Did Keir Starmer just say

Oh dear. Looks like Streeting is thinking about the sort of separate cubicle solution that nobody likes for toilets. The women don't mind sharing with each other Wes!

Wes. With a bit less of a weasley answer. Two issues:

1. Cubicles presumably carry some risk for observation on patients as it is harder for staff to see across the ward. I'm thinking medically as well as checking who's accessing adult and child, male and female patients when they should not be (Savile type scenarios)

1. Designing hospitals differently seems like an excellent way to kick this can down the road. Just say you'd LOVE to have done more but there was no money. But if re-elected, you'll DEFINITELY do it.

x.com/whatisawomanuk/status/1803004602184261770?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

Some history

July 2006

Hospitals must review patients’ safety after rapes shock.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/1be19495-1a25-4ef5-81b2-b88e2144b98e?shareToken=de05b28430a7a5653326f58dee5f478cc_

National review ordered into NHS sexual assaults.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/a090d9aa-8348-43f9-9295-c0e53eda78fb?shareToken=ee542a04b2d5ed73b8f10ecb6a41f28ff_

2008

Goal of single sex wards ‘not feasible’.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/9acb0d3c-05aa-4115-8d72-3b446af04636?shareToken=5a1b097d9aaf418a36b4d907c7bc0eabb_

2007 - scroll to second entry for Retreat on wards

https://www.thetimes.com/article/97224df8-4938-48cd-82b3-a1631b85bc1a?shareToken=9c29cdbc5fbdcc086e79d25c071303800_

August 2007

Woman dies after attack in mixed sex psychiatric ward.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/e09ac046-fe19-4968-93e5-e0bda4942456?shareToken=c333d2393ccf0ada2423c110bce6d1a55_

August 2010

Pledge to end mixed sex wards could cost millions, experts warn.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/7a44a5cb-273b-4828-b2ae-36f50ca8b6b5?shareToken=32d5d6f5cc3857162effaae31501fff33_

End of the mixed sex hospital ward promised by 2011, says minister.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/13423efd-38ce-41f3-9da2-9d153477de8e?shareToken=a5205ae744bb50d854fe37d28ff093e11_

Exactly.

The GRC is a red herring. It's not because of a legit GRC that men are imaging women's spaces wholesale.

No one is checking on the door!!

This shit show is what happens when you try to reorganise society around a vague and undefinable feeling that some people have, rather than a clear observable set of characteristics.

Why is this so difficult for otherwise intelligent people to comprehend?

When he says 'sex' he means 'gender' identity

I think not. When he talked about women with penises, he meant legal sex. But what he said to Ferrari can only be construed as saying that single-sex spaces for women and girls, which are 'important', must be based on birth sex. He's a lawyer: he knows what he's saying.

It's not illegal to ask someone their birth sex, or whether they have a GRC, or whether they are trans. And for most purposes, we could go back to relying on the evidence of our eyes.

If a GRC changes sex then how can a hospital exclude? The NHS record on self ID.

Starmer sounds reasonable until you look at how his promise would work in reality.

Plus look at what he's not saying.

No apology to Rosie Duffield.

No clarity on conversion therapy.

No clarity on how sex is defined in the EA.

It's just enough to piss off tras and not enough to reassure women.

On the ERCC case, I think I am right in saying we haven’t had the hearing for compensation? It would be interesting to see what the judge makes of the lack of action, or apology, by ERCC when it comes to that.

https://twitter.com/WhatIsAWomanUK/status/1803004602184261770?t=RWUSqQJ_2oySb61HBHNHKw&s=19

Venice Allan interviews Wes Streeting. He's clear but I picked up on it will take time. Seems like the Culture War won't cease on day 1.

Excellent job by Venice by the way.

I don’t see how Labour can make this work if a man can have a birth certificate saying he is female and it is illegal to see a GRC.

He's fudging it. People don't get asked to show their GRC, they show their replacement birth certificate. The amended one, which shows they are a woman.

When he says 'sex' he means 'gender' identity', and I'll take any bet you offer thats also the reason he keeps saying 'women's safe spaces' and not 'single sex exemptions'.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/cymraeg/Defnyddwyr/discrimination-in-the-provision-of-goods-and-services/discrimination-in-the-provision-of-goods-and-services1/goods-and-services-what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/check-if-a-business-has-discriminated-against-you-because-youre-transgender/

Because the board, who would be the ones to sack him, are all captured recent Edinburgh graduates who were also criticised by the judge. OSCR are toothless and most of the funding comes from a Scottish government pushing this agenda.

But still somehow, because no one has a backbone, has a job.

I think Mridhul Wadwha doesn’t have a GRC

I don’t see how Labour can make this work if a man can have a birth certificate saying he is female and it is illegal to see a GRC

You know, I'm starting to understand the impulse to turn to extreme violence that many men have, irrespective of how pretty their skirt or twirly their hair.

Exactly.

I seem to remember (happy to be told I'm wrong) that when single sex wards have been discussed, it's emerged that some hospitals describe an arrangement as separate when in reality there's just one room with screens around one bit of it & loos, showers, etc are mixed. So talk of separate wards or separate rooms or single sex facilities may not mean one room for women only plus single sex facilities. That's not good enough.

For the time being he does have the option of making special provision for men with GRCs because its a minuscule number. That's only a short-term fix though, if numbers go up.

We all know what they're really about, but we could pretend to treat them as 'men with a phobia of other men'.

I'm not even sure that the extra spaces would have to be provided, ultimately. Just offered.

It instantly punctures the whole bullshit narrative and collapses it.

Agree.

What I'll also say is that if someone suggests additive/additional spaces, the whole issue evaporates.

Because those lobbying for men to be let into women's spaces claim it's for the safety of delicate transwomen, but aren't in fact interested in separate spaces.

We saw this play out perfectly with Lia Thomas. The extra, additional category was created, and lo and behold, nobody raced in it.

What activists are demanding is the acquiescence and support and indulgence of women; it's not about the spaces.

Don't think he has, no.

Good point about where he might be getting this information

And neither do I think a mixed sex hospital ward is the answer either.

Hospitals should be based on biology.

I agree. It's heading in the right direction.

I just don't think he's got hold of the rudder.

If you're going to make special, extra provision for people who say they are trans, you have to be prepared to supply it.

People generally think of that in terms of a mixed sex space, that people can opt into if they want to, whilst preserving single sex spaces.

But a private hospital room isn't that. Which just tells me he hasn't thought about it.

Should ask him if he's going to make it clear to girl guides that their current position isn't actually legal and they need to refuse admittance to transgirls and transwomen

Maybe turn it around and require providers to specify whether things are trans-inclusive?