The Times articles on Stonewall: 26.06.2021

[JessicaYardley]

There is a series of articles in the Times covering different aspects of Stonewall:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/stonewall-equality-list-bullies-bosses-and-silences-dissent-cz6k7klf5

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/stonewall-ambassador-i-believed-in-the-scheme-to-uphold-rights-but-we-created-a-monster-0c9vvzhfm

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/avon-and-somerset-police-paid-stonewall-thousands-learning-to-be-lgbt-ally-zdqnnvmdn

The article about the equality index is really interesting. It explains all the random and often baffling tweets from various gov agencies and orgs over the last few years. They're all chasing points to get ahead in this scheme. The parallels with MLMs are uncanny.

@GetTheeToTheGulag

Anyone know how Scotland spent ten times as much as anyone else?

Top spenders on Stonewall in 2020

Scottish Government: £125,202

Ministry of Defence: £11,770

The Scottish Government isn't the highest spender.

The Welsh Government gave even more to Stonewall in 2020.

Total amount in 2020 was £152,909.

Payments made since August 2020 are £33,411 paid on 26th November 2020 and £6,000 paid on 6th October 2020.

Payment information prior to August 2020 is exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act (2000) – information readily accessible to the applicant by other means. Information provided under requests for information ATISN 14097 and ATISN 14280 can be found on the Welsh Government disclosure log gov.wales/freedom-of-information-responses

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/724006/response/1736294/attach/html/12/ATISN%2014841%20disclosure.doc.html

Amounts from earlier FOIs:

£225.00 04/02/2020
£34,324.00 20/02/2020
£4,200.00 02/03/2020
£35,173 19.5.2020
£39,576 14.8.2020

gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2020-07/ATISN%2014062%20and%20%20ATISN%2014097.pdf

gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2020-09/ATISN%2014280.pdf

Wtf could possibly cost 125 grand

How do they justify these costs that's surely a TA or 2 in a struggling school or something. What a waste of money people claim not to have

Has anyone checked the IPO claims that it used its soc med accounts to support all the other protected characteristics?

The Welsh Government gave even more to Stonewall in 2020.

Total amount in 2020 was £152,909.

Keep Prisons Single Sex is also looking for some regular gardeners. I'm having a payday trip to the garden centre!

Archive link for the Times Editorial on the 3 pieces: archive.is/QNzz5

All that bloody money from the Welsh & Scottish government & it doesn't include all the hours of work done by people paid by the Welsh/Scottish government - the true totals must be far higher.

Thanks everyone for the archive links. Still hoping a share token will work at some point because I always think reading the comments is so enlightening!

Depending upon the issues, I would hope the people who were 'corrected' or 're-educated' in internal forums (proudly presented in screenshots) might now have a case to bring against their employers if they suffered any decrement or had their employee record marked in any way.

Which of the articles is this in?

What an excellent campaign the crowd sourced foi campaign from sex matters was. Really effective.

There really is room for an organisation who provides training and support to employers on good practice for all of the pc's, including on balancing when conflicts arise, looking at the whole thing in the round. Maybe run by discrimination or employment law specialists, with input from people with all of the different pcs.

@Congressdingo

Has anyone checked the IPO claims that it used its soc med accounts to support all the other protected characteristics?

This search string in your favourite search engine will help anyone who wants to look:

site:twitter.com/The_IPO disabilities

Replace

disabilities
with
capability

or other relevant terms.

On my first sift through, I'm not seeing much.

To the pp who thought the coverage of Stonewall would make orgs double down. I'm my case no. Our exec board paid no attention at all to our stonewall affiliation until now. Faced with the potential of negative coverage we are ditching them quicker than you can say pronouns.

So thanks to The Times. They've done a great service to us all!

Sorry wrong thread

Which of the articles is this in?

StonewalleEquality list 'bullies bosses and silences dissent' piece:

The Scottish and Welsh Governments give annual grants to Stonewall in addition to membership fees.

I don't know why the other high spenders were missed off that list. Figures for 2020 haven't yet been released, but in previous years the DfE and FCO have also given 6-figure sums to Stonewall.

DfE: £299,611 in 2019 and £233,673 in 2018
FCO: £145,075 in 2019 and £125,855 in 2018

(Both these departments have failed to reply to FOI requests about their dealings with Stonewall)

Also NHS Scotland: £46,000 in 2019 and £33,324 in 2018

Details here:
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02412299/filing-history

In light of the loss incurred last year, it’s interesting that Stonewall has extended its accounting period from 30 September 2020 to 31 March 2021.

So instead of having to submit accounts by the end of July 2021 it’s been pushed out to end of December 2021.

@EmbarrassingAdmissions

Which of the articles is this in?

StonewalleEquality list 'bullies bosses and silences dissent' piece:

That explains the personal video from Sturgeon to the TRAs leaving the party, the way the treatment of Joan McAlpine / Joanna Cherry was completely ignored, and the way TRAs have been gerrymandered into roles on the NEC / top of lists.

So when Nicola Sturgeon gave her broadcast plea, she was really pleading her place as a stonewall champion and asking not to be downgraded. Wow

@OvaHere

The article about the equality index is really interesting. It explains all the random and often baffling tweets from various gov agencies and orgs over the last few years. They're all chasing points to get ahead in this scheme. The parallels with MLMs are uncanny.

What is MLM's? Here's what the Times says about a council.

Hackney council was marked down for its poor “role models” section, scoring only 9.5 out of 22 points — a disappointing result for the council whose leader, the Mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville, and his husband were the first same-sex couple in the borough to convert their civil partnership. T

The council was also penalised because its internal LGBT network had only gay leaders and no transgender ones. In a letter, sharing Stonewall’s feedback for improvement, a council representative wrote: “Suggestion: Better use of social media accounts. Would like to see examples from the main account because of the reach it has. Need more on trans, especially as they are currently under attack in the media.”

From For Women Scotland back in January.

twitter.com/ForwomenScot/status/1347485700317437952?s=19

The civil service were, seemingly, concerned that they slipped in the ranking from 50 to 101. They launched a charm offensive to retrieve ground. This included asking which articles the Perm Sec should like or comment on and panel which incl Mermaids.

Link to the FOI this is from
www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202000094710/

MLM - Multi Level Marketing. Amway, Nu Skin, Herbalife etc...

They operate in a way that means people who join up are always chasing the next level which means investing more money.

It explains so much about why and what politicians say, when you realise they are "earning" Stonewall points for it. I am unbelievably angry about this, and surely, surely Stonewall can't survive now?

surely Stonewall can't survive now?

Of course they can - it was always in the employers' power and self-interest to conduct due diligence and impact assessments for other employees. Employers chose to do the 'pick me' dance even if they had to disadvantage some of their other employees with protected characteristics.

@PaleBlueMoonlight

That is really shocking. I mean really shocking. How can the Scottish Government be using commitments to legislate to try and dance to the tune of an unelected lobby group?

Shocked here too. It is horrifying.

This is my government