZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

To me, this seems like this is effectively a very authoritarian statement. They will impose whatever they want, regardless of what citizens of the country think. And they will shut down dissent.

Is he going to part the Red Sea as well? What a stupid thing to say.
Anyway I thought he was supposed to be launching a consultation on the GRA proposals. So that's unlikely to shut debate down on day one.