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.

I also wonder what the impact of only hearing trans individuals speak may be - however convincing they are visually, they can never change their voices, can they?

She's really good. She knows what's going on, and she can think on her feet.

If she ever reads this, Miriam, next time someone tries to narrow the definition of what kind of man, exactly, would you find acceptable in a woman's space, you can point out that it is the women in those spaces who that man is using.

It's the women's presence that makes the space desirable for him. They are being employed in the service of his self image.

And it's not just a self image that is detrimental to women everywhere, but now the very people for whom is detrimental are expected to validate it!

If all the women left the space in question and went elsewhere, he would no longer want to be in it.

And their new space would become the focus of his desire.

It's the women who are being used here. Any 'space' being talked about, is just a proxy for using women.

So the answer to what criteria is acceptable for a man to meet, in order to use women, is absolutely fucking none.

David Blunkett is immune to the trappings of Gender. He isn't distracted by blue hair, lipstick and handbags. He knows what a woman is, regardless of the make up preferences.

Perhaps he is trans vulnerable. Either that or the word vulnerable doesn’t mean what it used to mean and the OED hasn’t got round to updating yet.

Latest on that "most vulnerable group"

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11674903/Scotland-female-transgender-prisoners-womens-prisons-UK.html

Revealed: Scotland has more transgender prisoners in women's prisons than England and Wales combined as it emerges half of the inmates only began transitioning after they were convicted

"The number of female transgender prisoners placed in women's prisons in Scotland has surpassed England and Wales after rapist Isla Bryson was convicted yesterday, MailOnline believes.

...

According to a recent report published by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), there were 11 trans women and five trans men in Scottish prisons at the end of June 2022.
Of the 11 trans women, six were held in men's prisons and five were held in women's prisons. If the figures remain the same today, Bryson and Dolatowski would take that to seven trans women in women's prisons – more than the six in England and Wales cited in a recent Ministry of Justice report.

Of the five trans men in Scottish jails, who were born female, one was held in a men's prison and four were held in women's prisons last year.

Bryson, who was Adam Graham when carrying out the violent sex attacks in 2016 and 2019, began transitioning after being charged by police. New figures emerged today revealing eight other male and female trans criminals in Scotland did the same after being convicted or remanded in custody."

She's not a QC (KC these days). She married a v prominent commercial barrister who went on to take silk and then became a HC judge and Court of Appeal judge. She practised for 20 years or so but never took silk.

I suspect me and miriam have some political differences, but she is very good on this, really knows her stuff and is so good at explaining the point.

I wonder if she walks among us?

Revealed: Scotland has more transgender prisoners in women's prisons than England and Wales combined as it emerges half of the inmates only began transitioning after they were convicted

What a bunch of shameful muppets these people are.

Isn't even one of them saying, oh, I wonder how long it will take for the entire male criminal community to identify as women now?

It's going to go one of two ways, isn't it? Either they start to tighten up the criteria, which will be almost impossible in the teeth of transactivism, or every single prison will become mixed sex.

I'm guessing the latter.

They would rather sacrifice the safety of every single female prisoner, rather than upset one male criminal.

Well, that just says it all, doesn't it?

Muppets is #beingkind, but shows how they've been played.

@OldCrone , I knew you would get deleted for talking about the children. I can't believe we are still being censored on this.

This is the HoL Q&A earlier about consultation on school guidance on trans. Includes Baronesses Fox and Faulkner and the odious Lord Cashman. The minister does not inspire confidence in me that GC parents and teachers will be listened to. Still waiting on a letter to schools telling them they must share SE materials and not seek to hide behind spurious IP excuses not to share (a matter that was raised last Summer before Boris was ousted) .

Labour MP Paulette Hamilton on the "gentleman". That's what she said. Gentleman.

twitter.com/timesradio/status/1618280972885057537?s=46&t=DgrxOACGjPdR7b_GZqH9KQ

The Russell Findlay urgent question at Holyrood. Including LAbour's Pauline McNeill questioning the fitness for purpose of the SPS risk assessment.

Paulette Hamilton came across very badly.

KJK on GB News discussing the Scottish rapist:

50 seconds of the brilliant Labour MP, Tonia Antoniazzi. Oh, if only all the cross party GC MPs would band together to form a party worth voting for!

@SinnerBoy
Starmer the Cowardly Lawyer.

Genius.

Vulnerable and marginalised - it still works because people always visualise desperately unhappy kids or young people who the older AGP types use as cover.

Unbelievable when the interviewer on Times Radio more or less said to Miriam Cates that since male rapists of male victims were housed in men's prisons, that was an argument for housing male rapists of female victims in female prisons.
No, mate. It's the males doing all the raping.

Miriam Cates is very, very impressive. Not exactly my political shade but I always have time for an intelligent, reasonable, rational person who has done her homework and got to grips with the issues. (I would say the same about Kemi Badenoch.) Some MPs are so lazy and incurious - indefensible failings in such an important job. We are not all super-smart but the absolute least I expect of the people's representatives is that they work hard and apply themselves to their briefs.

Reply from For Women Scotland on Keith Browne SNP's confidence in the Scottish Prison Service risk assessment. All these rapists have been risk assessed to be housed in the female estate. Utterly shameful and completely baffling.

twitter.com/ForWomenScot/status/1618308946523213824?s=20&t=CZykx3qD9RUGh-deB1Uu5g

The point missing from all this in discussion in the media is who is the most vulnerable group?

When you look into the female prison population stats they're mostly all very vulnerable women despite their crimes.

Most have suffered abuse in their lives, often severe. Victims of the crimes the males who say they're women have themselves committed.

The trouble is, "the most vulnerable" has been trotted out repeatedly over the years as a way of TRAs getting their opponent on the immediate back foot in any discussion. Any GC person must then tug the forelock and provide the caveat about making sure all trans people are safe, etc etc. And to be fair, most GC women have in their mind the vulnerable kids who are being encouraged to arrest their development with puberty blockers and lop off body parts. The problem with the trans umbrella is all the chancers and paraphillia parading blokes with plenty of power, who are certainly not vulnerable.

I think GC commentators have to be armed in any discussion to push back immediately on this claim, case by case. So no, a trans child is not more vulnerable than any other child in school, all children can fall prey to abuse, so we must treat all children as being equally vulnerable and not give certain children a special status at the expense of others. No, there is no scenario where a convicted rapist is more vulnerable than a woman who is in prison for crimes related to her own abuse and poverty. No, I reject the premise that a transwoman in sport has more vulnerability than a woman because of his trans status, the physical advantages of male puberty give this person an unfair advantage, the trans part is a red herring. And so on.

And every time we are asked whether we care about trans people, we need to push back. We care about women's rights, we care about children's safety. Trans is a red herring. Having an identity is a matter of social acceptance, but social acceptance does not trump safeguarding.

Or something like that. We have been too kind. I am sick to the stomach that we are having to seriously justify why we don't think a male rapist should be put in a woman's prison.

I totally agree about the "most vulnerable" claim. It's how you'd have a male doing time for fraud in with female prisoners. He wouldn't fail on the sex offending test.

It just has to be a blanket no.

No
No
No

Every time.

Lots of male prisoners are vulnerable. Old men, gay men, disabled men, men with mental health difficulties.

That's why they have have a vulnerable prisoners unit.

Jeez. It seems perfectly normal to these people to treat women as some kind of service. Incarcerated women, at that.

I transcriped the response from the sps on scotland tonight last night ,the head of operations , kept saying robust risk assessment , that includes, asking the prisoner where they want to be housed and if it would affect their mental health .
It shows its not fit for purpose and woman are a second thought