Boris Johnson’s senior advisers are ‘letting Stonewall dictate trans policies’

[yourhairiswinterfire]

In The Times today (don't have a share token, sorry!)

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-johnsons-senior-advisers-are-letting-stonewall-dictate-trans-policies-v3gjzgvjs

A group of Boris Johnson’s most senior advisers are allowing government policy on trans rights to be dictated by Stonewall, a former aide to the prime minister has warned.

Nikki da Costa, who stood down as Johnson’s director of legislative affairs in August, claimed the prime minister was being presented with “skewed” advice by a powerful lobby in No 10 that was undermining women’s rights.

She alleged this extended to deciding what Johnson saw in his red boxes and refusing to arrange meetings with people who would present opposing views. She added it was having a “chilling” effect on some staff who risked being seen as “difficult” by the most senior political officials.

@Imnobody4

Remember the mumsnet intern who leaked data is now employed in the civil service, luckily the DfT. Their vetting procedures are not much better than the police.

Yes. I often think of this and people like her when it comes to FWR thoughts about the power of juniors or those with an agenda to influence what politicians and senior people see.

As Helen Joyce says, we have to win - the consequences of us losing are horrendous for democracy and the consequences will flow for generations.

@AnyOldPrion

Thank you for the article and share token.

The Times is on fire on this issue.

Presumably the same is happening in Scotland. Either it’s even more effective there (Johnson presumably made his own mind up when he supported Kathleen Stock, and he was a journalist, after all) but Nicola Sturgeon’s views on this topic are so extreme that it honestly looks properly odd. I know there are a lot of questions over her generally, but in the past, I’d have said she was too sensible to push a line that is so astonishingly unpopular.

But thanks also for the reminder I haven’t responded to the consultation yet. Women managed to stop self-ID when it looks like it was expected to be a done deal. We all need to rally around this now.

I'm not sure what's going on, exactly. I do wonder how much of this might relate to independence.

But I do think it all stinks to high heaven.

Thank you very much for speaking up Nikki Da Costa. That’s a really brilliant article to have written up in the Times, the paper of record.
It is shining a light on such anti democratic and awful corruption- both the inappropriate influence aspect but also the chilling effect on women staffers raising completely legitimate concerns about safeguarding, safety, privacy and dignity for women. And all that creates a political leadership climate that could normalise women constituents’ concerns around the impact of gender identity politics on women and children being ignored or minimised by MPs or their staff. Which we do see in action. It’s absolutely chilling how misogynistic and authoritarian it all is. I really hope more Westminster insiders can speak up.

Honestly Johnson is such an awful sleazy moral vacuum.
I’m politically disenfranchised by this issue but I really hate the sexist trivialising attitude towards women in general that having Boris Johnson represents. Him being voted in as our PM feels like such an endorsement of his grim personal politics track record. Of course having him at the helm would be a disaster for women’s rights. He must think we’re all idiots.

Thank you for the share token allmywhat.

[coffee]

Whatever Nikki da Costa wants - it's such a service to confirm what we've known had to be true because otherwise so much did not make sense.

twitter.com/nmdacosta

Thanks to Nikka da Costa, Jo Bartosch and MN’s political correspondent Red.

I mentioned on the Helen Joyce interview thread that several MPs have reported they didn’t receive their copy of Trans. Hopefully that will have opened MPs eyes as to what else their aides are keeping from them.

This thread is a great example of why I finish skimming the Times and head straight to MN for the analysis.

Will this have a practical impact, do we think?

I've totally lost sense of what's going to land and what will be brushed off.

When all the usual suspects started to disappear and go quiet, it just meant more was going on behind closed doors whilst the student blue hairs provided a loud distraction.

The Mail has picked it up too:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10197907/Boris-Johnsons-advisors-letting-Stonewall-dictate-government-trans-policy-ex-aide-warns.html

It’s a rehash of The Times article, but it pushes it out to a different tranche of readers.

I’m confused by this paragraph in the Mail article:

They followed Ofcom and the Scottish and Welsh government's decisions to leave the scheme over issues with Stonewall's stance on trans people being able to self-identify.

I thought both the Welsh and Scottish govts were still Stonewalled up to their eyeballs and in thrall to the ideology.

