Going to see MP tomorrow about Times articles this week, what do I ask?

[surferjets]

Name changed for this.
My MP has a drop in surgery tomorrow, no need for a letter or appointment. Seems like a great time to go and see him with copies of this weeks Times articles.

I'm going to ask him to raise the issue of lack of oversight at Tavistock regarding safeguarding and consent for children with the Select Committee for Health.

I'll ask him to raise questions in the house (or) start an inquiry into the role of Mermaids in training/ lobbying in schools/ NHS/ police etc.

Am I wording this correctly? What else should I ask? You are all so much more knowledgeable than I am on this, and I'll admit to being rather intimidated by this!

Also, as the articles came out this week, it seems a great opportunity for us all the check if our MP may have a drop in surgery tomorrow. ( If you live in N Wilts, pop in on him too!)

[Edited by MNHQ to remove identifying information]

Ask him to chase up the 'urgent' investigation into ROGD that Penny Mordaunt ordered over 6 months ago.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6172097/Investigation-ordered-number-transitioning-referrals-increase-four-thousand-cent.html

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/inquiry-into-surge-in-gender-treatment-ordered-by-penny-mordaunt-b2ftz9hfn?shareToken=dbc53e6e7696a0453b870bc2e4c67790

Here's a good thread in SH

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1075052199921807360.html
She is now advising public health policy for teens despite not having any medical training.

I would ask about the inquiry promised by Mordaunt into ROGD and the shocking stats - more here towards end of article

www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/04/22/the-trans-child-as-experimental-guinea-pig/

What is happening with the inquiry and since the exposé in The Times can he define woman and what actions will he be taking to protect children.

Let us know how it goes OP!

Stress the conclusion of Professor Carl Henghan who is head of Oxford Evidence Based Medicine & wrote one of the articles.

His conclusions are based on this analysis published in BMJ:

BMJ EBM Spotlight paper:
'Gender-affirming hormone in children and adolescents – Evidence review'
Posted on 25th February 2019

(extract)
"Gender dysphoria occurs when a person experiences discomfort or distress because of a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. Gender dysphoria can arise in childhood and adolescent which raises many questions about how best to handle the condition. This post sets out the current evidence for gender-affirming hormones in adolescents and children to aid decision making. (continues)

"Conclusions

There are significant problems with how the evidence for Gender-affirming cross-sex hormone has been collected and analysed that prevents definitive conclusions to be drawn. Similar to puberty blockers, the evidence is limited by small sample sizes; retrospective methods, loss of considerable numbers of patients in follow-up. The majority of studies also lack a control group (only two studies used controls). Interventions have heterogeneous treatment regimes complicating comparisons between studies. Also adherence to the interventions are either not reported or at best inconsistent. Subjective outcomes, which are highly prevalent in the studies, are also prone to bias due to lack of blinding, and many effects can be explained by regression to the mean.

The development of these interventions should, therefore, occur in the context of research. Treatments for under 18 gender dysphoric children and adolescents remain largely experimental. There are a large number of unanswered questions that include the age at start, reversibility; adverse events, long term effects on mental health, quality of life, bone mineral density, osteoporosis in later life and cognition. We wonder whether off label use is appropriate and justified for drugs such as spironolactone which can cause substantial harms, including death. We are also ignorant of the long-term safety profiles of the different GAH regimens. The current evidence base does not support informed decision making and safe practice."
blogs.bmj.com/bmjebmspotlight/2019/02/25/gender-affirming-hormone-in-children-and-adolescents-evidence-review/

When such a senior professional is whistleblowing explicitly issues with regards informed decision making & safe practice for life-long medical treatment of children & vulnerable adults, what should be an appropriate response of a government, Ministry of Health & NHS?

This is about Duty of Care & Safeguarding.

Thanks for the great links, Pencils, Holy and Rowan. Those are great threads and will help me to make my points clearly.

The ROGD inquiry is certainly something I can ask him to look into. I've subscribed to The Times so I can show him the articles.

As a way to show him how many people are concerned about these issues, I seem to remember someone posting that the FWR boards got 70,000 unique visitors a month. Is that right? It seems a huge number.

It might be useful to point out him the extent to which the debate about the safety and grooming of children is shut down by vested interests with threats and intimidation. There's also the issues of how institutions have been affected - have a look at this thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3541908-Regulatory-capture?reverse=1

Of course, the latter issues might be a bit too 'paranoid' for a first discussion!

If your MP seems unaware of the wider issues then the article by Helen Joyce (Economics editor at The Economist) is very good:

quillette.com/2018/12/04/the-new-patriarchy-how-trans-radicalism-hurts-women-children-and-trans-people-themselves/

So too the October 2018 leader from The Spectator by James Kirkup

www.spectator.co.uk/2018/10/trans-rights-have-gone-wrong/

Both are respected known journalists & both articles are well researched, evidence based & provide context.

Thanks Truth

I did read that thread but, just between you and me, I only half understood it, so probably wouldn't be confident enough to bring that up. I could talk about what has happened to Glinner, Caroline and Sharkbastard ( better find out her real name) as examples of outrages that have happened as a result of police training by stonewall.

