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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Starmer appoint Harman as his advisor on women and girls

218 replies

Theeyeballsinthesky · 09/05/2026 10:49

Kier Starmer has apparently appointed Harriet Harman as his advisor on women and girls

https://x.com/politlcsuk/status/2053034283003007255?s=46

he really really still doesn't get it does he?

Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) on X

🚨 NEW: Keir Starmer has appointed Harriet Harman as the PM’s adviser on Women and Girls as part of No 10’s shakeup after the local elections

https://x.com/politlcsuk/status/2053034283003007255?s=46

OP posts:
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16
HenriettaSwanLeavitt · 09/05/2026 14:24

Well Henry Zeffmann of the BBC says 'The former Labour deputy leader Harriet is universally respected by Labour MPs, ...'

So no Labour MPs concerned about the PIE debacle and the fact that she, willfully or otherwise, does not understand the SC ruling?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c1428pev1n0t?post=asset%3Ae0ee93bc-029a-4a46-9bc3-6151d6ce430c#post

logiccalls · 09/05/2026 14:32

"What we are hearing on the doorstep" is extraordinarily selective: Nobody in the public, according to the wilfully deaf, is at all troubled by any policies, or, importantly, by any practices, carried out by civil servants (or, more usually, left undone by them) under any party.

Nobody objects to anything, central or local. Nobody votes against anything. Nobody votes in any election except in favour of a party leader, and in favour of whatever was "in a manifesto".

Mumsnet members have written to MPs and Parties, and attempted to speak to canvassers at the doorstep, but found no response, no willingness to listen.

"On the doorstep", a (by definition, already politically/quasi religiously fervently biased) activist is told for example:
We the public don't want men in womens' wards or changing rooms.
Or/and, we don't want children told they can change sex.
Or/and, our public services are breaking or broken, and we can't get jobs or homes, or NHS or social care, because the country is too crowded.

Nobody voted in favour of unlimited mass population increase at all. Every party has imposed/ has allowed Whitehall to impose, mass import of cultures incompatible with respect for equality.

Respect for women, rule of law, and safety* on the streets and in shops is not racist.
Safety for women and children is not homophobic.
And there is no such thing as transphobic, because nobody can change sex. (As Supreme Court confirms)

But no activist/canvasser/politician will ever hear, because s/he will never listen.

*The safety issue is startling and would be worth investigation: Apparently, every ex PM gets a team of UK paid detectives to accompany him/ her, for life, to carry guns and passports, in round- the-clock teams. If true, and now the PMs are changing so frequently, why is that continuing? Apparently also, Mayor Khan has round the clock shifts of teams of five, tax-funded, armed police, merely to watch his house. Why? If his house is really that unsafe, maybe the whole of his empire, London, may be unsafe for the citizens who pay him? And maybe a re-think of all public safety should be more important than any politician?

The cost of all this personal security for politicians sits badly alongside the closure of police stations, removal of foot patrol, withdrawal from High Street or shop protection for the general public. Apart from anything else, ostentatious display of the mindless squandering of public money is not acceptable:

Internet exists. So do cameras. So does online debating and voting. No second homes needed, no grace and favour mansions, no vast daily sums, tax-free, to sign a book. No travel costs. No duplicate offices. Let them 'work' in their constituencies, where some would be startled ever to catch a glimpse of one of the public they purportedly 'represent' .

Parliament buildings should be auctioned (with a condition of sale that the exterior remains visually unchanged, for photographs). They will cost more than is reasonable to repair and retain. ('Big Ben' could easily be replaced with a recording, and an automated replica of the turning hands). Hospices and care homes are closing, so any avoidable public spending is reprehensible. The pretence nothing has changed in centuries is unaffordable:
Palaces of Westminster, and most of Whitehall, are surplus. There is Portcullis and Downing Street.

What downside is there for the public? Losing a place named the Lobby, (where Penny Mordant's "adored" brother was installed "as a permanent fixture, by Stonewall") and losing the taxfunded alcohol in a place of work, would make Stonewall or any other Group Think a bit harder to embed: It would make it harder for a lobbyist to bribe or persuade a bunch of drunks to change or interpret law, act or fail to act. In other words, there is nothing but gain for the public who pay for it all.

Sorry this is a rant but there is no more patience with re-arranging the teacups of a failed political system, when the whole house is falling down.

