JKR calls Labour's Bluff - Offering Meeting leadership only on her terms

I'm sitting here shaking my head, I'm listening to the Rest is Politics and they're talking about JKR's letter in the Times. It should be noted that they never mentioned the Cass report when it came out even though it was the biggest story in politics for several weeks and also the self id aspect of the Greens collapsing the Bute House agreement was barely mentioned as a footnote and they tried to frame the reason as climate related which is really wasn't.

This is my summary of what they said but I only listened once since it made me so mad so I may have missed some stuff.

They start it off with saying that according to their polling no one cares about this issue and that there is only a tiny amount of trans people (who are also the most marginalised). Then Alastair says that the women in his life don't think the same as JKR (not implying that maybe women aren't a monolith, more implying that shes wrong and other women don't agree with her). I got the impression that Alastair felt somewhat betrayed by JKR (a formerly very good Labour donor/supporter) daring to have an opinion and publish that opinion

Both of them make a point to say multiple times how much they respect JKR but also as a podcast have decided not to engage in the issue because as men they don't feel like they should have an opinion on this essentially.

Rory then cites that he has a trans friend who is a doctor who helps people transition and also knows several women who feel very passionately that their rights are being erroded (thought no one cared about this according to themselves), He also then recommends the podcast the witchtrials of JKR, I would love to know how anyone could listen to that podcast and not be fully informed of the issues and see where JKR is coming from.

No mention of Rosie Duffield, no mention of Tony Blair seemingly being able to have an opinion on this and Starmer valuing that opinion over the countless women who have spoken.

Its such fence sitting nonsense, they would have been better to ignore it completely rather than try not to offend anyone and pretend like its an issue that people don't care about

I'm not ready to say that Rowling is all that clever in this instance. By naming a set of conditions that Starmer obviously won't want to meet, she's let him say "I offered to talk to Ms Rowling, but she made it impossible". If she'd limited her demands to "I'd be delighted to chat, if he'll invite Rosie Duffield too" she might have called his bluff. I mean, how could he object to talking with a member of his own party?

Would definitely be better than the football!

D’know, the more I think about this idea, the more I’d love to see it happen. It would be a breath of fresh air to see capable, well-informed women explaining reality to clueless politicians 🤔

Just going back to some earlier posts:

Spoilt ballots are counted, and some candidates / agents may ask to see them.

But I am looking forward to the day when there are more spoilt ballots that actual votes. The fact that so many vote for a party they dont believe in as the best of 2 bad options is horrifying.
.

And will Labour get rid of Starmer

I suspect many would like to but given the recent history of the Tory party, and the public reaction to new leaders being elected (which any party is entitled to do, but most voters donts understand it) a lot of people will say they were lied to.

Seems more likely that once the super majority has settled in to gettinge their way the left leaning Labour MPs, plus independetns (and SNP?) will get more challenging.

It just whether with the predicted size of the majority it would ever reach the point that Theresa May got to where not only were all MPs opposing her but the speaker as well.

So suspect at least 2 if not 3 years of a Starment Government, more than enough time to amend the GRC process.

Gay bars are banning gay people for being visibly gay now?

Well said, there are a number of 'old school' transsexuals (many of whom prefer that term) who are quite opposed to the current TRA insanity. Most transsexuals are not deluded about their biological sex nor seek to coercively impose reality denial on others.

JKR has spoken to trans people, and has many followers and fans who are trans. I actually think that TRA's do more damage to trans people than anyone else.

But women and girls are boring, no one could really want to talk about them 🙄

Just to be on the safe side yes I'm being sarcastic but it is genuinely what some people think.

She isn't going to talk about trans identified people,. She wants to talk about women and girls.

Starmer wants to meet JKR because she's given a lot of money to Labour in the past and it discourages other rich people from donating if they dont even get heard by you. Plus he's probably so deluded he thinks his weasel words about "safe spaces" may encourage her to send some of her money his way again. And she has pointed out just how many organisations there are that speak for women and same sex attracted people and how many votes he is ignoring. Class act.

If a lot of people spoil their ballots politicians will start paying attention to what is written on them because they may affect the next elections - not just general elections but council elections and byelections. It also denies them legitimacy. So if you dont have a candidate that deserves your vote and you value how hard women fought to vote than spoil your ballot paper. Adding JKR for prime minister is better than none of the above, which I suggested to my OH.

I'm hugely confused now Ted. I thought J K Rowling was the author of children's fiction while Keir Starmer was the brilliant barrister. They seem to have swapped places.

I can never get over how admirable JKR is.

Pulled herself out of a terrible situation? TICK.
Wrote a book series that's on a par with Lord of the Rings for global reach and generational influence? TICK.
Wrote another book series that's easily on a level with the great detective writers like Christie? TICK.
Put her whole self on the parapet to stand up for women less powerful than herself when she could've just bathed in her money and mouthed platitudes? TICK.

I LOVE this woman!!!

Interesting. Are primary schools anti adults? Are Marie Curie anti healthy people? Are Italian restaurants anti-Chinese restaurants?

Such silliness. Anyway, moving on...

I’m now really tempted to spoil my ballot and write on it :
’NONE OF THE ABOVE. JK ROWLING FOR PM 🌟’

Sky News now Health Secretary gives speech about womens rights and references Labour and JKR.

Jkr really shows up people who are at heart self serving. They simply cannot fathom a person who doesn't put her own interests first. I wish I had a fraction of her integrity.

Can someone enlighten me? IF Labour win, is there any possibility that Starmer will go? Or do they see it as mandate for he's doing good? Or does it depend on how much he wins by etc?

which was a video on being kind and showing respect which featured IW

lol, reminds me of when some numpties in parliament got Lily Madigan to be the face of their "Kinder Gentler Politics" report.

Going back to spoilt votes. I've worked at counts. The agents who were on the ball (and/or whose candidate, let's face it, might need every vote) asked to see the spoilt ballots. Admittedly this was mainly to make sure they couldn't decipher any genuine votes out of them but they'd go through them carefully and, if there were similar repeated messages, they couldn't have failed to notice.

The lazy, arrogant agents, not so much.

It's certainly not ideal and I'd only do it if there was absolutely no alternative candidate, but I'd argue it's better than not voting at all.

I bloody love that woman❤️

They're Important Men who don't think women or women's issues are worthy of their Important Man Thoughts.

Many such cases.

I should clarify, Alastair Campbell did not retweet IW, he retweeted a post by “Keighley Cougars” (sports team of some sort) which was a video on being kind and showing respect which featured IW. He may not have known about IW being in it and just did a “woke points” retweet.

I agree with those that say how disappointed they are in him and Rory for not discussing the issue - for me more so for Rory as he’s closer to my own political position that Alastair is.

Alastair’s daughter is a very right on Be Kind comedienne, so I suspect she colours his view on the issue.

Absolutely agree that they should interview JKR for Leading, perhaps we should all mass email them with the suggestion?

So bloody disappointing.