James Kirkup on Ruth Hunt's peerage

[TimeLady]

blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/09/can-you-imagine-a-lobbyist-against-womens-rights-being-made-a-peer/

And as ever, my criticism is for politicians (and others) who have failed to subject Stonewall’s advocacy to the same scrutiny and critical analysis that all lobbying should face, and which is too often absent from the trans debate.
That failure means that Ruth Hunt, who ran a long and dedicated campaign to lessen women’s rights under the law, will take up a permanent seat in Parliament with barely a whisper of comment on her record. That is not how politics should work and it is not how politics works in other areas of policy.

As always, thank you, James.

Ruth Hunt is/was a trustee of Shelter god help them.

Trevor Philips used to run the EHRC and I wish he still does. He has written some very sensible pieces for The Times referencing the mess all this stuff has created for some minority groups at the expense of others.

Thinking about it. Was the promise of a peerage a bribe for getting her out of Stonewall quietly? Using a high-level fixer to make the recommendation to May.

As in people within Stonewall are starting to recognise the pushback and accept Hunt's #nodebate was going badly wrong. So get her out quietly.

But what next.

If she was hard to dislodge from Stonewall then, well, she's quite young, she'll have decades to fuck things up in the HOL.

I assume that she had her supporters within Stonewall. Pressure on her might have caused some, including some of the Ts, to have become concerned that policy focus might shift away from trans to, well, something more lesbian friendly. Causing tensions within the organisation to erupt.

Instead pluck her out with the promise of ermine. Get rid of a couple of the awkward squad who might have damaged the organisations policy-advice giving credentials (maybe one of the Trustees discovered Kiwifarms!), and start afresh.

But what next?

And just speculation. Perhaps Hunt was deemed not trans-friendly enough! Perhaps her fatal flaw is that she is a woman without a penis.

My bet would be that Stonewall is now such a corporate entity, with lots of jobs and reputations tied up in the rainbow ribbon, that the focus will shift from lobbying of any kind, whether gender or sex, towards the lucrative equalities industry of training and advice. The T remains, but ditch Challenor and perhaps Mermaids. Water down suggestions of the medicalisation of children and stuff that might frighten the corporate sponsors. But remain supportive of 'gender' and dont apply critical thought to real issues such as the impact of the loss on single sex on vulnerable women and girls. I wonder what odds Ladbrokes would give me.

Supposedly to solve things that citizens are concerned about. Their focus is on health, poverty, immigration, environment, trade, terrorism, jobs, housing, crime, education.

As Lumene said: Ruth Hunt is/was a trustee of Shelter .

It is remarkable how very diverse the opinions can be about the level of people's achievements and the benefit:harm ratio of them.

Appointments like this are not adding to the pool of people with decent critical thinking skills in the HoL.

Jesus...i absolutely loathe her.

How the fuck does she sleep at night?

That’s an interesting theory about the promise of a peerage. Seemed rather odd to leave a very high profile job with apparently nothing to go to, without the promise of something very enticing in the offing.