Policy Exchange - Why the Equal Treatment Bench Books needs urgent revision

[highame]

policyexchange.org.uk/publication/prejudging-the-transgender-controversy/

We've been saying it for ages and it came up in Allison Bailey's case I believe. It seems people are now beginning to question just what has been happening. Strongly influenced by Stonewall.

I haven't read it yet, sorry, hope it's worth it.

A service provider is prohibited from subjecting you to unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that has the purpose or effect of violating your dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for you.

1. Harassment (1)A person (A) harasses another (B) if— (a)A engages in unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, and (b)the conduct has the purpose or effect of— (i)violating B's dignity, or (ii)creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for B. www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/26

2. Victimisation

(1) A person (A) victimises another person (B) if A subjects B to a detriment because—
(a) B does a protected act, or
(b) A believes that B has done, or may do, a protected act.
(2) Each of the following is a protected act—
(a) bringing proceedings under this Act;
(b) giving evidence or information in connection with proceedings under this Act;
(c) doing any other thing for the purposes of or in connection with this Act;
(d) making an allegation (whether or not express) that A or another person has contravened this Act.
(3)Giving false evidence or information, or making a false allegation, is not a protected act if the evidence or information is given, or the allegation is made, in bad faith.

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/27

Instructing, causing or inducing contraventions
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/111

Finished. Of all the things I've read, this last few weeks, more and more have made me angry and especially this one. Perhaps because it is evidence based and with thorough arguments.

I always thought, as a developed democracy, we had checks and balances but it appears not. I didn't know that Gendered Intelligence (GI) has delivered training to the The Employment Tribunal and that FOI requests about the content had been refused. GI are one of the parties involved in brining Judicial Review proceedings against the LGB Alliance. Given the influence, could any gender critical woman bringing a case before the Tribunal, or indeed in any court proceedings, argue that the judiciary was prejudiced against these litigants. I would expect that to be damning for the Judiciary and damning for democracy.

I am completely gobsmacked.

For pp who said wasn't it for those working in courts, so not something that would have influenced the call the attacker a woman thing.

'A benchbook is a book providing an overview of legal procedure for a judge. These books are used by judges while hearing cases as guides to assist in the disposition of a case. A benchbook is not a source of substantive law but rather a guide to procedure. Benchbooks are used in conjunction with manuals on civil procedure, criminal procedure, and evidence to assist the judge in trial. Benchbooks are also published on more narrow technical areas of law that may come before the judge, e.g. domestic law, public health law, etc.'

I am also really shocked.

The courts judges etc are supposed to be the cornerstone of our democracy. Neutral, balanced, fair etc.

This is massive.

Glad to see this bumped - it is a massive scandal. Essentially the judiciary being tampered with using false erroneous information masquerading as facts.

Like highame , I'm horrified.

I really hope that this has been picked up by the press - as well as other lawyers.

The benchbook issue is huge
new thread on this just now
twitter.com/STILLTish/status/1423335673600299011

I wonder whether anyone in government knows or cares at all about any of this? Every day we see more and more extreme examples of corruption, intimidation, bias, misogyny and terrible examples of safeguarding being eroded. For the judiciary to have been politically compromised like this is as serious as it gets - yet tumbleweed in terms of any reaction from MPs.
I do despair at times.

The fact that a judge ruled it is lawful to house male inmates in womens prisons, even after a female inmate bought a case to challenge the law after she was assaulted by a male inmate in a womens prison, proves the law isn’t working for women or girls. Yet we are told patriarchy no longer exists….I’m so disappointed our female MPs aren’t doing more to challenge this.

I'm not sure Justices can be contacted directly for obvious reasons.
The current Lord Chief Justice, The Right Honourable The Lord Burnett of Maldon is the Head of the Judiciary of England and Wales and the President of the Courts of England and Wales.

This is the best place to send concerns, I believe
Judicial Office
11th floor, Thomas More Building
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand
London WC2A 2LL

Especially if copied to the MoJ 102 Petty France, London SW1H 9AJ
The Rt Hon Robert Buckland QC Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

So the Benchbook is the foundation for?....
trying to get my head around how this impacts society. what are all the impacts?

