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"Instead of looking for new ways to divide communities and pining for an era of Thatcherite individualism, the Tories should focus on fixing the structural inequality that holds people back.” Spot on! @MarshadeCordova 1/ https://labour.org.uk/press/when-liz-truss-dismisses-fashionable-causes-she-actually-dismisses-the-devastating-impact-of-discrimination-marsha-de-cordova/
We are glad to see Marsha de Cordova calling out Truss' proposals today for what they are. Labour needs to keep the focus on structural inequalities and oppose the Government on this basis. Truss' approach may seem like an antidote to Identity Politics. But, whilst we..2/
..welcome her reference for the need to "defend single-sex spaces, hard fought for by generations of women", without addressing structural inequalities & by shifting focus to a regional/localised approach, the effect will be a different version of same sort of fragmentation.3/
Offering "choices" and "greater autonomy for the individual" as a way to remedy sexism and racism will never work. As we keep repeating ad infinitum, women are oppressed on the basis of our sex and we can't choose to identify out of that.4/
Truss says "The left are in thrall to ideas that undermine equality". She's not wrong. She knows exactly the way the left today have got themselves stuck on Identity politics & hopes she can sell us her Conservative solutions by acknowledging things that matter to the majority.5/
We would also welcome our elected representatives "concentrating on data & research", & agree with Truss when she says "Time & time again, we see politicians making their own evidence-free judgements." We say the Tories should start collecting objective data again.6/
The Tories dismantled Primary Care Trusts with embedded Public Health teams, & with them whole swathes of data collection (data disaggregated by sex/race/ethnicity/socio-economic status). There's no data from last 10 years to address policy questions for many areas of England. 7/
Data gaps apply in many areas following systemic changes, including school academisation. Labour need to disentangle from the neoliberal postmodernist individualism of gender identity politics & get back to challenging Tories on structural inequalities that affect all. END
