Rishi - A man is a man and a woman is a woman. That’s just common sense

[WallaceinAnderland]

Looked for a thread on this but couldn't see one. BBC reporting this statement by RIshi Sunak today.

"We shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be - they can’t," he says. "A man is a man and a woman is a woman. That’s just common sense."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-67001483/page/2

Words, PM. Just words. Your govt had 13 years (14 when you're dumped by the British people, and you get on that First Class flight with your family to take up that stupidly paying job in California) to dig out the Stonewallification of education, health, the civil service.

If you'd done that, or at the very least carried on the work that Cameron May Johnson Truss could have put into motion but didn't, I'd trust your words were more than empty platitudes.

Even now, you could with the Kings Speech sort out the secrecy of gender ideology teaching in schools, but you won't.

However, your speech writers know what words resonate with the public, so you agreed to say them. As basic a basic minimum as one could reasonably expect. And nothing more.

Although, of course, the PM is right, how can they have allowed Stonewall et al to become so entrenched in our education system? The Conservatives introduced PSHE in schools, and within that class, in our primary schools and secondary schools, children are being taught the most dangerous forms of gender ideology. I have had a nightmare with our school in East London...the parents remain clueless for the most part.

Not a basic minimum we can expect from Labour, the LibDems, the Greens, the SNP, Plaid...

So he's definitely one up.

I was listening to his speech on the radio and that line got a huge cheer and applause. They've finally worked out which way the wind is blowing. Fully agree with all the criticisms about allowing the ideology to become entrenched in public bodies, but I'll take any bit of sanity at this point. Not that I'm considering voting Tory for a second

He's throwing trans people under the bus to try and get elected again. He doesn't either believe or disbelieve what he's saying, he's a political animal and will say and do whatever he has to to keep his grasping hands on power. The one thing I can tell you for a certain fact is that the very last thing on his mind is protecting the rights and safety of women. And far more women, and children, will be harmed by continuing Tory rule than could ever be harmed by even the most liberal trans policies.

I really want to believe that there is an intelligent, feminist approach to be found in the gender debates, as I am for the first time in my life not comfortable at the bleeding edge of liberalism and am still struggling to find a place where I can fully explore what I think about it all without feeling like either a bigot or a mug. If people on the gender-critical side fall for this total hogwash the Tories are wheeling out to churn votes, after 13 years of giving not the smallest shit about any impact and risks to girls and women there may be as an outcome of the rise of trans activism, instead of considering the wider implications of Toryism and its inherent misogyny, then there really is no place for those who want to balance rights here either.

As Chersfrozenface says, objectively, this would look like the minimum you could hope for; but he is the only party leader saying it. Already denounced as disgusting by a R5 caller 🙄

'He's throwing trans people under the bus to try and get elected again'

At least it means they have finally realised what the vast majority of the public think about it.

Shame labour and the rest aren’t going for this easy win!

And I’ll be voting Tory on this one issue so I’m glad Rishi is spelling it out.
If the other parties are too cowardly/venal/stupid to acknowledge women’s rights and biological sex. I can’t have any time for them.

He doesn't either believe or disbelieve what he's saying

I disagree on this point. I think he absolutely does believe that men are men and women are women. In fact, I think almost every adult in the world believes this too.

I'm pretty sure he does believe what he's saying - pretty much everyone knows full well that you cannot just change sex and that telling people that they can be anything they want is total bullshit snd does a huge disservice to all involved!
Whether he'll actually do anything to back up his words is something else though.
I'm hopeful they will row back on all the stonewall and mermaids bullshit in order to stand a chance at the election

He doesn't either believe or disbelieve what he's saying, he's a political animal and will say and do whatever he has to to keep his grasping hands on power.

I'm as cynical about the Tories as anyone, but I don't doubt that he completely believes this, it being a basic, objective, obvious fact.

Of course his reasons for stating it now might be more shady, but my focus is on Starmer and his reasons for continuing to evade and obfuscate. Hopefully this will make it harder for him to do that.

I'm never voting conservative.

Sorry - slow typing! Making the same point a 3rd time

Be that as it may, he doesn't give a shit about the difficulties the new narrative is causing women, and would be perfectly happy to let trans people self-ID if he thought it would get him votes. Anyone who cannot see this for the cynical dog-whistling it is is politcally incredibly naive.

Hmm, think you’re wrong - he’s got 2 daughters

Well his team of cronies have had 11+ years to make this clear and wheel it out into every area of public life.....and they haven't.

I'll judge him by his party's actions and not the words he uses to detract from their failings including the HS2 debacle and the chaos they visited during covid. He's going to say anything he can now to win votes.

I don't understand that. Getting votes?

Meaning offering policies that people want, and will vote for.

What's wrong with that? Isn't that what we want?

Starmer evades and obfuscates for exactly the same reason Rishi is taking a stand - he has calculated that he will lose more votes among his traditional base going after trans people than he will lose votes by letting down women.

These are politicians (and more to the point, they are both enormously privileged MEN). The outcome of whichever policy direction isn't going to affect them; the impact they are concerned with is the one STATING a policy, whichever it might be, will have on vote share. That's it, and that's all.

For both of them, there is no moral or ethical dilemma here - it is a cold-hearted calculation of which group of marginalised people you can more safely throw under the bus and still get enough votes to be first past the post. Keir is saying as little as possible because, in the absence of a miracle, he OUGHT to be a shoo-in for the next election, not because he's a dyed-in-the-wool adherent to the trans cause.

Meaning offering policies that people want, and will vote for.

Finding it hard to think of any Tory policies that people voted for last time (and the times before) that they've actually rolled out successfully and to the advantage of the electorate.

What we want, surely, is politicians who have ideas that they think will make the country better/safer/more prosperous, and to make the case for those. We want, you know, political opinions to choose from, propounded by people who actually believe in them. Not just power-hungry game-players who pitch everything they say with a view to how it will play with the electorate.

What we also want, incidentally, is for there to be some mechanism whereby politicians are actually held to their policy commitments if they gain power. Currently they can say whatever they like pre-election, and then do something entirely different once in power. Sunak will say whatever he thinks will get your vote; then he will do whatever suits him best.

And I'll judge all parties by their actions and their words

Such as the gender ideology being pushed by the Welsh Labour government in every devolved area.

Such as Labour's treatment of Rosie Duffielf and its refusal, still, to allow the LGB Alliance a stall at its conference this year.

Such as the LiDems and Greens totally batshit policies and illegal actions towards members and officials not fjllu subservient to gender ideology

Became an MP in 2015, yet somehow forgot to mention his feelings on this issue until recently?

@Chersfrozenface So you're saying that on this subect they're all as bad as the Tories. You're probably right.

His daughters are some of the richest, most protected, most insulated people on the planet. Do you really fancy they will be affected by trans women self-IDing into women's prisons? Or NHS hospital wards? They live in a different world to where all the shit is hitting the fan and always will. Which is no fault of theirs, but it's like when he wheeled out his "I have daughters" line when Sarah Everard was murdered - it's utterly cynical.