This Once Great Movement Of Ours

[afleitch]

She was on the failed Irish sitcom writers basement YouTube stream so...

I do annoyingly find myself self censoring because a lot of the monomaniac gender critters are notoriously litigious and raise a fair whack of money from people with a winter fuel allowance to contribute.

What a wretched island.

[JimJamUK]

Duffield does seem to have fallen down the ‘gender critical’ rabbit hole and some of her statements/appearances haven’t helped her, but AFAIK she hasn’t gone full on transphobe (more vocally moderately so) and the sort of abuse she and others get is awful and unacceptable (and FTR this sort of abuse comes from both extremes to anyone publicly disagreeing with them).

[afleitch]

Duffield does seem to have fallen down the ‘gender critical’ rabbit hole and some of her statements/appearances haven’t helped her, but AFAIK she hasn’t gone full on transphobe (more vocally moderately so) and the sort of abuse she and others get is awful and unacceptable (and FTR this sort of abuse comes from both extremes to anyone publicly disagreeing with them).

There is genuine abuse, particularly online. But the problem is, vitriolic wave of abuse is thrown at trans people and their allies and the media don't care. 'Gender critical' figures saying they are being abused is heavily reported, even though they often follow, retweet and communicate with those who hurl abuse at trans people.

That sort of abuse is thrown at women's refuge and women's healthcare charities that are trans inclusive so much so accounts are restricted. This isn't reported. Even though vital work is being disrupted.

So 'gender critical' people of note, given an almost daily platform in every newspaper in the country can talk about being the subject of nebulous harassment, often appealing to strictly unfeminist notions of vulnerability and passivity without being challenged as to their contribution to the same types of harassment.

Because the same media that knew about but stayed silent on the Number 10 parties are so interlinked and interwoven with journalists, politicians and authors who disproportionately contribute to the trans panic in this country.

[CumbrianLefty]

And - this has to be said yet again - much of the worst abuse will have come from people who are not Labour members and the party is powerless to do anything about them.

[Blair]

And - this has to be said yet again - much of the worst abuse will have come from people who are not Labour members and the party is powerless to do anything about them.

The party is currently so notoriously understaffed that London region has two members of staff I think!

[Blair]

A lot of THIGMOO issues are caused the fact that the ‘the party’ in its various forms is often 1 or 2 inexperienced staff members dealing with a whole host of issues- this is made worse by the fact the party struggles to keep experienced staff in junior or middle roles because it has always had a record of poor treatment and those doing the jobs see it as a stepping stone.

[CumbrianLefty]

Anyway, until this latest stramash blew up I didn't even know that Duffield might not live in her seat - I had presumed that she was Canterbury based.

[beesley]

https://twitter.com/BenPBradshaw/status/1489133080573280256?s=20&t=D1YUT9NbR...

A loss to the party but an even bigger loss to Exeter.

[Blair]

https://twitter.com/BenPBradshaw/status/1489133080573280256?s=20&t=D1YUT9NbR...

A loss to the party but an even bigger loss to Exeter.

Confirms the trend of old/senior Blairite MPs retiring- with Brexit over, THIGMOO wars in a truce and local parties quite sedate it’s not a surprise.

[Blair]

Reshuffle Klaxon!

Stephen Kinnock has been announced as the new shadow immigration minister. He was formally No.2 in the defence team and before that had been in the shadow FCO team. This is an interesting appointment in that he represents a leave seat in South Wales - so I might unkindly suggest he doesn’t have a huge amount of casework experience with immigration and with Yvette as the shadow secretary of state it’s certainly suggest a certain trend about where immigration policy might be going.

He has been replaced by Luke Pollard- Who is now Armed Forces minister. I actually thought that this was the post he was going to get in the last reshuffle when he was removed as a DEFRA SOS (very unfairly I might add- his replacement has been rather low-key) It makes sense as he represents Plymouth and has done a lot of work around the Armed Forces and is generally a very good MP.
 

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Reshuffle Klaxon!

Stephen Kinnock has been announced as the new shadow immigration minister. He was formally No.2 in the defence team and before that had been in the shadow FCO team. This is an interesting appointment in that he represents a leave seat in South Wales - so I might unkindly suggest he doesn’t have a huge amount of casework experience with immigration and with Yvette as the shadow secretary of state it’s certainly suggest a certain trend about where immigration policy might be going.

His wife is the former Danish PM* and leader of the social democratic party , famous for being the social democratic party to take one of the hardest lines anti-immigration positions for a social democratic party so this has some potential to be a bit amusing


*which is incredibly weird, how can a couple have very active political carrers at the same time in different countries

[Filuwaúrdjan]

...with Yvette as the shadow secretary of state it’s certainly suggest a certain trend about where immigration policy might be going.

Not necessarily policy (which tends be more stable than widely assumed) but certainly vibes.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

...with Yvette as the shadow secretary of state it’s certainly suggest a certain trend about where immigration policy might be going.

Not necessarily policy (which tends be more stable than widely assumed) but certainly vibes.

