Sophie walker seems to be peaking a bit

[KnitFastDieWarm]

Not sure if this has been posted yet

I think Sophie is GC. I think she's on our side. But if she came out strongly she'd destroy WEP. Give her time and support and encouragement she'll get there and bring the party with her.

Disclaimer: I have no insider knowledge, this is just my opinion/observation.

Whoop dee doo. There are ordinary women with no political interests doing way more for the cause than her. The boat has sailed and she very clearly marked herself as someone who was staying behind on TWAW island.

I think Sophie is GC. I think she's on our side
No, she is not. She sacked Heather Brunskel Evans for expressing concerns regarding sterilising gender non conforming children.

She is recently moving slightly towards a GC position but oh so ever so tentatively.

Too little too late for her to get any support from me I'm afraid. I tried to talk to the WEP last year about the proposals to the GRA and got nowhere.

The move is entirely political.

Happy to say TWAW until the tide changed.

"Windcocks and signposts" swings to mind. Sophie is very much a windcock.

Too little too late.

No interest in Sophie whatsoever. She's currently arse-splintered because she can't work out which way to go.

The move is entirely political

Exactly. As the saying goes, she knows which side of her bread is buttered. Or at least she thought she did. She’s starting to see the real faces behind the push for self ID and watching the public’s reaction. I’d say she’s hoping that she’ll be pushed out, then all the nice GC women will pat her on her back and welcome her to the fold. Too little too late.

Sophie Walker is just shifting her weight on the fence as far as I'm concerned:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3373819-WEP-Sophie-Walker-statement-on-trans

I'm biased tho' - hacked off, bitter, duped-feeling founder member who left over the way WEP summarily dropped Heather B-E without due process.

I don't think what happened to HBE was entirely Sophie's doing. She's one person in the party, albeit the leader.

I've been on other threads so my position is well known if anyone has read them. WEP needs more GC members. If you want WEP to represent you then join and get involved.

People playing catch-up need to move faster.

Walker has been very explicit very recently on Twitter (can't find the exact tweet right this seond) that she is still hoping to be able to find a solution that pleases everybody. And I don't think she's just saying that, I think she genuinely does hope it's possible. I imagine I'm not the only person that knows she's going to discover it's not, but she isn't the only person that has thought it, so.

She didn't just tweet that one comment about the meeting cancellation; she discussed it with people that challenged her about it, said that she'd attended a WPUK meeting herself and that it was not a hate group, it was women (and transpeople) concerned and talking. I'm not going to actually kick her about this.

Of course I want to shout RUN, SOPHIE! RUN!! I don't know whether it is too late for the WEP; from the outside (I've never been a member) it does look as if the takeover is too entrenched to be salvageable. That's actually not Walker's fault; of course the AWAs were going to target, relentlessly, a party with "Women" in its name, and I don't feel in a position to blame her or any other women members for not noticing until it was (perhaps) too late; I feel as if I've been asleep at the wheel on all this for much too long too. Not every woman has, there are some so honourable expections, but Walker isn't the only woman that's late to the party. And at least it does look as if she's coming.

She has got herself in a fix. With enough GC women joining the party she could get out of it. And it's tempting to help. But even if it threw off the shackles of the trans activists, I'm not sure it's going anywhere. If Sophie really wants to help the cause she will come out completely in support of the rest of us and if she gets terfed turfed out of the party at least the ensuing publicity would be useful.

I wonder whether she is realizing that one particular side will not concede any reasonable conversation AT ALL. Sophie - you'll be called a hateful witch just like the rest of us just for going to this meeting. It may be worth considering embracing the women who have been demonized simply because they want to ask questions/safeguard women's rights. These are creative, passionate, intelligent, hard working women, most of them on the left, who have already (without any institutional backing or money) organized themselves and done something truly amazing.
WEP could be transformed with all this common sense female-centered energy.
It would be a truly unique selling-point, in the face of complete political consensus elsewhere. Worth thinking about?

I think she's realising. & is generally a good egg.

