Mick Hartley

Jean Hatchet at The Critic is unpersuaded by Labour's gender turn.  

If a woman is in a relationship with a man who doesn’t really care about her, but doesn’t want to let her off the hook completely and allow her to walk away, he will “breadcrumb” her. This sort of self-interested, manipulative bloke will throw a woman the tiniest scraps of affection that are, in reality, too small and brief to truly meet her emotional needs. He is not to be trusted. It is my belief that the Labour Party is breadcrumbing women at present, after many years of neglecting their political and social needs. I do not trust it….

Labour has its eyes on the Tories, not on the needs of women. If it had cared about what we have had to say, it would have acted before now. It is excruciating to watch contortions for the ballot box. Not one member has been brave enough to correct their previous assertion that “trans women are women”. Not one has mentioned language use around pregnancy, gynaecology and other medical issues affecting women. Not one has said anything about sport, toilets, changing rooms or schools. The controversial conversion therapy bill is not discussed. Where exactly are the firm details of this proposed policy? …

Labour is breadcrumbing. It has taught women to expect so little respect for their rights, that they must cling to the tiniest gesture. The party leaders know how little women have been listened to. They know how they have maintained a stony silence at best when we have pleaded with them. They have paraded their deaf ears proudly around our constituencies, pretending we were silent on the issue. They hurled us out of the party and allowed misogynists to shout us down. Now they are back with a metaphorical box of chocolates in their hands, acting like nothing happened. It’s duplicitous, and women shouldn’t accept it….

Stonewall is still hugely influential in affecting public policy, and Labour is still strongly associated with Stonewall by continuing as a “diversity champion”. The Labour Party is not yet in control of Whitehall where trans activism still wields an iron grip over many government areas. Schools still have little clarity. Most of the public are still not aware of much of what has been happening. Trans activists are furious, and none of us should underestimate that fury. The determined effort to embed gender over sex in crucial policy areas was so sly and so pervasive over the years, that most of us were taken aback at the pernicious extent of the ideological reach.

When the enemy looks slightly weaker, you don’t just walk away and leave the battlefield. You stand shoulder to shoulder until it retreats. Women must not lay down their arms just yet. Trans activists have, over the past decade, proven themselves deeply manipulative. Their ability to apply intense pressure upon the Labour Party has not evaporated over the past week. They lay seething in local parties where they have successfully bullied dissenting women into silence. The MPs who have shared platforms with the violent misogynist Sarah Jane Baker, recently returned to jail, are still in their constituency offices firmly believing none of this policy shift, and I have no doubt they will actively work to reverse it. The ongoing threat to women’s rights has not dissipated — it may have strengthened.

I won’t be breadcrumbed. Labour would have to come at me with the full loaf. It is currently many slices short.

As I noted the other day, Labour's young ideologues are happy to toe the party line for the moment. Once in power, though, they'll be changing their tune for sure.