Dodds- Minister for Women.

[FondOfOwls]

https://x.com/10DowningStreet/status/1810245536869458298

So Anneliese Dodds is officially Minister for Women and Equalities.
Are we completely fcked now?

... Or maybe they're going to have to choose one side of the fence. And unless they're incredibly stupid, it won't be the one 99% of the country think is bollocks.

...I can dream.

Labour don't have a mandate to take away women's rights. In their offer to the electorate, they weren't clear about what they intended to do about women's rights or even what they believed a woman to be, despite repeated questioning. No-one had any idea what they intended to do. We still don't. We're trying to read the signs - we might as well be looking at chicken entrails.

If we all add a query to the Labour Party website to ask them to clarify whether a woman has a penis or a vagina, will it implode? Would we be breaking a law somewhere?

Not yet. Go for it while you can.

I watched a rather odd interview that popped up on fb today, where a woman was earnestly explaining that no one knows what Starmer thinks or believes or intends, but this is somehow ok because he just plans to 'do things'.

It was nonsense dressed up as faux intellectualism. No, Labour were totally unclear. But they there is not an enthusiastic electorate behind them, just a country warily prepared to see if they can do any better than the other lot. Less a honeymoon than probation.

Yep

But sadly we're stuck with them for five years, & they can do a lot of damage in that time.

I have otherwise sensible friends who are crowing over getting rid of the Tories & who seem unconcerned about anything else. They used to be more clearsighted & cynical than this. What's happened to the country?

Tribalism.

Starmer has appointed two women and equalities ministers to sit at his Cabinet table.

Both Bridget Phillipson and Anneliese Dodds hold the title in the new government.

It has caused confusion about who will ultimately be in charge of fulfilling Labour's pre-election promise to 'simplify' the process for trans people to legally change gender.

Both Dodds and Phillipson were abysmal when talking about gender before the election, as was Raynor. Starmer, on the other hand, was clearly being better briefed and changed his tone and language.

The important point is that the party is making it easier to get a gender recognition certificate, and doesn’t believe that the Equality Act needs to clarify the different between sex and gender.

They appear to be unaware that service providers - hospitals, leisure centres and gyms, theatres, govt depts etc - are doing away with single-sex facilities, including showers and changing rooms. Often this is because they are confused about what is required under the Equality Act, and can’t get clear legal advice. Even lawyers are confused.

Changing rooms and loos are just one manifestation of this erasure of women’s rights and language.

I think we could have hazarded a good guess at what they'd do and they haven't disappointed. It's why they didn't get my vote. Please let Kemi be new leader and call them out on it.

There might have been a few days of rows and horse-trading, hence the delay and fudged outcome.

Well, at least Stonewall's Iain Anderson seems happy at the appointment.

I'm sure the cheerleaders who were shouting us that the Labour party had dropped self-ID and we were bad and wrong for doubting them will be along any minute to apologise.

Both women made themselves look foolish before the election on this issue.

I'm still none the wiser how they will allow men with gender to use public toilets, and ensure that girls will still be able to use the same space safely. I'm not convinced either of them have thought this through, and who will be responsible if something dreadful happens.

But to be fair on Starmer, has he anyone in the cabinet who has the ability to think this through?

I know Dodds doesn't have a good track record re earlier things she has said but I believe she did meet or offer to meet with some groups such as the LGBA which she received pushback for.

Just wondering if they are attempting a mild version of good cop/bad cop here. Hoping that everyone thinks they have someone who might be listening to their side.

I think Starmer's ultimate goal is to persuade women into accepting some sort of fudge. Being generous he might be taking the same approach to the TRAs. That side will be made to accept a degree of reality and live with it and women have to accept a degree of make believe and live with it.

Long term that won't work at all but I imagine he believes he can use lawyerly sex fudge to fix everything.

I haven't seen any sign of the one who told us not to worry about David Lammy & his 'dinosaurs' comment (& just be good girls & vote Labour), because he wouldn't be given a job in the new government & would just be a backbench MP. I forget who that was but I remember thinking, 'Yeah, right. Like I'm gonna take YOUR word for it.'

I'd rather they stayed on their own threads, actually. They had over 50 linked threads moaning about the Tories & are now standing on the sunlit uplands of a new set of threads IIRC.

Lawyerly sex fudge…. Yummy?! 😁

'But to be fair on Starmer, has he anyone in the cabinet who has the ability to think this through?'

Well, he chooses the cabinet from all his MPs, doesn't he? So that's down to him. He could've gone with Rosie.

I'm not sorry the Tories are gone, and I hope Labour will do some good things, beyond gender. But Dodds is not a good look. At least now they know they will be held to account.

It's RaynER. Not sure why her name is so hard to spell.
I think the reason they have a KC as attorney general instead of Thornberry is to make the legal updates watertight. I've got no issue with Annaliese Dodds getting the job. Let's face it, no-one other than Rosie Duffield would have been acceptable to FWR. Dodds knows the approach and has been managing it all the way through. I'm looking forward to them clarifying the interplay between the GRAand the EA.

I'm looking forward to them clarifying the interplay between the GRA and the EA.

Aren't we all? But I'm not holding my breath.

Fuck a doodle doo 🤬

x.com/Wommando/status/1810252632008577248?t=GCytsZeFmKV7niYvvukd3Q&s=19

She also says she is going to protect women's spaces

I think she is a great appointment actually well balanced

Is that post tongue in cheek?

Perhaps he could... y'know ...think it through for himself?