James Murray on R4 just now - TWANW

Thinking with their "career prospects" not their brains. Gets you every time!

I'm not so sure that nobody believes it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/comments/1tt09hw/how_can_i_become_female/

All the Labour politicians asked about this always cite the Supreme Court ruling as their moment of epiphany 🙄 They're all such 'rules lawyers' that apparently they need the SC to explain biology to them.

So there’s this thing called party discipline, all the parties tend to follow it unless they’re on one of their recently frequent leadership meltdowns. (God I hate that particular outcome of Cameron’s referendum!)

What excellent news!

He’s a politician so no doubt there is advantage in him saying this - but to say it now is quite unexpected and fabulous.

Especially as there are MPs who will now start campaigning to have the EA changed to match Australia’s situation…. I think we may soon have a lot to thank Sal Grover for. If not for her case many MPs might be unaware of the implications which are now being played out in Oz and which they’ll have no desire to be caught up in prior to the next UK General Election.

My question is what is happening behind the scenes in Westminster that has allowed this shift?

The Health Minister publicly saying he’s changed his mind and MPs now accepting the EHRC Guidance - maybe the year of procrastination and recent enslaught of negative court cases/tribunals/publicity has got us to the tipping point?

What has changed in the last few weeks in the unions and Labour Party to get us here when they were all previously no debate. Even my rabid TWAW MP seems to be softening (only slightly) their messaging on this… when only in April they were still hard line…?

All the Labour politicians asked about this always cite the Supreme Court ruling as their moment of epiphany 🙄 They're all such 'rules lawyers' that apparently they need the SC to explain biology to them.

Did he explain why he changed his mind on this matter?

Are we going to have to shuffle every Labour MP into the health sex role to get them all to say this ffs?!

It will be interesting to hear the answer of junior health minister Stephen Kinnock the Minister of State for Care when he is asked the question. His daughter Camilla has had her breasts removed & now answers to the name of Milo.

Are we going to have to shuffle every Labour MP into the health sex role to get them all to say this ffs?!

Are we going to have to shuffle every Labour MP into the health sex role to get them all to say this ffs?!

Agree. We need people in positions of power and influence to be saying this, even if we're inclined to dislike them or distrust their motives. I hope this is a considered statement and he's prepared to back it up with action to support the Supreme Court ruling.

This is what I mean. Claiming even once that transwomen are women just fucks anyone's credibility irreparably.

I find it shocking that anyone, least of all a politician could ever have done it.

So, they used to be women in 2022, but they are not women now? What happened? He "thought about it" a lot. So, he didn't think about it at all before?

Oh, not a good look, James. Not a good look at all.

Mail and ITV now covering it. Great point from Seen in Journalism. The Health Sec only got confronted because people kept the receipts. Keep asking questions. Record what they say. It is important.

SEEN in Journalism
@JournalismSEEN
Don’t forget this question was asked today because of the long memories and receipts held by accounts on X who have assiduously documented politicians’ words on the issue, and raised the alarm within the hour
Quote
Daily Mail
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15864151/Labours-new-Health-Secretary-reverses-past-claim-trans-women-women-vows-protect-single-sex-spaces-NHS.html?

https://www.itv.com/news/london/2026-06-01/health-secretary-i-would-no-longer-say-trans-women-are-women

Well done to Justin Webb for continuing to ask the question. What an ally he is.

I do hope he gets the chance to ask Andy Burnham the same thing.

Incidentally, does anyone know if BBC Woman's Hour and the lovely Nuala had anything to say about this?

I need a TRA to arrive and explain to me. But there’s never one about when you need one.

Shall I spin around three times widdershins and snap my fingers?

No, you’re bang on. People are thinking the matter through. That doesn’t mean we’ve defeated misogyny (I wish!) but this particular line of attack is running out of steam.

The most important lesson for me from all this has been how easily people were deterred from thinking by hooking TWAW to homophobia and reactionary politics. It’s reminded me that piggybacking on other issues is a pretty standard aspect of misogyny, because a proportion of women can be counted in to budge up/self-sacrifice for the “greater good.” See also: “don’t have a job or expect equal pay for your work, think of all the children who need mothering and men who need looking after.”

The pendulum always swings, but the pressure on women never does.

We know from the ongoing opinion polls that the population are increasingly changing their minds in a GC direction. Why wouldn't this include politicians? They (politicians and general public) were coming from a perspective that organisations they trusted were manipulating them to not even listen properly to the arguments. For the general population, and I don't see why not for politicians too, when people start thinking properly about the questions, it all falls out. There's a whole "peaking" trope for the process.

Am I a hopeless optimist? The population in the opinion polls aren't lying for political advantage.