Fears Rishi Sunak will renege on promise to clarify definition of biological sex

[IwantToRetire]

Rishi Sunak is facing calls to make a public “cast iron guarantee” to follow through on a pledge to rewrite equality law to protect women, amid Tory MPs’ fears that he will renege on his promise.

Conservative backbenchers are planning to challenge Maria Caulfield, the minister for women, to give an undertaking in the Commons that Mr Sunak will deliver on his promised legal changes to ensure that “mothers and women are not erased from public life”.

Sources close to the Prime Minister insist he remains committed to the pledge, with one saying that the Government is carefully considering advice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the matter and another saying, “It’s certainly not being delayed or dropped”.

But senior Tories fear that the party will lose its opportunity to change the law if Mr Sunak fails to act swiftly ahead of an election next year.

One backbencher said: “There is a debate within government about whether this is a hill to die on and it’s unclear how much of a row the Government wants, doing this in the run-up to an election. But if they can’t say what a woman is by the time we go into an election we’re in trouble.”

More ...

A Telegraph article reprinted by Yahoo Fears Rishi Sunak will renege on promise to clarify definition of biological sex (yahoo.com)

I wonder at the motive of the DT for pursuing this (not complaining just wondering)

Also confused:
Maria Caulfied is not the Minister for Women see https://www.gov.uk/government/people/maria-caulfield
Kemi Badenoch is the Minister for Women https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers/minister-for-women-and-equalities--3

Wonder why the article refers to MC as being the one who should ask Sunak in the House of Commons to clarify. Is there some signifigance in this that I dont understand?

Those concerned about health services should take a look at the situation in Wales

Health is a devolved matter. In Wales, the Welsh Government is responsible for policy, organisation and funding. For 22 years, the party of government has been Labour.

On waiting lists, this from the BBC last October:

"60% of waits in England are less than 18 weeks compared to 45% in Wales.
The biggest difference is in those longest waits.

In England, about one in 20 patients on the list have been waiting more than a year, in Wales it is nearly one in four.
We can see in Wales, 7.9% of waits are more than two years - in England, it's just 0.04%."

With regard to mental health, there was an item yesterday about diagnoses of bipolar. Currently the wait in Wales to be diagnosed is two years longer than in England.

So if, or more probably when, Labour win the next UK general election, don't get your hopes up too high.

Wales seems to be often overlooked when it comes to how it's run. Certainly gets nothing like the coverage in England, as that of Scotland. Ignore the eye-catching headline, the facts are the facts. And they make for miserable reading:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12109405/The-report-shows-Labour-trusted-run-NHS.html

"If you happen to be one of the 700,000 people who live in North Wales, then your health and happiness lies in the hands of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

Named after a local contemporary of Florence Nightingale, it runs 20 hospitals and coordinates the work of 96 GP practices and 147 pharmacies across six counties, spending £1.2 billion a year.
This hefty sum — the equivalent of £400 for every man, woman or child in Wales — makes it the largest single public-sector organisation in the entire country. Sadly, against stiff opposition, it can almost certainly be described as the most incompetent, too.
For six of the past eight years, including this one, Betsi Cadwaladr has been in 'special measures', an emergency status that supposedly allows the Labour-run Welsh government, which has devolved responsibility for healthcare, to sort out failing NHS bodies.
Plagued by chaotic mismanagement, it has been through seven chief executives in 13 years, and four since 2019. At one point it was paying a 'cost-saving' consultant nearly £2,000 a day for nine months, in a deal that allowed him to work from his villa in Marbella."

Can you link to the evidence that Wales is a separate country, with its own currency, central bank, border controls et etc its not is it?

Its a poor region of the UK, terrible transport links and an increasing older population, not helped by English retirees... which of course they cannot control, they have a Westminster controlled settlement, which they have to live within.

I look at how Labour, UK wide, managed the NHS, during 1997 and 2010, how people did not wait days in AE nor treated in Ambulances in car parks, we also didn't raid developing countries health systems for staff either, being in the EU, we attracted EU nurses & paid the nurse bursary and mtce grant to AHPs etc,

Now its nurses from Ghana, Nepal, Zimbabwe..., leaving them with shortages....

