Penny Mordaunt thinks we're stupid. Her thread on Twitter...

The webchat, if anyone wants to read it https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnetlivee_events/3523984-International-Women-s-Day-Q-A-with-Penny-Mordaunt-MP-Secretary-of-State-for-International-Development-NOW-CLOSED-TO-NEW-QUESTIONS

This isn’t a hard question to answer. If you need a ten tweet thread, you’re lying somewhere.

In a nutshell.

He whole thread is full of obfuscation and twisting the facts as we all saw them happen. She appeared to be furious that women had to b=used in the maternity bill. It was only the fight back in the Lords that got that changed.

I don't care what she says to placate us I do not trust her one bit. God help us if this women get any power.

Anyone but Penny please but preferably Kemi Badenoch who might actually act.

Penny is trying to row back, which is brilliant in terms of what it says about the public mood, but can't quite bring herself to dock at Reality Jetty (which IMO is also good; how could we ever trust her?).

Looking at her self-proclaimed defence of women's rights, I'm reminded of what my dear dad would have said: don't piss on my shoes and tell me it's raining.

I shouldn’t really reply to this but I am a) old and b) obviously stupid.
If someone has a penis and testicles they are a man. If they have physically and chemically decided to present as a woman by removing those genitalia then they can. There seem to be far fewer transmen maybe because it is surgically simpler to remove the outward and visible signs of masculinity than it is to reproduce them.

I do not trust her one inch on this. She is backed by Maria Miller MP, who is totally TWAW.

I'm politically homeless but we have the remaining life of this Parliament to get this issue sorted in law because if Labour get in in 2024 they will not support women.

So, she feels the need to distance herself, sorry I mean- explain how we all misunderstood - her support for gender idology.

Interesting, interesting...

Thing is that's fine, as long as law and practice differentiate between women and transwomen where it matters.

That's how most reasonable people see it. Unfortunately SW and trans rights activists think transwomen should be also be women in the legal sense.

It's great to see Penny Mordaunt realising her past views ie twaw are brainless but there's far more points she has not yet clarified. I continue to feel mistrustful of her intentions.

@Tabasco007

Wrong. The GRA gives the right to be treated as your acquired gender for most legal purposes.

You are almost right, but the difference is important. What the GRA does not do is legally declare that someone is a man or a woman. It also does not entitle a person making use of it to override the provisions in the Equality Act for single sex spaces, because they are not their legal sex. They are still the sex they were born.

If there continues to be this sort of argument about this, more and more people will demand the repeal of the GRA.

I think the point is that people who believe this ideology have given up on the idea of ‘literally women’.

The few nutter who really believe that can't bring themselves to write a thread like Mordaunt's today.

She's famously quite lazy on policy details. I suspect she genuinely think she supports women's rights and trans rights but in practice she doesn't really care about either and just says what she thinks is popular.

But we still want politicians like that (of which there are many) to pretend to give a shit because it moves the debate. We want them back onto our side (gits that they are) if we are going to win practical victories.

I'm mostly sanguine because I think she has no chance of winning.

I have written to Penny Mordaunt a few times, probably most recently a year ago. And her replies were definitely more nuanced than her TWAW performance. So maybe she has been slowly changing her mind. Only maybe, I remain to be convinced.

The thing is Penny dear, if you had stood up for women and made all these beliefs clear by your words and actions in the past, then you wouldn’t have to be justifying yourself now you think you might have alienated a good proportion of the electorate.

You see, that’s the trouble with jumping on bandwagons, they don’t always go to the right destinations, sometimes it is better to walk then you won’t get dumped at the no hope terminus.

I guess to be fair, she is correct in the legal women comment, as as far as I am aware, if you have a GRC then you are in 'theory' the opposite sex.... I mean I don't think people are, but in the eyes of the law..... or am I wrong in that..?

Maybe I was wrong and Mordaunt's thread won't piss off the trans lobby. It is being retweeted by prominent TRA and ex-government equalities panel member, Jayne Ozanne.

Mordaunt may know what a woman is, she needs to demonstrate that she also knows what a woman is not.

@donquixotedelamancha

I think the point is that people who believe this ideology have given up on the idea of ‘literally women’. They are invested in a more subjective definition: you are literally a woman if you think you are. We no longer have a definition against which the claim can be tested.

The comments are unequivocal.

This may be of interest to anyone who wasn't around for, or wants a recap of, her appearance on MN:

eleanorscottarchaeology.com/els-blog/2019/3/14/the-day-that-mumsnet-took-down-penny-mordaunt-mp

On a side note, it’s wonderful that her previous brainless comments and TWAW stance is now seen as a threat to her campaign. Quite the about face from 2 years ago, now that “no debate” has been smashed.

*forstater

That article is written by maya forstarter so while I agree with every word of it, it’s hardly a random journo’s viewpoint.

mol.im/a/10999369

Take a bow Conservatives for Women

She’s a fucking snake. I’d rather have Boris.

From Times article -

However, Mordaunt, a former equalities minister whose twin brother is both gay and a self-proclaimed “trans ally”, has previously been criticised for her pro-transgender rights stance — something that is likely to come under scrutiny during the leadership contest.

While in the equalities post in 2018 she said that “trans women are women and trans men are men”.

Mordaunt reiterated her stance last year while paymaster general, repeating at the dispatch box that “trans men are men and trans women are women” during a debate on maternity allowances. It is claimed she tried to get the word “mother” removed from the maternity bill, which was introduced when Suella Braverman went on maternity leave.

Her ministerial colleagues, including Truss, Nadine Dorries and Chloe Smith, had to go to Johnson to get him to overrule her. Her backers are said to include Caroline Noakes, the chair of the women and equalities committee, and Maria Miller, her predecessor on the committee.

She’s lying. She believes TWAW.

I think it's very unlikely she thinks they are literally women. The position outlined in that thread is the one we will have to eventually work with- what matters is getting the protections women need.

That said, I agree she's very bad on this issue and is unlikely to pay more than lip service to feminists. I think the fact she's been forced to do this is brilliant. I also think this issue will destroy any chance of her winning. We have come so far :-)

Times spelling it out though www.thetimes.co.uk/article/269305b0-ffbb-11ec-9d35-8e47eb25050e?shareToken=633964ba1f41fe7f42c98c27a8a9b213