Sheffield Central Labour Candidate - Abtisam Mohamed vs Eddie Izzard

Abtisam Mohamed put out a tweet yesterday on "Transgender Day of Remembrance" with some pretty vague statistics saying that "crimes against transgender people saw the biggest rise, with 4,355 reports, up 56% from the previous year."

I'm assuming she means reports of non-crime hate incidents which by definition are not crimes. But she does not say where the stats have come from so who knows?

twitter.com/Abtisam_Mohamed/status/1594375049594736646

@criticalcondition too true.

You never see men identifying as trans because they are keen to do more of the housework amd picking up the kids, be paid less, overlooked for promotion and talked over in meetings, and cos they really love endometriosis!

None of the 'ideology' stands up does it. As soon as you examine it it becomes apparent it's two things, both sides of the same toxic coin.

Men wanting to do what they want without any checks or boundaries. Hey guys, if you're trans you can enter any single sex space you like, gain acclaim, awards, election as an MP, have sex with lesbians, plead in mitigation of crimes, work in a children's charity.

For men it's a golden ticket isn't it. And you don't even have to cut your cock off. Grow some breasts if you fancy but a bit of part time sparkly nail polish will do it.

For women, not so much. They'll are desperate to escape sexism and misogny. Hey girls, if you're trans you can break free of the patriarchy. Sorry, short hair, and wearing a suit on Tuesdays isn't enough. You'll have to cut off your breasts and take drugs which will make you infertile.

I feel so sick and angry thinking about it.

He's a self confessed transvestite who is adopting gender ideology as he sees it as advantageous. All the woke points of being trans, but back to non trans for lucrative film roles.

Unfortunately, blithely switching 'trans' on and off to suit your lifestyle doesn't tally with the official line of the terrible suffering of being 'born in the wrong body.'

He's blowing a hole in the narrative and everyone can see it.

'It's confusing'

To be honest, I think he's just a pisstaker and a chancer, who is openly trying to have his cake and eat it. He's jumping on this particular bandwagon and is trying to claim that he 'came out as transgender' 30 years ago. I think he knows perfectly well that he's a man, who likes to wear stereotypically feminine things, and that most people are fine with that, it's been done before a million times. It's just not attention-grabbing enough anymore, so he's had to embellish the story for extra headlines. He's incredibly tiresome

Also, I am not entirely sure Eddie has, even managed to reassure trans women or allies that he would be a good representative.

What is he claiming to be, exactly? Trans women, by their very definition, don't have 'boy mode'. So is Eddie trans? Is that what trans means? And if that means trans women can have an element of 'boy mode', how does that work with including them in our spaces, then? Even the most supportive of women happy to allow trans women alongside them in vulnerable scenarios might hesitate if Eddie is representing trans women as actually having a 'boy mode' as well?

It's confusing.

I do wonder what Eddie's next move will be - he was very focused on a career in politics, I have heard him say so many times in interviews, he's been planning and looking forward to this for decades.

It must be very disheartening to have fallen at the first hurdle, so to speak. I wonder if this will cause a moment of reflection for Eddie and the Labour Party in general?

Maybe dismissing concerns of women isn't a good look after all?

So true. There are some great candidates, it's what makes EI sweeping in so frustrating, these people have been working incredibly hard and doing some amazing things in Sheffield for years. I'm fairly sure Abtisam will win, but we'll see.

Should have had a picture in Sheffield's Megatron, located under the station. 🙄

Bad he's got this far, seriously labour should be so ahead and they pull shit like this.

@mauvish The photo of EI shows him on the coast, and there's no coast in Sheffield!

It's global warming dontch know? The sea has come in as far as Sheffield Station.
I'm surprised the Greens aren't all over that.🤔

I can’t come in and wave a magic wand and solve all the problems, because some people are very entrenched

I prefer politicians to keep their magic wands to themselves, thanks.

@SocialConnotations Not sure why Izzard is bothering with a campaign - can't he/she just self-identify as Sheffield's MP?

😂😂

@Beowulfa
Exactly. Very inspiring and reassuring that the front runners appear to be dedicated to serving their community and the wider public.
There really is no excuse to parachute a candidate in.

Quite. If MPs had proper answers to every problem then we'd have solved everything by now and I do feel that any 'poster person' for any issue probably gets a bit fed up with it. But EI (and the Greens for that matter - a single issue party who don't seem to be talking about their single issue any more either) needs to have a clear line to take, even if it's not a line we on this board would agree with.

@fromorbit thanks for your updates, to my shame I don't know much about this part of the political process. It's fascinating.

Maybe not 'all the answers' but 'an answer' would be a start.

What interviewers fail to add is:

Does this mean you are not aware of or simply do not care about females from these at risk groups, who can't use any other space and will just have to be excluded so that you can do what you want?

OK, I'm nit-picking. But I've just looked at that EI interview (link above). If you were standing for selection in a parliamentary constituency, and were giving interviews based on that, wouldn't you get the photographer to take a picture of you somewhere in that constituency?

The photo of EI shows him on the coast, and there's no coast in Sheffield!

Ok, nitpicking -- but really, isn't this part of showing your commitment to the constituency, rather than your commitment to furthering your own publicity?

I have to say that in the 30+ years I've lived here, Sheffield has had a good history of selecting solid constituency MPs (with a couple of dishonourable exceptions!)

Leaving the egotistical antics of Izzard aside, it is heartening to read about the other candidates-proper old-school ones with quantifiable service to local services who have a stake in the community. These are the kind of people who should be politicians.

It's almost like choosing to talk publicly about being male or female depending what's convenient and intimidating teenage girls in bogs has consequences.

And it's noted that Izzard is getting 'impatient' with being asked these questions.

Well, the questions aren't going to stop, so better get used to it.