Stonewall chair quits Conservative Party to support Labour

[LadyLobbyist]

I see Iain Anderson, Stonewall's chair, has quite the Conservative Party and pledged support for Keir Starmer, over the Tories' "willingness to put vulnerable groups on the front line of a culture war." Not a huge surprise but does rather make my leftie heart sink further, since he will undoubtedly have influence over Labour thinking and policy on Self ID etc.

FT gift link here, although I think they only allow it to be opened 3 times... on.ft.com/3jQjDgU

I would love to be in your constituency! All of your door steppers are going to actually want to talk about this - unlike mine who ran when I brought it up last time. You've got KJK standing - it's going to be sunlight all round.

Oh no .. you are too invested.

You are also wrong. I never say I could afford private but post we use both already. I also am upfront about it being SE London which is mixed, a nice community but no means all high income - anyone who knows London will be aware.

And yes the state schools are good. If you are going to follow a poster around to this degree at least get it right. Although the interest is not returned, I don’t know about the schools you use and unless it’s a post I’m interested in I really don’t care.

Back to the topic. I hadn’t posted about schools on this thread so stick to what is posted?

It’s a bit creepy tbh.

@nauticant moral superiority ? How so ? Not in the game to persuade anyone. There is such a thing as nuance. Poverty, years long purposeful neglect of whole swathes of the country, demonisation of immigrants/benefit claimants versus women's rights. Hard choice to decide which is the most important. I guess if none of the first affect you it's not so problematic.

Well thank you Namecangeonce for reminding me that another reason why my Labour vote is hanging by a thread is the inability of so many of their supporters to distinguish between the player and the ball.

Yep, all crap, I could cry.

@MarshaBradyo if you say so. You are a prolific poster who posts on political threads like me. You don't name change. I've had disagreements with you in the past. Mainly frustrating to be honest.

I thought that might be at the cause of it. A name change with an issue.

Just avoid my posts if they are that frustrating. I’m more than happy to return the favour.

I’m not keen on posters dragging personal unrelated stuff across threads for little reason. So I hope you’ll hear the request and not engage with me anymore.

Stonewall made a mint from this government. I am not surprised in the least.🙄

I’m not even vaguely surprised he was a Tory. The stonewall board has long been made up of people from finance, law & marketing not known for being hotbeds of socialism

Me too although I stopped voting Labour when Corbyn appeared.

What the public actually think -

unherd.com/2023/02/scotland-turns-on-gender-ideology/

Public opinion. Self-ID seems to be closely linked with a tanking in support for independence:

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/13/nicola-sturgeon-gender-reforms-divide-snp-voters-poll/

"Less than half of Scottish voters back Nicola Sturgeon’s gender reformss_ or her plan to use next year’s general election as a “de facto” independence referendum, according to a “super poll” suggesting she is out of touch with Scots’ priorities.

Detailed research commissioned by Lord Ashcroft, the former Tory party treasurer, also gave the “No” side a 12-point lead on independence, larger than the margin of victory in the 2014 referendum.
The research found that only 29 per cent of Scots supported the Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Billl_, which would allow people to self-identify their legal gender, with 54 per cent opposing it.
Half of Scots said Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary, was right to veto the legislationn_, and only a third said he was wrong to do so."

Public opinion:

Half of Scots believe Westminster right to block Sturgeon’s gender reforms

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d6fede12-a7cf-11ed-a7e8-7a5fed5c43c4?shareToken=a2e42ffa86028d803af5100111ff8cd4

"Half of Scots believe the UK government was right to block Nicola Sturgeon’s controversial gender reforms, according to a poll.

The research for Ipsos also found that about a third of both SNP and Yes voters believe the Conservative administration at Westminster was right to overturn the Holyrood bill that would allow people to self-identify as another gender."

"The Ipsos poll found that 50 per cent of people believed that Downing Street was right to block the bill, with 33 per cent opposed and the rest undecided."

Public opinion:

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/05/nicola-sturgeons-approval-rating-plunges-wake-trans-row/

"Nicola Sturgeon has been told to “eat some humble pie” and abandon her gender reformss_ after support for the Scottish National Party (SNP) plummeted as she recorded her worst-ever approval rating.
A new poll, carried out in the wake of the scandal over transgender rapist Isla Brysonn being placed in a female jaill, suggests that the nationalists are haemorrhaging support due to Ms Sturgeon’s controversial positions on transgender rightss_.
Her personal approval rating has fallen to minus four, YouGov research found, the lowest recorded since she took over from Alex Salmond in 2014.
Meanwhile, support for both independence and the SNP in Holyrood elections dropped by six points in a month."

