Streeting apologies to Rosie Duffield

[Theeyeballsinthesky]

Well well

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/28/wes-streeting-apologises-to-labour-mp-rosie-duffield-who-felt-ostracised-due-to-gender-views

Could they maybe possibly at last be listening?

I hope you'll be pleased to know that nearly three years ago I contacted my own Labour MP about Rosie Duffield, and his office said they would send a message of support. I also speak to him (my MP) fairly regularly.

The Labour Party as a political party though - it needs to the the right thing for women's rights and children's safeguarding because it IS the right thing. The ethics matter.

Meanwhile, yes to the Golden Bridges from pp ^^. I'm pragmatic. I want Labour in government IF they can drop the extreme gender woo and queer theory.

And I'll bet that one day my MP will be glad of that email trail and phone log he has with me, tbh, because this in the future is going to look really fucking embarrassing for the full-on Butlerians.

Nah.

Write your list if you want. Or start another thread on Sunak, go for it.

Has LOJ been informed of this development?

Why can't other political activists understand that this old political activist wants Labour to be better?

Labour = I can't believe they're not better

Tories = Like Benecol, no-one can afford it

Lib Dems = Like Flora, used to be flavour of the month, but started tasting strange

Greens = Like Stork, that thing that was trendy and then went weird and is only good for padding out a bigger mix for sticking in the wee Aga

I’m pleased he has said something to Rosie and she is happy with it. It’s a step in the right direction, a few months ago we wouldn’t have expected it.

However they need to be much more specific about what their actual policy is and how they will protect woman and girls.

This is a good sign. I've decided to take anything that is part of the change of direction in the most generous way possible, because we need the parties to allow the discussion and then to adopt sensible policies. We are not going to get mea culpas and acknowledgement that they were previously wrong & illogical. If it's true that he was involved in an anti gc labour Facebook group then a) that was pathetic and everything that's wrong with no debate and b) this is a big turn around. Streeting has been slightly ahead of the gradual turnaround by front bench labour, so this is the direction of travel. We need this stage. Hopefully we will travel through it onto a surer footing but we can't get where we need to be without this stage i think.

In the article he's quoted

"I was inundated with women in the Labour party, including parliamentary colleagues, who I do not consider to be shrinking violets, who were basically saying: ‘I’m really glad you said this about having a better conversation, because I felt afraid about voicing my concerns’. And I thought, if some of the strongest women I know are feeling silenced, we’ve got a problem.”

I'm pleased Streeting sees the advantage in this

I mean obviously he's got no personal integrity so in terms of telling you what he thinks or believes it's jack shit use

but it does indicate that the dial of 'correct think' is shifting

When Starmer says sex based rights trump gender every time then I'll believe there is a policy shift.

Ooh, I hope so. 🙂

I want to hear that from BOTH Labour and Conservatives, a cast iron guarantee on it otherwise it's just fiddling while Rome burns.

Fair enough.

EwwSprouts · Today 22:14

^GailBlancheViola* · Today 22:09

I want to hear that from BOTH Labour and Conservatives, a cast iron guarantee on it otherwise it's just fiddling while Rome burns.

Fair enough.

Agreed.

I will admit to feeling slightly unwell.

Very interesting, especially "And I thought, if some of the strongest women I know are feeling silenced, we’ve got a problem".
He hasn't acknowledged that he was part of that problem, especially in the Facebook group where they were trying to root out women with wrong opinions, but the way he's worded that interview is already a massive reversal considering he's been quite a vocal and aggressive TRA.
Yes, it could go a lot further but I was expecting something a lot vaguer.
The bit about family and country being divided interested me too. Labour will have been doing a lot of polling recently and that'll only ramp up more as the general election is getting closer. I'm wondering if they've had some hard data on just how unpopular their behaviour has been on this issue.
And it'll have been among left wing women too, a group they could previously rely on but may no longer be able to do so.

