Miriam Cates is on Politics Live today, 25 January.

[MoirasSaggyBundles]

Hoping Miriam gets a chance to address the odious attack on her by Lloyd Russell Moyles, and the conviction yesterday of the double rapist who claims he's a woman.

DB: The 2010 EqA was UK wide. We support the UK EqA and therefore we should be in favour of protecting people from (Linden talking over him, but think he says) issues that might arise from your....[Presenter now takes over and cuts him off]

End of topic discussion.

My apologies to David Blunkett. You were great.

David Linden: you are a rude fucking arsehole who enjoys talking over everyone, particularly women.

I think I can hear the sound of Keir Starmer banging his head on his desk from here! How very fxxxing refreshing to hear someone from Labour speaking so very frankly. Thank you David for your outburst of common sense - I only hope it emboldens some of your fellow Labour Party members to find their backbone.

Well done Miriam Cates and David Blunkett. Oh and by the way that male serial rapist is being held in Cornton Vale which is a female prison. Allegedly in segregation until sentencing. However, if sentenced to a period in prison, this will most probably be in a female prison as, according to Scottish Advocate John Moir, the prison safeguarding policy, in these types of cases ,only considers the male prisoner's safetty

Yes, what a lovely surprise to hear a Labour man come down firmly on the side of women.

Every time I hear an SNP MP going on about FULL FRONTAL ASSAULT, I get the ick. They keep saying it like they are deliberately drawing some sort of brain image that has nothing to do with politics. Particularly egregious when the political opposition in this case is to do with women's safety.

Just watched the whole thing (starts at about 11.45, which is the time rather than length if you see what I mean, ie it's about 30 minutes in). Miriam Cates was excellent as always, but Blunkett was also impressive. Really clear in his support for women's rights. Am in a state of shock!

Wow! Obviously huge thanks and respect to Miriam Cates. I appreciate your clear thinking and bravery. I'm just never going to be a Conservative voter, economically.

And go David Blunkett! Thanks for mentioning real equality. Is this a Labour politician who remembers class analysis? More Duffields and Blunketts, please Labour party. I am desperate to vote for a socialist party.

Well done David Blunkett and Miriam Cates - and let's have the Labour front bench saying this too

Smashing! Another Labour MP finally growing a spine! How many is that now?

Bit cross that this section was at the end and somewhat cut off before it was fully discussed. BBC normally try and avoid the issue but this appears to be the current tactic. Discuss it but at the end of a programme and run out of time

I really wish they'd stop with the social engineering attempts. Let discussions happen freely.

While that was going on, this happened in Parliament. From 11:57. Laura Farris and Kemi.

www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/9b8ec96e-08bc-48a8-b970-a7c8130d8afa

LF: pleased the government is reinstating 3rd party harassment protection in the workplace. But there is a confusion around sex and gender. Can she confirm that the EHRC will be publishing guidance on protecting belief in the workplace?

KB: the government will be supporting the EHRC in producing a statutory code on workplace harassment, and the government will produce its own guidance on sexual harassment which should address the very issues (LF) raises

Before that, at 11:45, Ellie Reeves of Labour asked about closing the "gender pay gap". Kemi said the government will not accept Labour's proposals and that conflating equal pay with gender pay gap reporting is not the same thing. It's one of the areas that has quite a lot of nuance and Labour needs to "a little bit more of its own homework"

And Russell Findlay has raised an urgent question with the SNP about the double rapist 'Isla'. Seems he's been spurred on by David Blunkett's comments?

I think the urgent question came first. But it's all ☀️

The issue is, and always has been, that 'treating trans people properly, caring about feelings, their development and their emotions', only has one answer. And that's a hundred percent capitulation.

David Blunkett sounds exactly like any normal person, who hasn't been subjected to TRA attacks. Sick to death of the entire issue, and obviously women's safety should trump men's self image. And look, a rapist in a woman's prison, what the fuck is that all about?

The thing is, if he even attempts to solve that ^ he will be told that his desire is to ''treat trans people properly, caring about feelings, their development and their emotions' is absolutely dead in the water.

It's either/or.

Hopefully, he will follow the same journey as everyone else, get increasingly frustrated and horrified by transactivism, and end up just telling them all to fuck off, so to speak.

Ahh I missed it as had to attend to work. Maybe I have mixed up Blunkett with someone else re his stance on this, so I apologise!

I couldn’t envision Blunkett being TWAW so I’m glad he’s sensible.

Fantastic

Politics Live continuing to discuss this. Labour woman, whose name escapes me (she's the Chair), is saying Blunkett is not right about Labour being all over the place. She's saying section 35 doesn't need to be invoked. Rather than go to court, the grown up way of dealing with it is for the 2 governments to discuss it. Both sides need to remember that this is about the most vulnerable people in our society who are trans people, and to stop screaming at each other, and to sit down and discuss it in a sensible way.

Only one bloody side is doing the screaming!

Emily Thornbury that was. Saying both sides are screaming at each other. Bollocks

Both sides need to remember that this is about the most vulnerable people in our society who are trans people

Has anyone, anywhere, ever provided any evidence to back up their claims that trans people are 'the most vulnerable people in our society'?

Or do they think that if they keep repeating this claim it somehow becomes true?

And if they truly believe this, why are they going into schools and trying to persuade children that they 'might be trans' so that they can become part of the most vulnerable group? Why would anyone want to push children into becoming even more vulnerable than they already are?

David Blunkett seems to be trending. Thank you @MoirasSaggyBundles

She was on Times Radio earlier too, she was fantastic. Then Maya F was on with Mariella, again in calm and rational form. This is going to be a huge story.

Now asking her about Rosie Duffield not being able to speak freely and being heckled by other Labour MPs. Asking ET whether she has sympathy for Duffield.

ET: [Head roll, half sigh, patient voice] I think she does speak freely on it. I've spoken to her many times on it behind the scenes.

[Tory bloke next to her says under his breath, "Not according to...[can't work out what he says]"]

ET: We have had these conversations and what we need to do, of course, is speak to each other, listen.....

Presenter: What do you make of what [duffield] wrote about feeling isolated in the Labour Party?

ET [Head roll, eye roll] I don't think it's fair to say that she's isolated. As I say, I think many of us have....[Tory bloke is trying to interject about the atmosphere in the Commons last week, but ET is not letting him talk over her]. I have to say that the debate last week was not Parliament at its finest, and frankly I was in the chamber. I heard, I thought that I heard one person say, "No, Rosie, that's not right," , I was told that was two people, but to be honest, honestly, I was there, and the bottom half of the chamber, the Tories there were shouting at the [Nats??] so loudly that I really found it difficult to hear what was going on. And frankly after a while, I had enough of it and I simply left.

Tory bloke talking about LRM going to sit next to Cates to intimidate her, but theme music is playing over him to hail end of programme.

Emily Thornbury is a piece of work. Too loud for you, was it? Diddums. It's always bloody loud in there when there's a debate. You just didn't like what you were hearing from measured, sensible women using facts not emotional blackmail. All the aggression, all the unreasonableness is coming from your side! They (her and that SNP bloke Linden earlier) are like Trump going on about both sides. It was one side, it was Moyle and his Labour cronies being unreasonable.