War over trans lobby is manna for the right - Matthew Parris

[Igneococcus]

Matthew Parris really has only the most superficial understanding of what the issue is. Women's concerns don't seem to matter to him.

 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e1a55002-0176-11ee-a364-04e704863f75?shareToken=8726c8ee9cc9f1b6b564f26d97b17a88

[SallyLockheart]

Tosser

[DemiColon]

People like this have an underlying belief that anything of the political right must be motivated in some way by evil thoughts and desires. The possibility that the right could have some good ideas, or see some issue more clearly than the left, or have something useful to contribute to social or political policy, does not occur to him.

These are people who, when push came to shove, would be supporters of the one Party state, just so long as it was the right (left) Party.

[PomegranateOfPersephone]

I have always found him quite dismissive of women when I have heard him on Radio 4. I have the impression that he doesn’t see us as fully human.

[Pixiedust1234]

But as a columnist and ex-politician 

You can tell he was a politician, that was pure waffle and no substance. I hope the Times didn't pay him for that

[Mythicalcreatures]

No consideration for women, good comments though.

[ResisterRex]

Not many standing on ceremony in the comments

[dropthevipers]

he's always been Billy Bragg with an Oxbridge degree. Better vocabulary, same old bollocks.

[ArabeIIaScott]

And what is it for the left, Matthew?

[PerkingFaintly]

@dropthevipers

he's always been Billy Bragg with an Oxbridge degree. Better vocabulary, same old bollocks.

Eh?

Matthew Parris is a former Tory MP.

[PerkingFaintly]

Sorry, dropthevipers, I meant to quote DemiColon.

[dropthevipers]

@PerkingFaintly

Sorry, dropthevipers, I meant to quote DemiColon.

No worries (I did wonder for a moment though)

[ArabeIIaScott]

Well. Be in no doubt. That was a lot of pompous huffing and puffing.

[PerkingFaintly]

@dropthevipers

No worries (I did wonder for a moment though)

Although it does fortuitously fit your comment too.

[Forwarder]

He's pretty much saying what JKR said the other day. The left are making utter fools of themselves and the right are making hay while the sun shines.

A few years ago, an avid Tory of my acquaintance, gloated: "oh we love Jeremy Corbyn."

Starmer and that Libdem man's support for this utter nonsense is manna for the Conservatives.

BUT, and it's a big one, Matthew Parris doesn't have school aged children being marinated in lies. It does need to be stood up to. And Starmer, as leader of the mainstream left, has the power to turn it around. Is he man enough though?

[PerkingFaintly]

Sunak, as leader of the actual government (I know, hard to keep track) has the power to turn it around.

Hasn't done so yet.

After how many years of Tories presiding over all this?

[Forwarder]

Sunak could do more. But Starmer could take it off the table as a left/right issue. Gender ideology should have no place in mainstream politics or discourse.

[PerkingFaintly]

You would have thought that an actual serving Tory MP coming out as trans would have been enough to take it off the table as a left-right issue.

But no. Still a few enablers repeating the lie that "at least the Tories know what a woman is".

[Fenlandia]

Why doesn't he ask his Stonewall co-founder Simon Fanshawe what he thinks? Simon has spoken up clearly and consistently about the effect of trans demands on gay people, women and on free speech in society.

[Cherryblossoms85]

This is one of the best things I've read.

[ZuttZeVootEeeVo]

And for the rest, stop thinking about it, stop talking about it, it will finally go away, and later generations will wonder what came over us.

It wasnt talked about for years while it was quietly implemented into schools, colleges, nhs, the police....

We have to talk about it to have any chance of stopping the next man to be place into the womens prison if he requests it.

Not talking about it doesnt stop it, it just allows those not effected to pretend it isnt happening.

[Parisj]

The comments are astonishing in their unity. I don't disagree with much of what he says, though I accept there is more to be done than ignoring it.

[PriOn1]

He appears to have completely missed the hugely significant problem of swingeing legal changes that will remove women’s rights. Another ignorant man.

[ChocChipHandbag]

@DemiColon

People like this have an underlying belief that anything of the political right must be motivated in some way by evil thoughts and desires. The possibility that the right could have some good ideas, or see some issue more clearly than the left, or have something useful to contribute to social or political policy, does not occur to him.

These are people who, when push came to shove, would be supporters of the one Party state, just so long as it was the right (left) Party.

Matthew Parris was a Tory MP!

[Litterpicking]

Back on May 22nd 2021, Matthew Parris wrote a column in The Times to say that he didn't think that Stonewall (of which he was a founder member) should have not taken up the trans issue "and was mired in an issue that wasn't its concern". (Sorry I don't know how to get it out from behind the paywall!) Article

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4972efe4-ba6d-11eb-98e3-d1306649ebf7?shareToken=7079a8eb9d584f891402007d41c89fae

[PriOn1]

Quite an interesting article, Litterpicking. I guess it helps to see a more nuanced view of where he’s coming from. He’s battled for his own rights, successfully, and now (understandably) resents the fact that he, and those who have won their battle for acceptance, have now been dragged back into a very different battle, that is proving to be much more troublesome and which looks much less likely to have a positive outcome. I absolutely have sympathy for any lesbian and gay people who can see that the niche of acceptance they had carved out for themselves is now under threat.

But of course, women’s rights are also under threat. Sweeping this under the carpet and waiting for the fad for transgenderism (which genuinely is a fad on one level) won’t work for women because the undermining of women’s rights, that has gone hand in hand with that fad, goes too deep and is of such significance that women cannot ignore it.

So I guess it’s understandable that he wants it all to go away. The day that Stonewall stopped fighting for lesbian and gay rights and dragged lesbian and gay people into a fight to remove women’s rights, was a hugely bad day for us all.