And R0wantrees is rightsurferjets. It's the targeting of children and the erosion of their safeguarding that's the big issue.

surferjets
Its a good idea to stick to a few key issues.
Ensure that you leave the MP something to follow up on.
It may be that he might agree to ask a specific Minister & get back to you.
If you can establish the beginning of a dialogue it creates a possibility of the MP finding out more

There have been a few threads which have described how meetings were more likely successful

You won't be able to explain all concerns.
Sometimes less is more.

Good luck

Thanks

I'm going to ask him to inquire into the progress of the inquiry into ROGD that Penny has supposedly initiated. As my DS is a victim of this, it's a good personal place to start.

I will then ask him to ask the Health select committee about the issues with safeguarding at Tavistock, as described in The Times.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Coincidentally I was discussing this with a couple of other Mumsnetters just yesterday. We came up with a 3 point plan to hit politicians with (we were talking in the context of local council elections, but it would work just as well with MPs. We didn't get onto the children issue as we thought The Times articles covered it, as mentioned by posters on this thread. Anyway, here it is in case it is useful:

1. The EQA needs to be enforced in respect of sex segregated services, it should be implemented as written. (Give examples, if possible local to you, e.g. school toilets, sports centres). We have waited a long time for definitions of the terms in the EQA, e.g. woman!

1. Do you (and your party) understand that sex is binary? How can you legislate for something as fluid/ephemeral as 'gender identity'? Is that a term that should have any place in law/policy (Give examples, e.g. local council websites).

1. Are you aware of the Stonewall 'trans' umbrella? Should people with a sexual paraphilia (e.g. AGPs) be receiving legal rights to enter sex segregated spaces?

How does that protect the dignity, privacy, and safety of women?

Some good tips here:

womansplaceuk.org/gender-recognition-act-lobby-your-mp/

I think adapting it to press the point on safeguarding of kids is the best place to start. A lot of people, on quite a deep level, don't actually care about women. Most people care about kids. I think (hope) that a shared concern for children safety is our best chance of finding a common ground. The TRAs are pushing back against basic safeguarding procedures and I think that's going to turn out to be a big WTF? moment for a lot of people that will get them to look into other areas more.

That is such a good idea, MrsSnippy. I was musing about setting up separate threads with issues to talk to each of the main parties about. Eg, if you are going to see a Conservative, talk about asking Penny M to chase up the ROGD review, or her starting point that TWAW for the GRA consultation. If Labour, talk about all women shortlists. If Lib Dem, talk about Aimee Challener, Layla Moran, etc.

Hammer

It was that woman's place page that inspired me to check on my MP!

Ah Hearwegoagain, such a good idea from you too! I shall incorporate your party specific questions into my template

Place-marking for the ideas, incase anyone knocks on my door.

Thanks for starting the thread surferjest and good luck tomorrow.

I expect all MPs are relieved as they only found out yesterday that they were getting an Easter break, due to Brexit. So hopefully he will be in a good mood!

MPs care about votes, so ask him to look at the readers' comments about trans articles on the Times & DM websites . The vast majority are supportive of trans people's human rights, but vehemently opposed to self-ID and strongly in favour of women being allowed sex-segregated facilities, sports etc.
You could also remind him that, in Pink News' survey last year, only 13% of Tory voters supported the Tories' proposed changes to the GRC - www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/07/03/exclusive-just-13-of-tory-voters-agree-with-governments-proposed-transgender-policy/

The one thing I'd avoid is anything that looks like sophisticated or complex arguments.

I'd go for stuff that leaps out, that the MP can instantly grasp, and then repeat to other MPs.

I would print out some of the more striking articles from The Times on actual paper, highlight parts that provoke thought, and hand them over. Tell the MP you'll follow up by sending the text of the articles, similarly highlighted, by email. (If you look on threads here you can find share links.)

Less is more. If you try to cover too much you'll be lucky if the MP doesn't glaze over and end up taking in nothing. 3 or 4 items. "Reliable" sources like The Times. Self-evident stuff that illustrates how "being nice" goes "against common sense", for example Karen White as an intact male-bodied rapist being in a women's prison and what happened next. If you talk about this, you could ask whether the next step is to prevent the next KW, or to continue to put rapists' feelings over women's safety.

Maybe a DM article too? Tories fear the DM because its readership = their voters.

Thanks, I got photocopies of the Times articles today, and will mention DM link. Does anyone remember how many users fem chat gets, because I agree MPs are concerned about votes and this is a lot of traffic.

Delurking to wish you luck today. I hope your MP listens.

This thread suggested the number of visitors twas 177k a month:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3302495-This-is-how-traffic-to-the-feminism-board-has-increased

Adding my good luck wishes - think your plan of action sounds great.

Was not ‘twas - not aiming for Victorian poem mode

Thanks for that, that would have been awful to have had my numbers so exaggerated, and it's still a big number. Guess it twas the 7s I was remembering!

Guess it twas the 7s I was remembering!

I think 177,000 is huge - I do know the number of visits to the whole MN site is bigger but I think this is one of the busiest boards.