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March 22, 2023 - 8:00am
If Labour wants to form a new government, then the party needs a new policy on trans rights. If anyone is still in doubt about that, they need only look north of the border. Three months after Nicola Sturgeon forced her doomed Gender Recognition Reform Bill through Holyrood she is now packing her bags, and the once invincible Scottish National Party is in a tailspin.
Keir Starmer, however, has a problem. He has already sold himself to the activist lobby that thinks the law can be changed to allow anybody to change their legal sex and that nobody will take advantage. That is why senior figures are now warning him to change his trans policy to be more in line with the public’s views on the matter.
When the UK Government finally saw sense and dropped the idea of gender self-ID, the Labour Party reaffirmed its commitment to “introduce self-declaration for trans people”. That was 2020. The following year, Starmer repeated that promise personally in a recorded message for Pride Month. It all seemed so simple when dissenters could be dismissed as transphobic bigots. But the spectacle of double rapist Isla Bryson being sent to a women’s prison put an end to the pretence in Scotland.
Over the water, self-ID was introduced back in 2016. Indeed, Ireland has often been held up as an exemplar. However, even there the illusion is fading. Barbie Kardashian – a violent male convict – is currently incarcerated in Limerick Women’s Prison following threats to torture, rape and murder.
Now, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has seen which way the wind is blowing. Speaking to journalists yesterday, Varadkar admitted that he “only heard of this case for the first time in the Sunday papers” even though it is years old. But, crucially, he did not think that biological males should be put into women’s prisons if they are found to have broken the law. I would agree with him, but Varadkar’s problem is that Kardashian has self-identified into the female sex, so what happens then?
This is why the Labour Party needs to change tack. In 2016, Irish self-ID law was implemented with little in the way of scrutiny. That’s unlikely to be the case if Labour brings self-ID to Westminster. The inevitable furore may well overshadow everything else the Party is trying to do.
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Subscribe‘Is it the party of working people?’
Well, all the working millionaires I know are Labour voters, so I suppose it is.
‘Is it the party of working people?’
Well, all the working millionaires I know are Labour voters, so I suppose it is.
If Starmer had ‘courage and resolve’ he wouldn’t have broken bread with Jeremy Corbyn and campaigned for him to be PM. What he *does* have is shamelessness and inconsistency. He will issue a lawyerly announcement signalling a sort-of-U-turn, hoping to kick the issue into the long grass until he wins. Then he’ll introduce it anyway.
Starmer is being advised by Blair, Mandelson and Campbell – so he’ll do exactly as you say. And he’ll do the same with single market membership. Manifestos are made to be broken.
Starmer has three choices:
1) Reject gender identity ideology altogether. Accept that sex is real, acknowledge gender dysphoria as a social / psychological issue, and employ evidence-based science in effectively supporting those who suffer from it.
2) Embrace gender identity ideology unreservedly. Legislate that self-perception must take precedence over objective reality, and outlaw the very notion of biological sex as inherently transphobic. Dismiss the concerns of women, as the very concept of women is now imaginary.
3) Try and ‘square the circle’, by forcing the key qualities of choices 1 and 2 into the same manifesto. Then seek help for your inability to function due to profound cognitive dissonance.
Starmer is being advised by Blair, Mandelson and Campbell – so he’ll do exactly as you say. And he’ll do the same with single market membership. Manifestos are made to be broken.
Starmer has three choices:
1) Reject gender identity ideology altogether. Accept that sex is real, acknowledge gender dysphoria as a social / psychological issue, and employ evidence-based science in effectively supporting those who suffer from it.
2) Embrace gender identity ideology unreservedly. Legislate that self-perception must take precedence over objective reality, and outlaw the very notion of biological sex as inherently transphobic. Dismiss the concerns of women, as the very concept of women is now imaginary.
3) Try and ‘square the circle’, by forcing the key qualities of choices 1 and 2 into the same manifesto. Then seek help for your inability to function due to profound cognitive dissonance.