Tories always promise one thing and deliver another or in the case of the thread.. nothing at all :(

Aside, for a supposed non Tory, you certainly seem to rather admire them!

Plagued by chaotic mismanagement, it has been through seven chief executives in 13 years, and four since 2019. At one point it was paying a 'cost-saving' consultant nearly £2,000 a day for nine months, in a deal that allowed him to work from his villa in Marbella"

Terrible isn't it?

Of the 41 trusts that have been in special measures, between 2013 and 2018, only six are now rated as 'good' overall by CQC. The rest are either rated ‘requires improvement’ or are still in special measures following an 'inadequate' CQC rating at their most recent inspection. Although many trusts have successfully exited special measures and are improving, six trusts have re-entered the regime having previously met the exit criteria

Almost all of the 41 trusts were English, so bad was the situation in England, the Govt change the name from Special Measures to Recovery Support Program... sounds better but the results are the same.. more failure and mismanagement, its simply NOT a welsh problem which Tory supporters would have you believe, its a Tory problem.

@Alexandra2001 I don't admire the Tories. I just doubt whether Labour will do much better.

The details of Wales' funding sources are here https://research.senedd.wales/financial-scrutiny/fiscal-devolution-in-wales/

The demographics of Wales are recognised in the fiscal framework agreed by thf Welsh Government with Westminster. From the Senedd document; "The fiscal framework set out a modified Barnett formula for Wales. This includes a needs-based factor currently temporarily set at 105%. When funding relative to England has converged to an agreed level this factor will be increased to 115%."

Taxation powers are also devolved. The Welsh Government has the power to vary income tax rates in Wales but has not yet done so.

The UK Labour Government did indeed spend more on the NHS after coming to power in 1997, and it showed. However, the UK economy at that time was relatively prosperous. Since 2008 it has struggled.

Labour havd said they will increase spending on the NHS but not by hos much nor where the money will come from.

41 trusts in England have been in special measures, out of 219. That's 18.72%.

2 health boards in Wales have been in special measures, out if 10 boards and trusts. That's 20%.

It's a both parties problem.

Not only have the Tories eroded Women's rights. They have also wrecked the NHS and whole UK economy. England and the devolved regions are all suffering due to their fiscal incompetence and recklessness.

They've been busy bastards on the wrecking front and I know that it will take time for our country to recover once they're out.

Labour havd said they will increase spending on the NHS but not by hos much nor where the money will come from.

You’re right. They haven’t shown this at all.

Wales under Labour for decades doesn’t inspire me

The UK Labour Government did indeed spend more on the NHS after coming to power in 1997, and it showed.

I agree but PFI casts a long shadow...

Labour havd said they will increase spending on the NHS but not by hos much nor where the money will come from.

Reeves having kittens by the sound of it!

www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/on-the-plane-to-dc-nao-row-procurement-pains/

"TREASURY TEAM DING-DONG: After the i’s Paul Waugh reported that Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has ordered the shadow Cabinet not to make unfunded spending commitments, a Treasury official told Playbook: “Every time a Labour shadow minister opens their mouth on telly the mask slips and they commit to billions of pounds of random unfunded spending commitments. They can’t help themselves. Good luck to Reeves reining this lot in, she’ll need it.” A Labour spokesperson hit back with: “The Tories have literally crashed our economy with unfunded spending commitments, landed families with a Tory mortgage penalty for years to come, let growth plummet and taxes rise to a 70 year high.”"

The Tories have literally crashed our economy with unfunded spending commitments, landed families with a Tory mortgage penalty for years to come, let growth plummet and taxes rise to a 70 year high.

Yep. They really have fucked the entire country.

Whereas if Labour had been in power......

We will never know because it didn't happen. The Tories have been in power for 13 years. Our country: NHS, Economy, Education, Women's rights are where they are now because of decisions the Tories made. Their incompetence, corruption and lies got us to where we are today.

Why the fuck would anyone, feminist or not, vote for them?

So, ignoring economic growth in line with the G7 (apart from the USA 'cos they're so leftist), increasing health spending, social spending and education spending at a greater rate than GPR, how shit have they been!

