Boris has nailed colours to mast

[Ridcully82]

On gender transition at PMQs:" biology overwhelmingly important", preceded by urging respect for those feeling they need to transition. Sounded calm, respectful,and kinda where we were on course before the TRA actions.

MyLittlePhonyPony

I'm really enjoying your posts. I think Tony Blair (much as I might have loathed him in office) was correct when he wrote last year that what the electorate dislike most is extremism be it from the right or the left. I would think most of the population have fairly moderate veiws, the details about how we might achieve broadly similar objectives might differ but there is (or was) always room for debate which seems to have been lost now.

If Labour gets tanked but Rosie Duffield holds her seat, maybe Labour HQ can start asking itself some questions about how this shit happened.

"Police Scotland insisting that someone who has raped women with his penis has to be recorded as a woman because he says so."

Most of this agenda against women sickens me but to see the police so openly colluding on this against victimised women (especially with the misogynistic reputation the police already have) is gut wrenching.
There is only one reason the police would insist on this, and that is they hate women. They are openly displaying their misogyny for all to see with no fear of reprisals. They. Hate. Women.

I would think most of the population have fairly moderate veiws, the details about how we might achieve broadly similar objectives might differ but there is (or was) always room for debate which seems to have been lost now.

Yes, I think you are right in that. It's what makes it laughable when people try and compare us to other countries like the USA.

We like our politics bland not spicy.

@bellinisurge

If your MP is Rosie Duffield, vote Labour. We need her voice in Parliament

At a General Election yes but this is a council election.

@MyLittlePhonyPony

I would think most of the population have fairly moderate veiws, the details about how we might achieve broadly similar objectives might differ but there is (or was) always room for debate which seems to have been lost now.

Yes, I think you are right in that. It's what makes it laughable when people try and compare us to other countries like the USA.

We like our politics bland not spicy.

I don't think this is really different in the US. Lots of people there are very moderate and hate the polarization of party politics. Polling type research shows that large numbers, maybe most Americans feel disenfranchised by the whole thing. And contrary to popular belief it hasn't always been like that, there was a time there was a lot more respect for people who voted differently than yourself.

At the same time I've seen a surprisingly similar movement from a lot of people away from the Democrats because of very similar things that people talk about here: gender issues, identity politics generally, defund the police, etc. I don't think the British press has been great at covering it, maybe because it's been too caught up in Trump-the-world-is-falling rhetoric to notice - it's the same mistake where you pain people as beyond the pale and therefore neglect to notice they aren't the people you thought.

@Lou197

I cannot vote for any party that erodes my right to be a woman and the rights of my daughters. The Conservatives are the only party to stick their necks out on this so they will be getting my vote. Ironic really considering the hell women went through to get the vote in the first place.

Interestingly, one of the political sticking points of the suffrage movement was that Tory MPs wanted the vote to be given to qualifying women because they were largely Tory voters, and while Lloyd George supported suffrage claims, Liberal MPs didn't because said women wouldn't vote for their party.

It is possible that Labour is under the impression that single-sex space women are all Tories anyway and there is no political mileage in listening to them, and the vote they believe they are shoring up is the youth LGBTQ+ vote.

Going after the youth vote never works though. The numbers just aren't on your side. There's always going to be more voters over 30 than under.

@MangyInseam that's interesting, yes that makes sense now I think about it. It does show the message you tend to get is the message the media tends to shout the loudest.

@99pronouns

So in May how should I vote?

I believe in biology. Personally this is my no1 interest/issue politically because I think we are such a crucial generation regarding women's rights.

My local MP (at present) is Duffield, I usually vote Labour or Lib Dem.
The area has always been blue until Duffield.

She's MP too, and I'm really worried that it will go back to blue because the woke student population call her a TERF. And because of in-fighting in the local Labour membership due to a sh*tstirrer with a personal grudge against her. I will be voting for her and hoping that the only voice of reason in Labour manages to cling on and eventually persuade some other Labour MPs to recognise reality. Aside from this issue she has also represented my views on every other issue that she has voted on, it's been so refreshing.

Covered in the Telegraph:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/23/basic-facts-biology-boris-johnson-enters-transgender-debate/

‘Basic facts of biology’: Boris Johnson enters the transgender debate

"Boris Johnson has waded into the transgender debate for the first time, telling the Commons that “the basic facts of biology remain overwhelmingly important”.
The Prime Minister was asked about a landmark report into NHS gender services which found that doctors feel “pressured to adopt an unquestioning approachh_” when treating gender-dysphoric children.
Angela Richardson, a Conservative MP, asked for a meeting to discuss how “we can constructively support those young people who are experiencing gender distress”.
Mr Johnson agreed and told MPs that trans people should be treated with “the maximum possible generosity and respect”, saying Britain should “be very proud” of its systems allowing this.
He then said: “I want to say in addition that I think, when it comes to distinguishing between a man and a woman, the basic facts of biology remain overwhelmingly important.”
It marked the Prime Minister’s first significant intervention in the debate over whether men and women are merely self-identified genders, or immutable biological categories."

