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?

@Shelefttheweb good points 👍

How can ANYONE think this wouldn't affect things UK wide. The very obvious one is passports!
SG were either advised legally or arrogantly assumed that the British passport authorities would treat Scottish applicants differently.
They do not have the power to legislate on things beyond Scotland

I would be very, very, very surprised if the SG were not told that they were going to be impacting on issues outside Scotland and on non-devolved legislation. They knew - they wanted to provoke this confrontation

Well said, I agree.

There was a tweet yesterday from Chris Musson yesterday sharing some legal advice from WM to SG last autumn. There should have been no surprises after this was issued.

I do wish them, that Alister Jack and any other politicians commenting on it would keep it factual. That SG are trying to pass legislation which will affect whole of uk and is outwith their powers, and not allow it to be further politicised. Keep it in legal context

It's fairly clear legally they don't have a leg to stand on - this is a pure populist move with an eye on the next referendum dressed up as a matter of principle and democracy.

I've been lurking on Reddit and unfortunately most posters on there think such views are bigoted paranoia and Nicola and crew are noble and transparent in all their endeavours.

That place is a joke. Disagree with the vocal majority, giving a hint that you may be female, your post will be deleted and you will be banned. There is no debate allowed.

Factual? If we kept things factual then they would repeal the GRA. The whole thing is about dishonesty, lies and distortion of facts. A man is a man and he can never change sex regardless of any feeling or fetish.

Murray Blackburn MacKenzie repeatedly tried to bring conflicts between the GRR Bill and the EQA2010 to the attention of the Scottish Government. They were ignored -

twitter.com/mbmpolicy/status/1615010394896056322?s=20&t=Zn9ppJeL_UA1Kor6OBNmqQ

And the Haldane judgment, in respect to the Gender Representation on Public Boards Bill, which states that sex does not necessarily mean biological sex shows an obvious clash with the EQA2010 by which the protected characteristic of sex is taken to mean biological sex.

Reddit is an absolute cesspit of misogyny.

Subreddits for female only issues such as PCOS were removed for not including transwomen.

It's British politics as Westminster is a British Parliament and UK Government is a British Government.

Holyrood is once again overstepping the limits of its powers, so its only right the UK Government steps in again.

Westminster is the Supreme Legislator in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Holyrood, Cardiff Bay and Stormont are NOT equal to it in power which is what the people voted for.

And that's perfectly democratic.

Worrying that some adults don't have the most basic political knowledge to understand the above and so make ridiculous comments.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a UNITARY SOVEREIGN STATE like every other country in Europe. Only one Parliament is Supreme in each European country. That's democracy in action.

Somebody linked this on another thread.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-64315517

Having watched more coverage on this, it's fairly clear that the Westminster government's point of view is that this is a shit piece of legislation, badly written and drafted, and which contradicts other pieces of legislation. Which is an issue. And they've asked the Scot Gov to go back and look at it again. The actual SUBJECT of the bill is irrelevant. It's the legal issues that the Scottish parliament (or Welsh, or N Irish) cannot pass a law which overrules or puts it in conflict with UK-wide law on employment or whatever.

Of course it's manna from heaven for Sturgeon and the rest of her cronies, who will seize on the opprtunity to batter on about the Toaries (again) and independence (again).

If she's so keen on a referendum, perhaps she should put her Gender Recognition bill to a referendum too? Except she won't, because it will be defeated.

What an utter shitshow.

They "stuck their oar in" because it breaches UK legislation on several areas something which is prevented in the Scotland act.
Scottish govt were warned and its very clear this has been done to stir the pot. Personally I don't want to live in a country where the GOVERNMENT votes to put sex offenders "rights" above that of women and girls......do you????

The actual SUBJECT of the bill is irrelevant. It's the legal issues that the Scottish parliament (or Welsh, or N Irish) cannot pass a law which overrules or puts it in conflict with UK-wide law on employment or whatever.

Agree with this^

If she's so keen on a referendum, perhaps she should put her Gender Recognition bill to a referendum too? Except she won't, because it will be defeated.

They weren’t even prepared to risk not whipping their MSPs to vote for it.

👏👏👏👏
This !!

@SweetPetrichor you should be ashamed of yourself for trying to turn this into an English v Scottish thing when it very obviously is NOT!

The Scottish electorate DID not and never has voted for Holyrood to be equal to Westminster. Only one is the sovereign power of a unitary sovereign state - Westminster. Only one is responsible for the entire UK.

The Scotland Act and Scottish Parliament website are both very clear on this. Even if you might want to ignore this fact.

The SNP cannot act as though Scotland is already an independent sovereign state. It isn't one!

And even then, the SNP saw the biggest revolt by their own MSP's in 15 years.

I give you the UNCRC Bill:

www.parliament.scot/bills-and-laws/bills/united-nations-convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child-incorporation-scotland-bill

Notice it is still a bill (still in progress), not an act (law). Produced by the same committee as GRR. Taken to the Supreme Court by the UK government who found it was not competent as affected UK laws:

www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2021-0079.html

You have to question how serious the Scottish Government were about it given they still haven’t laid out a timetable to make the amendments necessary. So it seems they were using children’s rights to create conflict with the UK government too.

They were also trying to keep those totally mad , mentally and intellectually challenged Greens on side .
They According to that extraordinarily weird incoherent Chapman women would even consider young children should be able to in the future be able to change sex .
The SNP also courting the 16 year old vote .

They were advised several times last year by policy advisors with no skin in the game re independence that this was not thought through and likely to be challenged . Never mind not acknowledging all the women who opposed it .

lots of time and money wasted . As I’m fond of saying “second rate regional administrators “ .

Remember anyone seeking independence this will be the Government in charge when that day comes . There will be no magical team fly in to sort the mess out and lead us to the sunny uplands . Think the Truss debacle on steroids .

That’s okay, I’ve never set foot in England and have no particular intention of doing so…so I’m quite happy to stay in Scotland, and would probably welcome a great big wall.😉
I do not wish to prevent progress in transgender rights out of some fouls paranoia that everyone is out to get me. I do not have a victim complex. I do not fear men. And I do believe that if a rapist wants to rape me, he will sure as hell do it now. There’s nothing stopping him. If a man wants to rape me in a female toilet, for sake of example, what’s stopping him? Some magically barrier saying ‘no sir this is no place for you’? The door opens just as easy for a man as a woman. He could walk right in.