If Starmer had ‘courage and resolve’ he wouldn’t have broken bread with Jeremy Corbyn and campaigned for him to be PM. What he *does* have is shamelessness and inconsistency. He will issue a lawyerly announcement signalling a sort-of-U-turn, hoping to kick the issue into the long grass until he wins. Then he’ll introduce it anyway.
Debbie is too kind to the Taoiseach. A journalist for the online news outlet Gript asked the Taoiseach the question about Barbie Kardashian at a press conference. The question was phrased in such a way as to make equivocation difficult. The taoiseach managed to equivocate just a little bit before conceding that males should not be allowed in women’s prisons.
In the video the Tánasite rolls his eyes, expressing contempt that someone would even ask such a question. And the two green loons in (ahem) the far right look very uncomfortable as one of their signature policies unravels before their eyes.
Overall, it is ridiculous. But the most ridiculous thing of all is the four men deliberating on who should go into a women’s prison. It’s a reprise of the 1950s – only then the men would have worn cassocks and applied Catholic theology to the question, not Gender theology.
The clip is worth watching for the laughs, to see how far removed from ordinary life these people have become:
https://twitter.com/griptmedia/status/1638242240609804288?s=20
And yet the Kardashian case has been around for several years. I have been aware of this person since before the pandemic, how is the Taoiseach just hearing about it now? Bad government if it wasn’t discussed when the person was first jailed which wasn’t recently… And bad leadership if he doesn’t read the papers as it was in the Irish papers at the time and then the world press took over. Something smells, but not of roses… The Green Parties of the World should get back to what they were set up to do rather than go against the majority of folks who think that gender recognition legislation should be as it is in England and Wales. Unfortunately if the Greens fo go back to basics, few will vote for them and they will lose their seats, but maybe that is the wake up call they need.
Indeed I agree – there is no end to it in Ireland either see e.g.
Irishtimes.com/health/your-family/2023/03/14/paul-murphy-we-dont-want-to-limit-them-by-saying-youre-a-boy-or-youre-a-girl-let-them-decide/
i.e the baby can just make their own decision as to what gender/sex they are.
or
https://www.irishtimes.com/health/your-wellness/2022/09/21/i-am-a-gay-man-in-a-straight-womans-body-if-i-were-to-speak-to-my-husband-about-this-it-could-end-our-marriage/
Evan worse they were on the front page…
And yet the Kardashian case has been around for several years. I have been aware of this person since before the pandemic, how is the Taoiseach just hearing about it now? Bad government if it wasn’t discussed when the person was first jailed which wasn’t recently… And bad leadership if he doesn’t read the papers as it was in the Irish papers at the time and then the world press took over. Something smells, but not of roses… The Green Parties of the World should get back to what they were set up to do rather than go against the majority of folks who think that gender recognition legislation should be as it is in England and Wales. Unfortunately if the Greens fo go back to basics, few will vote for them and they will lose their seats, but maybe that is the wake up call they need.
Indeed I agree – there is no end to it in Ireland either see e.g.
Irishtimes.com/health/your-family/2023/03/14/paul-murphy-we-dont-want-to-limit-them-by-saying-youre-a-boy-or-youre-a-girl-let-them-decide/
i.e the baby can just make their own decision as to what gender/sex they are.
or
https://www.irishtimes.com/health/your-wellness/2022/09/21/i-am-a-gay-man-in-a-straight-womans-body-if-i-were-to-speak-to-my-husband-about-this-it-could-end-our-marriage/
Evan worse they were on the front page…
Debbie is too kind to the Taoiseach. A journalist for the online news outlet Gript asked the Taoiseach the question about Barbie Kardashian at a press conference. The question was phrased in such a way as to make equivocation difficult. The taoiseach managed to equivocate just a little bit before conceding that males should not be allowed in women’s prisons.