OpheliaWitchoftheWoods · 09/05/2026 14:32

HenriettaSwanLeavitt · 09/05/2026 14:24

Well Henry Zeffmann of the BBC says 'The former Labour deputy leader Harriet is universally respected by Labour MPs, ...'

So no Labour MPs concerned about the PIE debacle and the fact that she, willfully or otherwise, does not understand the SC ruling?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c1428pev1n0t?post=asset%3Ae0ee93bc-029a-4a46-9bc3-6151d6ce430c#post

Ah. Light dawns.

So this lunacy is because he's pulled in some of the old guard that the MPs like in the hope of this distracting them from wanting rid of him. Gaining respect by proxy. Nothing to do with sanity, or the country, or the electorate then.

I hope someone has by now seen the community note on that tweet, and the headless chickening has begun in Downing Street about how that's going to look in the Sunday papers.

ErrolTheDragon · 09/05/2026 14:35

LowLightsHighLights · 09/05/2026 13:50

I wouldn't worry too much. It's a non job, just like Gordon Brown's new role.

Starmer is just trying to shore up his own position in the party.

Shoring up his position by digging a hole under it.🤦‍♀️
Hopefully the result will be a dawning realisation that people who care about women’s and children’s rights and safety don’t forget and won’t forgive.
The albatrosses will come home to roost.

MsGreying · 09/05/2026 14:36

Keir Starmer has appointed Gordon Brown as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Global Finance and Cooperation today.

Did he think after Thursday's results he needed someone to call people bigots? And sell off any more gold?

Mum5net · 09/05/2026 14:37

FarriersGirl · 09/05/2026 11:00

Proof [as if it was needed] that KS really has no idea what he is doing....

This

TheseWordsAreMine · 09/05/2026 14:37

Starmer knows what he is doing.

They are not hiding it. They are proud of it.

Sausagenbacon · 09/05/2026 14:38

In the space of one hour, i have moved from thinking 'oh well, i'm not keen on KS, but he's inherited a difficult situation, i hope he stands firm and doesn't resign' to 'i devoutly hope that Labour get just as f*ed over in the general elections.
They don't deserve to be in power.

OpheliaWitchoftheWoods · 09/05/2026 14:41

The prime minister is planning an attempt to reset his premiership next week by delivering a major speech and unveiling a new programme of legislation.

Urgh.

Fuck OFF with the legislation. Hyperactive halfbaked legislation doesn't look like 'something's happening' and it's pointless creating a whole lot of new law when this government doesn't believe in following or respecting law anyway.

Just make what's in place work properly and discover some bloody ethics and critical thinking, for fucks sake.

impossibletoday · 09/05/2026 14:47

.

Starmer appoint Harman as his advisor on women and girls
Starmer appoint Harman as his advisor on women and girls
UtopiaPlanitia · 09/05/2026 14:48

So, not content with having hired 3 male paedophile apologists, Sir Keir decides to hire a female paedophile apologist - y'know, equal opportunities and all that...🙄😠

My cat has more political nous than this lanyard-wearing eejit.

HenriettaSwanLeavitt · 09/05/2026 14:50

MsGreying · 09/05/2026 14:36

Keir Starmer has appointed Gordon Brown as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Global Finance and Cooperation today.

Did he think after Thursday's results he needed someone to call people bigots? And sell off any more gold?

It's a weird thing, isn't it, and not exclusive to the Labour party? Dust off some MP/PM from the distant past whose career was never that great or spectacularly tanked (Blair) and then sell them on as some wise elder statesperson.

singthing · 09/05/2026 14:55

OpheliaWitchoftheWoods · 09/05/2026 14:41

The prime minister is planning an attempt to reset his premiership next week by delivering a major speech and unveiling a new programme of legislation.

Urgh.

Fuck OFF with the legislation. Hyperactive halfbaked legislation doesn't look like 'something's happening' and it's pointless creating a whole lot of new law when this government doesn't believe in following or respecting law anyway.

Just make what's in place work properly and discover some bloody ethics and critical thinking, for fucks sake.

Wonder if that "major speech" will include confirmation that his government are finally going to act on the Supreme Court judgment that they've been desperately trying to kick into the long grass for over a year.

Cailleach1 · 09/05/2026 15:04

MarieDeGournay · 09/05/2026 13:09

You're right, I think she 'regretted' it.
I'm not defending HH at all, the bare facts about her are bad enough, I just don't think she was ever a 'PIE supporter'.

