Kemi elected leader of the Tory party

[cariadlet]

Let's hope she really holds Labour to account about women's rights and the dangers of gender ideology.

So you would advocate for a system where mothers who work but are not well paid cannot take time to recover from childbirth, learn (for a first baby) a lot of new skills, and give their baby the best start in life? Instead they find themselves forced to return to work immediately, neglecting their baby, exhausting themselves, and risking doing their work badly and perhaps dangerously through exhaustion. Sounds a really good idea to me. Everyone wins, especially the baby, and the rest of society when the consequences make themselves known.

Yes. If you can't afford children, don't have them. I'm sure that Kemi would agree

Probably not worth challenging inflammatory posts on here on a Saturday night. Schools go back on Monday .

That doesn't even make sense. How is anyone supposed to plan their finances for years ahead? Unexpected events can happen to anyone.

Maternity pay leads to overpopulation

As the ever decreasing number of children being born in the UK is now in fact approaching a crisis, this comment just cant be true!

It has been a topic in political commentary for some time. Either the birthrate in this country has to increase, or we need to allow for a far greater number of workers to be recruited from other countries.

Unless of course as you get older and want a pension and find you want have one because their wont be enough younger people of working age to pay for it.

Let alone of course the already increasing lack of people prepared to do care work, and many other jobs in the care sector.

If anything we should be increasing maternity and free childcare.

Or we could opt for compulsory euthanasia. At what age would you set that?!

There's more to women's rights than trans issues.
Her stance on maternity pay for example.

Yes, nobody knows what's going to happen in the future.
You could go into pregnancy in a stable relationship, only for it to go south by the time you have your baby.
Women have to have time off after having a baby - would you rather we popped out a baby and then went back to work after just a couple of weeks as need to pay the bills putting ourselves at potential health risks /being away from baby so soon as well?
Things that you think shouldn't have to be pointed out on the feminist board...

Well all you need to do is be a high earner, like Kemi, and there won't be a problem

You're assuming that if a stable relationship goes south the woman is stuffed. She needs to be financially independent and not leeching off someone else to make sure that doesn't happen. Like Kemi

She is a fabulous woman, I am delighted & think she will represent all us females young & old extremely well!

You're assuming that if a stable relationship goes south the woman is stuffed. She needs to be financially independent and not leeching off someone else to make sure that doesn't happen.

So you think men have no obligation whatsoever to contribute financially to the cost of raising their children. ie not only should women undertake all child care and rearing but pay for all of it?

The reality is of course is that this is what most men think and do.

Who knew that we have members of MRA posting on FWR.

Having fewer children only causes a "crisis" if you have a stupid system that relies on the working population increasing to pay for everyone who isn't working. Rather than more children which isn't good for our planet we need fewer economically inactive people and each generation to be financially self sufficient so it's not expecting future generations to support it. The UK population has grown a lot recently. There are still too many people in the world using too many resources and concreting over the planet reducing biodiversity and consuming stuff

I'm really pleased KB is in. She's a true thinker. I hope the media allows her and the rest of the Party some time to formulate their offer to the British people, rather than badgering them for specific policies on ABC immediately.

It's vital for democracy that there is effective opposition to KS but there needs to be a radical change in the status quo of how our systems function. KB is looking at how it should work.

She only just clung onto her seat recently, it was very close indeed.

Badenoch's majority in NW Essex was 2610, and she got 35.6% of the vote. The Labour candidate in second place got 30.8%. That's nowhere near being 'very close indeed'. There are some constituencies where the majority was under 50 votes. In Hendon, the Labour candidate got 15,855 votes and the Tory got 15,840. Now that actually is 'very close indeed'.

I think it's interesting that Kemi (apart from Major) is the first recent non Oxbridge educated leader. I think she is definitely a break from the past in terms of conservative leader and maybe that is what is needed?

Badenoch's majority in NW Essex was 2610.

In 2019 she had a majority of 27,594, in context the majority dropping to less than 10% of what it previously was can fairly be described as 'very close indeed'.

Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch I think will attract the ire of some commentators who feel she has sold out her African heritage to some exxtent. I think she is distinctly middle class and has a very wealthy husband (a mixed race marriage incidentally).

Dawn Butler has already said she is 'white supremacy in blackface' which is an awful slur which should result in suspension. I think her ethnicity combined on views such as white privilege will make her a headache for many on the left.

Well, that didn't take long..... the BBC is helpfully stepping in with some succession planning (before the new leader has even started 🤦‍♀️):

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm20dv560j2o

Aside from his gaff on violence against women and a few other daft comments in the past, Cleverly did seem like a reasonable candidate. Also, it's very possible that Kemi will do the hard work now and then get replaced after in-fighting before the next election. However, saying you won't be a front bench politician, while "not ruling out" another bid for leadership is a cowardly way to go about things.... and the "impartial" cheerleading for it from the BBC is disappointing.

Agree on your last line, it's more to do with the BBC not wanting Kemi but I take that as an indication she is more of a threat to Labour.

He was alright, but stodgy and less likely to challenge Starmer. I'm glad Kemi got it

I agree there should be an investigation and suspension

Fully agree.

I might have to start watching PMQs now. For the first time in years it's going to be more than just a point-scoring "debate society game".

Yes, there will be debate but Starmer won't be able to handwave issues away with quips. I'm sure he'll unleash his underhand side - like the time when he twisted Sunak's words in to somehow being an attack on a murdered child - but Kemi Badenoch has a sharp, fast-thinking mind and keeps facts at her disposal. I'm looking forward to seeing this play out.

🍿🍿🍿

And yes, once she's done all the hard work, Cleverly will probably cleverly swoop in to "save" everyone with a leadership bid/vote of no confidence at just the right moment, when the tricky patch has been overcome. There'll be rhetoric about how "what we need now is stability" etc etc... and the BBC will sigh with relief that it can comfortably carry on promoting gender identity as if it's fact.

Actually, I'm going to partially disagree with myself here..... not the first time this has happend when I think out loud on a thread 😂

I'm going to be more optimistic: I think she can turn the tide on the promotion of gender identity belief as fact. I think she could be the leader that achieves this, via questions in opposition. And that she'll go far wider and call out how it impacts freedom of speech etc. This could/should have an impact on how the BBC positions gender identity.

However, I still think she'll end up being pushed aside as too "problematic" for an election, once she's done all the hard work. The Commons will be no different from any other working environment in that respect, I'm sure. There are always plenty of people who are ready to swoop in and demonstrate how reasonable and fair they are once the difficult stuff is sorted.

I don't live in her constituency and she's the leader of the opposition, not in government. I have no time for her and her politics, and she in no way represents me.

I'm not sure about the Cleverly thing tbh. He's not that great

We could be anywhere in 5 years and the next big decision which will impact nearly everyone is the US election

If you prefer gender identity to be represented as fact in every scenario (e.g. men who identify as women should be allowed in women's sports), it's very possible that Kemi Badenoch doesn't represent you in any way at all, fair enough.

I find her idolisation of Margaret Thatcher baffling, but even so I can see that there are things where Kemi Badenoch does represent me. I admit that I would struggle to say this about Margaret Thatcher though as I can't think of anything off the top of my head.