In the video the Tánasite rolls his eyes, expressing contempt that someone would even ask such a question. And the two green loons in (ahem) the far right look very uncomfortable as one of their signature policies unravels before their eyes.
Overall, it is ridiculous. But the most ridiculous thing of all is the four men deliberating on who should go into a women’s prison. It’s a reprise of the 1950s – only then the men would have worn cassocks and applied Catholic theology to the question, not Gender theology.
The clip is worth watching for the laughs, to see how far removed from ordinary life these people have become:
https://twitter.com/griptmedia/status/1638242240609804288?s=20
He has already sold himself to the activist lobby that thinks the law can be changed to allow anybody to change their legal sex and that nobody will take advantage.
I think this misses the point. It is not about taking advantage that, to me, is the primary concern. It is the matter of what it means to arbitrarily change a person’s legal sex – as an ontological claim.
If changing a person’s legal sex involves a legal fiction, then that person’s sex is regarded as that legal sex, contrary to what their sex is in reality.
But in society – in reality – our social interactions such as behaviours and language, are mediated by legal rules. As such we are asked to regard or treat a legal fiction, a legal sex, as true ontologically, for the purpose of particular social behaviours and language mediated by those rules. In my view, being asked to regard or treat a legal fiction as a true feature of reality is to instantiate a lie into reality. Hence the Sturgeon debacle.
Because it is false, wrong and a lie, it harms everything downstream or based on it.
That’s a feature not a bug:
In my studies of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is …in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A variety of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.
– Theodore Dalrymple
That’s a feature not a bug:
In my studies of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is …in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A variety of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.
– Theodore Dalrymple
He has already sold himself to the activist lobby that thinks the law can be changed to allow anybody to change their legal sex and that nobody will take advantage.
I think this misses the point. It is not about taking advantage that, to me, is the primary concern. It is the matter of what it means to arbitrarily change a person’s legal sex – as an ontological claim.
If changing a person’s legal sex involves a legal fiction, then that person’s sex is regarded as that legal sex, contrary to what their sex is in reality.
But in society – in reality – our social interactions such as behaviours and language, are mediated by legal rules. As such we are asked to regard or treat a legal fiction, a legal sex, as true ontologically, for the purpose of particular social behaviours and language mediated by those rules. In my view, being asked to regard or treat a legal fiction as a true feature of reality is to instantiate a lie into reality. Hence the Sturgeon debacle.
Because it is false, wrong and a lie, it harms everything downstream or based on it.
All of the MPs are woke. They have to be woke to be elected. This is because the real people won’t vote for any of them as a matter of principle. Why vote for somebody who is going to join the expenses gang in Westminster/Cardiff/Edinburgh – and then do absolutely nothing?
Or they pretend to be woke, or keep quiet about their reservations, as they perceive, probably correctly, that the aforementioned militant tendency will come for them.
Exactly. The Whips tell them how to vote – see below.
Exactly. The Whips tell them how to vote – see below.
That is not actually the case. Most older MPs have seen some life, brought up their families and done some sort of job. They have a grasp of reality. Younger MPs tend to become researchers straight from university then move to a council seat and from there to becoming an MP. Little real life experience and more likely to be accepting of whatever “loony tunes rocks up at the door” (T. Blair Esq quote). If the Labour Party goes back to the principles it was founded on and dumps the “new” Labour manifesto, it might yet get into power and make something of the country. As it is, as a lifelong socialist, I find I cannot vote for a party that thinks women are a psychological construct and so are willing to sell my rights down the pan for a tube of lipstick and a tilt of the head.
The problem is that your key sentence begins with, ‘If’. In reality, your ‘If’ will never happen because it is just wishful thinking. I disagree with you anyway.
If you have older MPs who have seen everything, they have to become very, very cynical. They may have started with principles but the Whips got rid of those quickly. You are left with nodding donkeys who do as they are told.
If there is one who stands out, Dennis Skinner comes to mind, his colleagues listen but not with respect. For the listeners he would be entertainment in an otherwise boring day at the office.