I think this is important, I don't know whether he's sincere or not. I do think he's a very ambitious, astute politician, probably got a good chance of being the next Labour leader - he's a good communicator.
If he's seen the way the winds blowing, well we're winning. Much as it sticks in my throat, golden bridges and all that. And the detail in the manifesto, I await with baited breath.
They've realised at long last it's a real issue. It could cost them a few marginal seats, it could be the difference between a majority or not in the next Parliament.

Sadly, I think Rosie has been treated so badly that anything that even looks mildly like an apology probably brings relief.

I don’t like this phrase at all: ”I’ve taken a much more defensive position around trans equality……….” there’s an implication there that he still sees his own demands as being about equality, thus implying Rosie doesn’t want trans equality.

The whole point about equality is that the two sides are given equal consideration. You can’t have trans equality without women’s equality as there’s a clash.

If he’d admitted being defensive about trans rights then I might have believed him a bit more, but for me there’s a definite implication that he still thinks he’s on the right side of history, whereas she isn’t.

Well done Wes. Genuinely quite impressed by this. Next Labour leader by a country mile. (Unless they are finally so embarrassed that they insist it's a woman. Which would be a weird kind of poetic justice, sorry Wes.)

And to all the women who got us to this point.

Where did Nandy come out with this self-exculpatory crap about the 'trans member of staff'? Honestly. What a stupid way to piss away your career. I wonder whether she ever actually believed any of it?

If he’d admitted being defensive about trans rights then I might have believed him a bit more, but for me there’s a definite implication that he still thinks he’s on the right side of history, whereas she isn’t

Yes, I agree.
He is clever. This is spin.
The whole spiel is saying look at me, I’m apologising, (he probably checked on MN and saw all the calls for that) while simultaneously waving to trans rights activists to say, pssht don’t worry you know I’ve got your backs.

Sorry, that was to @PriOn1 · Today 23:10

It's a start - long time until the election & plenty more distance to cover (& they need to sort out Scottish Labour)

I don't think Rosie could really have responded in any other way without looking churlish - that headline did most of the work for WS

I may have missed this, but has Wes Streeting actually apologised to Rosie Duffield or is he merely signalling an apology to potential Labour voters through the Guardian?

"has Wes Streeting actually apologised to Rosie Duffield"

Not reported so I guess not.

"is he merely signalling an apology to potential Labour voters through the Guardian?"

That seems to be the intention but what he is actually signalling with his shit-weasel word salad is failure to admit, to take responsibility for and to apologise for his leading role in organising the witch hunt against women in the Labour Party.

""I was inundated with women in the Labour party, including parliamentary colleagues, who I do not consider to be shrinking violets, who were basically saying: ‘I’m really glad you said this about having a better conversation, because I felt afraid about voicing my concerns’. And I thought, if some of the strongest women I know are feeling silenced, we’ve got a problem.”

It's apparently a surprise and a mystery to Wes that some of the "strongest women" he knows are "feeling silenced".

Has he had a bang on the head and got amnesia?

Think Wes. Cast your mind back. Could it possibly be because you and Angela Rayner led a pitchfork-wielding rabble to hunt down women, accuse them of "transphobia" and expel them from the Labour Party?

How about the woman who was not even a member of the Labour Party who you terrorised?

No regret for teaming up with a vicious scam artist who has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault, who thought it was funny to prance around in a shell suit smoking a big cigar and, as if anyone could not get the reference, had a Twitter account with the fake URL "rape.com/savilles.apprentice" (sic) in the bio?

The PP in this thread saying, "You wanted an apology, you've got one and you're still not satisfied?" - there has been no apology.

All there has been is an acknowledgement that women suffered harm and a pusillanimous pretence that he had no part in causing that harm.

That's it. That is not an apology.

Hear, hear, Bosky.

All there has been is an acknowledgement that women suffered harm and a pusillanimous pretence that he had no part in causing that harm.

Great post, very true