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.

Sure start were absolutely brilliant!

Sure Start was a fantastic project. I still have friends today that I met via a Sure Start baby group (and that baby just turned 24!)

Problem was that it’s one of those interventions that takes ages to recoup the initial costs, and it’s not entirely clear how much value it has societally until years after (a decade after it’s taken away and the negative knock-on effects take over from the positive ones!)

I dunno whether Labour will be able to find much spending dosh but the reinstatement of Sure Start would be high on my personal agenda (supported parents, stronger families and more cohesive communities save money on social services, crime and policing and contribute to better health outcomes for all but not within the time span of one GE!)

And this is an inescapable fact.

TBF tho, no one would’ve predicted back in 2004 that a legal fiction intended to give 5,000 ‘transsexuals’ the right to marry would be the first step towards a huge wave of ‘transgender children’, males competing in female sport events and women being denied women only rape crisis care.

The internet & smartphone play a massive role in what played out afterwards.

It was predicted. It was raised during the debates (it's in Hansard) and subsequent to that by feminists like Germaine Greer.

Sports were discussed, as recorded in Hansard, but ultimately not considered an issue because the sports federations were trusted with it.

But the huge wave of girls IDIng as transmen or NB? I don’t recall anyone anticipating that in 2003 Parliament?

Yes it’s there. The creators of the legislation ignored the warnings of harmful impact

No. You're correct there.

Edited to add

You would think such a phenomenon coming totally out of the blue would cause some concern and warrant some research.

We do have the Tories to thank for Cass.

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.

Honestly we really need a fact checker so that we dont have this idiotic repeat of false history over and over again.

Sadly thanks to the powers of the TRA networks, the early years of the Tory Government the priority was to simplify the GRA ie bring in self ID.

However, thanks to both lesbian and gay networks, and a growing number of women's groups (and of course FWR) enough people raised alarm it this was abandoned.

The postitive of this was not just ending the attempt to bring in self id, but enough women coming together to lobby against how the GRA undermines women's sex based rights in the EA.

This was a sucess for women. And because of this sucess, and also because Kemi Baddenoch became Women's Minister we were on the way to maybe geting the EA amended.

Unfortunately the GE stopped that.

How is it possible that anyone can think they can pop in on FWR and right complete twaddle and think they will influence us.

I must have typed this point at least 2 or 3 times in the past couple of days when it is clear an onslaught of those who clearly aren't aware of FWR, have arrived.

If you want to influence us, at least fact check befoe posting.

By not doing this, and disrespecting what FWR has been part of influencing for more than a few years now, is the very, very last way you are going to get anyone to listen to you.

I wish FWR had an automatic delete for any one who posts re-written history thinking it will strengthen their arguement.

It does exactly the opposite.

"Firstly, let me say, it pains me to admit this because I’m not a Tory."

You are now. Have fun with that x

Quite frankly we are looking at houses overseas with a view to relocate. I don't really want to live in a dead end Labour hell hole of socialism where no one can ever do well. I can't imagine the damage they are going to inflict on this country in the next few years.

Anybody who has been watching this particular policy area should know that extreme trans activists (I would define extreme as ‘not acknowledging that women have any right to sex-based services or spaces’ and ‘endorsing experimental medicine on children’) exist in all parties, also within the Conservative Party. So passing any legislation in this area is incredibly difficult and takes huge amounts of groundwork, persuasion etc.

This isn’t your run of the mill uncontroversial policy area because you have activists to deal with who do extreme things such as pouring urine on government buildings. Can’t imagine many people would do this over, say, a new law regulating the issuing of driver’s licenses.

Agreed, so much leafletting and campaigning for the Greens, I wasted 8 years.
And there was always sexism, so many sexual assaults not dealt with. Their safeguarding and complaints procedure are pox.
I even relocated to be nearer the action which was so difficult.
When I read Caroline Lucas appalling article in the Guardian justifying Challenor, I simply could not believe it.

I'm afraid my bar is set at 'does not believe in alternative realities with legal penalties for speaking unwanted truths/defending your rights' because..... fgs you cannot identify out of reality while in power and just try and imprison everyone who argues with you. That is not someone you want in charge of anything.

I'm not sure how many women realise the possible consequences of Labour's very murky policies.

For those who do, I think holding your nose and voting Conservative is quite tempting - if only to ensure a proper parliamentary voice for women. The Libdems won't be that voice, which only leaves one alternative.

Not to mention that Labour doing badly this time might finally scare them into doing something about their very major misogyny problem.

Right now, I look at how Starmer has treated Rosie Duffield and how he's tacitly supported how his party has treated Rosie Duffield. And that's who he is, guys.

No good 'knowing what a woman is' when they're desperate for an ambulance and there isn't one available! I could never, ever vote Tory, they really are awful.

Sorry, I just don't believe anyone "to the left of Corbyn" would vote Tory because "it's good to try something new."

You've had over a decade of Tories. You can see the mess they have made of our public services. You can see how child poverty has increased and the gap between rich and poor has widened. If you vote for them over a single issue you are betraying the whole principle of fairness that underpins left wing principles.

The issue of transgender and women's rights is complicated. That's why the labour party is making a hash of it - because this is an area where the rights of two vulnerable groups are at odds. There isn't a simple way through this, and the conservatives pretending there is are being dishonest. Most of them don't give a toss about any marginalised groups, they just spotted a way to exploit the culture wars. If you believe most of them really care about women's rights, let alone Lesbian and Gay rights, you are deluded.

