Great article

I know someone who has just been adopted by Labour as a candidate. She is from a political dynasty, studied politics at University and has wanted to be an MP since she was young. She is happy to confide that she does not believe that TWAW, but "obviously she could never say this publically"

Well, there you have it, right there. The mess we're in. Because people are prepared to talk bollocks out loud.

I personally think that the Conservative Party is in as deep a mess as Labour. Instead of the wokie bros of the other parties, local association activists tend to be aging Tory boys, who still think Liz Truss would be better than Rishi, and yearn for the return of Boris.

People talk about how some years in the wilderness would be good for the Tories and allow them time to regroup. I disagree. What British politics really needs is for good sensible people to become active at grassroot in whatever party most closely fits their political views. At the Westminster debate we saw Rosie Duffield working with Miriam Cates. Scratch below the surface and there will be lots of areas on which they have wildly different views. However I expect/hope that they will recognise a level of honesty and courage. Ditto people like Shahrir Ali and Emma Bateman of the Greens.

I know someone who has just been adopted by Labour as a candidate. She is from a political dynasty, studied politics at University and has wanted to be an MP since she was young. She is happy to confide that she does not believe that TWAW, but "obviously she could never say this publically". Nothing but nothing is going to get in the way of her ambition. And unfortunately there is probably no one in her local constituency party to call her out.

Having the Mail, who understand their readership, reminding the Tories that they should be mindful of voter concerns, is not a bad thing. Even if the illiberal illiberal of the chattering classes may be saying something different.

This is one of a couple of strong articles in the Mail this week about transitioning and regret. (There is a thread on the other by a former Tavistock staff member.)

My interpretation is that the Mail fear that Sunak has been nobbled on “Conversion” and are sending him a message via their large but socially conservative readership.

I tend to raise my eyebrows when people say they never read the Mail or any other right of centre paper, as if this gives them some sort of intellectual or moral high ground. Ok today you need to past some endless Rebecca Loos headlines, I mean really is this the biggest story in the world today. But it is worth noting what people outside your bubble may be thinking, and it is always interesting when the Mail starts criticising the Tories. We seem to have a new establishment of liberal/illiberal thinkers sitting pretty in Labour, the LibDems or Greens (and indeed on the Christin Blunt wing of the Tories) or on that merry go round of BBC/charity/Oxford college jobs who enjoy a moral certainty that they are right and great chunks of the electorate are wrong. 60% of them electorate is unsure how to vote in the next election. None of the available parties are attracting voter loyalty. The Mail knows its large readership…that’s why it has a large readership. Agree or not agree, I don’t get why so many people think it is clever to ignore the views of others.

I wondered this too. Who is or are the influencer(s) who have pushed this through, presumably taking advantage of a likely small, but loudly testerical, backlash following Sunak’s statement about sex.

Yes?

That was my point.

It could. But this was specifically about Debbie Hayton, who has a wife.

No, but in the general sense it could mean either.

Graham Linehan had Hayton on the Mess once. Also Miranda Yardley and Rose of Dawn iirc. Yet TRAs say he is a transphobic bigot. On the other hand some Radfems think he is a poor ally for entertaining them at all.

He is a big softy and I can't see him ever toeing any party line.

Well yes, but husbands don't tend to be much use for giving birth to three children.

Thanks for doing the proper link, @OldCrone

There was an interview with both of them where it came out that Hayton had told Dr Stephanie Hayton he’d leave if she wanted him to. But when it came down to it he refused, explaining to the interviewer that he liked pushing boundaries.

Not the exact phrasing but that was the gist.

Worth watching.

Thanks for the article link. I am going to add it to the existing thread about Sunak's change of mind.

'Transitioning from a Man to a Woman at 44 Years Old | Trans Kids: It's Time to Talk' with Stella O'Malley from 2018.

DH's wife was in the documentary made about them a few years back. I remember her saying they still shared a bedroom but not a bed and it all seemed very sad really.

I think I read DH saying that their daughter hadn't liked DH using the women's loos etc and so that was no longer what DH did.

Happily married means a wife or a husband, presumably?

Hayton. Hmm. I used to think he sounded very reasonable too, but he still thinks some transwomen, especially DH himself, should have the right to compel others to call them 'her', and the right to use female facilities and force the girls and women not to complain. He wrote school policies on it.

If he's changed his mind on that, I'll have more respect for him.

Debbie sounds sensible. But I did wonder,

I was a happily married, middle-aged man with a good job and three wonderful children.

...and, presumably a wife? I wonder what happened to her?