Sunak to block Scottish transgender bill using constitutional ‘nuclear option’

[SpinningTooFastIWantToGetOff]

on.ft.com/3klMjyp

Thanks.

'The prime minister intends to appease equalities campaigners by separately bringing forward long-delayed UK legislation to ban conversion therapy, including for transgender people.'

Hmm.

So Sturgeon gets the boost she wants as Westminster are seen blocking Scottish devolved governance. It'll mean she can fight the next election on the independence question again, and won't be asked on the SNP's domestic failings. All in all, a very smart move. Poke the Tories with the opportunity of a culture wars punch up and watch them feed the nationalist narrative.

Shami shakrabati on radio 4 this morning took the view that the Scottish legislation will have an effect on the EA and so the government have a point. There's lots if cjbersgibg saying they will do it so done one myst be briefing that they will but they are still haven't done it.

The daily mail are also carrying a story about the conversion therapy bill, saying it will be for gender identity aswell as sexual orientation.

Difficult position for Sunak

Voters in Scotland could show their unhappiness with direction without Westminster intervening

This way many will just hear they overruled us

Does anyone think that Scottish women will vote for independence having seen how little respect the SNP has for women's rights and how easily they can be abandoned? I know several women here in Wales who have gone from being firm nationalists and all for independence to very thankful that Westminster still has the power to intervene and prevent the madness. They will not be voting for independence.

Lots of people in Scotland want to protect sex based rights.

Just look at the map on this petition (sign and share) Update the Equality Act to make clear the characteristic “sex” is biological sex

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

Sort the political wheat from the chaff on this. I want to hear what Joanna Cherry says. I bet she's thinks it's the right thing to do. The alternative is clear unequivocal guidance about how the Scottish GRC operates within tbe Uk wide Equality Act.

I just went and read the Guardian comments (I was a loyal reader until they went full-blown misogyny). It was depressing — nearly all men commenting, policy wonks, all convinced their misogynist takes and pro-trans-activism are on the right side of history. No comments at all about how it would affect women, just outrage on Scotland’s behalf and cheerleading for Nicola. It felt like a calculated media assault.

Its hard to know. I'd like to see more polls on it - I hear a lot of anger on not just the specific Bill but the way that the SNP are acting about it, refusing to listen, arrogantly pushing it through, etc.

The GRR bill is very unpopular among the Scottish electorate and Maya shared recent polling of the UK as a whole recently which found support for changing your sex on your birth certificate had plummeted and only a minority now support it. I think the Scottish population are intelligent enough to see that Nicola has chosen entirely the wrong issue on which to complain that they are being overruled by Westminster. They are more likely to be relieved on this one that Westminster can intervene.

Well, we can look at the outrage in Scotland when the Scotgov were told that they had gone outwith their remit wrt to the UN Convention on the rights of the child.

Was there an uprising? No, we just rolled our eyes and acknowledged that the Scotgov had done some more pointless tilting at Westminster windmills.

Here's how that's going, btw:

www.heraldscotland.com/politics/23216885.snp-accused-delay-childrens-rights-bill/

'The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill was passed in 2021, with a view to enshrining the agreement in Scots law.

But the UK Government stepped in, with Scottish Secretary Alister Jack referring the legislation to the UK Supreme Court, which ruled it affected powers reserved to Westminster.

The Scottish Government stressed its desire to bring the Bill back to Holyrood, but that is yet to happen, with a progress report published by ministers in November saying amending legislation would be brought forward "as soon as practicable and our planning for the reconsideration stage is well under way".

Bruce Adamson, the Children and Young People's Commissioner, said "Government inaction speaks louder than words".'

Sound familiar?

I was a loyal Guardian reader too. But I started avoiding the online comments way before I became aware of the issues with trans rights activism and gave up buying it. The misogyny was through the roof! I was still in my naïve left = good, right = bad stage so I assumed they were right wing misogynists come to troll the lovely left folk.

Imagine my surprise when the Guardian's reporting began to align with these misogynists.

This.

If I was in Scotland (and I used to be a Nicola Sturgeon fan!) I would be feeling very warm and fuzzy towards Westminster right now. I don’t think signing off dodgy legislation, so she can complain Westminster blocked it, is quite the genius plan Sturgeon thinks it is.

What about NOT signing off dodgy legislation and actually listening to her electorate and doing some boring old government work instead? Just a thought.

Sturgeon is just Boris Johnson in a different suit and better haircut. All she can think about is exiting the structure that creates power above her so that she’s the supreme ruler of her territory.

