Starmer rowing back on self ID - what do we think?

[JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff]

The Times is reporting in its live politics feed that KS has explicitly said Labour will not push for self ID without public backing. I know not everyone can access their content so here is a copied n pasted version: what do you think?

Sir Keir Starmer has shifted Labour’s position on transgender rights as he said the bitter rows over Scotland’s Gender Recognition Bill showed the party must consider public opinion on the issue.The leader of the Labour Party has previously insisted it was committed to updating the Gender Recognition Act to introduce self-identification for transgender people.However, in a significant shift in Labour’s policy, he said the backlash over the SNP’s gender reform bill had made him think again. The SNP passed legislation this year that would make it significantly easier for people to acquire a gender recognition certificate and reduced the minimum age for doing so to 16. The bill was blocked by the UK government.Starmer said: “I think that if we reflect on what’s happened in Scotland, the lesson I take from that is that if you’re going to make reforms, you have to carry the public with you.

“And I think that’s a very important message and I think that’s why it’s clear that in Scotland, there should be a reset of the situation.”

It’s interesting having children in their twenties and late teens as you can see how quickly this ideology took hold (the difference between the experiences in school of my children)

YY.

I have 3 with big gaps between.

Oldest is almost 23, didn’t encounter the genderborg until uni, switched courses at the end of first year to get away from it.

Middle is 16, has been bouncing between nonbinary and transman for 4 years. School year group is brimming with it (almost all natal girls)

Youngest is 11 and constantly coming out with really quite profound philosophical ideas, weary eye rolls and utter hilarity at the Genderborg’s expense (eg whenever our female dog lifts her leg for a wee DD points and says ‘nonbinary dog’)

If we can just prevent anything gender identity being written into law for a few more years, I reckon we’ll be ok 🤞

Yeah, Generation Alpha are super-aware of - and cynical about - anything that is performative. One of the few upsides of growing up in the world of IG and Tik-Tok, I guess.

Thank you so much! This is what I'm hearing as well. My best friend's 14 and 11 year olds think the whole scene is hilarious. It's the 16-25 years olds in the eye of the storm.

Brilliant - labour interns: feed back the following last few observations from parents about their children to your line managers.

Also to labour - it’s ok to change your mind. We’re old enough to know.

Absolutely this. I too would love to be able to vote Labour again - atm I can't vote for any party - but I need actions not words, and it needs to be in the manifesto.

None of the parties give a shit about women, none of them.

This is my opinion too. No idea who to vote for. Maybe an independent?

@reesewithoutaspoon - you've really elucidated exactly how I feel on the matter of Labour, Jeremy Corbyn, and the current bunch!

I really, really want to be able to vote Labour. I think Keir Starmer is a principled, genuine man who isn't here for a power trip. His track record before becoming the leader of the Labour Party shows a real and authentic desire to help, and do good.

I think his Achilles heel is his desire to bring as much of the party together as possible, and not to repeat Corbyn's failures. He's terrified of an even bigger loss than Corbyn, especially when faced with a piss-poor Tory government that's been ripping itself apart.

And I think that's led him to try and pacify everyone. I don't think he believes TWAW. You can see how uncomfortable he was answering the questions about what is a woman. But I think he absolutely would - and potentially still will - enforce Gender ID if he thinks it's a vote-winner.

I think Scotland has made him realise that the GRA might be even more unpopular than he suspected, and that it could bring him down, rather than lead him to a win. I think - maybe - that we could be seeing him slowly starting to wind back from their previous position. I don't think he'd be personally unhappy about that, but I suspect there's a fair chunk of the left wing of the party who would oppose it.

I think the big question is whether he can get the Labour Party to adopt this stance formally, and how far he will go in accepting that gender ideology is divisive and harmful. I'm not sure the Labour Party will let him take it where we want to see it, even IF Starmer himself thinks it's the right thing to do.

OMG. I love your youngest!

My 11 yo DGD is deeply sceptical about gender, as are her friends. This is partly because it’s constantly being pushed and advocated for by everyone they see as oppressive old fogeys, schools, the mainstream media, attention seekers on social media, some older teenagers who they see as tiresome and so on. Also, they’re intelligent and it’s patent nonsense.

Thanks!
FWR is littered with her funny sayings across my various usernames.

I suspect having a miserable, genderwoo obsessed stepsister has inoculated her against the bullshit (plus, we almost lost her to cancer related illness age 6 so she doesn’t buy into the glorification of unnecessary surgeries and medications or have much sympathy for the bogus suicide stats. If you’ve already lost some of your best hospital buddies to cancer by the age of 8, you are bound to be deeply skeptical about people with healthy bodies who demand interventions that make them medical patients for life)

As @borntobequiet says, a similar effect is happening amongst lots and lots of kids her age who have older teen siblings, cousins, school mates etc - genderism just looks like a lot of unnecessary, unfun work, with a load of adult busibodiness heaped on top.

What came after Goth and Grunge? Brit pop, pop punk and the Spice Girls!

(best not to mention that the next set of teens reembraced the misery by reinventing Goth as ‘Emo’!)

Rachel Reeves suggests people vote Labour in order to get a woman chancellor https://twitter.com/RachelReevesMP/status/1640734777379635203

Yep, Eddie Izzard in 2026.

Well thats one way of deflecting Labour from never having had a female leader never mind PM.

A woman who reports as No2 to The Boss, is maybe the best we can aspire to.

Personally, I'd just like somone who is good at the job and understands what a woman is and why that causes disadvantage as a priority. If they then get a woman as PM or Chancellor thats fab.

This is just deflection from Labour's own internal sexism - in terms of leadership at every internal level, ostracising and actively driving women out of the party and being unable to define a woman. I wish they'd just get their own house in order.

Labour today…

https://mobile.twitter.com/UKLabour/status/1641689281617088512

Have we gone through a time warp and landed up 5 years ago?

All together now 🎵But if you don't vote Labour, you're a Bad Person 🎶

Well that puts an end to what do they want to do then doesn’t it?

Lost cause.

They're not rowing back. "Modernise the GRA" is still there. We all know what that means. I ain't fallin for it:

twitter.com/uklabour/status/1641689281617088512?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

But I thought we went all wrong in Scotland because the SNP didn’t bring the public along with them, according to Starmer just last week. Does he think he’s going to do any better? Good luck with that.

The left can’t change on this. It’s not possible atm

Communists it is then 😔

I'll still wait for the manifesto but if it talks about 'modernising' and doesn't spell out what they mean then they can fuck right off. I'm not that big an idiot.

Too bad, after 40 years of voting Tory, I was really ready to consider Labour. Not now. I'm not gonna contribute to the clown show on gender if they assume power.

Do you honestly think the manifesto is going to reverse these pledges, put out by the official Labour Party Twitter? Come off it.