The Road To Wigan Pier

Update 182

Just to re-cap on the statement on ‘transgender issues’ by Anneliese Dodds, Shadow Equalities Minister, which I reported on yesterday:

1. No panel of doctors re a Gender Recognition Act (GRA) certificate;

2. Diagnosis by a single doctor is sufficient - could be Gender GP ,for example;

3. No amendment to the Equality Act to make it clear (as recommended by the Equality and Human Rights Commission) that sex means biological sex;

4. Support for gender affirming care for children and adults;

5. No mention of conversion therapy;

6. Removal of the ‘spousal exemption’ where the woman can object to her husband getting a GRA certificate.

As I said yesterday 1 and 2 above amount to self ID by the back door and the rest of the proposals are entirely regressive. So, despite some fine words, no real change from Labour.

Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier was first published in 1937. The first half of this work documents his investigations of the bleak living conditions among the working class in Lancashire and Yorkshire in the industrial north of England before World War 2. It starts with a marvellous description of a lodging house which doubled as a tripe shop overcrowded with travelling salesmen. The landlord would insist on cutting the bread for everyone at breakfast which meant you would get a slice of bread with a big black thumb print in the middle. The second half is a long essay on his middle-class upbringing, and the development of his political conscience, questioning British attitudes towards socialism. It has to be remembered that a lot of people on the left at the time didn’t like Orwell because in books such as 1984 and Animal Farm he made it clear that the left could be just as authoritarian and totalitarian as the right.

If Orwell was alive now I think he would be appalled at the Labour Party and their (basically) authoritarian attitude on this issue. In fact I think he must be spinning in his grave!

So Kemi Badenoch, the Equalities Minister, was handed an opportunity to put distance between the Tories and Labour on this issue. Let’s see how she did.

Greg Heffer on the Mailonline ( 'How can anyone trust Labour?': Kemi Badenoch tears into opposition's stance on trans issues as equalities minister highlights how Keir Starmer previously called for self-ID... but now says medical diagnosis is 'important' 25 July) reports:

Kemi Badenoch has torn into Labour's 'bare-faced hypocrisy' on transgender issues as she attacked the opposition's latest attempt to set out its stance.

The Women and Equalities minister claimed Sir Keir Starmer's party were 'embarrassed at being on the wrong side of history' as she accused Labour of trying to 'fool people and hide what they really think'.

Ms Badenoch used a series of Twitter posts to respond to a newspaper article by Labour chair Anneliese Dodds, who is also the party's shadow women and equalities minister.

Writing in the Guardian, Ms Dodds had hit out at the 'calculating cynicism' of 'desperate' Conservatives as she claimed the Tories were trying to 'descend into the gutter' over transgender issues.

She said Labour was committed to 'modernising' the Gender Recognition Act if her party entered government after the next general election.

But Ms Dodds stressed 'the requirement to obtain a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria' remained an 'important part' of someone having their new gender legally recognised.

In her response on social media, Ms Badenoch highlighted how Sir Keir had previously backed the 'complete opposite' and supported the introduction of self-identification for transgender people.

'How can anyone trust Labour on these issues?,' the Cabinet minister tweeted.

'Today Dodds says a medical diagnosis is 'important'. Yet here's Keir Starmer two years ago announcing the complete opposite.

'Will he tell us why he has changed his mind? Will he admit that he was wrong?'

Ms Badenoch also called on Sir Keir and Labour to 'apologise' after his party's MPs previously 'insulted' the Tories over the Government's approach to trans issues.

She added: 'Make no mistake. Labour are embarrassed at being on the wrong side of history with numerous court cases on this issue and scandals like at the Tavistock. 

'They want to fool people and hide what they really think. They want you to think they have changed. They haven't.'

The Cabinet minister claimed Ms Dodds' promise to 'modernise' the 2004 Gender Recognition Act was work that had already been conducted by the Tory Government.

'In 2020, Labour MPs claimed the Government's policy on self-ID was 'prejudiced',' Ms Badenoch tweeted.

'Today Dodds has announced the same policy, pretending it's new thinking - we announced improvements to modernise 3 years ago and finished them last year! 

'This is bare-faced hypocrisy from Labour.'