But isn't quite brave enough. Yet.

I hope she catches up, but we just can't wait for her.

There are hardly any trans members of WEP. One person keeps whinging at Sophie on Twitter and is not even a member.

I think we can really see them as a bit of a side show to the main party objective and business now TBH. And before you yell at me about H B-E, I know her in real life.

And before you yell at me about H B-E, I know her in real life.

Heather B-E posted on MN FWR recently.

I have been personally asked by a number of mumsnet members to respond to this question: After finally opening the debate about transgenderism, should people join/re-join the WEP? My thoughts took the following journey: (1) To effect progressive change it is sometimes better to remain in a Party. I therefore want to support people in a decision to be part of WEP in order to be positive and finally move forward. (2) If by being a WEP member, ethical principles have to be severely compromised then bringing about change is more likely to happen outside of it.

Since I was not privy to the quality of the debate in the WEP conference, I have mused, genuinely confused and unable to suggest an answer. In the meantime, I have been sent a WEP Wales endorsement of an extremely disturbing blog. WEP says: ‘A brilliant piece was written on Cheryl’s blog, a member of the Bath branch team. It’s a brilliant piece to read if you need some clarity on the subject’. The clarity offered: Describes gender critical views as ‘anti-trans’; Puts feminists in inverted commas; Refers to an organization that provides a platform for women’s voices as ‘anti-trans’; Categorizes those people who argue biology or sex difference is important for women’s human rights have found an ‘excuse to deny trans rights’; Classifies as ‘cis’ those who do not identify as trans. I conclude that any Party that not only endorses these conceptually crude and simplistic views as brilliant but invites their author into its heart as a key advisor effectively performs the following strategies: It takes oxygen out of genuine debate by effectively silencing disagreement as bigotry; It de-prioritizes the very constituency it was set up to represent, namely women; Most importantly, it subsumes women’s and children’s rights to bodily integrity under transgender self-identification.

So, my answer is as follows: It will be very hard to effect change from within WEP, but I offer my very best wishes to anyone who attempts it since you will need much energy and dedication. For clarity’s sake, I would like to express my own deeply held views on trans rights: People who identify as transgender have a human right to express themselves in whichever way feels true to them personally and to be accepted and respected for that expression both within political Parties and society more generally.

Heather Brunskell-Evans.

humanrights Tue 18-Sep-18 14:01:57

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3365462-Womens-Equality-Party-pragmatic-advice-please?messages=100&pg=1

I think it's ok to change your mind. I think I wasn't even a feminist when I was younger, let alone gender critical. If we want people with us then we need people to change their minds.

Yep, that blog was a crock of shit, boilerplate trans garbage, not worth the time of day, neither is Duffy.

A local member in my group banged on about shouting down transphobia and I dealt with it by presenting the other side and suggesting we don't shout anyone down. Others agreed. We have to deal with woke young lib fems day to day. It's work, that needs doing. I'm not giving up.

Women - adult human females, listen to what men are saying to you.

The minute they turn on you, the minute you hint you want to be able to talk, instead of accept doctrine without exception:

twitter.com/joss_prior/status/1046116648946741249

ALERT TO WOMEN:
You are NOT allowed to suggest that women have the right to meet and discuss changes to the law that will affect them.
You are NOT allowed to ask questions.

This hedging around isn't helping her. The TRAs won't accept anything other than complete submission to their ludicrous claims and demands. That Joss Prior tweet is case in point, you're either with them or against them.

I can't read Prior's tweets but the weeks on end of rubbish Prior posted on here was enough get the point.

Prior is not worth the effort.

I wonder if, in the light of the sympathetic Gilligan piece in Sunday Times - it's time for Sophie Walker to shift her backside a little more on that fence. Maybe address the issue of respectful debate and who it is who is issuing threats, going after people's livelihoods, and threatening violence.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/be-kinder-on-gender-begs-jan-morris-6xb9rrhwx?shareToken=2abb43e12525478733497af7073ef783