Stonewall Does Not Make the Law - letter to the Sunday Times - Maya Forstater and 40 other signatories

[stumbledin]

Sorry - no access to the Sunday Times so no share.

Letter is about EHRC intervention in legal case, being too late.

And about women being penalised at work for stating the fact that there are two sexes.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/letters-to-the-editor-politicians-pay-is-piffling-they-need-a-rise-0qchfm2ds ??

Related www.thetimes.co.uk/article/employers-discipline-staff-who-question-trans-rights-2vmjhmfq7

And another letter re EHRC sex-matters.org/posts/updates/ehrc-letter/

Great letter!

Does anyone have a share token or can post the list of signatories?

I posted sharetoken links to these items in the EHRC thread

Making sense of the EHRC judicial review www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4239359-Making-sense-of-the-EHRC-judicial-review

@morningtoncrescent62

Does anyone have a share token or can post the list of signatories?

I should think it's the same signatories as those to this open letter to the EHRC:

sex-matters.org/posts/updates/ehrc-letter/

Signatories:
Maya Forstater, Naomi Cunningham, Rebecca Bull and Dr Emma Hilton, directors, Sex Matters; Dr Nicola Williams, director, Fair Play for Women; Lise-Marie Taylor, chief executive, FiLiA; Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder, Transgender Trend; Shelley Charlesworth, researcher, Transgender Trend; Karen Ingala Smith, chief executive, nia; Trina Budge, Marion Calder and Susan Smith, directors, For Women Scotland; Shonagh Dillon, chief executive, Aurora New Dawn; Julie Bindel, journalist; Joan Smith, writer; Beatrix Campbell OBE, writer and broadcaster; James Dreyfus, actor; Onjali Rauf, author; Malcolm Clark, documentary filmmaker; Simon Edge, novelist; Dr Michael Biggs, associate professor of sociology and fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford; Professor Kathleen Stock OBE, University of Sussex; Professor Alice Sullivan, Professor Lesley Gourlay, Professor Judith Suissa, Professor Alan Sokal, Dr Holly Smith, Professor Sophie Scott CBE, University College London; Professor Michele Moore, London South Bank University; Dr Katie Alcock, senior lecturer, Lancaster University; Dr Jon Pike, Open University; Maureen O’Hara, senior lecturer, Coventry University; Professor Alessandra Asteriti; Jonny Best, University of Huddersfield; Sarah Phillimore, barrister; Lucy Masoud, barrister; Emily Watson, solicitor; Raquel Rosario Sanchez, Dominican writer, researcher and campaigner; Jean Hatchett, Ride for Murdered Women; Nicola Benge, campaigner, Brighton Rise; Helen Steel, social justice activist; Gita Sahgal, founder, Centre for Secular Space

Great call out! Stonewall Diversity Championship is a scam!

(I just posted this on the EHRC judicial review thread, but I really meant to post it here.)

I'm just amazed that EHRC (and other organisations) couldn't see the obvious conflict of interest in signing up to the Stonewall scheme. If you commit to complying with the Stonewall requirements, you are handing some of the governance of your company/organisation over to Stonewall.

Why couldn't they see this? There seems to be a huge blind spot to this obvious conflict of interest in all the businesses, government departments and organisations which have signed up to these schemes.

I’m sure most have seen this, but it feels right to put this article here too:

fairplayforwomen.com/open-letter-to-trustees-and-chief-executives-youre-being-taken-for-a-ride/

brilliant letter and great list of sigantories

Thanks to those who have posted images, links etc.. I see not many people have commented online. I hope the Times doesn't take this as an indication that not many people are actually concerned about this issue.

The other letter (which I posted a link to in my comment after the op - sex-matters.org/posts/updates/ehrc-letter/ ) provides an opportunity to add your name to the letter to the Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8666531c-b038-11eb-b844-593e41a4a1a5?shareToken=6bb45da2b3ee09018ba5d3d9489d10d2

Hope thís works. There are 526 comments under the short news article which directs readers to the letter which they might otherwise have missed.

Sorry... I see now the link has already been shared! Some v articulate comments under the letters page too. Between these and the comments under articles about Labour, The Times is publishing lots of GC comments today

The comments are fabulous and lots of eyes are popping out of heads!!

@OldCrone

(I just posted this on the EHRC judicial review thread, but I really meant to post it here.)

I'm just amazed that EHRC (and other organisations) couldn't see the obvious conflict of interest in signing up to the Stonewall scheme. If you commit to complying with the Stonewall requirements, you are handing some of the governance of your company/organisation over to Stonewall.

Why couldn't they see this? There seems to be a huge blind spot to this obvious conflict of interest in all the businesses, government departments and organisations which have signed up to these schemes.

At the time, the EHRC was being chaired by the ex Stonewall Chair, David Isaac. A tech lawyer with zero experience in human rights law. A white man, privately educated, Cambridge University, international law firm, millionaire; gay, yes, but at the time of his appointment, gay marriage laws had long since passed, and I am not sure what inequality of opportunity he represented. I'm guessing there were no women, no human rights experts, no people of colour in the running when he was deemed to be the best candidate

His law firm, Pinsent Masons, is/was repeatedly named as a Stonewall top 10 employer. He was still drawing an income from that firm whilst Chair of EHRC. Harriet Harmon raised questions about his conflict of interest during the Parliamentary process of appointment of an EHRC Chair - not WRT Stonewall, but WRT the money his firm made off government contracts. At the time, he said he would not receive any money from his firm that related to income earned off government work. This is important. When EHRC was investigating the BBC, Isaacs recused himself from the investigation, because Pinsent Masons' clients include the BBC. When the ECHR was investigating anti semitism in the Labour Party, their Chief Exec, Rebecca Hilsenrath, a member of the Anglo-Jewish community, recused herself from the investigation.

Yet, when it came to getting into bed with Stonewall, a political lobby group, nobody at the EHRC thought that there was a conflict in their Chair, Stonewall's ex Chair, and a senior partner drawing substantial earnings from Stonewall's champion firm, overseeing this. No conflict.

morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/fears-over-conflicts-of-interest-at-top-of-watchdog-probing-labour-anti-semitism

Nicely done Ted nicely done.

Very interesting indeed.

Thanks for the context, Ted.
Pretty worrying stuff