And:

"Earlier this year the Government rejected Theresa May’s proposed reforms to the embattled Gender Recognition Act to allow people to legally change their gender without a medical diagnosis.
Ministers are also consulting on new legislation to ban conversion therapy, which has come under fire from campaigners who argue it risks inhibiting clinicians who question someone’s decision to identify as trans. Some 5,500 children are now on the waiting list at the controversial Tavistock gender clinic, up more than a fifth since Covid lockdowns."

I’m selling my soul to no Tory. We already know they know what a woman is, it’s how we know they’re no friends to us.

@theworldhas

Labour have been wishy washy on this issue for a while. Labour are also at least 10% ahead in the polls nationally (polls which, contrary to popular /tabloid belief, have been pretty accurate over past couple of decades).

There’s always a million or so “I would never ever ever usually vote Tory but this time I absolutely have to because of Labours policy on XYZ” Tory voters at every election. The polls have already factored you in!

The Conservatives have been in power for twelve years now. That's a long time, the electorate usually does itch for a change by this point (though there have been some very big policy changes in the meantime). We've just come through a pandemic which most agree was badly handled in many ways, and senior members of the government have been implicated in allegations of serious breaches of the emergency regulations. Most of the public have been unaware until very recently of what has been going on regarding this issue, and Labour's stance, while the Conservatives haven't made much capital out of it.

And yet despite all of the above, Labour can only manage a paltry six-point lead? That would still leave them some way short of a majority.

Gosh it would take more than a rudimentary understanding of gcse biology to get my vote!
I could never vote for such a man who has been responsive for so much tragedy and disaster, lies and chaos, who speaks racist and homophobic slurs, a man who is sacked from multiple jobs for his behaviour and a man who has dragged our country back years in living standards.

He is a very dangerous man. Do not be fooled.

The polls are notoriously unreliable. None of them predicted anything close to the 2019 landslide. The May elections will indicate which way the wind’s really blowing.

@aylis

I’m selling my soul to no Tory. We already know they know what a woman is, it’s how we know they’re no friends to us.

I agree 100%.

Unless he's actually going to do something like stop male rapists being recorded as women and stop them going into women's prisons, I'll not be voting for him just like I always don't. He's a fucking prick he's not our ally just because he's got the front to say the 'controversial' things he thinks. He's done that all his life, it's his whole shtick.

It feels like our political choices are shades of oligarchy or totalitarianism.

Yet again, we need an official way to dissent at the polls to be able to register our profound dissatisfaction with the systems and representatives that are available to us.

@PoshPyjamas

Labour can fuck off, I'll be voting Tory because of this issue.

Even though you know perfectly well that Johnson would say the complete opposite tomorrow to please whatever audience he's talking to, or if he found it expedient in the sacred cause of preserving the tatters of his political career?

I voted Tory last time and i will again. Because if you think we have problems now with this issue don’t be surprised for the disastrous shit show that would happen if labour got in. No good clutching your pearls then when it’s too late and crying about it on here as if you didn't know or weren’t warned how bad they would be for women. It’ll be on you.

@WrongWayApricot

Unless he's actually going to do something like stop male rapists being recorded as women and stop them going into women's prisons, I'll not be voting for him just like I always don't. He's a fucking prick he's not our ally just because he's got the front to say the 'controversial' things he thinks. He's done that all his life, it's his whole shtick.

Yep. The Conservatives have had 12 years in charge of policy, education and funding etc. Most of this has happened under their watch and plenty of their most bullish MPs are proponents of gender ideology. ( It’s a sad indication of modern life that we’re all so excited that the PM would say biology is important!)

I also think most people are so shocked by partygate, the pandemic, and the unchecked poverty in this country that I wouldn’t be surprised if most people just wrote F U All on their ballot paper.

As a feminist of course I can't vote Tory. They have destroyed and are destroying the lives of women. However I can't vote labour so will have to spoil my paper.

Where does that get you though @FrecklesMalone? I'm not a Tory fan but at least they seem to know what a woman is, which is an amazing feat these days!

It would be a really good thing if the Conservatives would start making some inroads into captured institutions.

However, I don't think the fact that it has happened can be blamed on them in a direct way. Neither the HoC nor the Pms office nor even ministers have direct control over many of the elements of institutions that were being worked upon by activists. Nor do they normally control the courts. A lot of it was done deliberately in a way that would prevent those kinds of people from being involved in the decision making or being accountable.

@99pronouns

So in May how should I vote?

I believe in biology. Personally this is my no1 interest/issue politically because I think we are such a crucial generation regarding women's rights.

My local MP (at present) is Duffield, I usually vote Labour or Lib Dem.
The area has always been blue until Duffield.

Could Duffield be persuaded to become a conservative candidate as her treatment by Labour has been shameful. She seems one of the few politicians with integrity and I’d vote for her but because Labour as a whole are so bad on this issue I couldn’t give them my vote but would love to see Duffield still as an MP.

I will vote Labour because people get treated better under labour, especially women and children. The Tories are great at catching in to the zeitgeist of popular opinion- remember the Brexit strap lines anyone? ' Take back our borders' etc. But the Tories profoundly lack compassion. They always have been the enemy of the common people. I will vote Labour. I cannot not vote. I am offended to my core by Labour's ridiculous stance on gender. But. Labour is the better option for the nation as a whole.