Secretary of State for Scotland looking at using Westminster powers to overule gender recognition bill

[fromorbit]

Alister Jack has said he is willing to consider blocking the Gender Recognition Reform Bill under Section 35 of the Scotland Act.
twitter.com/JournoStephen

Detailed Review of the Legal case that powers that could be used:
ukconstitutionallaw.org/2022/12/21/michael-foran-sex-gender-and-the-scotland-act/

In short it seems there are potential good grounds to use Section 35 in this case due to contradictions in the legislation. [Lots of speculation that this was this Sturgeon's aim all along create legislation so bad it would be overturned and increase support for Indy? However I think this is just a case of pure ideology combined with incompetence.]

Writing into your MP especially if they are a Tory would be a good move at this point.

We have a fairly shitty version of PR in Scotland - a modified D'Hondt system.

This is what has got us the Green MSPs who have driven this highly unpopular and very flawed legislation through. No Green MSPs won on the straight FPTP bit of the vote; they're all list MSPs.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/c37d28xdn99t/scottish-parliament-election-2021

Prior to Covid all this gender ideology nonsense I was a supporter of Scottish independence.

However, Nicola Sturgeon's conduct through the pandemic and her obsession with gender ideology have left me LOATHING the SNP. I'd never vote for them. Judging from conversations with my colleagues/friends I'm not the only one either.

I genuinely believe she is completely out of touch with the vast majority of Scottish people on this crusade. IMO most people in Scotland do not believe you can change sex.

Wow FlirtsWithRhinos
our rapists will be popping over the border with their shiny new birth certificates you know & your rapists can pop over the border for a few months & go back with one.

There's an excellent analysis here of why the changes to the GRA are outwith the competency of Holyrood due to the interaction with the EA ukconstitutionallaw.org/2022/12/21/michael-foran-sex-gender-and-the-scotland-act/

It looks like my MP would call me a bigot, if he responded at all.

The issue for WM is afaik that Scotland having a completely different approach means England has it by proxy. A few hour's drive and you can self-id and at a younger age. Globally the practise has been to respect/adhere to GRCs from other countries so if you drive from England to Scotland, get a GRC, then go back to England, England has to respect it (obviously this can't happen in a matter of days but it's a short enough time period for young people and abusive men to make the effort).
All of this feels very deliberate. It was the Tories that started all the GRA nonsense. Now they're considering it as a perfect opportunity for a power grab.
Since the TRAs/MRAs have achieved exactly what they wanted in Scotland, even down to protecting sex offenders. What will they do next? Slope off into obscurity? Or what is the next part of women's rights they want to decimate? Or will it circle back round to a Named Persons/pie agenda? Scotland has shown itself vulnerable to opportunists.

Is it David TC Davies from Wales. If so he is a good’un. He was the very first MP from any party to stick his head above the parapet and support women. He even hosted a WPUK meeting in theHouses of Parliament when Millwall FC cancelled their booking. David Davis MP in contrast was a leading Brexiteer. I assume he knows what a woman is, but would be less certain he cares.

This seems to be the solution. Don’t do S35, but instead modify the Equality Act to make it clear that sex is biological sex.

A GRC can change documents but does not count for the E Act where sex is the protected characteristic and a single sex space can exclude all males, including those with a GRC.

That would make it difficult to treat males with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment differently to males without that protected characteristic. So GRC holders can’t be discriminated or harrassed because of their identity, but do not get special privileges - e.g. prisons etc are based on sex not ‘gender identity’.

If labour had voted against this bull wouldn’t have got through I read somewhere

Bill but bull does job as well 😖

Don’t do S35, but instead modify the Equality Act to make it clear that sex is biological sex.

But the wider point is the "what if" or "what next"? If Westminster lets this slide, what else that's incompatible with international obligations and / or that interferes with reserved matters? What's the point of Parliament if Holyrood will just overrule it and do what they like?

I don't see how the UK government can let this stand.

Completely agree @BreadInCaptivity. I think NS will rejoice if Westminster step in.

Scottish Labour’s support, in fact, has been pivotal in getting this dreadful piece of legislation onto the statue books. Even some SNP MSPs refused to obey their party’s whip – one former minister even resigned her portfolio so she could do just that. But Labour? The party, supposedly in opposition, still supports it. The nationalists have been rightly blamed for the bizarre sense of priority in pushing this legislation, but it could not have survived the legislative process without Scottish Labour’s support.

So why has a party that championed – and passed – legislation to improve the rights of women succumbed so completely to ultra-trans ideology?

Perhaps it is simply that Labour, with its history and culture of supporting minorities, has decided that trans people, being such a minority, need to be supported. But the party could have done that – and has – without drinking the Stonewall kool-aid and subscribing to the unscientific and counter-intuitive “transwomen are women” orthodoxy. If a political party finds it impossible to fight for trans rights while defending single-sex spaces and services for women, then why is it operating as a political party in the first place?

Scottish Labour surely shows the direction we are here if Labour win.

Is anyone else concerned about this? It looks like they’ll win if polls stay same.

I came in here to see if I was the only one wondering if NS had pushed this dreadful legislation through in order to force a constitutional crisis. I see I am not.

Mark Drakeford in Qatar when interviewed stated he supported social care LGBTQ rights. Not a word about women's rights there. Nary a word about the NHS crisis this week either.

The problem I see if Westminster doesn’t step in - is that this then becomes the norm (men in prisons, shelters, hospital wards, toilets - those meant to be single sex). The ruling last week conflates sex and gender and that ‘sex is not determined purely by biology’. Stats will not be collected, men are women and their crimes will be recorded as such - it will be ‘women’ committing male crimes, therefore those not aware will not be made aware of the implications. If their are no stats - then there have been no consequences to this bad legislation. We are on notice in England, Labour are currently predicted to romp home to govern in 2 years. If no consequences are to be seen and the people are not revolting - this will be passed by Labour in England.

Same here. And I would actually be scared to contact a Green MSP in case I ended up on some sort of list.

England also has to deal with Labour, the Greens, the WEP and the LibDems being signed up to support self-id. The Tories can pretend this is an SNP/Scotland issue but the policy push started from the Tories and is cross-party.
Maybe we need some sort of women's strike across the UK ...

If this was a tease to try and get WM to intervene in Scottish politics it's been very badly judged.

The overwhelming majority of the country do not back this legislation, and that includes SNP and independence supporters.

I think, given the state of Scottish politics right now this is more likely to push people away from the SNP and independence than it is to stir anger towards Westminster.

I don't think Westminster will do anything. Remember ministers including Secretaries of State are advised by the Civil Service, and the CS is well and truly captured.

There was a thread recently about a new staff network set up for gender critical people and the vitriol it received from lots of people (not just trans people) saying it was disgusting and should t be allowed.

I don't hold out much hope 😕

It was heartening to see the Sec of State for Scotland say that they shared concerns about women's safety.

This wasn't about a 1 vote 1 person.
This is a minority party using the whip to force through legislation with the help of the party that is keeping them in power.
Even at the preliminary stages of this bill the SNP refused to here from women and de-transitioners listening only to the pro trans lobby.
Most of the attempts to admend the bill have failed due to sturgeons methods.

She is a danger to women and children,.

I profoundly disagree. When Scotland starts giving out GRCs, this is a problem for the whole of the UK.

That should have said “GRCs like smarties”.

The Haldane opinion was shocking too.

I’m in England but agree, I nearly wrote I was scared to contact him but thought it might sound OTT. I’m sure I would be blacklisted if I did though.