Julia Hartley-Brewer lobs gender kryptonite at Labour justice minister

[Fenlandia]

Shadow Justice Minister Ellie Reeves went on to Talk TV to promote Keir Starmer's latest policies on violence against women and girls. Julia naturally brings up the gender issue, rapists in women's prisons - how can you claim to protect women and girls when you can't define what those words mean?

As Julia says, “You cannot come on my show and talk about how Labour want to tackle violence against women and then refer to a double rapist as 'she'!”

No-one who watches the clip could be impressed by the Labour minister's response, umming, aahing, changing the subject, generally wibbling. That's what I mean by gender kryptonite - These politicians are so sure of their views that TWAW and yet as soon as sunlight is shone, they can't defend their positions at all (as Sturgeon and Varadkar found out recently) and crumple into gibbering, incoherent heaps.

https://twitter.com/TalkTV/status/1638829266291793921

[DevilinaCardigan]

Less heat reminds me of this cartoon. It’s not GC women putting the ‘heat’ in this debate.

[Artisticpaint]

Ballot spoiling means nothing. Please vote, the communists, SDP and Tories are all GC

[DontbesuchanarseGlenda]

@WickedSerious

I'll be covering mine with stickers.

Oooo, what stickers? And where can we get them from?

[dimorphism]

Ellie Reeves does not look capable of assembling an ikea cabinet let alone being a minister in a functioning one.

I mean, gender position aside, how can anyone think this level of ineptitude and stuttering in the face of quite basic questions suggests ability to run a country?

[ArdeteiMasazxu]

the appropriate response when someone says "more light, less heat" should be something like

Excellent - we totally agree there should be more light. so we need properly funded rigorous research into the long term impacts, harms and benefits of interventions like social transitioning of teenagers, puberty blockers, medical and surgical interventions and rates of detransitioning. Proper research into the self-exclusion of vulnerable women from services that used to be single sex and now aren't, and the harm that is doing. more extensive research into the ongoing advantages of having a male body in female sport. more openness about the impact on female prisoners when there is a male prisoner incarcerated with them. when these questions are taboo to even ask, there isn't a lot of light being shed, and the more sunlight that can be shone, the better all round. And certainly there should be less heat. the emotive chanting of meaningless slogans like TWAW, using sabotage tactics to disrupt events where people are gathering wanting to talk about these issues, calling it hatred when people ask questions, bullying people into silence, resolves nothing.

[BlackeyedSusan]

@porridgecake

They always talk about taking the heat out of the debate. Or say that there needs to be more light, less heat. I have no idea what this means. It is just nonsense.

It means stop asking those questions... too hard

[Queenofscones]

Wonderful clip. What an idiot Ellie Reeves looked.

We need Labour women to stop playing the game and just say to people like Julia Hartley Brewer that she's right, of course she's right, but that there is pressure from the top to keep pretending. It would take just a couple of them to refuse to keep up this ridiculous facade and it would all be over.

[hamstersarse]

God that was cringe.

I do wonder how these people feel once they have finished an interview like that (JHB is a particularly good journalist though and they are few and far between) - will she walk away thinking "oh it's just JHB and her alt-right audience. I really showed up her right wing audience for being the bigots they are"?

That is the problem with group politics of 'All Tories are Scum' etc. It makes it so easy to just write any opposition off. I know people who hate the Tories so much they have fallen out with family members about it - how fucking stupid. And the result of this extreme partisan dynamic is that people like this get away unchallenged by their 'loyal followers' - these followers will just hate anything someone says because they are from 'the other side'

[MarshaBradyo]

Less heat -

Usually means women you can’t say no we don’t like that, but we don’t mind TRAs calling to decapitate, rape women, call them dinosaurs and turds. That’s all great

[JoodyBlue]

The term "less heat" reminds me of the term "hysterical". It says to women stop showing your anger and be more rational. The problem is that the majority of the women articulating against genderism are entirely rational and the debate actually is a lot less heated than it might be (one could argue than it should be). The "heat" in my opinion in entirely justified on women's behalf but it is also women who are bringing any "light"there is. It is such a disingenuous statement.

[UtopiaPlanitia]

@Thelnebriati

I suggest a drinking game;' every time a politician ignores the issue and ends the interview with a determined 'X are the only party that has a plan to tackle Y' you have to have a drink.
See you under the table.

Would you be amenable to a rules change to include having a drink every time a Labour politician says we need “less heat and more light” in discussions about women’s rights or do you think the chances of alcohol poisoning would then become too likely?

[CryptoFascistMadameCholet]

Ellie Reeves has given me a really bad case of secondhand embarrassment.

[Thelnebriati]

I suggest a drinking game;' every time a politician ignores the issue and ends the interview with a determined 'X are the only party that has a plan to tackle Y' you have to have a drink.
See you under the table.

