I thought the Handmaids Tale was fiction!!!

There were a number of men in women's prisons, Karen white for example, the labour party with very few exceptions ( Rosie Duffield) was hostile to the women who campaigned against men in women's spaces, there is a 'hilarious' clip of lisa nandy arguing in favour of the prison policy.
At the Gorton and denton constituency a few days ago the labour candidate indicated they would not support the supreme court ruling relating to the equality act.
The Guardian reported mandelssons connection to epstein years ago, perhaps starmer missed it.

Starmer seems to be blamed by some for everyone's errors of judgement. I'd rather put my faith in Starmer looking after my interests and women in general than Farage or Bannon which this thread is about.

Quite so, Vintagewhine. As in my earlier post, I have concerns about the rights of women being eroded .
I support, also, the work of those who campaign against men having access to women's safety spaces.
It's not either/ or, and it's not about Mr Starmer, it's about messages, subtle and not so subtle, concerning the roles, and rights, of women - of our daughters and granddaughters.

That's fine but please be aware that many will be viewing the labour partys approach to women just as unpleasant as reform. I think if people look down on women for voting reform then they should be aware that some may look down on the women who supported Labour.

Galaxy

That's fine but please be aware that many will be viewing the labour partys approach to women just as unpleasant as reform. I think if people look down on women for voting reform then they should be aware that some may look down on the women who supported Labour.

I don't look down on people for the way they vote.
Reform want to completely change the role of women taking us back to the 1950s and earlier when women were expected to marry, have children and stay at home to look after them. Women who worked in senior roles were few.
I don't think Labour is proposing these plans to degrade women.

I don't think Labour is proposing these plans to degrade women.
No but they are failing to let women be a defined group based solely on sex. As Galaxy mentioned up thread Lisa Nandy is on video record saying that transwomen rapists ie men should serve their sentence in a "prison of their choosing" Too many in the Labour party put transwomen in pole position over women. That's not protecting 51% of the population. Rosie Duffield has been treated abominably by Starmer for standing up for women's rights and I for one will never forget that.

I agree the protection of women is dire under labour. One of the reasons I don't vote for them.
I just said that they aren't proposing the same policies as Reform like repealing the Equalities act and banning abortion.

They are clearly saying that they won't abide by the supreme court ruling relating to the Equality Act, and Reform of all people said they would.
It is not reform policy to ban abortion. I don't like the way this is used to frighten women, i have seen that tactic before.

I wouldn't vote reform but I think painting them as a danger to women after the decade of nonsense that women have had to deal with is hypocritical to say the least.

It is about far more than trans women which seems to be the issue which you focus on Galaxy.

The Equality Act 2010 was a consolidating act which brought together over 100 pieces of preceding legislation which gave vital protections including the Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Frankly, I am tired of the women on this forum who think that getting rid of these protections is a good idea.

•Do they not want equal pay with men for doing the same job?

•Do they want women to be discriminated against in the workplace?

•Do they not want people to be considered for a job on ability not skin colour?

•Do they not want disabled people who could do a job just as well as an able person to be consider for the same job?

It’s depressing and frightening when women think this way.

It’s very clear that Reform wants to wind back the clock on people’s hard-won rights.

James Orr (now Reform Head of Policy) and Danny Kruger are very dangerous.

Reform claim they want women to have more children while simultaneously stating they will reinstate the two child cap on Universal Credit and use the money to reduce the price of pub beer (drunk mostly by men). They want to stop people from working from home, the very thing that enables women to juggle work and child care.

What the hell is wrong with them other than blatant misogyny?

James Orr, a Cambridge academic with close ties to US far-right figures including Donald Trump’s vice-president JD Vance, has publicly opposed abortion even in cases of rape, incest, or serious risk to health. His appointment follows the recruitment of other politicians with similar records, marking what Abortion Rights UK describes as “a deliberate, hard-line shift” within the party.

abortionrights.org.uk/press-release-nigel-farage-appoints-hard-line-anti-abortion-senior-adviser-abortion-rights-condemns-move/

Yes strangely enough I understand what the Equality Act is.

Just for clarification, if you so please, didn't a recent Supreme Court ruling decide that born sex was the legal one?
If so, are some posters saying that Labour politicians are defying this ruling?
I am genuinely confused.
Yes I could Google it, but sometimes you get a better explanation from GNs.