Nope. You are wrong. And rather rude, but I don’t particularly care about that.

The Tory government made their announcement (with a whimper, not a bang by changing the scheduled statement in Parliament into a written statement several months later and at a time when it would garner less publicity) in 2020. Plenty of people (including me) had responded to the consultation as early as 2017 setting out that the definition of sex required clarification and that this needed to happen through an amendment to the EA. I know for a fact that this was before Tory Ministers that early - I can’t say what I do but I confirm I know this through work.

Those of us who were were actually there, know that the Tories could, but chose not to focus on this issue and could have worked on it. They didn’t care about the issue enough themselves, and didn’t think enough of the public cared about it aside from those who responded to the consultation, to bother. They made a calculated decision not to address this when they could have, because they didn’t think it would impact their electoral position. And all through this period, various government departments such as Education were still following the TRA line, with the full approval of the cabinet.

In all, they have had a very long time to legislate around this issue. They chose not to. The suggestion that they were just about to but somehow got caught out by the election is bonkers - they called the election.

Funny how they are suddenly saying all the right things and proposing changes just before an election. Apparently it suddenly matters to them. I’m sure that’s nothing to do with the fact that they are trying to pick up disaffected women voters from Labour or the Greens…

If you want to be a Tory, be a Tory. I am not trying to influence you or anyone. But some of us have been involved in this campaigning and work for a VERY long time and can see what’s what.

Well, here we are!

Surely you can see how public mood has changed over the last few years

Politicians reflect the public and this has snowballed

We also needed someone like Badenoch to pick up the task

Of course Labour are about to get in so how much they reverse ground gained we’ll see. Depressing though

And it’s down to their GRA after all

It's not difficult at all. Men are not a vulnerable group, women are. TW are men obviously.

The Tories want to clarify the EA 2010 to ensure that sex = bio sex. That would solve a lot of the confusion.

If you want to be a Tory, be a Tory. I am not trying to influence you or anyone. But some of us have been involved in this campaigning and work for a VERY long time and can see what’s what.

Again factually wrong.

And I suspect I have been far more engaged than many who only woke up to the issue once FWR on mumsnet got their teeth into.

Most women who think of themselves as feminists did not appreciate the impact of the GRA on women's rights.

And there was no public push back.

Most women did not realise the double edge sword of the SSE.

Partly because as feminists who were part of Women's Liberation it never occured to them that so many women would be overwhelmed and taken in by the Stonewalling of gender dysphoria.

Had this societal change not happened the ambiguous wording of the SSE would not have become an issue.

And for individual women and women's groups the wake up call was the Tory proposal to amend the GRA.

The discussions that came out of that made many women aware that in fact our sex based rights were not secured by the EA.

And if that combined campaigning had not taken hold, and been taken up by a few bold MPs, nothing might have happened.

And like it or not, it was only when Kemi Baddenoch was appointed that there was any movement by a Minister to address the issues. But unfortunately the GE had stopped her plans for putting forward ammendments in the autumn.

So me stating actual facts doesn't make me a Tory, but it does make me a realist.

Only confirmed by Keir Starmer being quoted today as saying Labour will not amend the EA.

So in terms of women's rights not only have the Tories done more, but they have the guts (unlike labour) to say we got it wrong and now we are (or would have) put it right.

The problem is those who insist on seeing this through the false prism of the two party system.

Women who are realists, realise that we have to take whatever opportunity we can to if not advance, but at least hold onto our rights.

Dumbing it down to trying to imply I am only saying this because I am Tory implies I actually dont care.

But I think for all of us on FWR who have been grappling with this issue for what is now years, know only too well we can not rely on politicians.

This may have been our last chance to get the EA changed to protect biological women, but we will not only have lost it, but will have our rights further impinged by Labour changing the GRA to bring in self ID.

I have too much respect for myself and other women to think politics is about being some brain dead follower of this party or another.

The reality for women is we need to know what happens in practice. Not some 6th form soapbox speechifying.

God all this YOU HAVE TO BE IN THE CLUB TO SPEAK HERE re FWR.

I’ve been here since 2016 under different names, when it all truly started kicking off. Just because I don’t post here often under my old name doesn’t mean I’m any less concerned about women than you are.

This is not a members only club. We can bloody well type what we want. This has been an issue for YEARS with men wearing dresses trying to shut this place down. So pack it in

The irony of referring to my post as 6th form soapbox speechifying after all that hot air in your post!

Guess what? Outside this forum are real women in the real world who have been campaigning and actually working on these issues, not on social media, for years. And I am one of them. I have been on this forum for years, but change my name frequently to avoid being outed.

I am not party political, and never have been. I am, however, a feminist and have dedicated the majority of my working life to feminist causes. This government do not give a shit about women. Not only have they failed to act on this issue, their policies across the board, over the last 15 years, have plainly not had women in mind and have actively caused women harm, in some cases. That’s why I won’t vote for them.

And you can pretend you’re not party political but you are so weirdly focused on trying to persuade people to vote Tory by spouting utterly incorrect information, that I’d be surprised if anyone believes you. I certainly don’t. You certainly have the required authoritarian streak to be one…

Anyway, I think we’re done. Enjoy being a keyboard warrior and trying to police public forums. All perfectly normal behaviour… Night night!