If you were going to be in the Question Time audience...

[ShiteheadRevisited]

What question would you ask the panel?

There's a chance I may be doing just that, and I am trying think of a succinct way to pose a question that surfaces and gets to the core of the women's rights vs gender woo debate in a way that helps to peak the (mostly) blissfully unaware public.

There's no way a feminist question will get picked when all the topical news at the moment is WW3, energy prices, Boris going to Saudi Arabia etc. I'd imagine they will spend the whole programme on Ukraine and energy prices.

I think your best bet is to try and get picked as an audience viewpoint on a different question and somehow segueway your response into feminism, but not sure how relevant it would be to the current topics of the day and whether they wouldn't just edit you out.

Hope you can do it somehow or another. In different times I think it would be more achievable.

Yes it's this Thursday coming up (Kettering).

They have just aired a QT Ukraine special this week, so I don't think they are planning to dedicate another whole show to it, guess it depends on the developments this week. Obviously the cost of living will feature strongly I would think, but I did say to the researcher that it's still important to discuss other topics too.

Good tip about the red top! I'm interested to see the process as much as anything, so if I don't get picked then at least it's a bit of a night out - how tragic 😂

I was on the phone to the researcher for over half an hour, she was I guess a similar age to me (40s/50s) and said she could talk to me for hours - we spoke about the gender cult in children and teenagers specifically, how this issue is moving away from being seen as niche and will cost political parties a lot of votes, how sex matters in all aspects of life etc. I asked her if she'd heard the recent statistic that the number of female sex offenders had increased dramatically- she sad yes, and I told her that many police forces record gender identity rather than sex when these crimes are reported, therefore there's a strong chance that the increase is actually in men identifying as women. She was horrified and said "but why is nobody scrutinising this data?!" Why indeed.

Queen JK is definitely helping in raising the profile of this fight, and Keir Starmer's idiotic and incorrect comments yesterday will also help keep it newsworthy...There are just SO many questions about this topic that they need a whole episode dedicated to it!

Do you know who the panel are going to be? That might influence why questions are chosen.

I have a question :
How is Keir Starmer's statement that 'a woman is a female adult and in addition to that TWAW' not doublethink ?

@BloomingTrees

I have a question : How is Keir Starmer's statement that 'a woman is a female adult and in addition to that TWAW' not doublethink ?

And, what he said about TWAW because the law says so is factually incorrect. As he's a lawyer, I'd expect him to have a good handle on the Equality Act 2010 exemptions.

Joanna Cherry said on IWD "that which you can't define you cannot protect"

Why should I vote labour when they can't accurately define me and therefore protect me?

@ShiteheadRevisited

Thanks all. Just had a lovely chat with the researcher, told her the issues that matter to me and how they are relevant to current news stories (Cass Review, Scottish GRA reform proposals, Keir Starmer et al unable to define "woman" etc), and how I, like many millions of women are politically homeless because no party will commit to maintaining women & girls' sex-based rights.

I said my potential questions on this topic include "what is a woman?", "how can you legislate for something you can't define?", and "is it now time to remove all gender lobbyists eg Stonewall & Mermaids from our schools and NHS given the Cass Review findings? - with follow up question: And if this had happened 10 years ago, might senior politicians not have gotten themselves in such a pickle when asked what a woman is?"

No guarantee I'll be on, but if I am then I will try and get these issues given air time, despite the fact that yes, I know it's all panto!
The more people that start to think, understand and challenge gender ideology the better, I think.

Oh OP I really hope you get picked those are all fantastic questions.

Well done, OP. Even if you don't get picked to ask a question at least you have reminded researchers that it is a pressing matter to their audience at all times, not just when it's in the news.

Ok, so I'm in! The panel is:

Suella Braverman (Con MP, Attorney General for England & Wales)
Wes Streeting (Lab MP, Shadow Health Secretary)
Lesia Vasylenko, Member of Ukrainian Parliament
Rev Richard Coles
Max Hastings (Historian & former Telegraph editor)

I have to submit two (topical) questions in advance and have another one ready to write down when I get there. The ones I've submitted (had to be max 35 words):

1. Keir Starmer and two of his front benchers could not say what a woman is when asked. Why is this question so contentious, and how can governments legislate to protect something they cannot define?

1. The Cass review shows the poor NHS care given to children based on gender ideology vs scientific, ethics-based evidence. Is it time to remove gender lobbyists like Stonewall and Mermaids from our NHS and schools?

I'll be wearing a red jumper

Probs won't get chosen but if I do then I'll be name changing on here!! Wish me luck.

You'll need to put in an alternative (crowd pleaser) question in advance and then if you get to ask a question go for it and ask the Staniland question.

I will be so disappointed if the BBC avoids this topic this week.

