Why I'm voting Conservative

[jomartin281271]

Firstly, let me say, it pains me to admit this because I’m not a Tory. I’ve always looked upon myself as a slightly left of centre, live and let live, community based, floating voter. But the more I look at this election campaign, the more I’ve realised that, to me, this is a one issue election. Women’s rights.
Starmer has been asked countless times about women’s private spaces, on radio and on TV. Each time he’s done everything he can to avoid answering the question. In any one of these interviews, he could have made his position clear, particularly on that phone in last week where the caller Jane said she was sick of the twaddle that comes out of his mouth.
Now he’s being quoted in the Telegraph as having said that biological males should not use women’s public toilets. This is a typical move by a politician. Leave it until the last minute, so he can’t be quizzed on what he actually means and then twist and deny it afterwards. I don’t trust him.
I don’t want to vote Conservative. After Partygate and the chaos caused by that idiot Liz Truss, they need a good kicking. But they’re the only party that have consistently come down on the side of women. If Labour get in and shift the gender landscape, the changes they make could be irreparable.
In the Victorian era, they didn’t build public toilets for women. It was a way of keeping women chained to the home. This is the direction we’re heading in if we don’t stand up and put a stop to it. And I don’t want to look back on this in years to come and realise I could have voted against this shift, but I let my political views get in the way.

Great post itallwentwrong (yesterday 21:20)

This.

I can’t vote Conservative.
I can’t vote Labour. I emailed my Labour candidate yesterday asking for clarity on his stance on Women’s Rights and as yet have not received a reply.
I can’t vote Green or Lib Dem.
The local independent is a woman who doesn’t even mention the issue in her literature and spelt ‘independent’ wrong on her leaflet.

I’m staying at home.

All these thread where women are discussing their rights and what may happen to them? Not counterproductive at all.

I am voting conservatives for exactly the same reason. I am a swing voter usually, but there is literally no one else to vote for if you are a woman! It is especially imperative if you have girls.

Not being able to spell independent is not inspiring. I don't blame you.

Sadly this is a world wide phenomenon.

The world has been captured by this insanity.

We have been brainwashed for months by the BBC and sky news, and I hope people see through the lies tbh.

We were starting to see policy change and Cass etc has been good but the amendment to the EqA won’t happen under Labour

Plus Labour created this mess with the GRA

@ActivePeony I think you'll find that I said basing your decision to vote on thinking they give a shit about you is stupid.

If you feel that applies to you and are huffy about it, that's your look out.

Yeah they also lied about WMD in Iraq. Bombed the shit out of that region killing thousands of women and children in the process and destabilised the whole of that region. The knock on effects to that awful war we are still feeling to this day.

Also there will be no magic money tree this time around. No gold reserves to sell (thanks to Gordon Brown). Labour will not be able to splash the cash in the same way that the last Labour government did. There is barely anything between Labour and Tory economic policies. There are going to be a lot of very disappointed Labour voters in 5 years time if they think the next 15 years of a Labour Gov will look anything like the Blair years.

I am voting conservatives for exactly the same reason. I am a swing voter usually, but there is literally no one else to vote for if you are a woman! It is especially imperative if you have girls.

This.

If Labour get in you won't even be able to use the words 'woman' or 'girls' by the time of the next election, campaigning for our rights will be impossible.

I haven't quite made my mind up but in my constituency the choice I have is Lab, Lib Dems, Green, Cons or George Galloways party. It's 99% certain that Labour will win so I may very well vote conservative for the first time ever

‘New Deal for Lone Parents’ under the Blair government was awful.

A worker at the job centre told me (age 24 in 2000) that I’d ‘made my bed and should now lay in it’ rather than aspire to university, that the best a single mother could hope for was a ‘little secretarial course’!

I do think the Tories have been way worse for disabled people, and getting rid of Sure Start was stupidly short sighted, but I don’t think single mums are ‘demonised’ in the way we were 20 years ago. Perhaps that’s partly just because single motherhood is no longer a route to a secure or assured tenancy in social housing tho, so an accident rather than by design.