IMO our whole system is rotten – for the simple reason that 50%-ish don’t vote because they know that their vote is meaningless. First remove the Lords. Then come up with an alternative system, then a referendum, then a written constitution. Part of the system would be a regular 20-year, say, review of the system, especially looking at the number who vote.
Even more true for local government.
The problem is that your key sentence begins with, ‘If’. In reality, your ‘If’ will never happen because it is just wishful thinking. I disagree with you anyway.
If you have older MPs who have seen everything, they have to become very, very cynical. They may have started with principles but the Whips got rid of those quickly. You are left with nodding donkeys who do as they are told.
If there is one who stands out, Dennis Skinner comes to mind, his colleagues listen but not with respect. For the listeners he would be entertainment in an otherwise boring day at the office.
IMO our whole system is rotten – for the simple reason that 50%-ish don’t vote because they know that their vote is meaningless. First remove the Lords. Then come up with an alternative system, then a referendum, then a written constitution. Part of the system would be a regular 20-year, say, review of the system, especially looking at the number who vote.
Even more true for local government.
Or they pretend to be woke, or keep quiet about their reservations, as they perceive, probably correctly, that the aforementioned militant tendency will come for them.
That is not actually the case. Most older MPs have seen some life, brought up their families and done some sort of job. They have a grasp of reality. Younger MPs tend to become researchers straight from university then move to a council seat and from there to becoming an MP. Little real life experience and more likely to be accepting of whatever “loony tunes rocks up at the door” (T. Blair Esq quote). If the Labour Party goes back to the principles it was founded on and dumps the “new” Labour manifesto, it might yet get into power and make something of the country. As it is, as a lifelong socialist, I find I cannot vote for a party that thinks women are a psychological construct and so are willing to sell my rights down the pan for a tube of lipstick and a tilt of the head.
All of the MPs are woke. They have to be woke to be elected. This is because the real people won’t vote for any of them as a matter of principle. Why vote for somebody who is going to join the expenses gang in Westminster/Cardiff/Edinburgh – and then do absolutely nothing?
Another side to this issue are two recent developments in Australia confirming a worrying trend that’s either been highlighted on Unherd or possibly Spiked (my confusion alone). A counter protest against a demo by LGBT activists has been dubbed ‘far-right’ by elements of the Aussie press and commentariat.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-65034603
As there was some footage from Twitter, I thought I’d have a look. Now, I’m happy to be corrected, but the majority of the men that were visible in the footage appeared to be distinctly Middle Eastern in appearance, which leads me down the rabbit hole of a kind of ‘Top Trumps’ of the supposed vulnerable and oppressed minorities. I can almost visualise the scenario of liberal handwringing over how to write this story up as they fall back on the old reliable ‘far-right’ trope. I’d be fascinated to see the names of the two stormtroopers arrested but I suspect we might not get them. The same article mentions a female Australian Liberal MP who is likely to get expelled from her Party for attending a ‘Let Women Speak’ rally with Kelly Keen, all because (guess what) there were allegedly elements of the ‘far right’ present. The MP in question, Ms Deeming, has explained that the unwelcome attendees were in no way formally connected to the event, but this doesn’t seem to wash with her Party’s leader https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-20/liberal-moira-deeming-to-fight-ousting-after-rally/102119996.
Add this to Sadiq Khan’s dog whistle reaction to protests against his extension of ULEZ https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/sadiq-khan-ulez-protest-ealing-far-right-b1064429.html and I think those of us who are Trans dubious or sceptical about the excesses of the Green Agenda are getting a clear view of one of the weapons that will be mobilised against us.
Yes, and it’s now kicking off here in NZ as well. I smelled a corpulent rat when I saw the story in the first place – the usual candidates trying to revoke a visa based on what someone might say – and the usual opportunists lining up for a shot of righteousness by chanting their support on the telly.
