'I'm a former Labour voter!' 'No, I'm a former Labour voter'

[KafkasScooter]

A (kind of) light hearted nod to the "I'm Spartacus" thread but I'm done. I used to vote Labour, campaigned and leafletted for Labour. I tried to give Labour the benefit of the doubt but I now realise I was wrong. Labour left me.

Anyone else feel the same?

I'm a former Labour voter...

I always voted Labour, as did my parents, and as did their parents, and as did their parents when they got the vote.

But I cannot vote against my own interests, those of my daughters and any future grandchildren.

But this also goes for my son, because it is not in men's interests that the women in their life lose agency and boundaries either.

Yep. I’m Spartacus. I’ll never vote for them -Labour - again.

Never green, never Lib Dem, never reform.

Which leaves only the Conservatives. They are the only realistic option. I will vote for them next time.

I think if the government were really opposed to the Supreme Court judgement they'd be making a lot of noise about amending the Equality Act.

The fact that they aren't suggests they are basically on board with the status quo as established by the judgement. Though they maybe don't want to trumpet that as it will make a lot of mentally unstable people very angry.

It's Kemi or won't vote for me. And I'm 50/50

Labour has no chance in my constituency so I always voted tactically, either LibDem or Green. Sadly, in the last GE I had to spoil my ballot. I'm still torn as to whether that was the right decision morally, but I just will not vote for any party that wants to destroy women's rights.

Not just a former Labour Party voter but a former Labour Party member for over 30 years. I was on the Board of Labour North, was invited to stand as a Parliamentary candidate (I prioritised family and caring responsibilities instead), was out on doorsteps campaigning, donated to Party fundraising, etc. etc.

You can see my current affiliation from my User Name and I stood in the 2024 General Election for Party of Women. I didn't expect to win but I did beat the Communist Party and the SDP in a safe Labour seat.

Elections are not just for getting elected - they are very valuable awareness-raising and resistance-building opportunities.

The only rights worth having are those you can defend. We lost our rights to dignity, privacy and safety because we did not realise they were being undermined and that we needed to defend them. We have not got them back yet and there are vested interests in all the other political parties that would like to keep it that way.

All power to the women activists who are fighting tooth and nail within their Parties, some even to be allowed to stay members of their Parties or to be re-admitted in order to continue fighting. If your preferred party is shit on Women's Rights, don't vote for them. What you could do instead is a actively support the women who are campaigning within that party to restore women's rights.

Alternatively, join Party of Women and stand yourself. Much the best option. Of course I would say that :-)

https://www.partyofwomen.org/about-us

I’m a Green Party member and it honestly feels more promising to join Labour right now 🤣

the issue for me is that the largest safeguarding threat in real, day to day terms, for children, is poverty.

The tories have made this worse.

they have no real interest whatsoever

Labour are being held to account and must change radically. I have no idea if they can or not. IMHO the more voices they have demanding they do the better

I'm also struggling to know who I will vote for. I've always voted Labour. If I do things like Vote Compass, it suggests the Lib Dems, so some of their policies obviously align with my views.

But I can't vote for them because of their attitude to women's sex-based rights. The party leadership seems to be reluctantly getting on board with the law, but their grassroots members seem as bonkers as the Greens. And I have seen really poor attitudes online from Lib Dem councillors.

There are some in the Labour party that give me hopes, such as Shabana Mahmood. She is mooted as a potential leader of the party, so if that does happen she might be able to bring them back on course. I don't know.

Same. Just mind blowing and astounding that so many intelligent people have bought this harmful bullshit about gender. It is so regressive.

I'm a former labour voter, have also voted green and once voted LD.

Can't vote for any of them now as they are sex denying misogynists.

I have just held my nose and joined Your Party. I have no particular love of their current PMs. But I am a socialist and crucially they have a one member one vote open process which will decide their policies. If enough GC people join we could actually make a party that supports us.

If it goes the other way and TRA's take over them too I'll just leave and be in no worse position than now.

I've written to my MP before and got nowhere. Spoiled my last ballot- which I've never done before. This feels like something that is at least worth trying.

I think reform will get on here no matter whether I hold my nose and vote for labour or not. We were once a labour safe seat.

Former Labour Party member here and former Trade Union Rep and Convenor.

Same here. I was a proudly card-carrying member but the LP has gone off to some strange place that doesn't include me. I spoiled my last ballot as there was no one to vote for.

Same. I've voted Labour with less and less enthusiasm recently, but didn't vote for them in the last election, and Starmer's dithering means I won't be voting for them in the foreseeable. I agree the Greens and the LibDems are binfires. I'd vote Communist if they put up a candidate.

@moto748ecommunist?!

Sure. Left-wing party who have no truck with the gender nonsense. Not perfect, but probably my best match.

I kind of agree although having said I'd never vote Tory I'm now seriously contemplating it. However, are Labour helping to reduce child poverty? I'm not sure any political party could succeed in getting the country out of its economic doldrums. I appreciate Labour came in facing some tough times but removing the 2 child benefit cap could have given some relief in the case of child poverty. Their policy seems to be to grow the economy for the benefit of everyone but, while I'd love them to succeed, I'm not sure they will.

It is dumb, but in a weird way I feel like it’s also a good thing to define ourselves and my hope is to see feminism rise as a really strong, coherent movement, more than ever before. We have had to think really hard about what differentiates women from men, to talk about how we are defined by our biology, separate but equal - because other people started laying claim to our identity. We’ve seen real heroes emerge who have fought for our rights with amazing courage. It has made me realise how weak and meaningless most political positions are – and how robust feminism is in comparison.

It's kinda weird, reading this, as a man. I think @fromorbit is spot-on with what she says, WFT use is 'democracy', if these are the options you're given? The only upside is that the justice system, which I wouldn't have put that much faith in, has so far proved pleasingly robust. The law is still the law.

Thank you for encouraging words about feminism. Thanks also to @fromorbit for the rousing piece about how, if you're politically homeless, then you need to do something about it.
After reading fromorbit's post I went off and had a look at the Green Party which unfortunately I am a member of. I felt so discouraged after reading transcripts of their recent conference, women being referred to as "CIS", mad people insisting that their mad, cultish ideas are The Truth and Facts, which cannot be disputed or even discussed.
I joined the greens five years ago without knowing anything at all about gender critical beliefs. Whole thing had passed me by until I discovered that a good friend of mine actually believed TWAW and that you could not have a conversation with her about it.
I have a very nice and trustworthy male friend who is a member of the Green Party and is pretty active within it. It is possible to talk to him about Gender woo but he doesn't really get it. It is possible that he still thinks people can actually change sex! I have begun to realise that that's because he's a man, and also because the insidious nonsense by the TRA's has deeply infiltrated into the Green Party.

< fetches comfort blanket and sits underneath it >

@inkymoose we've all been there and it's crap.

You might like to have a read of the Expert Report Jo Phoenix wrote when she attended the Darlington Nurses vs NHS tribunal last week. She sets out very clearly the impact mixed sex toilets and changing rooms have on women and why we need them. Hopefully it will give you something you can use in future discussions.

drive.google.com/file/d/1zk3f00wGvG4MQ4ruuingdg9m3SyoHZ9H/view