@walkingwithelephants

If Labour get in you won't even be able to use the words 'woman' or 'girls' by the time of the next election, campaigning for our rights will be impossible.

What country do you think you're living in? It's actually getting a bit insulting to women who do live under repressive regimes when we have people in a stable democratic society talk nonsense such as this.

This is the situation I'm finding myself in. Voting Tory as a protest in my area isn't much of an issue though. It's a safe labour seat and Tories often come in 4th. However - even the Tory candidate has avoided speaking about safe sex spaces so hasn't won my vote on this issue. There's no one else to give my protest vote to - so it's either him or spoil my paper which feels a bit pointless - though have done it repeatedly.

I cannot vote for a party with Harriet Harman and her Fawcett fake feminism. And I say that as previous Labour supporter.

What an absolute dire election.

And (allegedly) the majority are male on male assaults.

I don’t understand this approach/thinking. The Tory party have been in government for over a decade. If they gave a shit about this issue, they have had plenty of time - and a parliamentary majority - to have done something about it. It’s actually not that hard to pass a Bill or an amendment to a Bill if they really want to.

Moreover, women’s rights are not just about the trans issue. Women, as ever, have borne the brunt of the horrific Tory policies and ideologies while they have been in power. There is not a single policy they propose which would address the problems they have created.

Voting for more of the same is bonkers, in my opinion.

I think you're more likely to find a greater proportion of misogynists in the Labour party than the Tory party.

Misogyny is a Lefty man's disease

Not decided how I'm gonna vote yet. Keep settling on Labour, but then my brain goes "Hang on, why are you voting for a party that can't define you"?

The Communist Party recognises what women are and have a candidate in my area.

Here you do not give any credence to the issue that we were all under the trans trance for years, and thought of it as progress. Why would the conservatives be any different? They were doing their best to deliver the kind of policy people wanted. It was a tiny minority on MN actually, that were acutely sounding the alarm. The trans movement grew into outright activism and then it became obvious. Since then it was more or less supported by everyone, then we were silenced and unable to say what our concerns are - and now we are left with only ONE party that even recognises a bio woman!!! The conservatives! That is where we stand today my friend.

You may have been under a ”trans trance” for 10 years, but most of us have been talking about this for years. Have you forgotten that the discussion about changes to the GRA began in 2016/2017? Even Women’s Place started about mid 2017.

That is 7 or 8 years in which the Tories could have done something. Do you know how much legislation has been passed in that time? And you think they couldn’t have got a Bill or Amendment, through in all that time if they actually cared.

You can vote for who you like, obviously, but it is a nonsense to suggest that a vote for the Tories is for the furtherance of women’s rights.

Only one party will amend the EqA to biological sex

And given Labour created the GRA and are responsible for this mess. Plus no proposal to amend legislation we may well lose the ground many women have gained.

Plus it’s 5 different governments really - Cameron was busy with gay marriage, May wanted to bring in Self ID, Johnson was extremely sceptical and started the reverse course by appointing various ministers and secretaries (eg Sajid Javid) into relevant roles, Truss didn’t have time to anything as PM (but had in the W&E role under Johnson) and Sunak has finally drawn a line (and promoted Badenoch into Liz Truss’ old W&E role).

(apologies for any inaccuracies on that quick and dirty timeline but a lot has happened in the past few years!)

The Tories have been embarrassingly chaotic as a whole, but each from Johnson onwards they have been rolling back the TRA shitshow that Penny Mordaunt and Amber Rudd initiated under May.

I just wish WPUK had actually managed to influence Labour policy in the last 8
years 😭

Then it would be an exciting GE, rather than a miserable one.

Largely agree.

Though I don’t think it’s a wholly miserable election. There are some absolute grifters in the Tory party who will be out of power on Friday and that can only be a good thing. And I know lots of people dislike Starmer, and he’s certainly not exciting, but I had some professional dealings with him many years ago (before he became an MP) and I do think he is clever and committed to public service and so that’ll make a pleasant change. At this point I only want someone to get their head down and work us through the mess we are in, so I don’t need joyous - the bar is set low at simply “not selfish and incompetent”!