James Kirkup on Any Questions tonight, 8pm BBC R4

[Xiaoxiong]

Along with a distinguished bacteriologist, Andrew Griffith (Tory MP and ex chair of the Centre for Policy Studies, a free market thinktank) and Diane Abbot (who as far as I recall is of the view that TWAW).

Should be a good one!

Oh dear, Diane. It's not going to be a fair debate.

This will be good, thanks OP! I don't think we've heard (audibly) much of James, but his writing is certainly very clear and well-composed.

I think Diane A will go for the shouting down mantras as she won't have the reasoned arguments and facts to reply with. No idea on the other guy...

I'm sure she will have some great facts.

103% of men who self ID as women are - errrr - kippers. Yes, no...

Thanks.

Is Diane A really TWAW? I'd heard that she was quietly concerned about gender ideology.

If she is she wont come out swinging.

I'm sorry, but i feel a bit wary about this. DA gets enough shit as it is.

I doubt they’ll even cover gender stuff as it hasn’t been in the news this week.

You're right. The reason I'm going to listen, maybe tomorrow, is to hear what Kirkup has to say on a wider range of political issues.

I doubt they’ll even cover gender stuff as it hasn’t been in the news this week

International Women's Day might come up?

Hope Amber Rudd getting cancelled comes up.

Am definitely going to listen, will be interesting to see what they ask about (other than Coronavirus obvs).

Ooooh yes I wonder if Amber Rudd will come up. Definite possibility.

Slightly off-topic:

I'm listening now, so far all related to Coronavirus. Diane is a little embarrassing- she's clearly got her anti-Tory script (except she keeps saying pensions instead of sick pay!); and that is the only thing she'll parrot. There's no contextual contribution to the live discussion.

It makes her sound ill-informed at very best, which is a shame.

It was all quite tame really.

There was a good question about the Labour Party: "Is it time to end the Momentum experiment and move back towards the centre of British politics?"

James Kirkup's answer was - I paraphrase here - but it was along the lines of "well, I run a centrist think tank, so you can imagine what my answer will be, but I miss the days when politicians tried to steal each other's voters by being nice to those voters, and too many politicians are taking the view now that people who don't agree with them are bad people, and we need to go back to the days where politicians are trying to appeal to the largest part of the electorate."

Hear hear to that.

Agree zebra. Might be a better way of winning elections as well.

GCAcademic
Is Diane A really TWAW? I'd heard that she was quietly concerned about gender ideology

I think you're confusing her with Dawn Butler.
DA is 100% TWAW
DB has expressed not 100% TWAW views.

I listened tonight. I didn’t know James Kirkup until I discovered this board. When I heard him talking about the time when politicians tried to appeal to the electorate (as summarised by Zebra) I felt really pleased that I understood some of the context for what he was saying - especially the circles of purity discussed here. I think Chris Mason does a great job keeping the discussions focussed. Far better than Question Time in my view.

No, I’ve definitely not mixed DA up with Dawn Butler - I am sadly all too familiar with DB!

I’ve remembered where I read about DA’s views on gender identity, which was in that glorious article by Lachlan Stuart in which he says that DA is known in the party for having anti-trans views (not that that means anything, as we know):

medium.com/@lachlanstuart/the-confessions-of-a-transphobe-b4942c06e6e4

Sorry, that link won’t work - MN does that frustrating thing of inserting asterisks around words with @ in, as it things you are @ ing another poster.

Link works fine @Xiaoxiong so it doesn’t revert to thinking you are @ ing another poster when you don’t mean to if the link includes an @ :)

@lumene but do you want (or trust) Labour in government? I no longer vote as I don’t like, trust, or respect any of the parties so abstain every time and just watch the chaos from the sidelines. But I find it strange how so many on here (but elsewhere too) wish Labour can get over this issue and win. I personally find that horrifying, because I think in 5 years they could do a lot of damage in regards to this issue specifically without getting rid of the rot first.

I’m pessimistic. I don’t like any of them lol. But I personally think Labour is the worst of the lot at the moment. And I hope they don’t continue to get anywhere near to power until they really shake their ideas up and not just in a feeble half-hearted way. The only parties I have ever voted for ever in my voting history are Labour and Lib Dem’s. Since then, I haven’t bothered. Would never vote Tory but on this, they’re the only ones that have got (or are clever enough to appear as having) their heads screwed on.

FFS lol, @mnhq I know this has been raised before as I raised it as my own thread on ‘site issues’ lol, but please sort out the autocorrect when trying to tag someone and it tags another random person. That was meant for @GCAcademic , not xiao

I was pretty disappointed. I like the presenter, but TWO questions related to the coronovirus (over half the programme)?
Unfortunately Abbott didn't do herself any favours - she twice made a mistake on her use of fundamental terms, and had to be corrected.

The repeat is on radio 4 now. Getting to the end of Coronavirus stuff and on to the other questions.