Fewer hospital beds, doctors and nurses per head of the population.
A housing crisis.
Austerity leading to increased dependence on food banks and strikes and lack of facilities.
Piss poor rates of sexual assault/rape/CSA convictions.
Piss poor rates of criminal investigations and convictions.
Brexit in all its disgraces.
The erosion of women's rights due to their trans shitshow.

The extra £100ss being paid monthly for mortgages due to Trussterfuck Economics.
The loss of our reputation and credit rating on the international stage because of our instability. 5PMs and a shitload of bad decisions in the past 7 years.🤦‍♀️
Increased NHS waiting lists.
Increased strikes.
Bonkers or non-existent approach to migration.
Really high taxes.
Trans shitshow.
Increased waste in waterways.
Worse transport.
Fucked up criminal justice system.
Destruction of trust in our institutions.
Collapse of devolved govt in NI.

That's some of the ways the Tories have been shit. I'm sure there are more.

Why the fuck would anyone vote for them?

Is it Sunk Cost Fallacy?

Maybe if you stopped avoid the question's people ask you about realistic voting options, you might see why.

There are loads of realistic voting options that aren't voring for this shower of fuckwits the Tory Party. Most people in the UK manage to not vote Tory without any problem.

I don't vote Tory all the time. It isn't difficult.

I know all this.
I agree the Tories have done all this, they're a shower of shits.
I would love to vote them out.
I have voted in every election in the last forty years, and never voted Tory.

But I won't vote for a candidate or a party that denies fundamental reality.
The reality is that NO woman has a penis.
And I'm not voting for a candidate or a party too cowardly to say that.
That is more important to me than any other issue.
If that means voting Tory, so be it - if the Labour Party want my vote, they need to give up their obeisance to this nonsense ideology.

It’s a difficult one alright, otherwise they might actually just post an answer.

Growth starting from a much lower level and increases in spending (if they actually are) do not reflect the real terms cuts over the last 13 years.

GDP growth is sooooo low, mainly due to their brexit, that basing increases on GDP will not reflect the real terms cuts due to inflation.

The report by the Royal College of Radiologists on cancer care in every region of the UK, bares this out, 97% of cancer centres say they are failing patients, this report is far worse than their survey in 2016, which was ignored by the Tories.

On TWAW, i'm rather disturbed by the huge rise in GRC issued in the UK, inc increasing the number of GRC clinics in the UK, once again, rhetoric doesn't match reality.

GDP growth is sooooo low, mainly due to their brexit, that basing increases on GDP will not reflect the real terms cuts due to inflation.

Keir Starmer says he doesn't believe Brexit itself harmed the UK. His slogan is Make Brexit Work. Yet he's ruled out joining the Single Market or even a Customs Union. According to the Labour Party website, this will involve tearing down unnecessary barriers by ensuring a new new veterinary agreement for agri-products between the UK and EU (though how this would help exporters of non-agricultural goods, I really can't see), and supporting Britain’s world-leading industries through mutual recognition of professional qualifications, ensuring the UK's services can compete and restoring access to funding and vital research programmes. All this, of course, relies on the EU agreeing to Starmer's proposals. And there is nothing on the matter of rules of origin.

The report by the Royal College of Radiologists on cancer care in every region of the UK, bares this out, 97% of cancer centres say they are failing patients, this report is far worse than their survey in 2016, which was ignored by the Tories.

In every region in the UK, including Wales, where Labour are in charge of health, and Scotland, where it's the SNP - health being a devolved matter.

@Chersfrozenface The Tories gave us Brexit & then Cameron ran away, there followed 4 plus years of chaos.

Though on Brexit and Lab, like you, i despair.... Brexit can never work, one only has to look up Thatchers views on the SM, the benefits of SM are valid now as they were back in her day.

The Tories run the UK,... ultimately responsible and health devolution does not exist in a vacuum, especially in regions that are not sovereign.

You don't have to vote for any of them Mixedberry. You don't have to vote at all.

All this don’t vote at all stuff, silencing women’s voices. The suffragettes died for the right of women to vote. If you don’t vote you have lost your rights, political parties don’t care about people who don’t vote.