Newsnight now

Well, I read your post and thought there were things in it I could learn from. I should be emailing much more often to give support to those willing to stick their heads above the parapet.

Sorry, Nauticant, but I had to respond to those insinuations. Over and out now.

I've already emailed Emily Maitlis a number of times. That's why I know how to spell her name. I've emailed Kirsty Wark too, for the same reason. In the past it was to why Newsnight wasn't covering the transgender issue from a women's rights point of view. I've emailed EM since then, most recently after the piece about detransitioning the other week. I will email again today once I've had time to watch last night's Newsnight on iplayer. I also email various other Radio 4, BBC news and Channel 4 progs and presenters and have sent cards to various people – most recently to Allison Bailey of the LGB Alliance but also to gender critical women in the SNP and Leeds.

I've emailed to congratulate Justin Webb this week (I've emailed him several times in the past) and I think Sarah Montague was last week, or maybe the week before. Oh, and on my to-do list is an email to Jane Garvey to ask her why there was so little time given to the transgender question on Woman's Hour. I'd already contacted WH to tell them why women's rights/ transgender issues were the most important on my political agenda.

I'm a lesbian who saw this coming from Stonewall over a decade ago and I've been actively opposing it for years. I won't go on about being a ReSister and the actions I've participated in but I would say I've been in there pulling for years.

I didn't pull you up on your misspelling because I didn't recognise your name or thought you were new and I object to the insinuation that I'm someone who'd go around bullying new posters. I picked you up on it because I think that if you're hoping to influence someone it helps to get their name right.

Ha! (Sorry.)

But I'm hoping we're done on that subject now.

Maitlis

Damn!

Self ID by definition means without exception or scrutiny.

To say you'd do something about people who abuse the system after they've self identified when it's 'transphobic' to ask questions and you might face exclusion (including access to services such as health, refuges or rape services), HR sanction or even criminal charges kind of misses the point that single sex services were set up to protect the most vulnerable women first.

The whole point of self ID is to prevent questions and women from challenging.

Maitlis

thatdamnwoman it's not that you pointed it out, that I took issue with (the same for other posters I suspect) but your unecessary level of snark.

New posters to FWR often say they find us intimidating. Snarking at other women for simple mistakes (the same mistake as you yourself made, which is gloriously ironic, don't you think?) really isn't going to help on that score, is it?

I've been here 11 years now and am not going to get put off by a bit of snark - but I name change all the time so you couldn't possibly know that. What if I was new to FWR and tentatively posting something I felt wasn't controversial?

This isn't AIBU. We're not here for entertainment. There's a war on women and we need all hands on deck. Please let's treat each other with kindness and respect, at least, hey?

Anyway, so are you going to join me in writing to thank Emily Maitliss for focussing on Self ID on Newsnight?

I have been thinking about this and wondering whether Rape Crisis should be asked for a comment.

Part of me doesn't want to put them on the spot when so many other funded women service providers are deliberately not commenting on the trans issue.

But on the other hand someone who has been identified as a Patron of Rape Crisis has made comments about how women who have been raped should behave / react should a trans / self id woman be in the same space they have sought for support after being subjected to an act of male violence.

Shouldn't they at least clarify what the actual practice is?

All too often "Patrons" and famous supporters of causes have very little knowledge of the actual policy and practice of an organisation.

But what an illustration of how women still have no power or status that none of the main women's organisation who say they represent women service providers, ie Women's Aid, Rape Crisis, Women's Resource Centre, dont feel able to take a public stand on behalf of women's sex based rights.

Or worse still they dont think its an issue.

Thank you for pointing out my mistake, Campervan. I apologise for that.

Because I read down the thread, saw the mistake and posted to point out the problem.

Do I have to read to the end of every thread, no matter how long it is, before responding to something on the first page in case someone else on page 4 has spotted the same thing? In that case I'd probably need to give up MN completely or give up work!

Bloody hell she doesnt get it

You are either fir self ID or against. If you say that anyone behaving appropriately wont be allowed in or deciding that someone isnt actually attempting to transition then surely thats exchanging one set if hoops for another?

Self ID means you accept anyone and everyone who utters the words or you dont. And that includes dodgy peope

I misspelt my own name. Have to live with. Sometimes I misspell

It’s hard for me to rember when going between google and then my iPad takes on my misspelling as correct

Such is life

thatdamnwoman I'd just like to quietly point out that you have mis-spelled arethereanyusernamesleftatall

@thatdamnwoman

The OP has been pulled up for that already and has corrected her mistake. Even apologised but wondered why the need for snark about it. I agree with her. The address details were appreciated though.

Because you've gone to the trouble of googling how to contact her but not paid her the fundamental respect of checking you've got her name right. Don't know about you but when someone contacts me to say well done or they appreciate me, it undermines the whole thing if they get my name wrong!

Totnes, it seems, has been Conservative since almost the beginning of time itself - so will their allegiance be to Wollaston, or the Conservatives?

It was marginally Leave so I would imagine the Conservatives will walk it.

I don't even understand a lot of what Sarah is saying

a different room in a shelter? How does that help?!

Wollaston will be an interesting one to watch in the election.

Totnes, it seems, has been Conservative since almost the beginning of time itself - so will their allegiance be to Wollaston, or the Conservatives?

Sarah Wollaston should not be allowed anywhere near the policies for rape crisis centres because she is completely incapable of prioritising women.

Wollaston put on a fake 'soft, caring and reasonable' voice for this interview that made me grind my teeth.

Kudos to Maitliss for really pushing for the discussion to be woman-centred.

What's fascinating about this is that the official LibDem messaging about this is clearly never admit that women actually exist as a distinct category. They're not even allowed to say that.

It's amazing. They practically wince if you say the word 'women' to them. How did this happen?

Sarah Wollaston was invited on Woman's Hour to talk about the impacts of manifesto policies on women, and she just couldn't bring herself to talk about women in the context of self ID. I find that very worrying, to put it mildly.
See also LD policy on spousal consent. They call it 'veto' and have made it all about the trans and completely ignored the principle of giving equal consideration to the non-trans spouse.
Sarah Wollaston has got on board with this nonsense so quickly and enthusiastically that I wonder if she might have been the surprising Tory genderist James Kirkup alluded to?

Would love to hear what Pip Whitford has to say about this gender assigned at birth bollocks.

They did conflate sex and gender and that adds to the obfuscation of the real implications of self ID.

Just watched it. Emily was fab, you could tell she wanted to say more. I was hoping she'd ask Sarah to define woman.

Sarah looked very uncomfortable and like she didn't really believe what she was saying.

What's fascinating about this is that the official LibDem messaging about this is clearly never admit that women actually exist as a distinct category. They're not even allowed to say that.