Ben Cooper QC - Lawyer of the Week (in the Times)

[Justme56]

Sorry I can't share the article, but liked this:

What is the funniest thing that has happened in your job?

As a result of my work in this area, apparently becoming an object of admiration on Mumsnet [the Internet parents' forum] - improbable in many ways.

😁

`MNers'

"You see a win for Stonewall". Indeed, I do and so did the tribunal.

What drubbing? They won.

"that is saying something about what MNer know about Robin White!!!!"

Presumably a compliment as she won the case in the tribunal. She must be a talented lawyer.

People seem to have a lot of concern for the 500k spent.

Some people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. The value to women of Allison winning her discrimination claim against her employer is incalculable for thousands of other women.

One more thing, bundles are the responsibility of solicitors, not barristers. So I'm not sure why you think this is anything to do with Robin White.

The valuable of Stonewall winning was incalculable to me as well.

I LOVE BEN

Oh the fragrant Robin who took their shoes off in the cafe of Scottish Parliament & walked around, such a womanly thing to do 😂

Jog on @Hearach15 - your "win" was actually a massive loss 😂
Women & lesbians got the win we wanted 👍

You wanted to lose to Stonewall??

Women and lesbians didn’t lose anything, Stonewall have lost a hell of a lot of public support & good will .

I'm not quite sure what it says about Earache that they are so enthusiastic about supporting the misogynistic and homophobic outfit Stonewall, but whatever rocks your boat I suppose...

Well that particular boat is sinking faster every week...

So true, Stonewall's victory was a great day for women and lesbians - most of whom are big supporters of LGBT rights!

Who knew? Autocorrect can be your friend!

The lesbian who has access to free IVF on the NHS because Stonewall campaigned on the issue won.

Don't mind my cynicism but the reason Stonewall supported free IVF for lesbians is for Trojan horse purposes. Now they can demand free IVF for gay men. Except gay men need a woman to be the recipient of the IVF. They just want to increase access to surrogacy aka exploitation of women as breeders.

@TheLoneRager "Don't mind my cynicism but..." I don't mind your cynicism one little bit but if memory serves they were pushing for gay adoption at the time and to be fair I think SW has tried to throw the odd bone in the direction of the women from time to time - as long as it cost them nothing. (prior to the 2015 capture). The lesbians I knew 30 years ago thought reform of the SS and family court for transparency and to protect women from homophobic partners and judges should be a higher campaigning priority but I guess that was just a little too tricky...

Mmm... Ben. Sigh. Is there a recording of his voice somewhere? Tell me there is.

The lesbian who has access to free IVF on the NHS because Stonewall campaigned on the issue won.

Yes… let us also discuss the other side of that particular coin hearache , surrogacy. The exploitation of women’s bodies to produce children to order for others… are you sure you want to be celebrating surrogacy on a feminist board? I know you are not a feminist but you would have to be a fool to think celebrating surrogacy here in your glib fashion is acceptable.

The gay man brought to safety from Afghanistan to Britain because Stonewall sent their details to the Government won

and the details of just how many females? Did you find those statistics ? I mean, it is great to hear so many people were given safety…. This is a feminist board hearache, how many were female? And please don’t glibly do a sleight of hand deflection to ‘women’ again here.

The trans man in Scotland who will soon be able to change his birth cert through a statutory declaration thanks to Stonewall's lobbying won.

Could you please help us by telling us exactly how changing a birth certificate to male helps a transitioned female when their NHS details are changed (as they are currently) and this female is taken unconscious to A& E? Do you understand that there are well known cases, one where a transioned female died, where this change of sex marker has resulted in the wrong treatment ? Or not diagnosing the right health issue?

How is that a win for trans health?

The bisexual who can serve openly in the Armed Forces thanks to Stonewall's campaigning won.

Yes. Since 2000! Before the change in focus in 2015. And you can thank people who are now involved in LGB Alliance for that too. Those people who were part of Stonewall at the time. And a well celebrated win too!

Your examples are very male / man centric hearache. On a feminist board. Your misogynistic thinking really is not apparent to you is it?

You don’t even notice how misogynistic your posts are in your determination to ‘gotcha’ women who disagree with you. Are you this misogynistic in real life? Or is this just for our benefit?

Another great example of your intention here on FWR, if people weren’t already noticing it.

But yes. We hear you! Stonewall is great for males! We know this!

So, you are referring to Bella? A transitioned male.

Any female featured there? Perhaps I missed it. I skimmed through

Any statistics to show that an even balance of males and females were flown out of Afghanistan? or any solid and valid reason why it was not balanced equally?

Or are you going to continue to celebrate this as a ‘win’ on a feminist board which centres female people, whatever their identity.

Honestly, do you actually understand how misogynistic and focused on excluding females your posts end up being shown to be?

No wonder you usually stick to single sentences.

By the way, we can also start listing the campaigns that Stonewall have been involved in that are actually harmful for females. Would you like us to counter your examples hearache?

Should we start with campaigning for males to be accommodated in female prisons?

We can post some examples of published assaults and other harms to females resulting from
that?

A fall in the quality of treatment for under 18’s due to affirming only being pushed. We have lots of links for the harms for that.

And what about that tweet celebrating transitioning of a toddler the other day? Yes, that must be a proud moment for you hearache.

Shall we also then dip into the campaigning to remove things like ‘sex by deception’ that Stonewall is actively engaged in? I cannot imagine anyone celebrating removal of that protection for anyone… but then maybe some people would if they cannot understand the huge issue sexual assault and sex abuse is for females. Why would anyone want to add another way to remove protection from females like that? I am sure you understand just what ‘sex by deception’ means hearache, do you want to celebrate that campaign too?

And that is not even touching on the campaigning for males to be included in female sport, in female representational roles, in any role specified for females (including rape centres), and the inclusion of males into female single sex spaces.

Happy to link readers up on what other campaigns Stonewall has been heavily invested in or solely responsible for, for balance, that have been directly harmful to females.

I mean, this is a feminist board and specifically analysing the topics of Sex and Gender and the effects on females. We have loads of examples to counter your ‘wins’ that you listed.

Not necessarily. Giving credit to the white male junior rather than the black female lead could be racism rather than sexism. Or it might be both.