5

What Women Want

by W. Stephen Gilbert

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A recent front that has opened up against Jeremy Corbyn is sex. Having exhausted their disdain of his global responsibility for anti-semitism, jihadism and homophobia, the malcontents are now roundly accusing him of misogyny, sexual discrimination and old-fashioned male chauvinism. Here is Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality Party (which in fact is a political party standing against the others, including Labour) on last week’s Any Questions? [BBC Radio 4]: “it’s a great shame that Jeremy’s done so little, frankly, for the many women voters in the Labour Party.
There is a male leader, there is a male deputy leader, there is a male Bristol mayor, there is a male London mayor, there is a male mayoral candidate for Greater Manchester, a male mayoral candidate for West Midlands, a male mayoral candidate for Liverpool, a male chair of the NEC and male chairs of all 14 affiliated unions. I think that says it all”.
Well, not quite all, because both the General Secretary and the President of the TUC, the body that represents all unions, are women, as are the Presidents of both UNISON and BECTU. But the wider point is of course that none of these posts, not a single one, is in Corbyn’s gift. His own position and that of his deputy were voted on by the party membership. The mayoral candidacies are settled by a local ballot (and Marvin Rees in Bristol and Sadiq Khan in London were selected before Corbyn became party leader). The chair of the NEC is elected from within the NEC. If Corbyn had tried to impose a chair, there would have been hell to pay and any argument that it was necessary to ensure that the chair was a woman would have cut no ice.
Walker went on to make an absurd point: “Both the Labour leadership contenders were asked by the Labour Women’s Network to subscribe to a whole list of demands about fair and equal representation of women in the Labour Party. Those demands included refusing to appear on any all-male panels. They’re doing it every other night in the leadership hustings”. So picture the scene: Corbyn refuses to debate the leadership because he and Owen Smith make an all-male panel. Who is going to accept that that is his reason for refusing? How can it be a criticism of Corbyn that his opponent is Owen Smith rather than Angela Eagle? How can the fact that the PLP selected Smith to be Corbyn’s challenger be resolved to satisfy the Labour Women’s Network (if indeed those women agree with Walker who, as I say, speaks for a party other than the Labour Party)?
Cat Smith, a Corbyn supporter who is in the shadow cabinet, was also on the Any Questions? panel. She pointed out that “Jeremy Corbyn was the first party leader in this country to put together a shadow cabinet that was gender-balanced”. “Not any more it’s not” interjected Walker, evidently unaware that the present shadow cabinet self-selected by being those prepared to serve. In fact, Cat Smith could have made the point that all three of Corbyn’s shadow cabinets have not merely been gender-balanced but each of them initially had a majority of women. Even the self-selected one had a female majority until Pat Glass abruptly had her mind changed.
Where the party membership have been given the chance to elect a woman, as in the leadership and deputy leadership elections last year, they declined to do so. In the leadership election, the two women candidates came third and fourth, the latter winning only 4.5 percent of the vote. Three of the five deputy leadership candidates were women but Tom Watson still won. But it isn’t only the wider membership that declines the invitation to discriminate positively. In the 2010 Labour leadership election, there was a single woman candidate who was eliminated in the first round. Candidacies are the prerogative of MPs and just eleven women MPs nominated her, as against twice as many men (one of whom, naturally, was Jeremy Corbyn). When I reveal that the woman in question was Diane Abbott, you will see that being a woman is not of itself sufficient to secure a fellow woman MP’s vote. She has to be a woman “who agrees with me”.
To be fair to her, Harriet Harman did nominate Abbott, coming good on her long-term advocacy of more women in the leadership, even though she clearly had fundamental policy differences with her nominee. But other fervent advocates of women in the leadership – Angela Eagle, for instance – did not. Were Diane Abbott now in the position that Corbyn finds himself, I find it hard to imagine that the parliamentary sisterhood would be behaving significantly differently.
Here’s the best joke of all, though. I set no store by opinion polls but many do, and when a finding is overwhelming it’s hard to ignore. So I just gently point out this statistic from a poll by YouGov this week. Support for Owen Smith among women voters: 33 percent. Support for Jeremy Corbyn among women voters: 67 percent. It seems that his gross and vile treatment of Labour women isn’t playing too badly for him.

W Stephen Gilbert is the author of Jeremy Corbyn – Accidental Hero (Eyewear)

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antirepublocrat
antirepublocrat
Oct 13, 2016 4:55 AM

I’m glad this all worked so well. May Jeremy be Britain’s next PM and withdraw from NATO, which is far, far more important than Brexit.

Nerevar
Nerevar
Sep 15, 2016 1:04 AM

Just ask: What every human wants?

rtj1211
rtj1211
Sep 12, 2016 11:46 AM

I’m afraid that the media long ago ceased being anything but a co-ordinated propaganda and smearing arm. There is a zero, repeat zero, percent chance that any major mainstream newspaper in the UK would be licensed to practice journalism, based on their output the past 5 years. They would be rejected on the basis of ‘flagrant, repeated and vitriolic condemnation of anything which resembles fact-based journalism.’.
Of course, the areas of crass rejection of journalism vary from paper to paper. In the case of the Guardian, climate change is its most absurd poster child. In the case of the DT, Daily Mail etc, it is the reporting of Jeremy Corbyn, not to mention the reporting about Russia, the true situation in Syria and the basis for going to war against a democratically elected leader of Syria.
But each and everyone one of the major UK titles is now beyond redemption when in comes to the principles of journalism. Understanding what a fact is. Understanding the notion of being competent to interrogate evidence. Understanding the difference between weight of opinion and evidence-based truth. Understanding that a headline not backed up by evidence in body text is either a lie, a smear or a libel.
Of course, publishers who are tax avoiding members of the NWO have never had the slightest interest in upholding the principles of journalism. They are interested in brainwashing for the purpose of making money.
The thing is: more and more people are simply rejecting the MSM in its entirety. They are starting to search for alternative sources of information and are finding out pretty quickly that they exist. I no longer use the MSM for anything other than understanding the nature of the propaganda war being fought. I know that 95% of what is written is lies, smears, distortions or brainwashing. I simply hope that 95% of the rest of the readership is equally clear about that……

mohandeer
mohandeer
Sep 6, 2016 6:39 PM

Response to Walker: I can lay bricks and slabs and wear 4 inch stilettos (that’s walking on your big toes) I can felt a roof and satin stitch (that’s a fine form of sewing) I can saw timber and put furniture together and I can balance accounts and negotiate with people. I am a female, have been since I was born, will be till I pop my clogs. What I am not is a hypocrite, if a man holds a door open for me saying “ladies first” whether I’m in a pretty frock or wearing my camo cargo’s, I will thank him and walk through it. Whether as a site manager, or a care assistant for the elderly, as a security guard or a cleaning “lady”, I earned respect based on my merits, not my perception of what favourable treatment I should receive because of my gender. Women who want the same jobs as men need also to be able to meet the necessary criteria and demonstrate how they are better than a man who might be offered the post. If they cannot do so, then expecting to be given that position based on gender is not equality it’s preferential treatment and sexist discrimination. Women like Walker, want their cake and to still be able to eat it. Well sweetheart, life isn’t always fair – get over yourself and give the rest of us a break because you are an embarrassment to the rest of us who don’t support your sanctimonious mewling.

Le Ruscino (@LeRuscino)
Le Ruscino (@LeRuscino)
Sep 7, 2016 9:39 AM
Reply to  mohandeer

Thanks for this perfectly measured response !