Why have we allowed the Right Wing

It still frustrates me that the biggest farce of FPTP is the SNP in Scotland.
45% of the Scottish vote got over 81% of the Scottish seats at Westminster.
They got a lower share of the votes in Scotland than Conservatives did in England (7% of the vote getting 65% of English Westminster seats).
Conservatives got 25% of vote in Scotland but just 10% of Scottish seats.

All of those figures are barmy, but the Scottish situation should be the epitaph for FPTP.
 
The Ruthsayer said:
And their attendant media friends to seize the initiative on the protection of women’s rights (by this I mean safe spaces, sports and services, as well as the right to use the term ‘woman’, rather than ‘person with a uterus’)?
I am aware that this is an invidious topic, so I hope we can maintain a degree of maturity here.
The corollary is, of course, that Labour risk alienating yet more potential voters.
Thoughts?
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Groupthink from many of those on the left?
 
What's the use of 'safe spaces' about in these discussions?

It seems to be used with the implication that allowing trans people to use the facilities reserved for the gender that they identify as is unsafe?

I don't get it, I don't get why people have their knickers in such a twist about this?

I get if from a sport perspective and think there should be some kind of open category as it doesn't seem fair that someone who grew up with male hormones is allowed to compete in a field of people who grew up with female hormones.
 
Colgates_shaving_foam said:
What's the use of 'safe spaces' about in these discussions?

It seems to be used with the implication that allowing trans people to use the facilities reserved for the gender that they identify as is unsafe?

I don't get it, I don't get why people have their knickers in such a twist about this?

I get if from a sport perspective and think there should be some kind of open category as it doesn't seem fair that someone who grew up with male hormones is allowed to compete in a field of people who grew up with female hormones.
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Thank you for a reasoned reply. There are two aspects to ‘safe spaces’. One is that females who have suffered abuse from males will be hesitant to use services (rape, abuse) that allow males identifying as females. (The head of Rape Crisis in Scotland is a male), and secondly, that non-genuine males will exploit the law to infiltrate female only spaces. This is already happening.
 
I don't think this is particularly a right/left thing. It's not even progressive vs conservative. There are a bunch of different issues that get conflated and prevent any real discussion from taking place as things get sidetracked very quickly.

Asking a politician to define "woman" is stupid. The only reason for asking is to gain a "gotcha" moment as there really is no correct short answer due to the way the English language works. Rishi Sunak was given a free pass, Keir Starmer wasn't. It's really that simple.

What a "woman" is depends on a bunch of contextual clues. Is a pantomime dame a woman? Is the character being played a woman? Where is the boundary between the two?

Trans-women in sport is a category issue and it should be relatively easy to see this and act accordingly. Political pressure makes it more complicated. Decision-making is seen as a hot potato but I think over time the vast majority of sports will settle on a ban on trans-women in the female categories. The argument about trans-women not winning is nonsense. The woman who used a car in the ultra-marathon last week didn't win but she definitely gained an advantage. No-one (I'd hope) would advocate for athletes using cars based on the one that did not winning.

Trans-women in "safe-spaces" is a safeguarding and mental health issue. Women needing those safe-spaces (or wanting female personal carers etc.) should be able to use them knowing that there won't be any men there. As soon as you mess with this you end up with people needing the services not using them. There should be spaces created specifically for trans-women (and trans-men if that is also an issue) - the fact that we have a government that has slashed most of these services anyway doesn't help.

Even posting this, there is obviously (in my head) a distinction between a "woman" and a "trans-woman" but I'd hate to have to explain it without spending a few paragraphs setting out definitions.

I think inclusivity in and of itself is a good thing but there needs to be clarity from government where safeguarding issues arise.
 
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