Leeds WPUK cancelled

[LiverpoolReSisters]

IMPORTANT NOTICE - It is with regret that we have to announce that our meeting in Leeds cannot go ahead due to late and unreasonable cancellation. We will be emailing attendees shortly with more information. We condemn this act of silencing women. More to follow.

So glad to have made it there. Inspiring and sobering speeches from women who I was honoured to be in the same room as! Made some new friends and generally felt it was a massive success. Hats off to all the protestors who inadvertently gave us lots of lovely publicity

The energy these men put into harassing and haranguing women is phenomenal. It seems that some of them (talking to you Doctor Fisherprice) spend every waking hour stuck in narcissistic rage that women even exist.

Despite their utter belief in being right and on the right side of history (my arse - thank you Leeds Spinners) , it's like negotiating with toddlers. Thing is that toddlers are mostly operating with a reptilian brain so you can get that and help them calm down. By about the age of 7 most children start to function with reason and empathy.

These men are stuck in a terrified, reptilian infant school level of development. I'd pity them if I didn't find them so pathetic.

Perhaps if we could wire their anger up to the national grid we could end our dependency on fossil fuels, they could get involved with the Green Party for instance and do something good and helpful

Just saying!

A piece by Aisha Iqbal for the yep has just popped up on my feed. My battery goi

www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/politics/leeds-feminist-event-cancelled-at-11th-hour-by-council-after-transphobic-claims-1-9372513

Really glad the meeting went ahead anyway and hope it generates more publicity for the cause.

This seems to be the councillor who was in the WPUK protest planning group, and who asked for the event to be canned. Jessica Lennox, who is standing for Labour in a safe seat in Leeds next month, was reported after tweets she posted in 2015 and 2016 emerged in which she dismissed complaints about anti-Semitism as political opportunism and described the press as "zionist".
www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/hannahalothman/two-more-local-labour-politicians-have-been-reported-over?__twitter_impression=true

Taken from this good thread:
twitter.com/JammersMinde/status/1045814302094094337?s=19

And the other councillor, Hannah Bithell is a guiding leader

Reading the stuff on @Girlguiding's trans policy... 99% of rapists are male... 87% of victims are female... So men shouldn't be allowed in... LUCKILY... 100% of trans girls are girls so phew people can calm down and stop being transphobes now right #GirlGuidingForAllGirls

I'm trying to remember my pre mumsnet thinking.

I think I'd bought the transition or die, surgery is the only way they can be themselves, let's not make the gay discrimination mistake again, thinking.

But it was pretty theoretical, and I didn't have children in my care who might be affected. Nor a very public platform.

I do feel sorry for women like Hannah, who are woke-blind to the actual effects of what they're saying and doing.

So apparently what happened was:

1. WPUK made the booking
2. Some bloke, aiming to disrupt, booked a ticket, and as such was given the location of the event
3. Bloke contacted the organised protest group that he was a member of, which included elected Labour Leeds City Councillors
4. Said Councillors got the event cancelled on about five minutes notice

And presumably didn't find out the venue til late in the day, at which point the councillors were able to swoop in using elected powers.

Before holding a suffragette celebration on Monday.

Can private eye pick this up please.

If the big sillies had let all these meetings / billboards pass without a fuss this issue would be dead in the water.

They show the world what's been obvious to us for ages. They are bullies.

They would have been better going to the meetings and respectfully debating.

Lucy Bannerman at The Times is on the case...hopping mad too, by the sound of it

twitter.com/TimesLucy/status/1045755917814435841

She's been pretty vociferous in her condemnation of the GG decisions too

twitter.com/TimesLucy/status/1045591374937182208

I am aghast. This is an assault on democracy. Whichever side of the debate you stand on, you should have the right to discuss proposed legislation. That is democracy in action.

And yet elected officials have not allowed discussion. They have directly impeded democracy. Not only have they failed to uphold the right to free speech, they have actively prevented it. This has far-reaching implications.

I would not have banned a church group from meeting to discuss the then proposed law on same-sex marriage, whatever my thoughts on their opinions. Because it is their democratic right to hold those views and discuss them.

Dear Leeds Council, 1984 was not written with the intention of becoming a handbook.

What alexpolistigers said.

I tied those scarves around the pillars, with big lovely bows!
I also froze my butt off standing around outside for 90 minutes, arthritis is really playing up this morning.

I was happy to stand with the brave and ace women who attended. Now the beer has worn off, I am a little freaked out at being on the front of the Yorkshire Evening Post, though. My 12yo's friend messaged her to say she'd seen me on the paper and why was I being mean to trans people.
Urgh.
Blinking brilliant event in the end, and I got to feel like a spy, taking a circuitous route to the hastily rearranged venue.
Mata Hari Pankhurst, that's me

Stroppy job well done.

Fabulous work StroppyWoman!

So grateful to Lucy Bannerman. She has been superb on this.

Looking at that quote from Hannah Bithell - how can anyone be so dim? It’s as if these handmaidens have switched their brains off. Extraordinary.

@stroppywoman applause for a job well done! I so admire all the banner work in Leeds along with the fabulous suffragette colours.

If Leeds Spinners offered banner making classes, I'd take them :)

Stroppy I do not know you but I am so proud of you. For you? WELL DONE

I am going to email Leeds City Council. How do I go about finding the right email address? I am also going to email MPs in the Leeds area.

alexpolistigers - it's probably helpful to look on Twitter to see what contact details and names are recommended?

Jessica Lennox (involved in the decision to cancel the booking) has her email on her Twitter acct.

twitter.com/jess4labour

But I'd keep an eye on WPUK's Twitter account to see if they have advice about how to complain and to whom.

Well done Stroppy. It was seeing your handiwork that prompted me to ask in Site Stuff if MNHQ will let us have a suffragette flag icon

I would be delighted to donate towards a legal challenge. The people behind the decision should to be held to account.

@alexpolistigers - there are some useful names for Leeds Council contacts and a discussion of the relevant parts of the HRA in this thread:

twitter.com/mrkhtake2/status/1045720865390964736

twitter.com/jess4labour no longer exists. To be fair I don't think you would have got a response from jess anyway.