COURT

1. rape victims being forced to call rapists 'she' in court
2. women being forced to call male perpetrators of male violence 'she' in court (like Maria MacLachlan who was assaulted by trans Tara Wolf)
3. The Crown Prosecution Service telling prosecutors to call male perpetrators of male crimes 'she'

INEQUALITY
4) Bias in judicial reviews and cases around sex-based rights. The benchbook contradicts (removes?) the Equality Act sex based exemptions so the case goes against women before they even get to court (?) (INAL)

FALSE COURT RECORDS
5) perpetrators of male crimes recorded as female in the public record. (like Rachel Richard Newton, a male paedophile recorded as female)

FALSE PRESS
6) reporting sex offenders as female
7) False reports about the increasing female sex offenders (BBC) which go unchallenged, so that the public understanding is being distorted.

FALSE POLICE RECORDS
8)The police recording male sex offenders as female.

FALSE STATISTICS
9) Office for national statistics fake data fed from the courts and police

FALSE PRISON RECORDS
10) Male prisoners recorded as female

fairplayforwomen.com/female-sex-offenders-and-women-committing-sex-crimes-why-cant-the-media-get-it-right/

conservativesforwomen.org/the-judicial-college-is-captured-by-gender-ideology

fairplayforwomen.com/violence-against-women-and-girls-our-response-to-the-home-office-call-for-evidence/

fairplayforwomen.com/stop-conflating-sex-and-gender-identity/

The knock on effects are huge, given that it comes from the Judiciary. That makes it very clear Findthetruth. I keep meaning to go back and re-read the Policy Exchange article and I think I'll be just as staggered the second time around.

Point 80 in the policy exchange report is interesting because it's related to half the threads on FWR, as it's about enforcing beliefs to the point that a court judge can rule against you for being a non believer.

80. "We live in a diverse society: many of us believe things that many others find profoundly objectionable, even about intimate parts of their identity. It is not harassment of monks and nuns for someone to argue in public that there is no God (or even to claim, as Richard Dawkins has, that educating a child in a religion is a form of child abuse)47, no matter how integral to their sense of self their religious faith is. Similarly, it would be inappropriate for the courts to require non-Catholics to pretend to believe that God is present in the Eucharist (or to kneel when a Eucharistic procession passes them), or non-Muslims to describe Mohammed as a prophet. The central importance of these beliefs to the sense of identity and way of life of those who hold them do not mean that there is any harm involved in knowing that not everyone agrees"

I hope Adam Wagner is reading this too as he works on that legal guide on prisons. He has shown cheap “both sides” sympathy but no commitment to understanding women’s perspectives on the conflict of rights. Maybe this will show him that there is some accountability now on this issue.

I'm only just engaging with this now - it's gobsmacking!
Will try and read the publication asap.

So my interpretation (non-legal!) is that the judge in the first Maya case ruled against her based on the 'ETTB law' not the law. have I got that right?

*ETBB

It certainly wasn't based on the law - that's why it got overturned. And the judge certainly did refer the ETBB in his judgment. So, yes?

[quote FindTheTruth]The benchbook issue is huge
new thread on this just now
twitter.com/STILLTish/status/1423335673600299011[/quote]
I'm familiar with Rummel's coinage of democide - Tish's QT response to the Engels' 'social murder' is demicide - I've seen there's a tag for this and an Urban dictionary entry but I'm unclear if Tish is referring to democide or demicide.

NB: since the last time I looked 'democide' now links to a discussion of politicide and classiside - I don't know what the term is but we need something to describe the destruction of the sex class of women and the oppression of the language that can be used to describe our experiences and our objections to the ideology we reject.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide

I'm grateful to PPs for their links to commentary on the ETBB and the current failings in its application and the consequences of those failings.

Eradicide - eradicating the class of woman. obvs made up Embarrassing but I can't find anything already in existence that doesn't involve killing as in physical death. I think you do have a point

So 2 things this week. First Maya was in court to get the judicial college to answer FOIs on the training given to judges and second the Home Office has told the police to record male criminals by their sex. this Policy Exchange paper by barrister, Thomas Chacko about the Equal Treatment Bench Book (ETBB) - a document issued by the body responsible for training judges, the Judicial College - seems relevant to both. First if Maya gets responses to her FOI's presumably we'll see Gendered Intelligence fingers all over the ETBB? and second many are asking 'even if the police record sex, what about the courts?' where victims are being forced to call their attacker 'she'.

I am over the moon that Priti has spoken about the importance of recording the sex of criminals, rather than their gender identity. ETBB definitely needs re looking at, it is such an important document that all court users refer to.