Johnson to pitch TRA backlash as part of GE campaign?

It's also about depressing the vote on the left and centre and reducing turnout.

There have been many threads on here with people in similar position to me - very worried the left party’s stance of women's rights but also anti brexit - or at very least anti no deal.

Both issues have potentials to do real long-term harm and adversely affect my family.

I will always vote but I’m not sure yet for who and it's no real suprise to me that this would be exploited in next election.

This potentially puts me in a position politically and personally that I never ever thought I’d land in.

Indeed. If it weren't for Brexit I'd actually consider voting Tory if they came up with a clear policy protecting sex based rights and that is not something I ever thought I'd find myself saying.

I’m a centrist. I used to be left wing... until I became a gender critical feminist.

The left wing have called me a “bigot” on my doorstep, they have supported rape and death threats against other feminists, they won’t even discuss women’s rights/ grooming gangs/ FGM, they want to police the language of women...

I do not want to be associated with them.

I’m not saying that the right wing is any better, but at least they listen and debate.

Very very interesting. Once again the analysis on here is razor keen.

The game playing would be fascinating if it wasn’t for so much being at stake, and Boris’s bluster and ‘straight talking’ persona is just a very effective poker face imho.

Being GC is my hill. This potentially puts me in a position politically and personally that I never ever thought I’d land in.

The big surprise really was Theresa May letting Penny Maudant run with GRA reform as she did.

Not to me - anyone at the income level of cabinet ministers, shadow cabinet and PM (don't forget about all the lucrative side gigs as 'consultants' and those non-exec board seats) is insulated from reality.

Why would you worry about men in women's hospital wards when you'll always have a private room? When your medical treatment will always be conducted by your choice of practitioner in an environment of your choosing?

It's not as if either of them will ever be in the Primark changing rooms is it?

They'll be exercising at a very expensive health club which can easily filter out any 'problems' with private membership agreements and expensive lawyers who can apply the EA exemption rulings in their sleep and will have no problem getting a wave through from the courts.

Money is a hell of a set of blinkers.

I find this concerning for the same reasons as those on this thread who have mentioned the weaponising of identity politics. This has been done by the Trump team and picked up on in Ben Elton's 'Identity'.

What bothers me most about it though is the fact that it would be a cynical, manipulative move merely for the Conservatives to follow common sense on policy. Is this where we are? Where postulating common sense is politically cynical and used to supress traditional left votes. How worrying that we are caught between left wing politics which may potentially (if they give up the virtue signalling) assist those in poverty and the cynical virtue signalling of 'supporting' women's rights of the right while they plunge the country into further economic crisis and harm more actual women caught in the poverty traps they created. Hobson's choice.

Since none of the parties feel particularly loyal to election promises anyway I feel like we have very little democracy in the UK currently and I would view a stance by Johnson on this with a jaundiced eye because I have zero trust or faith in him. Boris cares about Boris only and even his cabinet should be aware of that. GC flag waving by Boris should only be seen as manipulative and, quite possibly, temporary flag waving.

Fascinating discussion on Woman's Hour at the moment

I have to admire the nerve, in a way. After all, it's the Tories who put forward the proposals for reforming the GRA, and when I emailed my Tory MP about it, the answer I received was the kind of woke nonsense you might expect from Caroline Lucas or Sadiq Khan or any of that bunch - not a single attempt to engage with my arguments.

My guess (and it's only a guess) is that he'll propose banning puberty-blockers being prescribed to children, specifically under 16s.

That would be a positive step, but I seriously doubt this is what the strategists have in mind when they talk about weaponising the culture wars.

Thank you wise women of Mumsnet. I read that Times piece last night but struggled to make sense of the implications.

Thanks for the sharetoken Empress. I can’t see how disaffected former Labour voters will come out to vote on this but agree with other posters about how politicians (and their strategists) are trying to focus on identity.

My guess (and it's only a guess) is that he'll propose banning puberty-blockers being prescribed to children, specifically under 16s.

