Hobbycraft employee badge - no terfs, no Tories

[ItsCoolForCats]

Another example of why bringing your whole self to work is a terrible idea.

Hobbycraft seems to be busy trying to mitigate the fallout, presumably because they know which demographic spends the most money there.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politics/5359520/dundee-hobbycraft-trans-row/

"Everyone" almost certainly being this poster's immediate, very small, very demographically homogenous echo chamber.

Think the schools went back this week. So it's concerning that this might be an actual adult, although I'd imagine a pretty young one. Not one who's very well-informed or who deigns to talk to people deemed to be outside that very narrow group. They should see what Tories and especially Reformists say about lefties! (given a great many of us have grown up with, worked with or otherwise spent time around people who don't necessarily share our political beliefs at all times, so I'm not inventing this. It literally is what most right wingers think and say about lefties.Tories tend to be a LOT milder than the Reform lot, that much I can tell you.)

I fear smelling salts and fainting couches may be required for certain posters here. Clue: It's usually some version of "When have the 'left' EVER been right about anything? Bunch of bloody not-living-in-the-real-world clueless posh twats who have never given a shit about the working classes but spend their lives sitting on their arses telling everybody else they're intellectually and morally superior, wagging their fingers, while wanting to spend money on bullshit, calling everyone but themselves (so all of us ordinary people) fascists and bigots, while achieving precisely nothing and actually being deluded enough to think that hopeless, useless, embarrassing people like Corbyn or terrorist apologists like Sultana wouldn't turn this country into even more of a disaster zone."

So I'll ask my question again:

How exactly are YOU (posters who lazily like to call others 'fascists' and 'soulless') intending to help prevent the people who think like this and who ARE most likely to from voting Tory or Reform? How are you going to persuade them to vote for who you want them to instead? Do you think you're being persuasive or will change anything when you call people names like "soulless Tory"? What do you think this is going to achieve in the real world, with real voters, real people, without whose votes and support "the left" won't be able to get anything done or any of its plans or ideals achieved at all?

I was going to do some Xmas shopping there for my daughter but will now go elsewhere. Disgusting behaviour

Aneurin Bevan , Minister of Health who delivered the NHS , described the Tories as ' lower than vermin. They condemned millions of people to semi starvation.' I had a longer extract of his speech but can't make the link work . 1948.

I think today's left is a bit mimsy by comparison.

I emailed Hobbycraft to complain and the initial response was fairly standard citing the investigation and their commitment to being "inclusive. I followed up and received a reply stating that all staff have been told they are not to add anything to uniform. So I think they are taking it reasonably seriously - as indeed they should.

Jic it's needed, here's an archive link for the Telegraph article

https://archive.ph/OqjsI

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/28/shop-bans-woman-no-terfs-badge-dundee-hobbycraft/

I think the worst part of this is that she was ordered out of the store.

As an aside

Ms Chapman is a long-time gender critical activist, and attracted headlines for creating a textile version of a “Hate Monster” character, created by Police Scotland for a campaign that promoted the SNP’s hate crime laws.

I'd forgotten about Hatey. If the roles had been reversed Ms Chapman would have been reported to the mushroom farm or the sex shop faster than you could say 'bincident'.

Hobbycraft are now dead to me.

He had a Welshman's way with words.
I wonder what he would consider the biggest issue of today.

I think that's fair. After all, the term "inclusive" as per its original meaning doesn't just mean "people who exactly share the views & beliefs of a particular employee and her manager" and it suggests Hobbycraft are fully aware of this, the law on discrimination and their obligations as a company. That they apologised to the customer concerned is also a positive sign.

Not adding anything (like political statements) to uniform when you are acting as a representative of their company is a perfectly reasonable request and pretty standard to expect, I'd have thought. All employees need to realise that attempting to exclude some of their employer's customers on the basis of belief/protected characteristics could have landed the company with a discrimination case. Very silly behaviour. This really shouldn't be difficult. Leave your "whole self" at home. Take your professional self to work...

Oh my god Tories are such snowflakes. All this talk about us lefties being soft and you go and complain over something so utterly meaningless like this. I hope Hobbycraft put out a statement endorsing the message of the badge across all their stores. Hell, It wouldn’t even lose them any sales because all the creative arty types are on the left.

Absolutely this!

I see that terfs are supposedly not left wing now. That’s new! Not.

I'm an arty-leftie type, but I'm also a terf, and I know many other artists who are left-wing terfs too, so no.

You're like one big cliche

Having grown up in the West of Scotland where anti Catholic discrimination was (and to a certain extent still is ) a very real thing I disagree that anyone expressing sentiments such as "no terfs no tories " is meaningless. Would it still be meaningless if the badge said "no blacks no gays" ?

I'm actually squirming.

I am finding the current round of accusations to be really weak. It is if they are being made by someone behind the times, someone rather poorly informed or just someone weakly trying for reactions.

If the badge didn’t feature the bit about Terfs and was strictly about the Tories I don’t think for one second that anybody on this forum would have had a problem with it.

What is it about being GC that means nobody is allowed to criticise you?

They weren't exactly doing a cutting analysis of the problems with terfism, where they? They were just saying they weren't welcome, which is problematic when GC is a protected belief.

Criticism is great, but no debate and name-calling is rather pathetic, no?

@Swiftasthewind And, I bet TRAs would have something to say if I wore a badge stating " No transactivists" in my gallery. I imagine it would be a matter of hours before the attempts at cancellation appeared.

And that is where you are wrong.

No Hobbycraft staff should be wearing political badges in my opinion.

That is true, but then they weren’t exactly offering a scathing rebuttal to the Conservative Party either. When it comes to both groups I think it’s generally accepted what people’s issues are, so when somebody wears a badge saying ‘No Tories’ I know that this person is left leaning, compassionate, anti racist and pro the common woman. Now that wouldn’t fit on a badge I’m sure you’ll agree!

It's not acceptable for anyone in a customer facing role to wear a badge saying "no anyone". It's discriminatory and unprofessional .

In a democracy everyone is entitled to an opinion but there are times and places where it is not appropriate to express those - a customer facing role is one of those.

Could you not argue that ‘No Tories’ isn’t actually political but a statement of support for the disenfranchised of society? It would be like saying you are pro LGBTQIA+, that isn’t political it is just an affirmation of support for people in that community.

Not necessarily, could just mean they're a virtue-signalling prick. There's loads of people on the left who've presented themselves as kind, compassionate people and then gone on to rape, steal, lie, and god knows what else.

You have a very childlike view of the world.

I am in my 40’s please don’t belittle me like that. We are having a good discourse here, out of courtesy I have dropped the arguments about ‘Terfs’ because I do acknowledge this forum is heavily bent in that direction, but with the Tories I thought we would all be in agreement that it’s fine?