There is a general if not universal acceptance that @UKLabour clarification of its understanding of 'sex' and 'gender' being profoundly different and policy relevant is a good thing and has moved us forward onto
less dangerous terrain. It is also worth noting that there is a widespread mistrust, and demands for an apology.

I think it would be a mistake to write off those demands as coming only from anti-Labour right wingers who are motivated by criticism of Labour because they do not want to see us govern.

@sacha_coward You were born in or around 1987, right? So you were either a fetus or a newborn infant when the notorious clause that would eventually become s28 was first introduced, shortly before the 1987 General Election. And still in nappies when reintroduced later that same year. Right? @sacha_coward And, without apology for what you would probably, and incorrectly, call biological determinism, you were still breastfeeding from your mother when the clause became a section as it passed into law and the lesbians went abseiling into the news studios? Correct?

I missed Andy's semi final and lost a day's work on the office construction but I spent today scoffing nosh in the garden marquee of a large Cotswolds country house at a 90th birthday celebration and met up with 5 friends I haven't seen since 1977.

'Midge' arrived by Gazelle 👇 It was a really great day.

Yes, they and the other guests were all surprised I had ended up working for Jeremy Corbyn (except the one who had worked in No.10 for Boris Johnson - we had a good chat) but there was an enduring bond between the three of us who had been class ...

The Labour Losing Women hashtag has served its purpose. When something like that arises, the campaign planners go something like, 'Oh Sh!t' and then, if they are worried, they commission private polling. That's been done and, although it is evident Labour has lost *some* women, we are not 'losing women'.

On the contrary, we are gaining women voters, by the bucketload. And disproportionately so, too.

Labour losing men would be far more accurate.

The Nashville school shooting is the 129th mass killing in the United States so far this year (a/t the Gun Violence Archive).

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINE

The three nine year olds and three adults killed by the shooter are added to 647 gun deaths so far, to 9 March. Republican controlled Tenessee relaxed its gun control laws in 2021.

Democratic President Joe Biden has - he claims - used the full extent of his executive authority in matters of gun control.

It is up to Congress, where Republicans control the House of Reps, to go further.

Today, in 'Scenes that will Never Happen':

"Hi, New Zealand, Cleverly here. James Cleverly. UK. Could you put ratification of that trade deal to one side for a moment please? We over here think you need to explain to us your nation's human rights and policing failures." "Hi James. New Zealand here. Sorry, I was under the impression that your government believed the post Brexit trade deal was of the utmost importance in current relations between our countries, as you'd said.

Anyway, since you raise this matter, please allow me to refer ...

When he was a fairly new MP, I was on the Executive Committee of the Islington North CLP which Jeremy represented. 1980s. At various times, the Ward Organiser, local election agent, Youth Officer, Branch delegate. My patch was Highbury Ward, incorporating the old Arsenal Stadium. And, as it happens, the new one, too but it was a refuse centre back then, Ashburton Grove.

Quite a few famous faces living in those big houses including, at that time, Sade Adu and Bernard Manning, who used to park his Rolls Royce outside the council flat in which he still ...

Five years ago, Posie Parker aka KJK was one of many women working together to arrest the madness.

The division happened when she cosied up to the American right wing conservatives and started whistling the far right dogs.

https://twitter.com/ThePosieParker/status/947585633874214912?t=Gj_V5HKnRfDOkVg00SCqFg&s=19

The division only happened when she cosied up to the American right wing conservatives and started whistling the far right dogs.

The actions taken by aggressive men in Auckland are not the responsibility of Let Women Speak tour organisers, nor of KJK and her choice of provocative language.

Their aggression and violence is their own and it is to be condemned. Those crowd scenes are horrific. As is always the case, the physical violence and the threats of physical violence is a one way street, with men instigating it. None of the women being threatened in Auckland were threatening violence themselves.

And, despite my initial reaction, relieved that the New Zealand ..

This is instructive for @Keir_Starmer and @UKLabour

This voter won't vote Labour because Keirs stumbling answers on the nature of women and their cervices stays lodged in her mind, two years later.

In part, that is because his undoubted progression since then has been timid.

https://twitter.com/edcmpbl/status/1638967017607688207

But here's the Prime Minister, @RishiSunak being just as slippery and evasive and non committal as was Keir, within days of Keir's own gabbling.

Why is he not being pilloried?

I had my surgery today.

I was first referred before the first British Covid lockdown restrictions, when it was a routine precautionary treatment. So you get an idea of current NHS waiting times.