I’ve lived here a long time and have only ever been doorstepped twice. One Tory and once Lib Dem. The Lib Dem one didn’t know of the issues until I pointed them out and he seemed shocked. He really thought he’d got a Labour voter to convert. Yes, if KJK does stand I can vote for her, and probably will, but that seems so ridiculous. I shouldn’t have to.

stupid question, but I’m assuming you do have to have these conversations at the front door. You can’t invite them in for a cuppa? I guess they’d be mad to do that, but I’ve a lot to say!

Public opinion says the Tories are going to be trounced at the next election. So they better sort this mess out now. And pressure needs to be piled onto the other parties who will form the next government.

I agree with this. I don't think this is 100% of the Tories' making especially when you look at the global picture and the history of the GRA. But I want them to sort it now as there's no way I want it left hanging if we get a Labour government. Or worse, Labour plus LDs/any other left wing party deeply wedded to self-ID.

Labour have been woefully vague so far but at the next GE they’ll have to clarify. Independently to Tories they’ll need to state their position, finally.

Then that’s on them. Wherever we go with that statement and if they win, it’s their choice.

On that Radio4 program the other night, he sounded very Trump like. Saying he wanted to help Labour to put UK LGBTQIA+ at the forefront of the internacional agenda.

He also said that the coming out conversation he had with his parents when he was 30 was one of the most profound experiences in his life. However, he would not afford the next generation any time to come to terms with what future they wish as the affirmation model rush vulnerable children through this conveyer belt process before they had have any real life experience as adults, no significant mature sexual relationships or even an understanding of how the world works.

it is so disheartening!

If you read the article in the mirror his decision is not primarily about gender ideology.

"First thing is the party’s relationship with business,” he told the Financial Times, pointing to Mr Johnson's infamous 'f* business' comment.

“I’ve tried to understand why a Conservative leader could say that and nobody in the party blinked an eyelid about it.”

He also accused the Tories of attempting to sow division through the so-called culture wars to distract from their catastrophic handling of the economy.

“It was made pretty clear the plan is to run a culture war to distract from fundamental economic failings,” Mr Anderson said.

“It’s not something I want any part of.”
Solution = read the source material rather than presuming someone is being honest about their agenda....

As a homosexual I'm telling you, there's no agenda of his I want any part of. This ideology is actively homophobic, and thinks homosexuality should be stamped out and homosexuals converted to providing straight sex to other parts of the never ending alphabet.

They can 'learn to cope' and 'stop selfishly prioritising their own orgasms' and other sociopathic things like that.

I do hate this kind of lazy speech. You can perfectly well be sympathetic to trans people without believe that males should be in female only spaces. Protecting women's rights does not inherently make one unsympathetic.

Do you mean Anderson isn’t being honest about his agenda, which wouldn’t be surprising as he’s a PR man? Or do you mean the OP? What I notice is that when people promote transgender ideology they talk about human rights/social justice etc but when others point out the conflict with women’s rights it’s suddenly a culture war. As an ex-Tory he can’t really pull the “you’re all evil right wingers” nonsense so he’s using the Labour/SNP approach of accusing their opponents of using trans people as a political football.

Some odd posts.

My reading, and others will read differently, is that the Chair of Stonewall is unhappy that Government ministers are discouraging Stonewall membership by Government departments and other public bodies. Posters are right that a lobbying group should never been allowed such power at the heart of Government. It was a clear conflict of interest. However going forward the Tories from the PM down, are making the right noises, and with Cass etc taking some useful steps.

The Tories now seem to be aware of Stonewall law (the Scottish legislation is an example) and are taking steps to unravel it.

So exit Stonewall Chair to what he presumably feels will be greener pastures in the Labour Party.

Note he is relatively recent. His predecessor (who as in place when Stonewall added the “TQI+++) is a senior Director at the FCA, the people who regulate the banking sector. A few months back there were rumours that he had been overlooked for an even more senior job because the Government were concerned about potential conflict of interest. He stood down not long after.

I recognise that several posters would never trust a Tory and see them as responsible for the whole gender mess. However going forward there seems to be clear water between Labour and the Conservatives on this issue. I know which approach I prefer.