What safeguards are in place to distinguish the beautiful, brave, stunning MTf transitioner and the devious, narcissistic, ill-intentioned MTF transitioner who has seen a loophole in legislation in order to access female spaces?

Ooh, interesting!

Wes Streeting has recently appeared to be a bit of a canary down the GC mine, so (if you do get picked) it'll be very interesting to see if his awareness of women's safety was just a PR fudge.

Richard Coles is of the Be Kind persuasion I think

Wasn't it Suella Braverman whose maternity leave sparked that debate in the Lords where they reinserted the word 'mother' into a bill? IIRC there needed to be an Act of Parliament for her to take maternity leave as a minister, and the Commons had agreed a bill that referred to 'people' all the way through.

“ Is a transwoman female?”

This article about Wes Streeting was only last week. He seems to have a bit of a change of heart recently. Or so he says. I'd love to see him attempt to answer some version of "what is a woman".

Also morningtoncrescent62 you're right, it was Suella Braverman's maternity leave that sparked the MOMA bill.

So, OP, hopefully you're in with a reasonable chance seeing your questions are especially relevant to two of the panellists.

The article on Wes Streeting says says:

Build bridges in gender row, says Labour’s Wes Streeting

Kieran Andrews, Scottish Political Editor
Monday March 07 2022, The Times

A former leader of Stonewall has urged politicians to become “bridge builders” to create a respectful dialogue over proposed reforms that would make it easier for people in Scotland to change their gender.

Wes Streeting, the UK shadow health secretary, was head of education at the LGBT rights charity.

He said controversy over reform of the Gender Recognition Act was “playing out in the way that we saw it play out in the debate on equal marriage between sexual orientation and religious freedom”.

Streeting was formerly head of education at Stonewall

He told The Times: “We’ve got to forge consensus . . . If we start from a point of good faith and try and work through in a spirit of compromise and building consensus, we will land where I think most people in this country are, which is wanting to see trans people live with freedom, dignity, safety and respect and within a legal framework that doesn’t make other people feel like their rights are somehow being compromised or endangered.”

Concern has been raised that gender self-ID could affect women’s rights, including access to safe single-sex spaces such as lavatories and changing rooms.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/build-bridges-in-gender-row-says-labours-wes-streeting-7bjncchx6

Gender ideologies tried to use the MoMA bill as an opportunity to get gender neutral language into law, removing the words mother and woman and instead using language like "pregnant person"

It's significant as several peers found their voices on this topic which was a joy to see!

Lord Hunt's speech, for example, was excellent

Here's an article on the bill, it mentions Suella

Another article here

Full Hansard record here

@ShiteheadRevisited

Ok, so I'm in! The panel is:

Suella Braverman (Con MP, Attorney General for England & Wales)
Wes Streeting (Lab MP, Shadow Health Secretary)
Lesia Vasylenko, Member of Ukrainian Parliament
Rev Richard Coles
Max Hastings (Historian & former Telegraph editor)

I have to submit two (topical) questions in advance and have another one ready to write down when I get there. The ones I've submitted (had to be max 35 words):

1. Keir Starmer and two of his front benchers could not say what a woman is when asked. Why is this question so contentious, and how can governments legislate to protect something they cannot define?

1. The Cass review shows the poor NHS care given to children based on gender ideology vs scientific, ethics-based evidence. Is it time to remove gender lobbyists like Stonewall and Mermaids from our NHS and schools?

I'll be wearing a red jumper

Probs won't get chosen but if I do then I'll be name changing on here!! Wish me luck.

Go op, I’ll be looking out for you. Cracking questions!

So my questions didn't get picked, unsurprisingly - to be fair the (very impressive) Ukrainian MP had made a special effort to be there (and has 3 kids back in Ukraine) so it felt reasonable for the night to be very war- heavy.

They didn't even get through many questions at all, it was mainly Ukraine and refugees being discussed.

Interesting night though, glad I went and Fiona Bruce is very bloody good at her job and very warm and funny too. Bet she's a scream (and a secret TERF) after a couple of Malbecs

Oh that’s a shame re your Qs.
I’ve just tuned in (I watch it most weeks tbf) but it would’ve been great for your particular Qs to have been aired. But of course, it makes sense for the focus to be on the terrible situation in Ukraine.
Interesting to hear what it’s like though!

I rarely watch QT these days, but am so glad I did today. I was hoping your Q would be picked, but in the end, was glad it wasn’t. It needs and deserves to be given decent time and anything that distracted from the impassioned and impressive case that Lesia Vasylenko made would have felt like an irrelevance somehow.

Delighted to hear that FB has TERFy tendencies, and OP I hope you have emboldened some on here to have a go when QT comes to their town.

Anyone in Canterbury?

That's the next advertised location, in April. There are two more before then, but both locations currently TBA

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4lTzWT06R0nBLHHnk5fdCjH/upcoming-locations

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