Women's and Equalities Select Committee

It was not always thus, but now we have career politicians, rather than politicians who have had a career, and the difference is that they have no idea what real people think and don't it matters (previously they thought it mattered 'a bit' which meant they were 'a bit' more cautious).

Be careful what you wish for. They might and they might get changes through because Labour has a huge majority of MPs (tho not votes) and the Lib Dems (75) and Greens would support a change in the law to make certificate sex legal sex and not biological sex (which would become something no-one bothered about).

Re the Jashinksy video, I thought it was interesting that Sanders agreed that a country doesn't exist without borders, and he was even willing to concede that Trump had done a better job of maintaining borders, but he still couldn't quite make the leap to understanding that women's rights don't exist without any clear definition of 'woman'.

@SionnachRuadh As you like a long-form interview, may I recommend this, if you haven't already heard it.

(The corresponding interview with Tugendhat is well worth a listen - he was possibly the most dangerous of the lot - no idea how he convinced the moderates he was their man given how unhinged his views on foreign policy were, and presumably still are.)

I know American politics doesn't translate automatically, but Emily Jashinsky has some thought provoking comments here

Diet Farage! 😆

Jenrick also spent most of his parliamentary career as an almost parodically conformist Cameroonian wet, until he decided to have a go at the leadership and reinvented himself as Diet Farage. His colleagues don't call him Bobby Generic for no reason.

Mordaunt is an odd character in terms of her popularity in the party. She's effectively a Lib Dem when it comes to policy, but lots of right wingers like her. Probably a lot of that is vibes, and it can't hurt that she's an unusually attractive politician. (Though I don't want to lean too heavily on Tory boys with a weird psychosexual thing for dominant women - the type exists, but not enough to swing a leadership election... right?)

What do you make of Victoria Atkins? I recall a great speech of hers in the Commons when she was at Health, and she showed real grasp of the issues that matter.

Jenrick has previously indicated, though, that he doesn't really understand the issue of 'sex based protections' and Mordaunt, of course, was always TWAW.

I can't stand Jenrick, myself...and wish he would defect to Reform.

There is no hance of them doing anything on the quiet in that way again. There is now too much infrastructure ( Legal Feminist, Sex Matters etc) that has been set up to scrutinise any such attempt.

Basically everything Trump does is immediately opposed by the courts and the legal system, and by Democrats who automatically try to block anything he attempts to do. I beleive he had to go the Supreme Court recently on order to put a stop to this type of 'Lawfare'?

Jenrick is definitely the most energetic and effective Shad Cab member. The problem for him is that the people who would support him keep defecting to Reform.

I'm working from the premise that most of the parliamentary party are wets. Cleverly would be their default candidate at the moment. And he's not the worst candidate, he's a bit gaffe prone but no more than most of them.

I've been keeping an eye on Mordaunt because she's been doing the interview round, showing a bit of leg and letting it be known she's eager to serve if she gets the chance. I doubt that will be in her old Portsmouth North stomping ground, where Reform have just won a council by-election with a ridiculous 65% vote share. But, should Rishi decide to pursue other career options, there might be an opening in Richmond and Northallerton, which is one of the handful of Tory seats they might hold at a by-election.

Kemi will almost certainly be gone after the May elections.

If I had to bet, her replacement will probably be Cleverly. Or, if she can somehow wangle her way back into parliament, Penny Mordaunt.

It looks as if we shall have to rely on the Tories to save us. Kemi will certainly fight for women.

You can't trust Reform at all with women's sex based rights and protections. I'm not sure there is anyone in that rag tag collection of malcontents who has given the issue any serious thought. For Farage, everything comes down to the individual's freedom to do whatever they want to do without state interference.

Indeed, and NF himself has never been too keen on the actual tiresome stuff of democracy; representing your constituents, attending debates, being on committees scrutinsing legislation, all that boring stuff. Will his minions be anymore industrious?

The problem is often in organisations interpretation of laws, and what they get away with.

The Conservatives and now labour arent very decisive regarding SSE, leading to men in womens nhs changing rooms. Its probably the case in lots of equality interpretations.

A willing government could make a difference by just being clear, and not needing to do much to the EqA.

I might be wrong but I doubt the plan is to try and change the Equality Act. That would necessitate public debate which we know is not their forte. I think they're more likely to look for ways of undermining the EA and making it impossible to enforce, some of which might be harder at first to spot than an all-out attack. We're going to need to stay on our toes.

Unless they do it on the quite, like so many other things they've done, Labour have a large enough majority to push anything they want through quietly.

You can't trust Reform at all with women's sex based rights and protections. I'm not sure there is anyone in that rag tag collection of malcontents who has given the issue any serious thought. For Farage, everything comes down to the individual's freedom to do whatever they want to do without state interference.

If they do scrap the Equality Act then that does not only impact women; it, of course, impacts every other protected catergory too ( disability, sexual orientation, marital status, age, religion etc). They would surely have to replace it with something, or else just make changes rather than scrap it wholesale

In doing any of that, though, they would be setting themselves up for years of debate and scrutiny: getting bogged down in the details of it all.

Labour has form for appointing people based purely on their 'identity' category. Note the recent election for deputy leader. The candidates had to be not only women ( as in adult human females) but also 'northern'.