I thought Labour tried that in 2015 and it failed miserably.

[CumbrianLefty]

...with Yvette as the shadow secretary of state it’s certainly suggest a certain trend about where immigration policy might be going.

Not necessarily policy (which tends be more stable than widely assumed) but certainly vibes.

I thought Labour tried that in 2015 and it failed miserably.

There was a mug, was there not?

I don't actually think it was a major factor in Labour's defeat, though.

And wider public opinion on immigration has changed notably since then.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

...with Yvette as the shadow secretary of state it’s certainly suggest a certain trend about where immigration policy might be going.

Not necessarily policy (which tends be more stable than widely assumed) but certainly vibes.

I thought Labour tried that in 2015 and it failed miserably.

There was a mug, was there not?

I don't actually think it was a major factor in Labour's defeat, though.

And wider public opinion on immigration has changed notably since then.

They literaved carved it into stone "CONTROLS ON IMMIGRATION"

[beesley]

Fun to see that Ed Miliband has a much more marginal seat than the unsuccessful candidate he was supporting here, who is now the MP for Luton North.

They literaved carved it into stone "CONTROLS ON IMMIGRATION"

Well, you may or may not remember that at the time Lucy Powell said words to the effect of 'just because it's carved into stone, does not mean we will do them'.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

The people who think Labour did badly in 2015 because of "Controls on immigration" are the same people who think a leadership team of Rebecca Long-Bailey and Richard Burgon would have lead the party to a glorious landslide victory retaking the north, Scotland and maybe even conquering the home counties with their charm and popular left-wing policies.   

It might have been the wrong policy, morally, but it was hardly the thing that sunk Labour.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

One big difference between now and 2015 as far as that issue goes is simply that it is no long a boon to the Conservatives: they're increasingly seen as making a mess of things and opinion in general is no longer so hardline that radical immigration control policies that do not work are popular (which, in 2015, they kind of were). Actually they're now a drag.

[Alcibiades]

Sure, I don’t think Labour’s immigration policy contributed directly, in the short-term, to their defeat in 2015, but at the same time it was very much not a good thing overall for the party, as it essentially let the right-wing narrative on immigration go unchallenged and become the dominant one. This put Labour at a massive disadvantage on an issue the Tories were always then going to outdo them on, and probably contributed to the Leave vote, which was decisively not a boon to Labour’s electoral fortunes.

[JimJamUK]

A good amount of the poison in the immigration debate was based upon the fact countless politicians talked about the problems with EU migration and promised to deal with it, but then did nothing. This was particularly true of Labour who accepted the narrative but were even less credible than the Conservatives in pretending they would do something about it. Now that we’ve left the EU (or more specifically, as soon as we voted Leave), controls have been established and EU net migration has crashed, both the salience of immigration as well as the level of anti-immigration sentiment has fallen significantly. There’s still concern about illegal immigration (see the recent coverage of the Channel crossings) which Labour have avoided but the government don’t really have a plan to deal with either. Nonetheless, there’s probably a decent bit of room for Labour to support more economic migration in the case of areas with a shortage eg; care workers, fruit pickers etc as long as they make clear free movement remains finished under a Labour government.

[CumbrianLefty]

There was also the fact that many more people arrived in this country from the rest of the EU after free movement came into force than the then (Labour) government had said would be the case. This led to a common refrain of "they lied" (actually, they were given duff estimates) and its wasn't long after that "its all a deliberate plot to change this country to their benefit" takes started. Helped by a stray aside from a then Labour number 10 staffer about "rubbing the Tories noses in diversity" which over time came to be the slender prop to an entire "GrEaT rEpLaCeMeNt" conspiracy theory.

[Blair]

...with Yvette as the shadow secretary of state it’s certainly suggest a certain trend about where immigration policy might be going.

Not necessarily policy (which tends be more stable than widely assumed) but certainly vibes.

V true- it’s peak THIGMOO to have the same policy for a decade but argue about it being changing every two years based on some random speech.

On the subject of immigration policy my historic highlight was when Chris Bryant briefed he was giving a speech slamming Tesco over employing non-U.K. workers but then gave the speech which said the complete opposite after some backlash.

The Miliband era was very surreal.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

...with Yvette as the shadow secretary of state it’s certainly suggest a certain trend about where immigration policy might be going.

The Miliband era was very surreal.

When was the last-time british politics wasn't surreal ?

[Blair]

Forgot to say it's been reported that Starmer spoke to Duffield.

He could always act pro bono if worse comes to worse...

Curse of the 2017 intake- Rosie Duffield is 'considering my future in the party very carefully'.

https://twitter.com/RosieDuffield1/status/1487777220135464960

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Forgot to say it's been reported that Starmer spoke to Duffield.

He could always act pro bono if worse comes to worse...

Curse of the 2017 intake- Rosie Duffield is 'considering my future in the party very carefully'.

https://twitter.com/RosieDuffield1/status/1487777220135464960

That's sounds like a recipe for a lot of backlash from trans people as well as the online set.