@Ekofisk

The Mail has picked it up too:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10197907/Boris-Johnsons-advisors-letting-Stonewall-dictate-government-trans-policy-ex-aide-warns.html

It’s a rehash of The Times article, but it pushes it out to a different tranche of readers.

Lovely. I adore the Times but the Mail feels more like the point at which stuff might start happening.

Bettyfilous wishful thinking on the Mali’s part - Welsh and Scottish Governments are utterly Stonewalled.

@SuperSleepyBaby

“ It affects autistic children who trust what they are told.”

Just a small thing - this is a stereotype of autistic people, I’m sure it applies to some but not all.

My son has autism and doesn’t necessarily trust what he is told- he questions things. He is in a Catholic school but decided himself at age 6 that he was an atheist despite what he was being taught.

Also, he is well aware of gender stereotypes - he noticed it himself - and thinks it is nonsense.

Thank you! That is an incredibly offensive stereotype. I am so tired of autistic people being portrayed as unable to think for ourselves.

I'm autistic and think critically. I do so partly because I'm autistic - I've learnt not to take what NTs say at face value because I know that there is a lot under the surface that I neither see nor understand - and because I was brought up not to take what I was told at face value. By anyone.

@Ekofisk

The Mail has picked it up too:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10197907/Boris-Johnsons-advisors-letting-Stonewall-dictate-government-trans-policy-ex-aide-warns.html

It’s a rehash of The Times article, but it pushes it out to a different tranche of readers.

Also, The Mail is not behind a paywall and has a huge readership - second only to The Sun, I believe.

Lovely. I adore the Times but the Mail feels more like the point at which stuff might start happening.

Lots of civil servants read the Times, so all bases covered

Yes - access to movers and shakers + public outcry.

I'm autistic and I'm not offended. I remember my childhood of not fitting in, hating puberty and wishing I could rid myself of my breasts and periods, wishing desperately I was a boy (going as far as to rename myself with a boys name) If I'd have been told as a young kid/early teen that there was a way I could change those things I hated about myself I would have jumped at that!

I wouldn't have thought about the long term consequences at all. Not many youngsters ponder their future regarding fertility, having sex etc. if I had a script from online telling me the right things to say to get what I wanted then I would have gone for it. If I had been accepted and welcomed by a group of people who made me feel like I fitted in with them at last then I would have been sold.

It's not that I believe everything I'm told, but that they would have been telling me what I wanted to hear.

Also, my two boys who are also autistic believe what authority figures tell them without question, which can be very hard because obviously teachers aren't always right! (Obviously I don't count as an authority figure they listen to!)

this is interesting

Tweet
Jo Bartosch
@jo_bartosch
Sent a very satisfying email to my MP who 2yrs ago dismissed my concerns about the influence of Stonewall on statutory bodies (spent 6 yrs pushing for a meeting to talk about related issues). Previously he's been patronising & dismissive - will be harder for him to ignore now.

@takingmytimeonmyride

I'm autistic and I'm not offended. I remember my childhood of not fitting in, hating puberty and wishing I could rid myself of my breasts and periods, wishing desperately I was a boy (going as far as to rename myself with a boys name) If I'd have been told as a young kid/early teen that there was a way I could change those things I hated about myself I would have jumped at that!

I wouldn't have thought about the long term consequences at all. Not many youngsters ponder their future regarding fertility, having sex etc. if I had a script from online telling me the right things to say to get what I wanted then I would have gone for it. If I had been accepted and welcomed by a group of people who made me feel like I fitted in with them at last then I would have been sold.

It's not that I believe everything I'm told, but that they would have been telling me what I wanted to hear.

Also, my two boys who are also autistic believe what authority figures tell them without question, which can be very hard because obviously teachers aren't always right! (Obviously I don't count as an authority figure they listen to!)

same here. but with a bit of a 'showing off' personality and an inability to accept I could be in the wrong, i would 100% have gone full in to be the biggest and the best, and lapped up all the attention.

Im not quite that much of an arsehole now

Jo has just been interviewed by Andrew Doyle on Free Speech Nation. V good interview.

Re the rushed and ill-judged 'Conversion therapy' consultation, Sex Matters have provided an easy link to use to email your MP:
sex-matters.org/take-action/write-to-your-mp-press-pause-on-legislation-on-conversion-therapy/

It is really easy to do and links a pdf setting out their thoughts.