Conservative candidate resigns after trans comments

Maybe they could approach Jamie, I believe Jamie is looking for a new Constituency.

Make better points if you are pro women and want to discuss increasing migration

But don’t put it on us

The school have to be incredibly careful what views are expressed to children. Referring to immigration as an "invasion" is pretty extremist. And "bloke in a dress" may be accurate but it is also (intentionally) demeaning to those who have a genuine mental health condition (gender dysphoria). Neither of those are acceptable in a school setting.

I'm pretty GC myself but I'd complain about the way this man has expressed his views in a school setting.

Exactly. How is it on us?!

We say no. And politicians and institutions say whatever

I agree with his sentiment on the trans issue (not the migrant comments) but don’t think he should have vocalised it in the way he did, in a school environment.

We have enough yobbish MPs, we don’t need any more.

He is correct

Quite.

The censoring is of the views. Not expressing them in a way that yes, is not reflective of the kind of professionality you'd expect in a potential MP.

Fundamentally incompatible with WHAT exactly? Incompatible with our girls experiencing privacy, dignity, equality of access and consideration to boys, while we gaslight them that sex isn't fixed at conception and they have some way to not be on the shitty end of the equality stick?

I'm defending his right to free speech. I fundamentally disagree with his comments on migrants. I still think he has the right to say what he thinks. We need to hear what our politicians think. We can then decide whether to vote for them or not. Had he not said what he said, we'd never know and he'd be up for election soon.

One thing this whole identity ideology BS we've experienced in last 10 years has shown me is how important free speech is and how easily it can be eroded.

"Whilst we fully support the principle that our students should experience a broad range of views and opinions, we cannot allow our schools to become a platform for views that are fundamentally incompatible with our approach and ethos."

Sooooo a broad range of views and opinions just as long as we agree with them.....

When I see idiots like this one dismiss such a complex issue to ‘blokes in loos’ - never mind the nasty ‘immigrant invasion’ part - I feel more certain I’m on the right side of the debate.

What an odd perspective.

If I believe something is right I believe it for good reasons in which I am confident.

Some idiot coming along and saying something superficially similar but for totally different and possibly incoherent reasons doesn't make me think "oh I must be wrong".

I don't stand with people who want to enforce old fashioned sexist standards onto men and women. That doesn't mean I have to accept female people have no need of a political, legal and social existence in their own right, one which males cannot identify into no matter how they feel.

What was "mildly GC", what do you believe now, and what changed your mind?

I'm interested in this.

What have you changed your mind about?

@Crikeyalmighty

Whether we agree with him is neither here nor there. I agree with his sentiments on the trans part too. But the school believed that the language he used was inappropriate for a school debate and therefore decided to complain. But nobody forced him to resign other than, presumably, the Conservative Party. So any complaints ought to be taken up with them - they chose to wield the hammer, nobody forced them.

He said what most people think about blokes in women's and girls' intimate spaces. And if people DON'T think that, then they're thick, or they hate women or they're predatory.

Or all three.

@usernamealreadytaken I actually agree with him 100% about the trans comments- I disagree with him about the other things- it's not just the trans comments

@PorcelinaV

The education trust running the school wanted him censored, and that's worrying because in practice they may be limiting the debates allowed in schools in an illegal and unethical way

It doesn’t say in the article that they wanted him censured, merely that the school complained. Presumably because they felt he presented his views in an immature way, not befitting the environment and seriousness of the topics, eg “a bloke in a dress“, “disgusting”, and “invasion”. Basically, he had every right to give a silly reactionary speech using emotive language, the school had every right to complain about such (having the expectation that they’d invited a serious grown up), and his Conservative association had every right to either back his silly speech or to ask him to consider stepping down. They chose the latter.

@PorcelinaV
You're allowed to disagree with him. That doesn't mean he should be censored. Concerns about illegal immigration are shared by a substantial percentage of the voters and so some politicians may represent that

He’s resigned presumably because he’s under pressure to do so from his own party. The wider context being that the Tories are about to fight a national election campaign, are adrift 20+ points in the polls, and are thustrying to brush up their image ASAP as not being just just an immigration obsessed party (which has amusingly nevertheless failed to meaningfully cut immigration, despite poleaxing our economic prospects with Brexit).

So in that context, calling immigrants/refugees “an invasion” is pretty stupid and hurts his party’s image - in addition to being unpleasant and inflammatory.

@PorcelinaV was he censored? I'm not sure anyone stopped him from saying these things. But the local Conservative association clearly decided that what he said didn't align with Conservative policy and so stripped him of PPC status.

No different to Jeremy Corbyn being kicked out of the Labour party for running his mouth about, well, everything.

I think if you want to be able to say what you like as a politician, the only option is to run as an independent, then you won't be bound by party policy.

This. And once you have agreed that some male people should be able to use women's spaces, you have made your peace with the fact that many vulnerable women must accept having no access at all to the women's space or any space, so that males can have more comfort, choice and understanding of their complex situation.

It is a sex based, binary decision rooted in male supremacism. You believe that male people's needs and complexities matter - and that women's don't. And that it's ok to take everything from some women so that some men can have more.

It's morally indefensible.

Alrighthen, I’m happy to agree that this guy’s a twat who has a set of ill-considered and untested views, and yet feels qualified to comment.

I am interested though in how someone can go from GC to believing that gender identities a) exist in any meaningful way and b) trump sex in sex-segregated areas of life. Can you explain please?

I guess Norwich Conservatives decided he wouldn't exactly be a vote winner come election time. The only way tories have a chance in Norwich is if they are very much on the left of the party, as is Chloe Smith the incumbent.