Ms Badenoch places emphasis on what Sir Keir Starmer said previously about self ID and what is being said now by Ms Dodds but failing to point out how close to self ID the new Labour proposals are. Indeed she seems to suggest that they are now close to the Government’s position! She doesn’t criticise anything else Ms Dodds said. She clearly has no intention of doing anything about the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) 2004. See further below.

EDI Jester addresses all this here:

I agree with all Barry says here.

I have spent most of my life voting Labour. I stopped for a while after they invaded Iraq based on no evidence. I was on the anti-war march in London in 2003 estimated at over 1 million people. I was with my mate at the end of the march . As we got to Hyde Park we had missed all the speeches and everyone was leaving! That was how big it was! I then voted Green for a while and then went back to Labour . I have not voted Labour for some years now mainly because of their position on gender identity ( but also because of their - as it seems to me - abandonment of the working class). The Greens and Lib Dems, SNP, Plaid Cymru...even Sinn Fein for **** sake are gone with the woo woo.

However the Tories have had 13 years to sort out this gender nonsense and have so far failed to do so. Kemi Badenoch's response to Ms Dodds' weasel words from yesterday makes it clear that the Tories will not touch the Gender Recognition Act. Nor does it state that they will completely stop gender affirming care and we are still waiting for the schools guidance. And what is happening with conversion therapy?

Only the Party of Women (PoW) will seek to repeal the GRA and sort out the other issues. For me this is a single issue matter and I will be voting for PoW.

Please let me have your thoughts, dear readers.

BTW Anneliese Dodds, here is KJK talking to a ‘trans parent’ in Australia for you to listen to:

Women’s Sport

Marvellous interview by the Triggernometry boys with Sharron Davies, former British Olympic swimmer. I have now ordered Sharron’s book, Unfair Play to add to my books’ backlog!

Listening to this interview made me think of the interview by Beth Rigby on Sky News with Iain Anderson of Stonewall, where he failed to answer the question whether it was fair to have biological men in women’s sport with the giant figure of Lia Thomas projected on the wall behind him.

Sharron starts off by explaining how, back in the day, the East German women swimmers were on testosterone and nothing was done about it. Back then, the East Germans were winning 92% of the women’s swimming titles and the men were winning none of the men’s titles.

Lia Thomas was a mediocre swimmer in the men’s category and then started winning all the events that he took part in in the women’s category. There was discussion of the bravery of Riley Gaines in standing up against this. Why do other women swimmers and other women athletes not stand up against this? Many of them have contracts with the governing bodies or sponsors that prevent them from doing this. Additionally those competing with Lia Thomas were bullied into silence. See my report on this here ( interview with Jordan Peterson):

https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/narcissists-frauds-and-enablers

It took a long time for some of the governing bodies to properly look at this issue. Trans rights activists would hassle the governing bodies and the sports women who were brave enough to stand up to this. Sharron described it as “vile misogyny“.

Sharron says that if we lose free speech, then we lose democracy. She points out that many sports are run by men. If there is a problem in men’s sport, then it gets sorted out pretty quickly.

She refers to the fact that World Rugby have decided that biological men should not take part in women’s rugby. For example, men hit 160% harder than women do. She also refers to some improvement in terms of British Cycling. However she expresses her disappointment that Parkrun has not been sorted out.

She refers to President Biden talking of removing Title IX which gave some reassurance in terms of women’s sport [ specifically, Title IX states that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance”]. She refers to hearing from lots of parents who remove their children from sport because it is dangerous e.g. when they see that there are boys playing in the girls’ rugby team. Thus some girls and women are self excluding from sports. She has lots of reports of schools having mixed sex sports days where none of the girls are winning.

All in all a really excellent interview and I’m sure I will enjoy Sharron’s book.

Doctor Martens

By popular demand (well, one reader 😎) here is a photo of my yellow stripe DMs

Here is some other person with yellow stripe DMs on 😎

OK, ok here is Alexei Sayle:

And finally…

Oh, you thought the above was ‘and finally’! Oh, no, there is a special treat for you all…

Thanks to Whistle the Band! If only we could get this to Number 1!!

I am very out and about for the rest of this week, so not sure when the next update will be. Bear with me 😎

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