City of London Corporation consultation is out (this covers Hampstead Ponds)

[SwearyG]

And it's awful

No mention of sex, no mention of impact on any stakeholders, all leading questions, and horrible clear intention to filter.

This will affect the wonderful space at Hampstead Ponds so I urge you all to complete it. I will be speaking to the Corporation about its clear bias and lack of adherence to guidelines.

[miri1985]

If I may add a 3rd question on to Bowlofbabelfish 's ones for journos.

3.Why does Lord support freemasons meeting on council property like the guildhall despite their sex segregation and why did he suggest that "if enough women Members of Common Council wanted to, they could establish their own Guildhall Lodge" rather than use his influence to establish change?
Would it be appropriate to suggest trans women start their own pond and other services rather than use womens given that this segregation is for legitimate safety concerns unlike the masons?

[R0wantrees]

I'm wondering if some inclusivity policies are more inclusive than others?

[Bowlofbabelfish]

He added: “Our vision is to build and support strong, sustainable and cohesive communities by ensuring all our policies are fully inclusive.

He includes the Masons in the inclusivity I assume..? I mean inclusivity for all, right?

[R0wantrees]

The compaint leaflet linked above demonstrates good practice with regards accessibility:

"This comments, complaints and suggestions
leaflet is also available in other languages,
Braille, large print and on audiotape."

If the consultation is not similarly accessible then there is a rather glaring issue.

recent article
www.citymatters.london/corporation-announces-review-gender-identity-policies/:
(extract)
"Edward Lord, chairman of the establishment committee, which leads on the City Corporation’s workforce and inclusion policies, said the authority will “draw on the expertise of relevant organisations” during the consultation process.

He added: “Our vision is to build and support strong, sustainable and cohesive communities by ensuring all our policies are fully inclusive.”

A report could be ready to go before the establishment and policy and resources committees in September and October respectively, with a view to submit a draft policy for decision in November.

Bernard Reed, a trustee of the Gender Identity Research & Education Society (GIRES), said that while such changes make welcome reading, major organisations are playing catch up when it comes to aligning their policy to reflect modern society.

“If the Corporation wants to approach us for assistance we would be happy to help,” he said.

“GIRES is already doing a lot of work with agents in the City regarding their policy and development.” " (continues)

[SwearyG]

How do we think that the members of the Corporation of London (effectively the councillors) are doing on the code of conduct front re this consultation?

I see issues with objectivity and honesty. Any others they've fucked up?

I've been told that even though they use gender all the way through where they mean sex they're confident that people will understand what they mean and comment in the free text boxes.

Thank you TheMostBeautiful but it takes a village. ManFriday was born on the FWR boards, you guys champion us like there's no tomorrow so we all get credit here. FWR have made this happen.

[Ereshkigal]

The Corporation could consider it part of the consultation!

[Ereshkigal]

Excellent idea fermats

Yes that would be brilliant! Come on journos, someone please please do this!

[R0wantrees]

[Bowlofbabelfish]

Excellent idea fermats

Might I add two little points for our hypothetical steely journo?

1. The Masons are still only open to men
   
2. One large exception to the GRA is that even if you have a GRC, it doesn’t let you inherit a peerage if you were born female, nor does it affect inheritance.
   

hilarious eh! what could possibly be peculiar about some men wanting to let men into all the women’s spaces where he women are naked/vulnerable but protecting their peerages, inheritance and Old Boys Clubs?

[MumOfThrMoos]

TheMostBeautiful

I was just thinking the same thing myself this morning- it's really good for flushing out the misogynists!

Plus the work that SwearyG et al have been doing is amazing!

[Bowlofbabelfish]

There didn’t seem to be a character limit but it did look like there was one - it took me deleting a couple and carrying on to realise.

Can’t have people filling out answers, women might Express An Opinion!

[PencilsInSpace]

Apparently no character limit, some of my answers were quite long.

[FermatsTheorem]

I wonder if any journos from the Evening Standard are following this?

If you are and if you have ovaries/balls of steel, would you be up for doing the following:

Publish a photo of Lord in full masonic regalia, with beard.

Ask whether, given that Lord identifies as non-binary, anyone in the City of London Corporation is prepared to give a straight yes/no answer to the question of whether Lord would be eligible to swim in the Ladies' Pond under the proposed changes?

Then, if the answer is yes, carry out a poll as to how many of your female readership would be happy for themselves and their daughters to share communal, open plan changing areas and shower areas with Lord if Lord were to come for a swim in the Ladies' Pond.

Oh, and open the article up for completely unmoderated comments.

[PencilsInSpace]

Consultation done, onto the complaint ...

[email protected]

Grrrr

[TheMostBeautifulDogInTheWorld]

SwearyG take a moment to congratulate yourself and the other #MenFriday; because it seems to me that the creation of this piss poor "consultation" is a direct result of your Hampstead swims.

And I absolutely do not mean that to sound sarcastic; I think it's excellent. I really think it's brilliant, what you've achieved. Because panic buttons are being hit chez Lord. Panic buttons that have led to this useless and biased "consultation"; that have led to the refusal to undertake impact assessments, that have led to a completely transparent attempt to force through an unwanted agenda. Panic buttons that are causing and will cause lots of mistakes like this "consultation".

#ManFriday have forced people like Lord right out into the open and have forced this mistake on his part.

[PenguindreamsofDraco]

Gosh that felt strangely cathartic to fill out.

I may have over-used the word 'nonsense'. And 'safeguarding'. And 'fucking waste of public resources.'

[R0wantrees]

Ereshkigal
Is this the right website? (I'm not very London-Centric )

www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-our-website/Documents/complaint_form.pdf

If it is, then their complaints procedure seems to be demonstrating all of the accessibility good practice which we were discussing previously on the thread.

apologies if I've got the wrong site

[Ereshkigal]

I found it really fiddly and annoying to complete on my phone. Another accessibility issue. Couldn't see what I'd typed in the box.

[MumOfThrMoos]

SwearyG

Who are you writing to? I work in the City and I would be happy to write in too.

It will surprise no one to learn that as well as being a Freemason, Ed Lord is a Lib Dem!

[PencilsInSpace]

Is there a character limit on the text boxes?

[BlooperReel]

I filled it in and made use of the free text boxes to reiterate time and again that gender is a social construct, sex is a biological reality, sex segregation is important, humans cannot change sex, and predatory men will abuse self id.

[OrchidInTheSun]

I don't see why not R0wan. That seems to be pretty much how the rules work

[SwearyG]

On it Bowl - have sent some strongly worded letters and emails over the last few days.

[R0wantrees]

Bowl

We were recently discussing opportunities for non-binary transwomen who are sexually attracted to females on the thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3314307-Why-we-need-representation-from-women-and-why-a-Labour-Women-s-Officer-is-proving-that-transwomen-don-t-represent-women

SlothSlothSloth comment:
"A non-binary transwoman who was attracted to females could stand for trans officer, LGBT+ officer and Women's Officer.

Exactly. This is what the new interpretation of intersectionality is all about - maximising the number of marginalised groups one straight, white, middle-class male can dominate at once."

Could it also be possible that a male-born non-binary transwoman might also retain patrilineal inheritance rights and membership of single sex Masonic lodges?

[Bowlofbabelfish]

I foresee a glorious future in which the only single sex space is the Masons... 🤦🏻‍♀️

Still it goes nicely with the peerage exemptions eh? And the inheritance ones...