Author Archives: Linda

On the first day of Conference the newly appointed Shadow Equalities Secretary Anneliese Dodds came to the podium and spoke of “a Labour government that acknowledges that trans rights are human rights and that would reform the Gender Recognition Act to enable a process for self-identification while continuing to support the 2010 Equalities Act.” AmongContinue reading “Beyond the soundbite: Labour and the trans community”

Lisa Townsend is the newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey. Here’s what she said in an interview with the Mail on Sunday : ‘Stonewall, which has drifted so far from its original mission is now a threat to women and risks putting feminism back 50 years. Police forces, in an attempt to correctContinue reading “Dear Surrey police”

On 17th August the Wirral Globe published a piece headed ‘”Wirral ready to support Afghan refugees” says council leader’. This attracted a lot of negative reaction on facebook with comments such as “there’s no houses for our own” and “charity begins at home”. People are absolutely right to be angry about why more isn’t beingContinue reading “Are we “taking care of our own” ?”

One day, the name of Laurel Hubbard will be celebrated as the first trans athlete to compete in Olympic sport. Today though, instead of being praised for her courage, she’s having mud thrown at her. Tons of it. I’m getting a sense that some people are wary of defending her. I don’t know if thisContinue reading “On Laurel Hubbard and sex testing in sport”

Who thinks so ? Tony Blair, for one. He wrote in the New Statesman yesterday that “on cultural issues, one after another, the Labour Party is being backed into electorally off-putting positions. A progressive party seeking power which looks askance at the likes of Trevor Phillips, Sara Khan or JK Rowling is not going toContinue reading “Is the Labour Party too “woke” ?”

Dear BBC, I’ve not written to you before, but I wish to complain about the following article by your Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54996354 Kuenssberg writes “When the report came out, Mr Corbyn suggested it had all been exaggerated, so got booted out of the Labour Party.” This isn’t just inaccurate, it’s knowingly mendacious. CorbynContinue reading “Dear BBC”

Some LGBT organisations breathed an audible sigh of relief today when the government published its long awaited response to the consultation on GRA reform. At least press rumours about steps being considered to roll back trans rights had come to nothing, and there were one or two small steps in the right direction. I’ll comeContinue reading “Where now for GRA reform ?”

New Brighton Labour Party ran its first Facebook ad, and the results are in. Here’s the post. It’s a video of Saul Murphy speaking to camera for three minutes about arts and culture in New Brighton. The numbers really show the value of social media campaigning. The ad ran for 5 days and went outContinue reading “Campaigning on Facebook”

This was the Prime Minister today: “I cannot believe… that the BBC is saying that they will not sing the words of Land Of Hope And Glory or Rule Britannia! as they traditionally do at the end of The Last Night of The Proms. I think it’s time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about ourContinue reading “Whose culture, whose history ?”

I was proud to stand with Jeremy Corbyn. So now that we have a new leader with different politics, where does that leave people like me ? My kind of politics isn’t about following leaders. It’s about comrades working together to make a change. The strength, passion and commitment that I see just in myContinue reading “I’m not going anywhere – and my conscience is clear”