Rosie51: I don't think Labour is proposing these plans to degrade women. "No but they are failing to let women be a defined group based solely on sex. As Galaxy mentioned up thread Lisa Nandy is on video record saying that transwomen rapists ie men should serve their sentence in a "prison of their choosing" Too many in the Labour party put transwomen in pole position over women. That's not protecting 51% of the population"

Lisa Nandy made her comments 6 years ago, in February 2020 during the Labour Party leadership. What she actually said THEN " I believe very fundamentally in people's right to self identify..I think trans women are women and I think transmen are men, so I think they should be accommodated in a prison of their choosing". Mandy made her comments in 2020 while defending the "self identification" position for transgender rights, which she argued was important for ensuring trans people are not discriminated against.

Her leadership bid failed. She was NOT formally speaking on behalf of the Labour Party, she was speaking as an individual. She was not party leader or an official spokesperson- they were her personal views. It was Labour's position in 2023 that transgender women convicted of sexual crimes should NOT be housed in female prisons. Labour were not in government at the time. The world and the law has moved on since 2020.

Current 2026 Reform UK on position of women and transgender women:
1) advocates for a "common sense" (rather than legal) approach to gender focussing on protecting women's rights based on biological sex
2) key polices include banning transgender ideology in schools, restricting access for trans women to female only spaces and sports. Opposes "social transitioning" in schools for transgender pupils.
3) Pledges to replace the Equality Act 2010 arguing it currently facilitates "woke" ideology and positively discriminates in favour of minorities. Has not said what it will be replaced by.

Current 2026 Labour Party position on women and transgender women:
1) Aims to balance protecting women's sex based rights under the Equality Act with supporting trans inclusion, navigating a complex, legally evolving position.
2) Pledges to uphold singe sex spaces and has moved to exclude trans women from all women candidate lists and as from 2026 from voting in main Labour women's conference.
3) The Labour party HAS adopted position that a woman is defined by biological sex under the Equality Act.
4) Despite these restrictions, asserts that trans individuals remain protected from discrimination and harassment.
5) pledges to implement a "trans inclusive" ban on conversion practices, but not to simplify to a "self ID system, the gender recognition process.

Galaxy Fri 20-Feb-26 12:08:18 "They are clearly saying that they won't abide by the supreme court ruling relating to the Equality Act, and Reform of all people said they would".

Your view is simply not correct.

Reform Party believes the Reform Party will define what "common sense " means to their party in relation to their interpretation of "woke issues" and women at any time to their choosing. Reform UK pledges to get rid of the Equality Act which is the legal instrument to protect women's rights.

Be careful what you vote for if you are a woman.

Ie just like the Republican Party in US, Reform is planning and pledging to define as it goes along its "common sense" approach to women's issues. This principle could in theory be applied to abortion, should woman have the vote etc as it sees fit, as it will get rid of the Equality Act- in plain sight- if elected to government.

Thank you, Lemonjam, for your very clear statement of the facts at 12.45.30.

Nandalot

Thank you, Lemonjam, for your very clear statement of the facts at 12.45.30.

My thanks too. It was Lisa Nandy's views not labour's.

Any religion which preaches and practices misogyny or inequality between men and women should be banned.

Sadly, Lilyflower, Christianity can be hijacked by people with a certain mindset.
Such folk usually base their pronouncements on a chunk of Deuteronomy, or the epistles of Paul.
Jesus himself rarely gets much air time with these Christians.

Absolutely disgraceful. I feel more and more disconnected to Americans.

Just what I was thinking reading these posts.

When The Handmaid's Tale was originally published the author stated that it was fiction, but based on facts and situations that could be found in countries that did not have equality for women.

It is a shocking fact that women are still "second-class citizens" in many countries, and in many countries that legally regard us as men's equals, amongst the old -fashioned or those both Christians, Jews and Muslims with a fundamentlistic approach to family life.

There are also, or so I have been told, young well-educated women electing to remain at home to bring up their and their husband's children and to be supported by their husband's whom they wait on hand and foot. These women have no life insurance, are not earning, so are not contributing to an old age pension of any kind, and are sure to be in queer street if widowed or divorced.

Hear hear

LemonJam I wouldn't vote Reform if they were the only candidates on the ballot paper.
I'd still like anyone to justify Starmer's and by extension Labour's treatment of Rosie Duffield because she dared to voice the feelings of a great many women and stated biological sex is immutable, women deserve their single sex spaces and don't have penises. This was in stark contrast to the welcome he gave Natalie Elphicke when she defected from Conservative to Labour on 8th May 2024 before standing down at the election. She was invited to his campaign launch event, one Rosie Duffield as the only sitting Labour MP in Kent was excluded from.
As to point 1 in your list nearly one year on and the EHRC guidance is still not being approved. Phillipson is procrastinating.