Controversial Bill that would allow biological males to stand as women in Senedd elections is postponed

[IwantToRetire]

Hannah Blythyn, the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership, was due to announce details of the updated version of the Bill in the Senedd on Tuesday December 5. Journalists were due to receive a technical briefing about what is known as the Senedd Cymru (Electoral Candidate Lists) Bill on the morning of November 30.

But the briefing was postponed on November 29, with a brief statement that said: “We’re still working on the Senedd Cymru (Electoral Candidate Lists) Bill, but we won’t be publishing it on December 4 as anticipated.”

The Welsh Government was unable to give any details about when the Bill might now be published.

Cathy Larkman from the Women’s Rights Network Wales, which has campaigned against gender self-identification, said: “The Gender Quotas Bill has clearly now been renamed The Senedd Cymru (Electoral Candidates Lists) Bill and was to be published on December 5. “For a Bill that claims to increase the representation of women in political life, what it would actually do is introduce self-ID by the back door and allow the Welsh Government to redefine ‘women’ to include any man who says he is one. This was always an outrageous prospect with grievous consequences for the women of Wales and our future rights for single-sex spaces and services in Wales.

“The Welsh Government surely does not have the authority to interfere in reserved matters and equalities legislation is clearly a reserved matter. A similar situation was played out disastrously in Scotland, but our First Minister and his team appear to either misunderstand their legislative powers or are wilfully ignoring the fact that equalities legislation is a reserved matter and hoping no one notices.

“We trust that the fact that the Bill has suddenly been stalled, will mean that they have had a moment of clarity about the legal consequences of persisting with this ill-advised and tone-deaf, ideological mission. Any attempt to push this through will be challenged in the courts.

“It is high time that the Welsh Government started to listen to women and our valid concerns. Perhaps they would then not make such serious errors of judgment.”

https://nation.cymru/news/controversial-bill-that-would-allow-biological-males-to-stand-as-women-in-senedd-elections-is-postponed/

Great news. Though part of me kind of wanted this nonsense to have gone ahead because it might have triggered the sort of public reaction we saw in Scotland.

Gender ideology is creeping in and despite amazing efforts by women rights activists in Wales not enough people realise how bad it is getting.

I note this change of course comes after Welsh women protecting their rights have gained some coverage in the press. Nice article from Monday:
https://www.carmarthenshirenewsonline.com/interviews/an-interview-with-get-the-l-out-uk/

I'm all in favour of quotas as a short term way of boosting representation of previously underrepresented groups, which includes transwomen.

So why isn't the answer to cap the number of trans candidates to be proportionate to their presence in the population?

I'm just hoping this really is a stop to this proposal, and not for instance, that they have messed up timings or some other procedural thing.

But as suggested up thread, the work of women activists will be reallly important.

So respect due to those who have kept up the pressure.

More info has come out about what happened it turns out the bill withdrawal was due to legal advice. Which is what a bunch of people had been saying since the beginning was going to happen:

Senedd gender quota plan withdrawn following legal advice to Presiding Officer
"A Bill intended to create a gender-balanced Senedd was withdrawn abruptly because the Presiding Officer had received legal advice that it would exceed what was permitted under Wales’ devolution settlement, we have been told."
https://nation.cymru/news/senedd-gender-quota-plan-withdrawn-following-legal-advice-to-presiding-officer/

The win in Scotland is going to mean that this whole plan is unlikely to get anywhere I guess.

it turns out the bill withdrawal was due to legal advice

Thanks for this info. I wonder if they had got some idea of how the Scottish case would go.

Or maybe, without wishing to give credit to the Tories, they had to realise that like it or not UK wide laws are UK wide.

Which takes me back to a comment I made on the Scottish case thread.

When Labour gets in, they could and probably will change the laws relating to gender id etc., and then none of the devolved parliaments will need to write their own.

Because Labour will make the UK self id compliant.