If people don’t want to be offended by Kelly Keen, they don’t need to turn up, do they?
But as we all know, this is really about infantile individuals who can’t stand to think that some people, somewhere, might be having conversations with which they’d disagree. Couple that with the specious assertion that “words are violence” and so the circus begins… again.
A bit of background . . .
To understand Australia you have to know that almost all the state governments, media (including the national broadcaster ABC), businesses and educational and health institutions have been “captured” by gender ideology promoted by ACON, our local version of Stonewall.
In the past month a series of happenings has led to protests against protests against protests. Here is how it happened.
1. In Sydney a month ago there was a three-week Pride festival, in which the city was awash with flags, proud events, drag queens and a big march in which even the Prime Minister participated. To object was to be labelled an unkind bigot. The only way some of us could protest was to crawl into a private space and turn off all media links.
2. Then, earlier this month, a drag queen appearing on tv program the Project told an off-colour Jesus joke that attracted lots of protests from practising Christians and Muslims. That led to a some men forming an online group called Christian Lives Matter (CLM). During Pride thirty of them paraded along the main street of the woke suburb of Newtown loudly reciting the rosary. The sound of Hail Mary Full of Grace made the Pride people eating at kerbside cafes feel “unsafe”. Perhaps it was because some of the CLM men belong to the Maronite church and so, understandably, have a “Middle-Eastern” appearance.
3. Then Kellie-Jay Keen arrived to tour with Let Women Speak events. At first, in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, police kept women safe from increasingly large crowds of pro-trans protesters. Last Saturday things got nasty in Melbourne. The women gathered in front of parliament house, a very large noisy group of protesters was held back by police, and then twenty black-clad male gate-crashers doing Nazi salutes were escorted through the buffer zone by police. In the days since politicians have had a field day making accusations and counter-accusations. And, amazingly, the mainstream media have suddenly noticed the women who want to speak. Even the ABC has broken its stubborn silence.
4. On Tuesday at Hobart’s Let Women Speak a small group of courageous older women was surrounded by a loudly shouting crowd that was abetted by police. (Tasmania anti-discrimination laws no longer recognise sex as a category of person). The crowd was jubilant, believing that, at last, they had silenced the women. You can see the video of it all on Kellie-Jay Keen’s youtube site. The most memorable part shows an older disabled lesbian sitting in a chair, calmly speaking about her life while the crowd continued to scream abuse. They could not hear what she said, but you can hear it on the video (at 1.03.20).
5. On Wednesday at a Catholic church in Sydney there was a pre-election meeting to talk about religious freedom and parental rights. Fifteen pro-trans people gathered outside to protest. They were overwhelmed by a much bigger, louder and aggressive crowd of CLM men.
Today, Thursday, some of us are thinking, “Now you know how it feels”.
Moira Deeming, Liberal Member of the Victorian Parliament is being blamed for the behaviour of the police, who escorted Nazi-saluting men into the space where women were holding a Let Women Speak rally last Saturday. If it isn’t bad enough that her own party leader is threatening to have her expelled from the party, today, the Australian Attorney General has condemned her. You would think a man of the law would know about making unproven allegations.
A lot of Australian women are saying that they have always voted Labor or Greens but they will never do so again.
Yes, and it’s now kicking off here in NZ as well. I smelled a corpulent rat when I saw the story in the first place – the usual candidates trying to revoke a visa based on what someone might say – and the usual opportunists lining up for a shot of righteousness by chanting their support on the telly.
If people don’t want to be offended by Kelly Keen, they don’t need to turn up, do they?
But as we all know, this is really about infantile individuals who can’t stand to think that some people, somewhere, might be having conversations with which they’d disagree. Couple that with the specious assertion that “words are violence” and so the circus begins… again.
A bit of background . . .
To understand Australia you have to know that almost all the state governments, media (including the national broadcaster ABC), businesses and educational and health institutions have been “captured” by gender ideology promoted by ACON, our local version of Stonewall.
