#tory lite

[avatar-of-the-bitch]

It’s hard for me to describe the feeling of reading the news today any way other than heartbreak. The news that the labour government has published guidance for GPs advising them to deny blood tests to transgender patients seeking help with private healthcare. A labour government, a government whose name itself is supposed to mean that they are for the people, the people who are ostracised by the conservative party, the people who are denied rights by the right, has published guidance which does nothing but ostracise a group of people who they are supposed to be protecting. I voted for the labour party in 2022. Despite all of their shortcomings, I genuinely hoped that Starmer’s government would stay true to the purpose of the labour party and protect the unprotected. I believed that they would at least leave us alone. I feel betrayed. 

Transgender people in the UK have already endured so much. From rampant anti-trans media representation, to the failings of the NHS and the government, to the all-too-common violent crime committed against us with little to no consideration towards the nature of these hate crimes. Every day I wake up in a country that wants to remove me from its statistics, and turn me into another. One that they no longer have to bother caring about anymore. 

I got home from work today and immediately began writing this. I needed to get my thoughts on this out, before I drowned in them. I am a person who this guidance directly impacts, as I am currently privileged enough to have ongoing private healthcare towards my medical transition. I have already been denied shared care with my current GP, and was considering my options of changing practices in order to be allowed a shared care agreement, but now that feels close to impossible. This is essential, life saving care to everyone who uses it, and I find it completely disgusting that the UK government feels as if it has the right to deny it to us. This is a complete and utter betrayal from the labour party to the LGBTQ+ community, and to every other marginalised community in the UK. I urge others who are not directly affected by this to speak out in support of the trans community. If they are able to come after us with no consequence, who will they target next?

Transgender Care Under Threat: NHS Guidance Explained

Wes Streeting taking anti-transgender guidance to new heights A document obtained by the Good Law Project sets out new guidance that ensures

NHS England tells GPs to refuse blood tests to some trans children and refer parents to safeguarding

NHS England guidance has instructed GPs to refuse any care that supports under 18s to receive gender affirming care like puberty blockers an

[thisworldofcorruption]

Don’t use benefit claimants as scapegoat in Budget, 60 activist groups tell Reeves

Language around clamping down on the cost of benefits is damaging and stigmatising for those entitled to support from the state, charities w

UK Labour government: scapegoating benefit (welfare) claimants by hitting them with “sweeping cuts” or “punitive measures”?

This sounds more like a Tory, or even a Trump policy than a 'socialist' one... so why are Labour still trying to appease Conservative voters, and Daily Mail/Express/Telegraph readers, now they've been elected?

[jrhyd]

Someone tell Keir that labour means something other than fuck the Tories. Seriously we need a platform that isn't just, 'we're like them but nice'

[thoughtlessarse]

Labour pledges to continue Tory policies: Workers need a socialist party

Nothing is left of the “lesser evil” line on which all of Labour’s promoters—from trade union leaders and <em>Guardian </em>columnists to va

Following crushing defeats for the Conservative government in by-elections in Selby and Ainsty and Somerton and Frome, and a very narrow hold in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, and with Labour 17 points in the lead in the polls, party leader Sir Keir Starmer celebrated by denouncing “uncosted” policies. Starmer and his top team have not missed an opportunity to make clear to Britain’s ruling elite that a Labour government would follow to the letter the Tory agenda of austerity for workers and war against Russia. A national policy conference July 22-23 made clear that as well as being “the party of NATO”, Labour was also the party of economic war on the working class. The policy conference agreed an economic programme excluding even minimal policies like a £15 minimum wage, free school meals and a ban on zero hours contracts. A spokesperson crowed, “There are no unfunded spending commitments in the document,” adding that this was “another proof point that shows that Keir Starmer has changed the Labour party and is ready to change the country in government, built on the rock of economic responsibility and strong fiscal rules.” This follows a BBC Radio 4 Today interview with Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves in which she refused to say Labour would abolish two of the most hated and punitive planks of the Tories austerity agenda—the bedroom tax, cutting social welfare for those classed as having a spare bedroom, and the two-child benefit cap, preventing parents from claiming child benefit for their third or any subsequent child. Starmer had earlier said of the two-child cap, “We’re not changing that policy.”

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