Times: Sunak preparing to block Scottish gender reform bill

[ResisterRex]

Sunak preparing to block Scottish gender reform bill

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c845bae2-9377-11ed-beb4-99fcdfa7645c?shareToken=217d9586d687af757742096583505820

"Rishi Sunak is poised to block Scottish laws that make it easier for people to change their gender, in an unprecedented move that will provoke a constitutional row.

The Times has been told that new legal advice will pave the way for the government to stop Nicola Sturgeon’s gender recognition laws from getting royal assent next week.

The advice states that the legislation will have an adverse impact on UK-wide equality legislation, enabling ministers to block it. The government will make its case on technical and legal grounds but ministers have repeatedly expressed concerns about the potential impact of the Scottish legislation.

Sunak will make a final decision with Alister Jack, the Scotland secretary, next week on invoking section 35 of the 1998 Scotland Act, which will prohibit Holyrood’s presiding officer from submitting the bill for royal assent. The Times has been told that they will follow the legal advice."

Continues at link

Why are the SNP/Greens using THIS issue in their quest to blame Westminster and push for independence? If anything WM (if they do block it) deserve much praise, and it pains me to say that in current Tory times.

I'm in Central Scotland and am surrounded by snp zealots. One friend is a local Councillor on an snp ticket.

Without exception, every single one of them has stfu completely about snp stuff on fb since this insane vote happened.

Without exception. Not one word, not even from the most outspoken snp representing, attend all the marches and protests, danger haired individual in the group.

You can't defend the indefensible.

I'm interested to see if Keir Starmer reacts. If the calculation is that NS has overreached and does not have enough Scots supporting her then Sunak must be pretty.

So where does that leave Starmer.

He's just continue gathering those splinters in his arse, same as he ever has. Prob got enough in there to start a fire as he walks now.

Labour might well say nothing if this is correct:

Nicola Sturgeon preparing to fight for gender reforms in court

archive.vn/2023.01.14-231032/www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/01/14/nicola-sturgeon-preparing-fight-gender-reforms-court/

It's all very well Sturgeon going to court, but surely she would never win?

Most of the law commentary I have seen on Twitter believes this will impact the whole of the UK as well as the implantation of the Equality Act in Scotland.

Would losing not be a massive slap in the face? Or is she hoping that enough get all patriotic 1st and then forget about it by the time the court case comes around?

But again, I suspect that the majority of the Scottish population are glad they are part of the UK at the moment and willing UK govt to block it

It's also assumed it will get to court. You have to seek permission to proceed first.

My family in Scotland- independence voters- are willing Sunak to block this nonsense.

Thanks rex

The confidence in this last statement seems misplaced.

“We have always been clear that the Bill does not impact on the Equality Act, and the Bill as passed puts that position beyond doubt.”

Either their legal team is incompetent or they simply believe their interpretation is the only one.

Either way, Wednesday will be very interesting. Maybe, the judicial review process may well take this bill past Sturgeon’s time in office depending on her next moves. Who knows what the future brings for her!

Maybe the Equality Act will get debated and reviewed to be strengthened so there is no doubt in any one’s mind about who can be excluded and who cannot in the meantime.

What will happen though, is that if there is a judicial review, the EA will have to be discussed thoroughly and I doubt it will show all those saying ‘there is no impact on women’ as 100% truthful and certainly not balanced.

I think that the EA will have been analysed in greater detail by the end of the Judicial Review and it certainly may end up being tweaked as a result so there is little chance in the future that it could be misinterpreted again.

Maybe I am just an eternal optimist.

I live in Scotland. I can't stop thinking about this either. I suspect she's hoping for a groundswell of patriotism to ignite desires for independence. I hope it generates a groundswell of awareness of exactly what the GRR will cost women, and drags a factual debate out into the open. Because the snp/greens have tried to avoid a public factual debate. Yelling 'project fear' worked for them before and I think they hoped 'transphobic' would be equally chilling and silencing.

Everyone I know opposes the GRR, and some are pro-Indy. I think, for them, Westminster stepping in will be a massively inconvenient relief. This whole experience has cemented my opposition to the SNP. I was drifting towards independence because of Brexit. But no way would I want it with these stupid cloth-eared clowns in charge.

But the SNP have always gunned hard for the young vote, and I worry about how this will be read there.

Looking at the 'this is what devolved means, get out of our country rahhhh' comments though, it does come down to 'we have the right to abuse and subordinate our women and children if we want to and you can't stop us'. Which makes devolution look something Scotland is not competent to do, and which many of their people have a serious problem with. She's blown it. Hugely.

