Beth Rigby interviews Iain Anderson

I loved it and thought BR have a fab job - faltered a bit during the sporting questions but still one of the best interviews I've seen. This is the first time I think I've seen someone from stonewall acknowledge that there is some clash between trans rights and women's rights too.

It certainly confirms my beliefs that we need to give people sufficient air time to explain their side of the argument and really shine some light on it so that people can make their own mind up away from sound bites and hashtags.

Yep and I'm so glad that Beth said "don't give me that dodge" or words to that effect!

As had been noted, this also keeps focus on safety, and pushes.aside privacy and dignity. Which allows gender advocates to suggest that if its 'safe' women have no right to complain about men in their spaces.

I did wonder this.

IW is now posting pictures of Katie Ledecky on twitter and calling her Lia in an attempt to make people think Katie looks like a man so it's fine to have men in womens' sports

https://twitter.com/IndiaWilloughby/status/1682364131943251968

I think Mr Anderson is a bigot and is prejudiced against women.

bigotˈbɪɡət
noun
a person who is obstinately or unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, or faction, especially one who is prejudiced against or antagonistic towards a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.

I'm quite surprised that my opinion of Stonewall could fall any lower but it has.

They are restructuring society in a massive way but don't even have a coherent argument. Pathetic!

@Boiledbeetle - fab poem!

'7hThe absolute refusal to make any concession whatsoever to how the female competitors might feel is really striking. He knows that just saying "but they're the less important humans" isn't acceptable but is running out of code words.'

Very well put. Beth quite rightly laboured the point about how the women in second and third positions must have been feeling. He either couldn't or wouldn't engage with that point. Tried to deflect with his own little quip about being rubbish at sport, but she wasn't having it!

I've always thought of 'folk' as American dialect, where 'trans folks' was used to group a very different set of people together- older male transvestites, children and teens with gender confusion, drag queens etc.

Victoria Smith on Twitter has a good take on the Leah Thomas incoherent moment:
Victoria Smith@glosswitch
·
7hThe absolute refusal to make any concession whatsoever to how the female competitors might feel is really striking. He knows that just saying "but they're the less important humans" isn't acceptable but is running out of code words.

Bravo Boiled. Another gem.

I wonder if Starmer said 'Look mate, you go on Sky and show us your new direction/policy/how we can do this and we will touch base after and see how it went'...

I really like to think so.

THE INTERVIEW

Iain Anderson went on TV,
but was no match for Beth Rigby.
He looked in shock
and went off half cock,
unable to sound coherent
as a genderwoo adherent.

He couldn’t get his answers out,
yet did a good line in facial pout.
He ummed and ahhed like it’s a sport,
glib excuses were his retort.
If the top of stonewall sounds so daft
I dread to think how they are staffed.

The support dog is now on overtime
after Iain’s almighty non-sublime
witterings of total incoherence.
His words showed up such impotence.
Just general buzz words were his stance,
as we all looked on with complete askance.

I bet he wished he hadn’t bothered.

Couldn't quite place his accent tbh. I had a similar zero alcohol Irish brogue after living in London for 20 odd years so not being judgey.

@RealityFan I was on some forum during the 2020 US election and Arizona was very close. Someone asked ' Why aren't we doing better with Latinx voters, what can we do to reach them?'

'Stop calling us Latinx for a start ' was one reply. Which was ignored of course....

No puns intended

I saw my first folx the other day.
Does folx rhyme with bollocks or blokes? I can’t decide whether the x sound is separate?

And this. Grass root sports are very important

He was sweating heavily, it was a joy to watch and her questions. Right to the heart of it

Anderson is Scottish. We use 'folk' quite routinely.

God, the Lia Thomas picture part of the interview was face gnawingly awful. Total cringe, all the sooooooos and wwwwwwwwwells, reverse ferreting and steamed up glasses.

Just Beth saying, c'mon now Iain, spoke a thousand words.

Folk is just plain weird in this context . Perhaps in any context except as a music category. Besides , I can't get an image of Eddie Izzard strumming a banjo out of my head. It's horrible I tell ya.

'Around' is another signifier of evasiveness and bad faith. And 'stakeholders ' is becoming quite vague and meaningless.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will...frickin' piss me off!

I like her interviewing style. She asks a good questions and then gives him space to answer. And when he does not she follows up by repeating the question.

I hate the BBC badgering style, especially when someone is being interviewed who they disapprove of. If people are interviewed, regardless of whom, I do want to hear what they have to say. And if they clearly have nothing to say this is also informative.

Looking to the pivot to "folx", like our lovely "Latinx" folx.

The best thing Mr Anderson could have said in response to that line of questioning was just something like, "world swimming has said trans women won't be able to take part in women's sport in future, just like world athletics and world cycling have done, they're the ones with access to the evidence, Stonewall has no plans to commission research of its own or to allocate resource to challenging UK or international rulings in this area". Instead he said ...?

'folk'

where 'folk' includes 'men who enjoy being in spaces with women who actively don't want them there'

mmm, those 'folk' sound great don't they? so homey and reassuring!

I objected to the word 'folk' in draft official guidance at work as it only applies to a very small proportion of the workforce that are getting a hugely disproportionate amount of pandering to. No other class of protected characteristic has a mimsy cutesy label like 'folk'. I asked for either everyone or no one to be referred to in this way, consistency is essential. Muslim/Christian/Sikh folk. Black folk. Ethnic minority folk. Married folk. Folk needing a maternity policy. Doesn't work.