By last month, when staff shortages contributed to its cancellation, it had become ... an urgent requirement. Actually, that was about six months ago. But you know how long we all now wait for our treatments.

But today I was admitted and it was done. In and out in six hours. Utterly brilliant care from every member of staff I encountered.

"He's a chaser
A full on TRA
What you need to understand is that he married a tranny
Quisling
Paedo apologist
Groomer
A man
Man man man
He's motivated by Labour loyalty
He says one thing but means another
His friends are all trans, or those hated Head Girls, who do his bidding" OK.

So as far as sorting the wheat from the chaff goes, this is pretty successful. You're a cult, and bonkers.

"This is not surprising
I've seen it coming
I unfollowed him ages ago
I've been harbouring my doubts"

Well, fine. We can disagree. But you can't call me dishonest.w

Am I a TRA? In the literal sense, yes.

I actively promote the rights of trans people. Always have.

That doesn't mean I subscribe to the Stonewall/Mermaids/Maugham, Bragg & Jones version. It's clear I oppose that (and have had effect in stopping their full implementation). You people are weird, which is a really nice way of putting it.

I've always held those things. Sure, like anyone, I've learned some stuff along the way and maybe moderated. I'm still nervous about it but have conceded the need to reform GRA to include something like the ..

I think the number of people who know that sex is real and immutable but have never seen any political attacks on trans people now exceeds the number of people who believe sex is on a malleable spectrum and have never seen threats of violence against women and girls. Someone said today, "what happened to you?"

The answer is 'nothing'. I'm still here, same place, same beliefs, same commitment to try and ensure that the rights of all people are upheld, and that one group is not preferred over another.

Unpicking the threads of thought which took the institutions of so many countries down these dangerous, dead end pathways is a skill beyond most of us.

It was not beyond JCJ, who has freely given us all the tools we need to dig this out from the roots.

You should be ashamed. Jane is articulate, generous, funny and very sharp.

I've had long conversations when she has had plenty of opportunity to bad mouth others. She doesn't. Sometimes, she sighs and raises an eyebrow.

I simply do not recognise half of what is said by a small group of bullies.

I don't think male sex offenders should be housed in women's prisons. I don't think human beings can change sex. I don't think we should perform medical experiments on tomboys. I don't think gay men should have to consider dating female people for inclusivity. I don't think male people should play on women's sports teams, or compete against women in sport. I don't think male people should use the same communal changing rooms, showers or public toilets as women. I don't think anyone should be chastised for what they wear.

I like Labour's five missions. Indeed, it was an approach I urged umsuccessfully when I advised the party. I learned it from the SNP, who learned it from the State of Virginia.

I think - apart from the underpinning detail and all the policies that will drive progress - that ... ... there a couple of things missing. Justice is not only about public safety. It is also about upholding rights, especially in conflicts between citizen and state, and ensuring our society is fair. That's all a question of civil law, not criminal law, something the ex DPP ...

History is written by winners but it doesn't change what happened. On 12 December 2019 people who voted Tory in preference to Labour were asked why by pollsters JL Partners:

71% To Get Brexit done
8% The Economy
6% The Policies
6% Public Services, including NHS
2% Jeremy Corbyn The 2019 defeat is undeniable.

The making of myths about why it happened is exactly that: the making of myths.

I'm not obsessed with trans people, Garth. I'm obsessed by the fact that people like you want more sexual offenders to be locked up with women in rooms from which there is no escape and more kids who would grow up gay or lesbian to be sterilised in grotesque medical experiments.

https://twitter.com/GarthMarenghia/status/1604481969425088512

By the fact that people like you want more sports women (and girls) to lose more of their places, sponsorships and prizes to mediocre, cheating men. That you want to dismantle the language and the statistics which enable social policies addressing sex equality to be developed.

Our cat is a rescue cat. I don't know exactly what happened to her in her first four years of life but she hates being near dogs, children and, except for us, men. She will, after gentle and slow introductions make individual exceptions to all three but that is her gut ... ... reaction and we will accommodate her, keeping even the softest, friendliest dogs away from her, asking our male visitors to leave her alone until she chooses to approach them and setting strict rules with supervised introductions for any children.

She us happy and secure ...

When I was born, consensual, private sexual activity between two men was still illegal. Today, we may marry and we are protected from discrimination, just like anyone else.

A lot of things contributed to these changes. One of them was coming out.

"We're here, we're queer" In the 1980s, standing on the shoulders of predecessors in the Campaign for Homosexual Equality and the Gay Liberation Front, in the midst of the AIDS pandemic, under attack from Clause 28, we came out in our hundreds of thousands.