Alistair Campbell on Channel 4 with Rory Stewart

[Screamingabdabz]

On ‘The Rest is Politics’ show…

Doesn’t ‘need to read JKR’ because he ‘knows what her position is’. She may thinks she speaks for women ‘but not the women in my life’ etc. trans are ‘the most marginalised and disadvantaged group’ etc etc Voters don’t actually give a shit.

Rory Stewart more nuanced answer and told him to listen to the Witchtrials podcast (AC’s face said ‘hell will freeze over first’) BUT then says as men it’s not really their issue so they should just ‘step back’.

Fucking infuriating.

I also listen to Political Currency. Ed Balls is of the “Be Kind” variety but they did at least discuss The Cass Report a bit and I wonder what their take on JKR will be this week.

I’ve listened to TRIP for a long time (not a subscriber) and think they do a bloody good job in the main, but this is one issue they can’t (or just don’t want to) grasp. I get the impression if you sat RS down in a room and went through the arguments piece by piece you could actually have a proper conversation and debate about the topic - he’s almost there, he commented back in 2020 that he had been told, when Prison’s minister, that female prison staff had been raped by transgender prisoners. There was a thread at the time, I’ll see if I can find it.

Here it is: www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/3876533-Rory-Stewart-says-male-prisoners-self-identified-as-females-and-raped-prison-staff?reply=95587978

That’s a huge generalisation - but I suppose because you’re referring to posh people stereotyping doesn’t matter. Do you include Tony Blair in that category?

It is a generalisation, but stereotypes exist for a reason. You can identify characteristics of a particular social grouping that are broadly true. I do include Tony Blair in that category to a large extent - he is the architect of the dreadful GRA, for a start. I very much doubt he cares that much about women's rights, but he is astute enough to understand that adopting self-ID is a disastrous road for the Labour Party to go down.

One of the characteristics of people who attended a major public school, as Rory Stewart did, is that they often have a vastly inflated sense of their own abilities. There are fairly obvious reasons for that, but it seems to me daft to pretend that someone who attended the Dragon School, Eton and Oxford, as Stewart did, is going to have the same beliefs, values and attitudes as someone from a modest background who attended their local comp.

I just listening to this episode and was pleased to see a thread on it already. Most of my thoughts match views already articulated by PPs.

Thought it might be worth mentioning that a couple of weeks ago during one of the TRIP question time episodes, they were asked what their parents did for a living. Both of them talked about their fathers at length, and neither mentioned their mothers.

This was pointed out by a listener, and so in another question time episode a week or two later, they actually talked about their mothers (having first talked some more about fathers). Turns out that RS's mother had had a really interesting working life. Yet it didn't dawn on him to mention it before, despite the original question being specifically directed to parents......

Interesting isn't it? We're a few days from an election and instead of the triumphant belting out of 'we'll keep the red flag flying', we're getting a kind of chas and dave act of 'I'm not a misogynist arsehole'/'I am a misogynist arsehole' depending on which lefty person is speaking at the time.

Last week they were asked what their parents did for a living: Stewart's father was in the army and Campbell's a country vet, we were told.

Something missing there

Such a shame, I had a lot of time for AC and his views on Brexit etc, and he often talks about his wife and obviously values her opinion. He can't help his depression which I wouldn't wish on anyone, but his throwaway statement about how he has never cooked a meal "and Fiona does it all" made me realise that fundamentally he's a feminist in theory but not in practice, so his dismissal of this as a "women's issue" doesn't surprise me.

Political Currency with Ed Balls and George Osborne is surprisingly good. They’re far less arrogant than AC and RS, who forced me to switch off in the first episode.

I have emailed a response. It’ll probably be picked up by some young woke researcher ‘womens rights’? Delete. 🙄

Says it all, doesn't it? They don't even think of their mothers as an answer to that question. A bias so deep-rooted they're not even aware of it.

The latest Political Currency episode has gone in on JKR and Labour’s problems and spent a good bit of time (almost 10 mins) on it.

Both of them admitted their children had asked them not to talk about the subject and that they were afraid of getting things “wrong”.

Bravo George and Ed! We should make it clear to them on social media/by email that we appreciate them discussing it in a mature way.

Starts about 16 mins in: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/political-currency/id1706536336?i=1000660060205

Listening at the mo, and so far Ed Balls is saying JKR is angry with Keir because of his and the party’s past statements on genderism and her anger doesn’t make sense because Keir and Tony agree with her 🙄🤷‍♀️

Balls doesn’t bloody understand her eloquent points 🤬

@UtopiaPlanitia oh I agree Ed doesn’t get it, sorry I should have said that. George seems to get it but is very hesitant with saying so. I’m more thrilled about the fact that someone is actually talking about it! I’m easily pleased!

Finished listening now.

Balls thinks Keir, like him, is proud of the GRA and the Equality Act and the status quo. Balls thinks the issue of men getting legal status as women has only really become an issue in recent years and that the current law is fine because single-sex spaces are adequately protected and obviously Labour won’t bring in Self ID so status quo will continue.

Tell me you know nothing about the discussion without telling me you know nothing about the discussion, Ed 😞 Women are talking and men like Ed Balls aren’t listening.

Thanks for the link to the podcast Cave 👍

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/06/25/rory-stewart-is-everything-thats-gone-wrong-with-the-tories/

Yes, I noticed that too - when he spoke, George was better informed but he left all the talking to Ed really. But, yes, I also agree it is interesting how the issue is suddenly okay to talk about as having two sides in the discussion and not framed solely as TWAW. I hope it continues that way post-election.

In terms of alternative podcasts, I am really enjoying Matt Forde’s ‘the political party’, where he is trying to interview one candidate in every constituency. It’s across the parties and he only allows 1 person per seat. So he might have a 10 min chat with a Lib Dem sitting MP , but then also a no hoper conservative candidate in another seat. It’s mainly the major parties, but also a few others. It’s cross country so a few NI, Welsh and Scottish too.

it’s brilliantly positive and he is very even handed. He had also interviewed Rose Duffels and KJK, so I think his views are clear!

Rosie Duffield clearly!

https://shows.acast.com/the-political-party/episodes/election-24-special-ep-24

Ta very much Lengo, I’ll give that a listen 👍

Ed Balls’ son identifies as non-binary I think.

I still rate the podcast overall, but this is very disappointing.

I feel though that RS's views are shifting, last time I heard them discuss the issue (maybe 6 months back) he was quite dismissive maybe referred to it as "culture wars", now he seemed more thoughtful and like he has engaged with the debate and realised that there is some depth to it.

AC was awful, so dismissive and rude. He reminded me of parents who have transed their kids, have deep down realised that it probably wasn't a smart thing to do but are now too deep in, so just act in a really defensive way. Kind of makes sense what PPs have said re: being influenced by his daughter's views.

and yet we’re the ones who get called bigots.

It really as if some men cannot hear or understand women however slowly and clearly you speak.

These are men with problems with capacity who should not be in positions of public responsibility.

I too was very frustrated by this part of the discussion. It’s the relegation of women’s rights once again.
I would like them to comment on women’s issues far more often, but why would they? They just don’t appear to be on their radars.

I'm very disappointed by them both on this issue. They have shown such intelligence and sensitivity around issues such as geopolitics and mental health but have brushed over this basic women's rights issue. At least it sounds like Rory is starting to grasp the issue. AC is still being a compete twat about it.