Mick Hartley

Meanwhile, Labour keeps digging away at that trans hole. Clearly Anneliese Dodds learned nothing from her recent meeting with the LRB Alliance:

Labour will make it easier to change gender and is considering allowing a single family doctor to sign off on the decision under plans to “simplify” the process.

The party is considering how to make the legally binding certificate easier to obtain while still having guardrails to prevent mirroring controversial ­proposals in Scotland that would have ­removed doctors from the process ­altogether.

The plans include ditching a panel of doctors and lawyers that approve ­gender recognition certificates, the document allowing transgender people to have their affirmed gender legally recognised, and only requiring one doctor to be involved in the process.

The Times understands that one option under consideration is that the doctor could be a GP. Labour would ­also ­remove the ability of a spouse to object to the change. A source said the party wanted to make the process “less medicalised” but added that the plans would retain the involvement of a doctor and would not allow people to self-identify in order to obtain legal changes….

Anneliese Dodds, the shadow women and equalities secretary, said she wanted to strip out the “futile and dehumanising parts” of acquiring a gender recognition certificate.

“We believe everyone should be treated with dignity and respect,” she said. “We want to see the process for gender recognition modernised, while protecting single sex spaces for biological women. This means stripping out the futile and dehumanising parts of the process for obtaining a gender ­recognition certificate, while retaining important safeguards.”

Making self-ID easier, with the fig-leaf of a GP's approval, is back to the bad old days, following along the SNP's disastrous path. What on earth are they thinking?

And the bit about "while protecting single sex spaces for biological women" is window-dressing nonsense. Easier self-ID and protecting single sex spaces are simply not compatible.

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said she would be concerned about “shifting sole responsibility for signing gender recognition certificates to GPs”.

She said while the college supported improving care for patients with gender dysphoria “including tackling the long waits they face for treatment and ­services”, she added: “For most GPs, detailed management of gender dysphoria is outside of our area of expertise.”

Badenoch said: “There is no reason whatsoever to relax the safeguards that are in place. [Labour] should stop trying to weaponise this issue and allow professionals to do their job properly.”