Views on Sunak 'blocking gender bill'

[leepinglizards]

I would describe myself as gender critical and opposed to this bill but this doesn't sit right with me.

Sturgeon will just bleat on and on about sovereignty and he's handed her more of a platform IMO.

What do you all think?

Yes, agree.

I fear this view may be an unintended consequence of blocking a bat shit crazy bill

for all those saying they'll never vote SNP again, you do know MSPs from all parties voted for the GRR Bill - yes, even a couple of Tories

Yes but it’s an snp govt that got it through surely. I wouldn’t vote for any of them (snp tory whatever) if I could avoid it tbf

I'm pleased as I'm against it.

Yes but it’s UK politics, not English politics.
We in Scotland do have a voice in Westminster, and as I understand it Labour did not support the bill either, and were supportive of the Scottish Secretary’s decision.

I just can’t get my head around how the Snp thought they would be able to have a bit of the uk with a different equality standard. But then again, when you play chess, you maneuvre your opponent.

Problem is, i think most Scots, even my families most ardent independance voters, they wind us up when they get on the independance hobby horse, were sick at this legislation…

Glad Sunak has done this.

Womens and childrens safe spaces must exclude penis’s…. That’s why and how they are f**king safe spaces.

Sorry but when Sturgeon and the Scottish government makes such a poor decision I am glad Westminster had stepped in.

I hope it backfires on NS and the SNP, who have clearly demonstrated their contempt for girls and women in their desire to appease the loony pro-trans lot. I’m glad Sunak has voiced his opposition.

I think they were stuck between a rock and a hard place forced there by the Scottish govt who rushed this bill through deliberately.
I'm glad they have stepped in but it shouldn't have come to this in the first place. There could be changes done which didn't put women at such risks for me the final straw was them voting down blocking sex offenders from self identifying and gaining a certificate after 3 months

sturgeon going on about ‘sovereignty’ and ‘independence’ doesn’t change the fact that her government is exceeding its authority in this bill.

The democratic will of the Scottish people was for a devolved parliament within a United Kingdom (which retains the power over several issues). So the SNP need to respect that and legislate for things that are within their power and do not undermine Westminster’s power to legislate on reserved matters for the whole UK.

Sturgeon has been desperate to engineer situations where the UK government has to remind her government of their remit. I hope this backfires for her - because I don’t think the majority of people want to see the Scottish government meddling in reserved powers.

I think this was Sturgeon's plan all along. They were warned that the Bill interfered with UK Equality legislation and I think they pushed it through regardless, without considering any amendments that might have made it palatable (like blocking sex offenders), with the express aim of picking the mother of all fights with Westminster. Women and children are just acceptable collateral damage. Sturgeon has now predictably declared this an outrageous assault on Scottish democracy, blah blah blah.

I think it might prove to be a misjudgement though. Check out Wings for a flavour of the independence supporters who are actually behind Westminster on this one. It is deeply unpopular legislation, and now that #nodebate seems to have passed people are much more aware of all the consequences of removing all the checks and balances. Even Keir Starmer is expressing 'concerns' about it having been full blown TWAW not so long ago. If Westminster plays it cool, and makes (public) moves to 'improve' the legislation, such as clarifying single sex provision and strengthening measures to prevent bad actors from abusing the newly created loopholes, they are the saviours, not the oppressors.

I'm relieved that someone is standing up to the insanity.

I'm very glad, I hope it's viewed as WM sticking up for the views of the majority of the electorate and not as against the Scottish Parliament.

👏👏👏👏

but it's not just NS and the SNP. this is legislation that was voted for by most SNP MSPs, most Labour MSPs, all of the Greens and Lib Dems, and a couple of Tories
plus it's one parliament coming in totally over ruling another
and people here are happy to see the destruction of democratic rights, just because they don't like trans people

NS knew Westminster would have to step in. Now the legal wrangles will cost both governments.

I have no issue with trans people I do take issue at a govt which would not vote to block registered sex offenders for being able to use the loopholes in legislation to gain access to single sex womens spaces. That amendment was voted for by the majority of other parties but still got through due to the greens and SNP

It’s not one parliament coming in and over ruling the other. The parliaments have different remits. Westminster doesn’t legislate on devolved issues - and needs to consider devolution in uk-wide policy making.

Holyrood doesn’t get to legislate in ways that impact the reserved powers of the uk government. The Scottish government has attempt to act outside of its powers, so the uk government (which Scotland votes for too) has taken action. Westminster leave the Scottish government to make a mess of its devolved powers.

The Scottish people chose this model. Democratically. And then rejected independence in a separate referendum.

It not a destruction of democratic rights. It’s actually democracy in action. Holyrood trying to undermine uk law by passing bills, OTOH, arguably is an attempt to undermine democracy.

"people here are happy to see the destruction of democratic rights, just because they don't like trans people"

Absolute bollocks and the same straw man that has been used to silence proper debate about this from the start. It's not 'transphobic' to recognise that gender and sex are different things with gender being a social construct, that it isn't actually possible to change sex, or that vulnerable groups require facilities on the basis of sex, or that accurate data collection is undermined by 'self ID', or to think that doubling down on stereotypes isn't good for children, or any of the many issues thrown up by this Bill that weren't properly dealt with.

Yeah exactly that. Pleased that the self ID nonsense isn't going ahead. But know exactly how they are going to twist this.

I don't agree with the Bill either. But not sure about it being over ruled by Westminster.

If Nicola Sturgeon cared about democracy, her government wouldn’t be so desperate to push through unpopular and badly thought through legislation that no one in Scotland voted for.

This wasn’t in the SNP manifesto. And less than 10% of the Scottish electorate voted for the Greens.

"and people here are happy to see the destruction of democratic rights, just because they don't like trans people"

Maybe it has little to do with not liking trans people, and a lot to do with male sex offenders being given a free pass to change gender and access women's spaces.

It’s quite obvious that the Scottish government expect a grc issued in Scotland with lax checks to be a document recognised by the UK government when it comes to passports, what prison to put someone in etc. Westminster would be failing in their duties if they didn’t push back. Nicola knows it, so did it deliberately to spark a grievance war. The Tory’s actions aren’t transphobic (for once) but protecting the rights of uk citizens.

I’m delighted Sunak has stepped in and the more public awareness about the bill, the better. I think this will backfire on Sturgeon, particularly if Maggie Chapman keeps briefing the press about her views (which I dearly hope she does)