Bridget Phillipson has been accused of refusing to meet the women who secured the landmark Supreme Court trans ruling on the first anniversary of their victory. The Telegraph has the story.
For Women Scotland said its attempt to arrange a meeting with the Women and Equalities Minister to mark the first anniversary of the decision had been “blocked”.
Susan Smith, one of the FWS Directors, urged Sir Keir Starmer to intervene, telling the Telegraph that Phillipson’s failure to agree to talks was “outrageous”.
She added: “We’re really disappointed that Phillipson has not met with us yet. I don’t know whether it’s being blocked by Phillipson or the Civil Service.
“Somebody, somewhere does not want to meet us – it’s outrageous. I cannot believe we cannot get her in the same room as us. We cannot get through [despite] having won the case.”
Smith said FWS had sent a letter to Phillipson on March 17th asking for a meeting in London this week. However, the group only received a holding response, with no offer of talks, on Friday.
In a watershed victory for FWS, the Supreme Court ruled last April that the definition of a woman for the purposes of the Equality Act is based on biological sex.
But almost 12 months later, guidance on upholding women’s right to single-sex spaces has not been published, with Phillipson claiming time was needed to get it right.
Asked if the Prime Minister should order Phillipson to publish the guidance, Smith said: “I think so. This is not a difficult thing or a complicated thing to do.”
FWS will deliver a letter to No 10 on Thursday in protest. It is one of 28 women’s rights groups that sent a separate letter to the Prime Minister to complain that “we are still waiting” for Phillipson to withdraw previous Civil Service guidance backing gender self-ID. …
The former head of the UK’s equalities watchdog previously told the Telegraph the delay in publishing fresh guidance “betrayed” women who have a right to expect that biological males are barred from female toilets and changing rooms.
Baroness Falkner, who led the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) until November, accused Phillipson of prioritising her “personal ambition” by not “alienating the activist MPs in her party”.
At the start of last September, before Lady Falkner left the role, the EHRC submitted an updated code of practice to Phillipson, instructing businesses and public bodies to ensure that trans women were barred from female toilets and changing rooms.
The delay to publication means hospitals and sports centres are still allowing trans women into female spaces.
Worth reading in full.
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Phillipson is a dead ringer for Oscar Wilde. Things didn’t work out too well that time either..
If the requirement is to provide toilets for every letter of the LGBQT ad nauseam ad infinitum, that strikes me as an excellent reason to close the office and have everyone work from home.
A bit tricky for surgeons, I’ll admit.
The delay to publishing new guidance seems to be indecision about whether businesses, schools, hospitals etc should be forced to provide gender neutral facilities so that people who think they’re something they aren’t don’t have to use what they see as the “wrong” toilet, changing room etc.
The ECHR can be interpreted as saying everyone should have appropriate facilities so obviously this is how people who deny reality will interpret it. The cost, especially to small businesses of having to provide gender neutral facilities will led to a huge number of bankruptcies and if they don’t legally have to provide them there could be endless legal challenges.
By insisting on staying part of the ECHR and pandering to the trans lobby the government have dug themselves into a hole they can’t get out of.
A quick look in your pants would decide which facilities are appropriate for you.
This government are so disrespectful, dishonest, dishonourable, contemptible – I’ve never seen anything like it.
Besides the staggering incompetence.
Makes me feel sick to think about it.
They are, by a country mile, the very worst government I have ever known in my 70 years.
She’s since agreed to a meeting, apparently. They posted this 7 hours ago;
”We are pleased to report that Ms Phillipson has now offered a meeting.”
https://x.com/ForWomenScot/status/2043641822572880097
Nothing like being publicly shamed to force a change of mind.
Yes, delightful about face under pressure.
Lol. There’s nothing that says “As a minister for Women, I care deeply about women’s issues” quite like refusing to meet a group that represents, er, women. They must be the wrong sort of women…
Aye, missing certain appendages.
She is utterly vile, self-interested and shameless. And talentless to boot.