Secretary of State for Scotland looking at using Westminster powers to overule gender recognition bill

I've seen the post from fromorbit now thanks,

Anyone have an opinion as to whether proportional representation in Scotland has made it easier to pass of this unpopular and dangerous piece of legislation? According to Wikipedia of 129 MSPs, only 73 represent geographic areas. That means 56 MSPs or 43% do not. It would be interesting to see a voting breakdown.

So many people really don’t know what it’s about. I know when I’ve mentioned it over the past few years, it has sounded completely insane (Challenors, Yaniv,…) and often it’s taken a long time before people actually see what you’re talking about. And even now, depending on the papers you read or the brief headlines you scan, you have no idea of the negative impact on women and children. Women’s rights are reframed as anti-trans. Asking questions around safeguarding of children is now transphobic. Refusing any sex offender a GRC and a falsified birth certificate is now bigotry.

If one of you clever and literate women would kindly put up a copy of your correspondence to your MP, I would really appreciate this to use as a help for my email. My MP is David Davis and I'd like to hear his response on this.

It feels like silly games to me.
The SNP get to claim how terrible Westminster is to overrule them and add it to reasons fir independence.
Westminster gets to use it to demonstrate how important the Union is.

Maybe that's the whole reason behind this. 🤷‍♀️🤬

If people think that this isn’t going to be used against Sturgeon at every opportunity then I think they are badly mistaken.

Worth looking at the thread in AIBU at the moment, and one or two here - there are women and men on those threads saying "shit are you serious?!" as they read. And women share the evidence, and they are horrified to find it's true.

They don't know. This was always the plan, it's never been hidden. The cosy cups of tea in back rooms, the legislation tucked away behind other legislation where it wouldn't be noticed, the aim was always to do this before people realised what they were sleepwalking into. It is that pernicious.

The UK women have thrown a spanner in the works because we have talked about it. A lot. We've shouted. We've raised awareness. And we've had here (God bless you Justine). But we are still needing to spread the word constantly. Evidence. Show and share the evidence. Tweet and retweet the petition for Westminster to make 'sex' mean exclusively biological sex.

@Babdoc I get that there is opposition to this bill iñ Scotland, and that the majority don't actually want it. What, I guess, scares me is how little difference this seems to make.

It also makes me think that as well as ranting on here, talking about my concerns with friends etc I need take more concrete steps to prevent a similar situation in England.But my MP is Labour and doesn't seem to get it, not that she's in a position to influence much. And my city will never elect the Conservatives even if I decided to vote for them which I don't want to do (and have never done).

Just feeling helpless.

Brilliant, thanks @fromorbit - will keep a close eye on that.

In the meantime, does anyone have any advice on how I can counter the 'gay people suffered the same persecution when you were young, mum' argument my DC trot out?

Yes, I would be grateful for this too.

One of the MPs who voted this in said on the radio that they had had lots of submissions from all sorts of people and when asked about one of them, then said 'I didn't read it'.

They literally ignored every single piece of evidence against this and are quite happy to say so.

Call me naive but if Scottish women don't want this change in the law then how in the hell has it been voted through?

THEY DON’T KNOW!

Voters didn’t vote for this.

It wasn’t in the SNP manifesto.

The creepy Greens only got 220,000 votes across Scotland but Sturgeon is dependent on them for her majority.

It hasn’t been reported in the media until recently.

I promise you women in Scotland do not believe women have willies or that sex is not a binary. Neither do men. Nonetheless the parties they elect all voted to say that men are women.

Untitledsquatboulder, 1000 women (including my DD) demonstrated outside Holyrood while this vile bill was being debated. Over 2/3 of the electorate don’t want it in polling.
The SNP don’t give a shit about women. They know we don’t want it. They know it destroys our right to single sex spaces, safety, privacy and dignity. But they are in thrall to the Greens, on whom they rely for a majority in the Assembly. And the Greens have been completely hijacked by the transgender brigade.

Because

Robison: We must lead popular opinion, not follow it

Plus SNP members were not given a free vote on this. So it wasn’t a case of “do I agree or disagree with this vote” but “do I disagree strong enough to maybe trash my career over this?”

It seems that 9 out of (I think) 64 are willing to trash their career over this. It is the biggest revolt ever by the SNP.

Me too - I'm not quite sure how to word such a letter.

Because a huge number simply aren't following it, don't understand it, and don't think it will affect them or their families.

I have 20-something children (m & f) who are very sensible and intelligent people, don't support independence, and hate Sturgeon with a passion - but have fallen hook, line and sinker for the #BeKind crap this hides behind. Any debate ends with me being told it's akin to the lack of tolerance gay people were shown back when I was young in the 80s. They genuinely can't grasp what this means for women and girls and don't see it to be a serious issue.

Can anyone help me word a letter to my Tory MP.

They are banking on the voters being angrier about Westminster interference than about the SNP legally fucking over women and children.

The evidence in the polls does not support this. Scots women and sane voters at this point are more likely to see Westminster as their rescuers rather than their persecutors.

But reality isn't something the SNP are good at. And they don't believe in democracy.

@Blondlashes @AngryGoblin but how does this work in a system of 1 person, 1 vote? We are not yet at a stage where the votes of natal women count for less than those of natal men (but give it time).

Very few politicians care about what their constituents think. They're not there to serve the people; they're there to serve the Party.

I think every single vote in Parliament should be a conscience vote.

I really hope this happens

Because nobody cares what women think and Nicola Sturgeon certainly doesn't. Women in Scotland and elsewhere have consistently opposed this and been ignored. It's depressing.

@Untitledsquatboulder because often politicians don’t care what their constituents think sadly.
Also many are afraid to look like bigots.