Ashley Dalton, Labour Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities this evening...

I think it’s grip might be slipping but there’s a hell of a long way to go, many people are just oblivious to all of this and they don’t want to listen, it’s going to take a lot more damage to wake people up but little by little, I think we are gaining ground. We need to keep emphasising the fact that much of the advice that they are giving out is actually illegal and leaves organisations at risk of litigation.

It sounds as if the Labour Party has collectively gone insane.
But what other minorities would want to ally with them? Muslims? Hindus? Any group which values their children?

I've just come here from the thread about Yvette Cooper on WH and noticed the following quote:

They want more LGBT+ people in Parliament and driving policy and there's money available to support those who'll stand. She wants activists on all fora.

LGBT+ people are already overrepresented in parliament, at just under 10% of MPs (vs the 3.3% of the general UK population who identify as LGBT+).

Only 34.6% of MPs are women (who make up 51% of the adult population).

There are fewer than 10 MPs who are known to be disabled (obviously there may be others with unknown or hidden disabilities), as opposed to the 130 or so that you might expect if parliament were representative of the UK population.

In 2019, a record-breaking 54% of MPs had been educated at a state comprehensive - which sounds great until you consider that 88% of the UK school population goes to a state comprehensive and only 7% are educated privately.

Parliament underrepresents a number of different groups, but LGBT+ people is not one of them.

Just went to check his name, and found an odd loop on the SS website that says 'who we are' and tells you nothing!

Tuns out he's stepping down. Colin McFarlane.

tfn.scot/news/head-of-stonewall-scotland-to-step-down

Yes, Stonewall Scotland are part of the cabal of groups who advise the Scotgov on 'gender' issues, alongside Equality Network, LGBTYS (still under police investigation?), and others. So they informed the GRR bill and I expect will be doing the same for the upcoming conversion Bill.

I seem to recall someone high up in Stonewall Scotland telling women off for tweeting too late at night? Can't recall his name.

I despise Labour for putting us in this position. Meanwhile, the UK maternal mortality rate is the worst in Europe (or something). B*stards.

That's a very considered post @NitroNine. You are right.
I'll spend some time reading those links you added. Thank you.

Jaysus.

We’ve an actual issue when it comes to the [lack of] prosecution of disability hate crimes. The police & CPS are already expending more energy on Hurty Words, Funny Looks & Stickers With Facts On than they are on protecting truly vulnerable people. There’s already a sentencing uplift for hate crimes, so what is this great eejit suggesting? Special “justice” for special people? Disability Hate Crime is “massively under-reported” rather than there being activists dedicating their time to reporting everything under the sun; & deliberately targeting a disabled person because their disability makes them vulnerable is not, bizarrely, counted as a hate crime. The special “equal” treatment bench book compels people to perjure themselves so that male criminals are not upset by being correctly described by their victims. Heaven forfend one should be untoward about paedophiles, after all. Or rapists. Or violent men who’ve committed assault. Or men who “just” threaten women online. (There is of course also a layer of ableism woven into it: there are several disabilities where being forced to [try to remember to] address/refer to a male individual using terms reserved for the female sex could cause discomfort, distress, stress & confusion.)

Absolutely homophobic & transphobic hate crimes should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. (By “transphobic” I mean eg the assault of an individual motivated by a hatred for transgender people.) Happily that is, generally speaking (I’m not going to pretend there aren’t some issues still) the case.

Quite how Labour could look at the crime stats & think “yes, that’s what needs our focus” I don’t know. I mean, we know they’re not going to touch the record high of antisemitic hate crimes (only one Labour peer spoke in the Lords’ discussion of Anti-Semitism in the UK yesterday & he was focused on suggesting the Tories weren’t doing enough 🤨) but you’d think perhaps someone would look at the actual statistics involved & realise “we’re going to prioritise a group that’s already receiving a disproportionate amount of resources” isn’t good optics.

Look forward to seeing Lily Madigan in the mix then

That's an interesting contrast: Ashley Dalton promoted to shadow minister within 12 months of being elected, and meanwhile I gather Starmer hasn't spoken to Rosie Duffield for 2 years.

I actually helped with Ashley Dalton's failed attempt to be elected in the 2019 election. She is definitely moderate and no fan of Corbyn. Gender never came up then. Fun fact you will appreciate, I attended a fundraising dinner where the guest speakers included Rosie Duffield (and Wes Streeting). Rosie said she'd met Ashley when they were both attending some kind of weekend event to boost women's electoral chances in the Labour Party. This must have been before Rosie was elected. Rosie said that they got on like a house on fire and had been good friends ever since. It goes without saying I'm deeply disappointed with AD and I wonder how much she's just suckered into the group think on this. She was sitting next to Annaliese Dodds when Kemi Badenoch was delivering her speech on schools guidance and she looked like a rabbit in the headlights. I wonder if she's still Rosie's BFF.

Labour has no actual plan for the NHS, so it may be six of one, half a dozen of the other, so far as that goes.

Starmer will do anything to avoid an issue

Including likely losing the speaker his job

And goodness knows women are about to make sure that it is. Very clearly and widely understood indeed.

Definitely makes it clear that Kier’s fence-sitting is only because he’s (very mildly) concerned about losing votes if the actual Labour position becomes widely understood

I've been thinking about the expected influx of new Labour MPs after the election and where they might stand on this. I'm guessing that to get selected they'll have had to toe their CLP line.

I suppose there might possibly be some who are GC but have kept quiet and are hoping they can be more outspoken once elected, but if so, I think they'll be in for a rude awakening.

As for the NHS, I agree with the sentiment but I also think it stopped being ours a long time ago.

Yeah and Steph read a poem about domestic violence for IWD in the Guildhall Square , Portsmouth for Labour as the Women's Officer . That really upset me . Steph later posted himself reading it online and I felt the contempt for women. As a survivor , it felt like he was mocking women.

Yeah Steph does that in L P meetings too. Ex LP member here of many years. Steph goes door knocking with our local MP every weekend . Best of buddies. I hate all the political parties and despise Labour for this . I feel if I don't vote for them our NHS will be gone etc
They all hate women.

Was it Steph who organised that protest outside the FILIA conference? One of many where they displayed posters issuing threats of sexual violence against women. That Steph?

Yes. He minced around outside handing out leaflets with pictures of himself on.

I can't let a thread about the fragrant Steph go by without a reminder that he wrote a whole blog post on his website about how much he hates me.

This sounds like something my council would do. They passed a motion that TWAW and TMAM the other year.

Yes it was FiLiA in Portsmouth. Amnesty International also provided placards for the protest ISTR.

If it's the event I'm thinking of then a couple of the battier activists were happily drawing obscene pictures in chalk on the pavement with sexual threats near women talking about their sexual assaults.

The gaslighting is reaching new heights isn't it? Homosexual women who say no to men aren't homosexual at all, they're right wing under cover infiltrators. Any minute now, it'll be that any human who says no to men is actually an under cover martian/Klingon.

They're absolutely bloody nuts.