Interesting guess TimeLady. Perhaps that would result in better investment in children’s mental health services instead of assuming that any distress among children and young people would be cured if they changed gender. I am not denying gender dysphoria exists but the rise in referrals to GIDS can’t simply be explained by greater trans awareness/acceptance.

I’m sure Andrew Gilligan will have had a word.

I’m sure Rachel Johnson hasn’t had to have a word in Boris’ ear. He’s fully aware of the idiocy of TWAW and doing this would be a clever move. I’d be 100% behind it and I couldn’t care less if his primary motivation is winning votes.

Despite all the current unhinged attacks on him, he’s basically an old school social liberal who believes in letting individuals live their lives as freely as possible, including freedom of expression. I like the fact that he clearly hates PC culture and occasionally offends minority groups. It’s a reminder of the price we all need to pay to live in a genuinely free society. No-one’s ideology is sacrosanct.

It would show a use of identity politics similar to how we've seen in the US by Trump and co. that doesn't seem to have harmed them any.

I don't see Johnson coming out openly with any statements. However, I do see him uttering some blustered comment, similar to the pillarboxes, one about men in women's sports or prisons that can be linked to some of the more prosperous incidents.

People who would never have supported him before will be predictably outraged (or not), otherwise it would most likely help him consolidate his base - 'straight-talking Boris'

Since Johnson doesn't care much about anything apart from Johnson (here's my bias sneaking in), he won't be bothered about any collateral damage

He knows Labour are struggling to hold together a coalition of metropolitan 'liberals' and socially conservative communities. He knows forcing this issue will leave Labour in an impossible position where they either have to admit they don't give a shit about those socially conservative communities or they don't give a shit about the metropolitan 'liberals'.

Yep.

Johnson wants polarisation

Johnson is a politician. He knows his opponent's weaknesses. He knows Labour are struggling to hold together a coalition of metropolitan 'liberals' and socially conservative communities. He knows forcing this issue will leave Labour in an impossible position where they either have to admit they don't give a shit about those socially conservative communities or they don't give a shit about the metropolitan 'liberals'.

This is, of course, a situation of Labour's own making but that isn't Johnson's problem.

Stop forcing people to pretend that people can actually change sex. Trans people exist but no-one changes sex and anything on the school curriculum should reflect this message.
Unweaponise the police on this issue. You can't arrest or caution someone for saying a man is a man. Harassment is of course a different issue. Trans people should not be harassed and should be allowed to live their lives in peace like everyone else.
Walk back all the erroneous 'guidance' that confuses people and leaves children vulnerable. Create more unisex or gender neutral spaces alongside single sex ones.
Support the enforcement of the EA2010 esp in relation to same sex spaces
Moritarium on puberty blockers and properly funded counselling services for young people with gender identity issues. Watchful waiting encouraged for those with gender dysphoria. Drugs and surgery delayed until adulthood.

Yes I know the TRAs would be frothing at these suggestions but only total capitatulation is acceptable by them. However my reading of this issue over the past few years is that most members of the general public could live with the above and any politician adopting these principles would be onto a winner on these issues.

According to one insider, Number 10 has been polling “culture war” issues, such as transgender rights, to see whether they can be weaponised against Labour in northern working-class constituencies but this would only reinforce the Tories’ reputation among metropolitan liberals as the “nasty party”.

Why does it make them the nasty party? Labour has people calling women misogynistic terms over this, expelling women even.

If Johnson takes this into a mainstream culture war, the gender critical feminist perspective will be pushed out from the left (by the woke) and right (by the male entitlement crew).

And on to the right wing backlash that many of us actual rather than Woke, leftists have been predicting.

One day, the liberal left will wish it had listened to feminists (if it ever becomes capable of self reflection, which, frankly, I doubt).

We can wish politicians did the right thing because it’s the right thing to do until we have no breathe left, it’s simply not what we are ever going to see under this left v right political system. There will always be issues like this that are just about votes.

I replied to the link left here a while ago with Boris asking for our opinions and what issues we were most concerned about, a few women here did. The only issue I raised was this, focussing on the rights of women to be safe, to be respected and to sex being recognised in law as separate to gender identity. I think just maybe he got quite a few messages like that.