Oh and the non stop banging out of lies that have been repeatedly disproven, even in court and are still being wanged out by those who either don't really know what they're talking about and are parroting what they've been told or by those who identify as the truth being what fits what they want. The old joke about 'how do you know a politician is lying' is starting to apply quite heavily to this particular political lobby and apparently many supporting it.

But the SNP have always gunned hard for the young vote, and I worry about how this will be read there.

When I was 16 I would have voted SNP.

I was in Scotland recently and I didn't get the impression that people were happy by this law. Although most would not support the SNP I believe.

Which makes devolution look something Scotland is not competent to do,

Seriously? That's the kind of attitude that would make me shout from the rafters for independence.

If you seriously think a fair price for independence is the legal creation of two classes of human, the top of which is men, the subordinated lower class with less is women and children?

Then you do you. But no, that's not something the UK should be permitting, and anyone in favour of this should not be in a position of power to achieve it.

But thank you for demonstrating that blind nationalism has no care for cost, and has no interest in their women, children, homosexuals, equality, fairness, human rights, that sort of stuff.... just so long as it gets what it wants.

The BNP have that kind of attitude don't they?

You said that Scotland was not capable of having a devolved government.

SO Scotland should be ruled by our master the English?

Seriously - how fucking dare you.

This has nothing to do with a bad law. This is about how Scotland is viewed from the arrogant ones South of my Border.

If you think that is comparable to the BNP. Ha bloody ha.

If the government leading Scotland is prepared to sacrifice the equality of women for independence, then yes, they are not competent or fit to be devolved.

Obviously.

'We have the right to abuse women if we want' isn't much of an argument of being fit for independence. Particularly when the majority of the Scots populace don't back this anti-woman policy and the government are pushing it anyway.

The UK government was not capable of removing my rights as a European citizen or negotiating a Brexit deal that was beneficial to the UK

So maybe they should be devolved and we be ruled from Brussels?

Your attitude is very telling.

It's why I have always suggested that messaging is important of the government step in.

This is good to hear.

I hope Westminster blocks this insanity.

If Wales said they wanted independence and forced through a law legally subordinating people of colour in their population compared to everyone not of that characteristic? Or Muslims? Or disabled people? Or gay and trans people?

Would you say that they were fit and competent to be devolved and set their own law? Or would you say that they have the right to abuse their population if they want to, even if not supported by their voters? And that independence is worth the price of what happens to those people?

The sexism of everyone being more or less ok with basic human rights atrocities so long as they're only happening to female type women continues to be quite staggering to watch in process.

I think any government should be called put in bad law.

And they should be held accountable by their electorate.

I think it is right the UK government step in here on this matter.

I don't think it is for the English to determine that Scotland should no longer have a devolved parliament because the current Scottish government is not very good.

We've had 13 years of bad government in the UK. You aren't complaining about that.

How many woman and kids are victims of the Tories? How much if this ideology has grown and spread under their watch?

I've emailed my MP with the sex matters email, because it was so very well worded and comprehensive. But I know they sometimes blanket disregard auto generated emails so am thinking of following it up with one that says, I sent you an auto email, please don't disregard it, please read and please act. Is that worth a go, does anyone think?

I'm Scottish, have voted SNP all my adult life for various reasons, and backed the independence referendum.
Until this shit show.

I will NEVER vote SNP again in my life, and I pray Westminster puts a stop to this shameful bill.
It has seriously made me question independence at all, I'm sorry to say.
Thankful at this time we at least have the possibility of Westminster stepping in to question the actions of a dictator.
Sturgeon is going against the will of the people, she knows full well if this had been put to a public vote it would have been laughed out of government. She has gone against the wishes of many of her own party, and it is public knowledge that many of her own party are against this bill but were pressured to vote for it through fear.

She is using this issue as a stick to beat Westminster to curry favour for independence, she doesn't give a shiny shite about the women and girls who will suffer under this bill, as long as she achieves her aim of creating bad feeling against Westminster (Look! the baddies won't let us do what we want!).

I'm ashamed.

Lost a vote for life, and I'm not the only previous SNP supporter who feels this way.

I emailed about 7 or 8 MSPs recommended in my local area.
Only 2 of them replied.
I used a template recommended by Glinner, and changed it enough so that it wasn't rejected by the software that filters out repeated emails.

Even so, it looks like they are ignoring this issue from concerned women or have been told not to reply.

I'm in England and my MP is Tory so I thought it worth a go - he has never yet replied to an email on any women's rights issue though, except one "most vulnerable minority, blah blah, nothing to see here" in the very early days. I was hoping he might have been paying a bit more attention lately.

I'll send the follow up email I think, it can't hurt.

Though the cynical cow in me thinks that I'm probably already on a block list of some sort.