[WinterTrees]

"Take the heat out" = "Calm down dear."
I've only ever heard it said as a deflection by those seeking to discredit, dismiss and disenfranchise women.

I did pull out the email I sent my MP in 2018 about self-ID though - he wrote back to me at the time basically straight out of the Maria Miller/Penny Mordaunt school of "be kind". I have forwarded it to him again, asking whether in light of the last 5 years his views had changed at all
I love this idea and am feeling positively gleeful at the prospect of doing the same if the labour MP I exchanged emails with stands again. (She lost her seat at the last election, but I hear she's intending to try again. Very marginal constituency.)

[DevilinaCardigan]

@RoyalCorgi

What amazes me is that Labour know that this is an issue that people feel strongly about. They also know, if they have ever watched JHB's show, that she has a record of asking politicians their view on it. And yet Ellie Reeves was completely unprepared for it. She didn't even attempt a coherent answer, she just tried to change the subject. She was worse than useless.

Why would you vote for someone like that? Why?

Surely they know that they’ll be asked so they should have some sort of prepared answer.

If they are going to continue to put rapists in women’s prisons, then fucking own it. Weaselling around just makes them look dishonest AND stupid.

Id like to think that if they are smart enough to figure out that if you have to waffle your policies so hard because you know the vast majority of people disagree with them, then maybe you should rethink them or develop much better arguments. But they are fucking thick which isn’t what I’m looking for in my MP or prime minister. I can respect a politician who’s policies I disagree with if they can make a rational argument about why they should/shouldn’t do something.

[BorisisaLune]

@FOJN

The "she" also tells us that Labour will have no problem with Adam Graham being granted a GRC upon release from prison so that he can demand entry to women's spaces and conceal his criminal history.

Surely if you wanted to reduce VAWG you would target the low hanging fruit first and not create or maintain loopholes which allow convicted sex offenders in women's spaces.

Made some excellent points on rape stats and violence increasing BUT then refers to a man as a "she" WTAF?

This man still has his dick.

Trouble is and i ve raised this before, with a GRC a man become a woman & hence access to womens spaces - it's effectively self ID, just takes longer, 96% of applications and its around 400 per year, are granted & those refused are for admin reasons usually.

Whoever is first out the blocks and starts to roll back all this trans stuff (rather than tory waffle and no action) will win the next GE, women tend to vote more than men, both Sunak & Starmer et al need to remember.

[Needmoresleep]

@RoyalCorgi

What amazes me is that Labour know that this is an issue that people feel strongly about. They also know, if they have ever watched JHB's show, that she has a record of asking politicians their view on it. And yet Ellie Reeves was completely unprepared for it. She didn't even attempt a coherent answer, she just tried to change the subject. She was worse than useless.

Why would you vote for someone like that? Why?

Yet she the covers the Justice portfolio which is right in the thick of it.

Presumably Stonewall have reassured her that everything is fine, and that they will continue to advise. And undo all the nasty phobic things the Tories have recently done to push back the tide.

[WickedSerious]

@riskybiznisses

Yep as for voting I’ll just spoil the ballot I guess?

I'll be covering mine with stickers.

[RoyalCorgi]

What amazes me is that Labour know that this is an issue that people feel strongly about. They also know, if they have ever watched JHB's show, that she has a record of asking politicians their view on it. And yet Ellie Reeves was completely unprepared for it. She didn't even attempt a coherent answer, she just tried to change the subject. She was worse than useless.

Why would you vote for someone like that? Why?

[nilsmousehammer]

Of course the Labour Press Office does not like anyone asking MPs those questions! It's a PR bloody disaster and makes them look somewhere between muppets and male supremacists. And either ill informed of the realities of the situation, or in flat out denial of reality that's a bit uncomfortable to face.

None of which makes a voter think 'gosh yes, I'd like you to run the country, I could trust you with all that'.

[riskybiznisses]

Yep as for voting I’ll just spoil the ballot I guess?

[Teribus21]

@porridgecake

They always talk about taking the heat out of the debate. Or say that there needs to be more light, less heat. I have no idea what this means. It is just nonsense.

It means please stop asking me this question. I’m finding it hard to defend the indefensible.

[Tradeup]

Really glad Julia brought up Rosie Duffield and how virtue signaling Labour just hung her out to dry when she was viciously attacked in parliament by a member of her own party.

Why would women trust Labour when they refuse to support and protect their own democratically elected female MPs?

[ScrollingLeaves]

In this thread 100,000 signatures on the Equality Act - What next  a poster wrote to Ellie Reeves as her MP about the petition to update the Equality Act and the debate.

The answer did not answer anything and fudged the issues.

[EpicChaos]

Minimum sentence of 7 years for rapists - cool story sis!
Likely spent in a womans prison if it happens.
Rapists will think all their Xmas's have come at once, victims on tap all day long, talk about being cock - a -hoop!