PMQs and gender (again)

Today PMQs, as expected focused on corruption, or the appearance of it in the Conservative Party. Keir Starmer started asking about the probation service and then moved on to tax issues. The answers in general were to be expected, but the one that stood out was the denial of Rishi Sunak over knowledge about the tax affairs of the former chancellor. Officials raised a ‘flag’ over Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs before he was appointed chancellor, which means that Rishi Sunak is lying about Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs or someone made a big error by not telling him about this.

Before watching PMQs, I watched Politics Live which discussed gender. My views have changed again, I feel that safe spaces such as toilets etc, should be genitalia based even if they have a gender recognition certificate. It is not just the recent case of the rapist Adam Graham (now known as Isla Bryson), who I suspect is not Transgender but is a predator pretending to be one so that they can continue to hunt prey once incarcerated. It is also that some men will want to exploit rules so that they can expose themselves. We are moving to a situation where women, who are being sent too many explicit images, will have to face up to seeing male genitalia in spaces like changing rooms. 

In my work, I sadly come across too many people who 'game' the system to act within the law but in a morally reprehensible manner, and in most cases, the person who is doing so is male, the victim being female.  

I do not consider predators like Adam Graham/Isla Bryson, Karen White/Stephen Wood or Katie Dolatowski to be TransWomen, I consider them to be men pretending to be TransWomen so that they can hunt.  I have disagreements on Twitter about this before, but I think that it is wrong to compare them to real TransWomen like Rebecca Root or Yasmin Finney. 

My views on safe spaces such as toilets have fluctuated over time and will probably change again.  I am genuinely interested in views on this, but sadly, debate on this is rarely civil. 

Corruption (again)

The UK has been hit by revelations of corruption again, twice. I doubt that Nadhim Zahawi can survive his tax row inquiry though the BBC chairman, Richard Sharp, probably will make it. The common factor with all this is Boris Johnson. 

Boris Johnson is the one who took out the loan, he is the one who appointed Richard Sharp, and he is the one who made Nadhim Zahawi chancellor. Issues had been raised before this appointment and if Rishi Sunak had not been told about them, why has be not been told about them? 

Rishi Sunak should take action though, this being to sack both. I doubt he will. 

Bullying in politics

I was watching VEEP with my daughter and asked her which character from political shows like this that she would like to be. She said Malcolm Tucker. I did express surprise at this, but was too scared to tell her that this meant she wanted to be Priti Patel. She rarely reads this so I will be safe to make this comment on the blog! 

To be fair to Priti Patel, it is not just her who has faced allegations of being a bully, the difference is that she has been found guilty of this.  When The Thick of It was filmed at the end of Labour being in office, bullying was being cracked down on outside politics.  I myself engaged in bullying behaviour when I was younger, back in the 1990's and I understand that my actions then were wrong.  But times have rightly changed and my daughters wish to be Malcolm Tucker should never be realised.

My faith is increasing

I have only watched the highlights, but from that, we were lucky to win today. But any team needs luck at times and without it, it would have been a draw. It was good to see Eddie Nketiah continue to score goals and my fears about the absence of Gabriel Jesus ruining our season, appear, for now, to be unfounded. I imagine that this would have been a good game for a neutral to watch, five goals after all, and watching England performers play well was great.  I cannot help but have a soft spot for Marcus Rashford even though he plays for ManUre, but to see the smile on the face on his face as well as that of Bukayo Saka after they score makes me happy.  

Drinks last night

I was at a course yesterday and this morning. It was run by AstraZeneca  which meant that what the NHS would do in one day, they did over two. Working in the NHS since the 1990’s it is the first time that I have been on one where they pay for accommodation and meals, so last night, I attended the first drug sponsored meal I have been to in a while and I may have drunk too much (free) wine.

The children (and my wife) accused me of drunk texting them. Obviously I would never do that.

The meeting was a good one and I have a lot to take back and put into action. In the meeting they had a chart, one to put down a word about how we felt after it on making changes to asthma management (mine was inspired) but they had another board, at the request of a consultant, about how we felt about the NHS. She has three children, two went to medical school. One had left the NHS, one is about to leave and the third, who is a lawyer, is very happy.

Anyway, onto more cheerful matters. After I left the meeting today, it was a trip to Epping where my wife had a reunion of old school friends. It was great to see them, though three of the crowd were not able to make it. They are already planning the next meet… 

Ambulances and PMQs

I think that both the PM and The Leader of the Opposition think that they won PMQs today. I am biased, but I feel that Keir Starmer won it with his simple and repeated questions about the ambulance service.

More or Less this morning talked about ambulance response times, starting with the time taken for a 999 call to be answered to the wait for an ambulance once one was dispatched. As noted before, this is not a new issue, though it is one that was not present during the years Labour looked after the NHS. This was debated in Parliament in 2016.  It turns out that the time that NHS England expects an ambulance crew to be at a hospital to hand over a patient is fifteen minutes. After that, they prepare the ambulance for the next job and then go to the next patient. Now, they have to wait at A&E to offload the patient which means that they cannot collect the next patient. Patients like my Mum who had to take herself to hospital by taxi after having a suspected heart attack because no ambulance was available to collect her.  Fortunately it was not her heart, but her symptoms sounded like it could be. 

Sadly, I do not see this improving until some time after the next election. 

The Gender Recognition Act

Interesting times have come about.  Scotland has passed a Gender Recognition Act and our government may veto it.  I think that this is the wrong course of action.

While I have concerns about this, notably that it could mean an end to single sex schools (i.e transwomen would be allowed in a girls school as A level students), my main concern about the GRA is if it would allow people like the sex offender, Katie Dolatowski the legal right to stay in a women's refuge. Also I have concerns with people like the rapist, Karen White being allowed to be in a female prison.  I know that some consider me transphobic to have these concerns, but so be it.

Defenders of the bill state that such issues are not going to arise, those who are against it state otherwise.  I am not a legal expert so cannot really understand the bill to see what it says and I rely on others.  It appears that I will only find out what will be allowed or not when it is allowed, or not, and that means the law should pass.

I do think that it is silly to make people who are non-binary to have to wait ages for a medical diagnosis for the ability to have such a certificate.

But I should not be surprised considering that the government who have rightly banned conversion therapy for people who are not straight, have refused to ban conversion therapy for those who are non-binary.  

In summary, conversion therapy should be banned, and rather than forcing a veto on the Scottish GRA, an act of Parliament could be passed to make it only legal in Scotland if the concerns about it are valid.