The GRA nonsense.

Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill: A consultation

In a statement to the Scottish Parliament in June, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People, announced that the Scottish Government would consult on a draft Bill to reform the process by which trans people gain legal recognition of their lived gender through a Gender Recognition Certificate – a right they have had for 15 years. 

To comply with international human rights law, Scotland must have a system for obtaining legal gender recognition.  The current system is viewed by many applicants, or would-be applicants, as demeaning, lengthy, and stressful.

So there we have it; fine intentions. Who can argue against such a thing? It may of course be valid to take a step back and ask why any man or woman would want to say that they are anything other than the sex that they were born into.

What possible reason would a man decide that he 'ought' to be said to be a woman? Mental illness? Certainly, that's one possibility? Some sexist fetish to wear female clothes? Yep, tick box again. Is there any other good reason? I've yet to hear of one.

And then to take a step further and declare that a trans-woman (i.e. a bloke) is a woman, is so nutty that one would wonder if these are indeed the end of days. But not nutty. Actually hideously offensive. Every person on this planet was born to a woman. If a trans-gender activist could look back at their own birth - their mother carrying them for nine months, the labours of birth and then declare that trans-women are women, I do think their mother would drown them on the spot.

Post-election thoughts

They were immediate but of course I never got round to putting them down on paper. I mean, on a blog.

Acres of newsprint has been expended analysing the results - the fall of the 'red wall' and the part played by Corbyn in his own defeat - or was it our unsatisfactory Brexit position, largely the creation of Starmer (and the mass membership, it must be said).

What I was interested in was the split in the Labour vote - we all knew that there was a difficulty in holding a party together (from Hartlepool to Haringey or some such thing) which contained the 'authentic' old working class (residues thereof) with their social conservatism and the metropolitan youngsters with their liberal outlook. These strains currently bedevil all social democratic parties, but not it would seem, the SNP. They march on, as strongly as ever (still with a minority of the vote).

Now clearly they've managed to hold together their own unwieldy coalition of eco-friendly refugee-friendly trans-friendly metropolitans with a horde of outright flag-waving Westminster/Tory/English haters.

If one was to be mischievous and one was intent on causing difficulties, clearly there is a fault line which could just be worked upon.

Just sayin'

The Grievance Factory

One of the more tiresome aspects of the current Scottish political scene is where a daily outrage has to be tossed to the crowds to keep them in a state of revolutionary eagerness to storm the winter palace. 

There was Boris Johnson turning down any request for a second referendum (and especially not granting the powers to Holyrood to hold referenda whenever they want) by referencing the "once in a generation" comment made by Sturgeon and Salmond. It was "we never said once in a generation" (apart from it being in the White Paper). Foam foam foam!!!

Then Lisa Nandy who, prompted to discuss how to combat the SNP in Scotland said that we should look to places like Quebec and Catalonia where nationalism had been defeated by social justice.
Clearly that meant she favoured locking up Catalonians, after giving them a sound beating. Gerry Hassan went as far as calling it, " fundamental nationalism: a call to brutal uncompromising Labour state repression."
Oh, the foaming at the mooth which followed that.

And so it rolls on... the EU flag is being lowered. An outrage. Let's forget that the SNP campaigned against joining in 1975. Keir Starmer said what? Aux armes, citoyens, Formez vos bataillons, Marchons, marchons !

round and round...