I'm in Scotland and a former independence supporter. I'm still friends with many pro independence supporters and all of them are in various stages of outrage from mildly pisses off all the way to outright fury at sturgeon and co for what can only be described as a massive own goal with this law.
Bookies have changed the odds on whether sturgeon will still be in power by the next election and there is talk of ditching her plan to turn the next election into a defacto referendum or atleast reduce the nesscary votes to count as a win from over 50% of all votes to more MPs for pro independence parties (not even just SNP MPs) being elected.
Add to that the ferries fiasco, school attainment, hospital waiting times, the dubious party accounts and loans just mention a few things.
The more of these ridiculous laws that the SNP force through the more people are waking up to what is going on and getting angry.

I am in Scotland. For many years I have been pro independence and an SNP voter.

These recent issues have had a big impact on my views. I would love Scotland to be independent, but not at any expense.

I am hoping Westminster does step in and stop this. I do not see it as a help to Sturgeons cause if they do. This terrible legislation and the way the SNP have behaved has done too much harm.

Bookies have changed the odds on whether sturgeon will still be in power by the next election

Oh, interesting.

She picked the massively wrong issue for these I don’t think she has the support of her own voters on this.

Just to confirm - 'changed' could describe either way! - the odds are going against. Graph here. (No idea who these people are, it's the first graph I found).

I agree with PPs that she absolutely picked the wrong battle here. I suspect she thought she’d look great - Look how progressive our politics are! We’re on the right side of history! - but the tide turned. Now she’s stuck with a policy from which they can’t row back, not least because the TRAs will turn on them if they do.

On the face of it it looks like a showdown with Westminster will boost the call for independence but it now seems more like Westminster are the grownups come to sort out the mess because Holyrood can’t be trusted not to come up with crazy shit. Sturgeon has made the SNP look like it shouldn’t be running a bath, let alone a government.

There was a piece recently (in the Times I think) saying that the SNP were no longer treating the next election as a de facto independence vote. Because they know a “A vote for us is a vote for IndyRef2” is a sure fire way of losing votes. Tell me you know you’re unpopular without telling me you’re unpopular, Nicola…

Does Sturgeon seriously think the people of Scotland will have some sort of independence epiphany to protect people like "Katie" Dolatowski?
I thought Sturgeon was a master tactician. Brexit levels of shooting yourself in the foot.

Is that the YouGov polls? They’ve done polls in 2018, 2020 and 2022 on trans issues.

Recognition: most Britons say that people should be able to change their social gender, but are split on whether they should be able to change their legal gender

This latest version of the study introduced a new format of questions to look at public recognition of transgender status.

A majority of Britons believe that people should be able to change the gender they socially identify as, with 55% saying “people should be able to identify as being of a different gender to the one they had recorded at birth”. Fewer than half as many (25%) take the opposing view, with 20% unsure.

However, when it comes to the matter of being allowed to legally change their gender status, the public is divided. Four in ten (40%) say the law should allow people to change their legal gender, while 37% say it should not. The remaining 23% are unsure.

Process: Britons oppose making it easier to legally change gender

Respondents were given a brief explanation of what the current requirements are for someone to legally change their gender (exact wording can be seen in the chart below), including the fact that a doctor’s approval must be obtained for someone to legally transition, and that a trans person should have to live as their ‘new’ gender for two years before they can gain legal recognition.

In principle, Britons oppose making this process easier at a rate of almost two to one (50% vs 26%).

Opposition is higher still when it comes to the specific aspects we highlighted. By 60% to 17%, Britons think the legal process should continue to require a doctor’s approval, and by a similar 59% to 15%, Britons say transgender people should continue to have to show they have lived in their new gender for two years before the change can be legally accepted.

yougov.co.uk/topics/society/articles-reports/2022/07/20/where-does-british-public-stand-transgender-rights

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-64291912 Nicola Sturgeon has said the UK government would be using trans people as a "political weapon" if it decides to block Scottish gender reforms.

The gall of the woman! She used women and girls as a political weapon and she's trying to frame someone else! At least have some integrity. How spineless.

Once you've announced a belief that people can change sex, are born in the wrong bodies, womanhood is an idea between the ears of a man, evidence of rape and impact on women doesn't exist because you say so and don't look at it when it's shown to you and that this makes you Chief Feminist?

Frankly it's only a matter of time before you announce that people should call you Bonaparte and come and meet the fairies at the bottom of your garden. And people know it .

You cannot come out with all this alternative reality bollocks and still expect to be taken seriously and regarded as fit to run a lemonade stand country. And fuck knows our expectations in the UK now are absolutely rock bloody bottom.