PM Andy Burham: what next for women's (and children's) rights?

[BridgetYourFortyDaysAreUp]

There didn't seem to be an appropriate existing thread, so -
Given that none of us voted for Andy (I know, I know, Labour won the last election, vote for party, he is new leader...blah blah) -

Any predictions for how bad it could get (puberty blocker trial, Conversion Bill, etc.)? Anything positive to look forward to?

New backing from MPs mathematically guarantees Burnham's coronation

27 more Labour MPs have nominated Andy Burnham to be leader of the Labour Party - making it mathematically impossible for any other leadership contender to challenge him.
^^
349 Labour MPs have now nominated Burnham, up from 322 on Thursday.
A candidate needs 81 nominations to stand - so there now aren't enough Labour MPs left to nominate anyone else.
^^
Burnham will still need the backing of three affiliated organisations and trade unions.

https://news.sky.com/story/politics-latest-burnham-starmer-labour-tories-badenoch-farage-12593360#12052134

Bloody fabulous. Not.

Expect the TRAs are as overjoyed as we are 😂

Ellie Reeves becomes Attorney General.

Edit. Need to check this, seems weird to go from Solicitor General to Attorney General.

Don't know her views, but she was harassed by Tracey Smith.

Would be nice if there was no “gender criticals” aka transphobes in government. Their rot has taken hold of their country with their lawfare funded by far right sources and rich bigots.

Bummer

Ellie Reeves is Attorney General.

Completely off-topic, but also 'attending Cabinet' will be the minister for AI, who has a degree in PPE and will be completely clueless. This country would be a lot better off if more civil servants and politicians had maths or science degrees.

Some good appointments (Lou Haigh as CDL is promising); some not so inspiring (Angela Eagle at Defra? wtf?)

The most notable thing is how northern the cabinet now is, with London Labour being reduced to a rump; and one of the handful of London MPs is Miatta Fahnbulleh, whose deep knowledge of African politics has surely taught her that the coup leader needs to fill his government with allied clans from his home province.

(We keep hearing that Miatta's dad was foreign minister of Liberia, which is true, but leaves out the interesting stuff. He was foreign minister in the revolutionary regime of Samuel Doe that took power in 1980 and ousted (read: massacred) the African-American oligarchy that had ruled since independence in 1847. When the Doe regime collapsed in chaos, Fahnbulleh senior fled to London where he hung out in left wing exile circles, occasionally returning to Liberia to run for president. His left wingery seems to have been strictly a London thing. This is probably the most interesting backstory of any current Labour MP.)

they also function as a rather effective deniable dirty tricks department of the Labour Party.

@SionnachRuadh I'm being stupid, but I don’t understand this sentence.

Fascinating!

they are shady AF.

Sadly you’ll be disappointed. Shabana Mahmood retains her Home Office role and she has no truck with it.

they are shady AF

I agree but what does ‘deniable’ mean in that sentence?

Indeed. However she can have different opinions to her kids.

She was thought men should not be in women's prisons here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0dyz4w6

As someone else said I think she is somewhere in the middle at least in public.

Yeah I think Burnham will be too scared to get involved, but that has advantages too.

With Phillipson still in role Conversion Therapy will push forward, but I suspect that it will get massively amended in Committee and by the Lords. So whether it gets passed in its original form remains to be seen. If we kick up enough fuss I can see it being watered down. The whole anti parent thing looks a potential disaster.

Puberty Blockers again looks likely to get through, but we shall see. We just heard the data linkage study has been delayed sadly. So we are doing crazy experiments with no reason because people are too scared to say no.
https://nitter.net/DerryBanShee/status/2079181131988058378

I think we need to look to see what the fall out from the Amnesty row is. It could be very significant and another huge own goal from the TAs.

Our advantage is the genderists are even more insane than ever and they are so aggressive that they are completely crashing their own case.

Within Labour the ground is shifting. Scottish Labour has become way more pro women, and is hammering away at the SNP. With an actual women's conference in September in Liverpool with no men as well that is significant. We have court cases against the unions like Unite also happening now.

The Greens are also charging into disaster in local government over denying women as seen in Bristol and London. That too will have impact inside Labour with local elections next May.

Yvette Cooper's son is an activist, isn't he? Unless he's grown up a bit. With the increased negative coverage that groups like Bash Back are getting, I'd imagine Yvette Cooper, having such a high profile position in government, will try to distance herself from those type of views, not actively encourage them as the likes of Nadia Whittome does.

https://news.sky.com/story/politics-latest-andy-burnham-keir-starmer-labour-12593360

Wes Streeting: The 'surprise choice' for defence secretary

So Wes is placed out of sight of health, schools, women, and equality issues, but into the firing line (pardon the pun) because defence is a hot topic. So, sidelined and spotlighted at the same time. Nice move, Andy.

So, was Wes going to be a hindrance or help to the puberty blocker trial and the Conversion Bill? I wonder which way Burnham is leaning on these?

Stephen Kinnock in Cabinet doesn't strike me as good news for women, although the promotion removes him from Health.

Is it good news for the Welsh?

@Ereshkigalangcleg That might depend on your attitude to devolution and whether you think that Kinnock is one of the people who has benefitted from Lab opting for a PM who doesn't know most of the current PLP well enough to hand out big jobs. Pool of candidates for SoS Wales was already small (only 27 Lab MPs represent Welsh constituencies. Kinnock has been hanging around the lower ministerial ranks for a long time, which doesn't suggest huge talent.

None of my contacts in Wales have commented Several that used to be Lab supporters have defected to PC since Starmer took over, mostly out of impatience with Lab's determined one-red-size-fits-all approach - they will probably be as cynical as I am about Burnham's plans for more devolution.

Thankfully not Thornberry. I was afraid she’d get either LC or AG. New Lord Chancellor is Alex Norris, about whom I know very little. I’m rather hoping it’s a case of ‘better the devil you DON’T know’…

Do you know where transactivism has derived from? The hint is in the new word ‘bathrooms’ instead U.K. ‘toilets’ or ‘lavatories’. Very rich U.S. groups.

U.K. Terfs meanwhile are neither rich nor right wing.

A spectacularly childish segment by Sky's Jon Craig about the, apparently, spectacularly childish new Cabinet members (but at least it's a good list of the entire Cabinet)

Politics latest: Burnham tells his top team to bring down cost of living | Politics News | Sky News

at 16:52

Their faces said it all - around today's cabinet table, there were was joy, fury and disappointment.

The body language said it all. Before, during and after Andy Burnham's first cabinet meeting, there were big grins, forced smiles, scowls, grimaces and a few faces like thunder.

...a distraught and miserable looking Bridget Phillipson - the Starmer ally stripped of her education brief but still in cabinet as women and equalities minister....

The facial expressions didn't change when cabinet ended.

...Sadly, though, Bridget Phillipson still looked miserable as she left. Unlike most ministers, who carried ministerial folders, she doesn't appear to have one any more. Poor Bridget.

We tried very hard to watch the part of the Cabinet meeting shown on the rolling News, but it was so bloody boring I cannot imagine that Starmer is doing anything other than laughing while glugging some more beer. I would.

Antonia Romeo having a big notebook was the highlight for me. I wonder what pen she uses.

I'm partial to a Uni-ball roller, black, myself 😁

Let's try this again. Why are you against women having rights Masha? It makes you sound like an incel.