Lib Dem’s Equalities R4 now

[PaleBlueMoonlight]

Right now

OMG her answers were meaningless!

She obviously doesn't understand the issues at all, does she?

What surprises me is the BBC, Radio4today, writing that tweet. I wonder if it will be allowed to stay up.

Perhaps we should thank the LDs. Up to now the debate over self-ID had been, well, #nodebate. Many people will have been unaware or presumed that the fuss was about something arcane and nutty and nothing to do with them.

But it is. It is about someone like Nick Robinson being able to walk into the women's changing room in M&S when your gran is being fitted for a new bra, simply because he feels like it. And a political party is on the radio bragging that they see this is a political priority, and a reason why people should vote for them.

Blokes on twitter are not buying this. Nor will the man on the Clapham omnibus. Lets hope the LDs carry on, and that the election proves that announcing you will impose self ID is political kryptonite.

The Tories have worked this out. I think John McDonnald also realises and will do his best to keep the issue low key during the campaign, as will SNP where some brave women have already spoken out.

I didn't hear the interview, but it seems like an awfully poor show for the LibDems to shove out Luciana Berger for an interview if this subject was on the cards. She can't have been in LibDems more than a few weeks after quitting Labour because of the appalling antisemitic abuse she's been subjected to (and it's noticeable that women seemed disproportionately targeted with this).

Well there it is. We can be in no doubt now that this is Lib Dem policy. Well l know where l am not wanted. Will play this clip to the canvassers on my doorstep if they try and fluff their way out of this one.

I don't think that fiasco will have won the LibDems many more votes. She was just floundering.

Nick Robinson is very good - v sceptical of the whole thing. I remember him upsetting Paris Lees by his refusal to kowtow to Paris's "stunning/brave' rhetoric.

I don't comment much on MN but came here on hearing this disaster on R4 this morning. Nick was brilliant - and lib deb policy on this cements the fact that I cannot vote for them. Evaded any meaningful response and overall she was clueless and very disappointingly things that this doesn't affect women's rights.

To be fair, she's had a few years in Labour, so she has presumably already been brainwashed. She probably thinks people will nod and agree, like they did before. What a rude awakening........sort of opposite to awokening ?

They're getting the absolute shit kicked out of them on Twitter. And no one seems to much care if the males in question have had surgery or not. The one supporter appears to be a trans person from Canada.

She was then on TalkRadio talking to Julia Hartley-Brewer about hate crimes and wasn't aware that a hate crime can be recorded without an actual crime taking place.

This + the letter to the feminist saying 'don't vote for us' + the parliamentary candidates on Twitter saying 'just block the TERFs' = I've gone from very unlikely to vote Lib Dem to no chance of voting Lib Dem

My instinct has always been to feel sorry for Luciano Berger as I hate bullying and she seemed to have been bullied out of Labour. Now I've heard her speak and realised how useless she sounds I've some sympathy with the people who wanted rid of her. She sounds completely out of her depth.

Luciana! Bloody autocorrect

They're getting the absolute shit kicked out of them on Twitter they really are aren't they 🤣

Nick Robinson v good. Luciana Berger was incoherent. Shame it couldn't have been longer

Luciana was one of my local constituency MPS. She left the Labour party for understandable reasons, and now finds herself in the LIb -Dem cult instead.......I've emailed in the past on this issue - but I guess she was preoccupied with maternity leave and her involvement with anti-semitic abuse - she never responded.

it is a shame to see her caught up with having to parrot the Lib-Dem line. And don't for one second think this is not the Lib-Dem line. It is! They refuse to hear any arguments and totally reject all concerns.

She was then on TalkRadio talking to Julia Hartley-Brewer about hate crimes and wasn't aware that a hate crime can be recorded without an actual crime taking place.

Surely she doesn't do this on her own and there are people behind supporting and advising?

Oh wait...…….

The Lib Dems have released their Trans manifesto committments this morning via their house journal Lib Dem Voice. You can read it here.

The Liberal Democrat manifesto will include a commitment to reforming the Gender Recognition Act, to make it easier for transgender people to get new birth certificate by;
Removing the requirement for medical reports.
Scrapping the fee.
Recognising non-binary gender identities.

So basically all an abusive man needs to do is request a female birth certificate, no questions asked, and he'll get it for free!

Just listened, thanks for the link! If anything I'm glad it was on, the more people that find out what these parties think about women's rights the better. The replies on Twitter are great. A while back I was even intending to vote Lib Dem but no more, now I've got no one to vote for.

A hate crime can’t be recorded without a crime. It is hate incidents which can be recorded and do not need a crime.

My Tory PPC called round this morning canvassing. He admitted to not knowing much on this issue but he had listened to this R4 interview with Luciana. He promised to do more research, seems a nice enough chap and not 'woke'. It was generally a positive convo unlike the dismissive responses from my Labour MP (TWAW).

Ova, if the Conservatives were well organized, they should be explicitly trying to capture the voters alienated from their rivals by shenanigans like Berger’s dismal performance. There is such an arrogant sense of entitlement to women’s votes displayed by Labour and Lib Dems. The Conservatives should be trying to woo feminist voters by articulating a strong defense of sex segregated spaces

She sounds completely out of her depth.

Yes, the question is whether she is genuinely clueless or whether she understands the objections but feels obliged to toe the party line.

I am always amazed at politicians who appear not to have followed this debate at all given its prominence on social media and the coverage it's had in the Times, Mail etc.

Its weird. LB is a very experienced politician, active since student days. She made an active decision to switch to the LibDems, presumably because she liked their policies. She is one of their big names, seen as sympathetic and principled.

If she can't sound convincing, who can?

Sympathetic to who? What are her principles? Listening to her dismal performance earlier today and her obtuse refusal to acknowledge that these are in fact competing rights and why is she happy to chuck women under the bus? I am left with the impression she’s either not very bright or she’s deliberately swerving the question to avoid drawing ire from Twitter. Neither is impressive.

My elderly mother has just popped round to tell me she heard this interview. I've ranted at her numerous times, she's nodded and not said much. Her take away from this?

Interviewer: So I can just say I'm a woman and get access to women's prisons, women's hospital wards, spaces where women are getting undressed?

Libdem person she doesn't remember the name of: Yes.

As she said: no mucking about, no hesitation, yes.

She's livid. NOW she believes me. Thanks LB, keep up the good work. She left muttering about having seen the article about the LibDems telling a voter they don't want her vote, and adding "I'd have told them you're not getting it dear, so don't worry about it."

I shall watch now while she heads off to share all this with her circle of friends. I did mention M&S too.

Maybe part of this cluelessness is the reliance MPs place on their unpaid intern researchers, current and recent students active in student politics. Maybe not the best source of information?