In the past month a series of happenings has led to protests against protests against protests. Here is how it happened.
1. In Sydney a month ago there was a three-week Pride festival, in which the city was awash with flags, proud events, drag queens and a big march in which even the Prime Minister participated. To object was to be labelled an unkind bigot. The only way some of us could protest was to crawl into a private space and turn off all media links.
2. Then, earlier this month, a drag queen appearing on tv program the Project told an off-colour Jesus joke that attracted lots of protests from practising Christians and Muslims. That led to a some men forming an online group called Christian Lives Matter (CLM). During Pride thirty of them paraded along the main street of the woke suburb of Newtown loudly reciting the rosary. The sound of Hail Mary Full of Grace made the Pride people eating at kerbside cafes feel “unsafe”. Perhaps it was because some of the CLM men belong to the Maronite church and so, understandably, have a “Middle-Eastern” appearance.
3. Then Kellie-Jay Keen arrived to tour with Let Women Speak events. At first, in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, police kept women safe from increasingly large crowds of pro-trans protesters. Last Saturday things got nasty in Melbourne. The women gathered in front of parliament house, a very large noisy group of protesters was held back by police, and then twenty black-clad male gate-crashers doing Nazi salutes were escorted through the buffer zone by police. In the days since politicians have had a field day making accusations and counter-accusations. And, amazingly, the mainstream media have suddenly noticed the women who want to speak. Even the ABC has broken its stubborn silence.
4. On Tuesday at Hobart’s Let Women Speak a small group of courageous older women was surrounded by a loudly shouting crowd that was abetted by police. (Tasmania anti-discrimination laws no longer recognise sex as a category of person). The crowd was jubilant, believing that, at last, they had silenced the women. You can see the video of it all on Kellie-Jay Keen’s youtube site. The most memorable part shows an older disabled lesbian sitting in a chair, calmly speaking about her life while the crowd continued to scream abuse. They could not hear what she said, but you can hear it on the video (at 1.03.20).
5. On Wednesday at a Catholic church in Sydney there was a pre-election meeting to talk about religious freedom and parental rights. Fifteen pro-trans people gathered outside to protest. They were overwhelmed by a much bigger, louder and aggressive crowd of CLM men.
Today, Thursday, some of us are thinking, “Now you know how it feels”.
Moira Deeming, Liberal Member of the Victorian Parliament is being blamed for the behaviour of the police, who escorted Nazi-saluting men into the space where women were holding a Let Women Speak rally last Saturday. If it isn’t bad enough that her own party leader is threatening to have her expelled from the party, today, the Australian Attorney General has condemned her. You would think a man of the law would know about making unproven allegations.
A lot of Australian women are saying that they have always voted Labor or Greens but they will never do so again.
Another side to this issue are two recent developments in Australia confirming a worrying trend that’s either been highlighted on Unherd or possibly Spiked (my confusion alone). A counter protest against a demo by LGBT activists has been dubbed ‘far-right’ by elements of the Aussie press and commentariat.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-65034603
As there was some footage from Twitter, I thought I’d have a look. Now, I’m happy to be corrected, but the majority of the men that were visible in the footage appeared to be distinctly Middle Eastern in appearance, which leads me down the rabbit hole of a kind of ‘Top Trumps’ of the supposed vulnerable and oppressed minorities. I can almost visualise the scenario of liberal handwringing over how to write this story up as they fall back on the old reliable ‘far-right’ trope. I’d be fascinated to see the names of the two stormtroopers arrested but I suspect we might not get them. The same article mentions a female Australian Liberal MP who is likely to get expelled from her Party for attending a ‘Let Women Speak’ rally with Kelly Keen, all because (guess what) there were allegedly elements of the ‘far right’ present. The MP in question, Ms Deeming, has explained that the unwelcome attendees were in no way formally connected to the event, but this doesn’t seem to wash with her Party’s leader https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-20/liberal-moira-deeming-to-fight-ousting-after-rally/102119996.