Well, I suppose you could say she was an official of NCCL, which counted the Paedophile Information exchange as one of its affiliates. As far as I know, HH has no record of objecting to PIE being under the same umbrella. Of course, she was not alone in this. However, she is in a position of power, and is fair game to be called out for her past and current positions and decisions.

I remember reading a letter from a teacher in the past objecting to PIE being given legitimacy as part of NCCL. I can’t remember now if it was to the NCCL, or to the newspapers. It was as obvious then, as it is now, that paedophiles are abusers, and children are vulnerable and need to be protected.

Heggettypeg · 09/05/2026 15:09

singthing · 09/05/2026 14:55

Wonder if that "major speech" will include confirmation that his government are finally going to act on the Supreme Court judgment that they've been desperately trying to kick into the long grass for over a year.

I hope the "legislation" doesn't include a rewrite of the Equality Act to undo the Supreme Court judgement.

OpheliaWitchoftheWoods · 09/05/2026 15:14

I doubt anything much will go through and the SCJ issue will now be buried for months. We're going to have a We're Not Having A Leadership Crisis circus, shortly to be followed by a leadership race in which none of the leaders will want to touch that issue with a barge pole, followed by the settling in of new leader plus new cabinet....

the party are pretty much done for the rest of the year, and as is patently obvious they're only interested in themselves and what's happening in Westminster anyway.

Forecastsayssunbutthereisnosun · 09/05/2026 15:22

I am at least finding some amusement in the responses on X to this appointment.

ripx4nutmeg is on it today:

"After the disaster of unnecessarily appointing someone at the heart of the previous Labour government who had known links to paedophiles, it's a refreshing change that Starmer has now appointed Harriet Harman in a risk-free move that the electorate has been screaming for."

SionnachRuadh · 09/05/2026 15:39

HenriettaSwanLeavitt · 09/05/2026 14:50

It's a weird thing, isn't it, and not exclusive to the Labour party? Dust off some MP/PM from the distant past whose career was never that great or spectacularly tanked (Blair) and then sell them on as some wise elder statesperson.

I was just thinking about Sunak, when he couldn't think what else to do, bringing Cameron back to be Foreign Secretary. But Cameron was at least relatively recent, and given a proper job.

This government already has two actual ministers covering the VAWG brief, Jess Phillips (Home Office) and Alex Davies-Jones (MOJ). Creating this part-time unpaid advisory non-job for Harman is transparently nothing to do with the subject and everything to do with getting Harman inside the tent.

The electorate saying "we want change" and Starmer saying "I will bolster my position by appointing Labour grandees from 20 years ago" might be the most Starmer thing ever.

I don't know the answers to Labour's challenges, but I'm pretty sure there is no question to which "send for Gordon and Harriet" is the answer.

MrsOvertonsWindow · 09/05/2026 15:41

Cailleach1 · 09/05/2026 15:04

Well, I suppose you could say she was an official of NCCL, which counted the Paedophile Information exchange as one of its affiliates. As far as I know, HH has no record of objecting to PIE being under the same umbrella. Of course, she was not alone in this. However, she is in a position of power, and is fair game to be called out for her past and current positions and decisions.

I remember reading a letter from a teacher in the past objecting to PIE being given legitimacy as part of NCCL. I can’t remember now if it was to the NCCL, or to the newspapers. It was as obvious then, as it is now, that paedophiles are abusers, and children are vulnerable and need to be protected.

At the time the NCCL were campaigning to reduce the age of consent to 14. Such was Harman's insight and concern to safeguard children. 🙄

Yellowheather · 09/05/2026 15:45

I’m a Labour activist (for my sins), and trying to explain to my local group why this is so problematic. Can anyone point me in the direction of some good sources about this?

Scotiasdarling · 09/05/2026 15:48

MarieDeGournay · 09/05/2026 13:09

You're right, I think she 'regretted' it.
I'm not defending HH at all, the bare facts about her are bad enough, I just don't think she was ever a 'PIE supporter'.

She took a job with the NCCL, and certainly still worked there when they were affiliated with the PIE. Given the controversy surrounding them at the time it is completely inconceivable that she knew nothing. Starmer really ought to learn to pick his friends more carefully.

Scotiasdarling · 09/05/2026 15:50

Toseland · 09/05/2026 11:40

He's not stupid, of course he knows - it's just that he's anti-women and has an agenda we don't know about.

I think we all know very well.