Add this to Sadiq Khan’s dog whistle reaction to protests against his extension of ULEZ https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/sadiq-khan-ulez-protest-ealing-far-right-b1064429.html and I think those of us who are Trans dubious or sceptical about the excesses of the Green Agenda are getting a clear view of one of the weapons that will be mobilised against us.
“Is it the party of working people, or a vehicle for ludicrous ideas?”
Rhetorical question of the week.
“Is it the party of working people, or a vehicle for ludicrous ideas?”
Rhetorical question of the week.
If I self-ID as a member of the Dail, can I propose a bill to reverse the gender self-ID legislation in Ireland?
If you self-identify as Dali you can do anything you like – the more surreal and weird, the better.
Worth a shot.
If you want a posse of upstanding chaps, of all genders, to authenticate your identity, I’m sure that you will find plenty of support here.
If you self-identify as Dali you can do anything you like – the more surreal and weird, the better.
Worth a shot.
If you want a posse of upstanding chaps, of all genders, to authenticate your identity, I’m sure that you will find plenty of support here.
If I self-ID as a member of the Dail, can I propose a bill to reverse the gender self-ID legislation in Ireland?
The comparison of trans activists in the Labour party with the Militant Tendency of the 1980s is very apt. I remember the Militant Tendency well from my younger days– almost all of them from upper class backgrounds but fighting, supposedly, for the downtrodden working classes despite having no idea what the working classes actually think or feel and espousing views that were totally alien to the working classes. It’s the same now – a lot of trans activists that are not trans themselves, but are fighting, again supposedly, for the downtrodden trans community. They are rebels in search of a cause, and because they don’t have a cause of their own, they latch on to another cause for which they have no skin in the game and, I suspect, little idea of what those at the sharp end actually think or feel. People tend to think of Kinnock as an ineffectual leader, but taking on the Militant Tendency saved his party from descending into a madness that would have made them unelectable forever. Starmer needs to do the same.
The comparison of trans activists in the Labour party with the Militant Tendency of the 1980s is very apt. I remember the Militant Tendency well from my younger days– almost all of them from upper class backgrounds but fighting, supposedly, for the downtrodden working classes despite having no idea what the working classes actually think or feel and espousing views that were totally alien to the working classes. It’s the same now – a lot of trans activists that are not trans themselves, but are fighting, again supposedly, for the downtrodden trans community. They are rebels in search of a cause, and because they don’t have a cause of their own, they latch on to another cause for which they have no skin in the game and, I suspect, little idea of what those at the sharp end actually think or feel. People tend to think of Kinnock as an ineffectual leader, but taking on the Militant Tendency saved his party from descending into a madness that would have made them unelectable forever. Starmer needs to do the same.
Mr Starmer, if you have read this article (if not then, at least, your team should be subscribers to Unheard and bring it to your attention) I think you personally should give some time and informed and serious thought to the trans issue before you opine on it and shed even more voters. I suggest you read ‘Trans’ by Helen Joyce.
Mr Starmer, if you have read this article (if not then, at least, your team should be subscribers to Unheard and bring it to your attention) I think you personally should give some time and informed and serious thought to the trans issue before you opine on it and shed even more voters. I suggest you read ‘Trans’ by Helen Joyce.
Why are politicians prepared to placate a tiny minority of noisy homosexual men who purport to speak on behalf of trans women at the cost of alienating hundreds, perhaps thousands of ordinary voters who have no strong views about the matter except they don’t want to see male rapists in women’s prisons?
I don’t know. But then much of what politicians say and do mystifies me.
Why are politicians prepared to placate a tiny minority of noisy homosexual men who purport to speak on behalf of trans women at the cost of alienating hundreds, perhaps thousands of ordinary voters who have no strong views about the matter except they don’t want to see male rapists in women’s prisons?
I don’t know. But then much of what politicians say and do mystifies me.