The atmosphere was nervous, no one smiled and it wasn’t long before tempers began to fray… HENRY DEEDES on a heated Parliamentary debate on rewriting the equality law

There was the rarest of sights in Parliament this afternoon – a Westminster Hall debate packed to the rafters.

These – normally – parochial affairs, held in a drab little annexe off to the side of the Commons, tend to be pathetically attended.

Rarely do they attract much more than a handful of MPs looking for a favourable mention in their local paper and a couple of Parliamentary men in tights snoozing quietly in the corner.

Yet yesterday’s debate on the definition of sex as defined by equality law was a full house.

Every seat around the room was occupied. Even the little area reserved for the public was packed to the brim.

Yesterday’s debate in Parliament on the definition of sex as defined by equality law was a full house. Pictured: Anneliese Dodds 

Speech of the day went to Rosie Duffield (Lab, Canterbury) who of course has been a brave Parliamentarian voice in advocating the need to protect female-only spaces

The purpose of the debate was to determine whether equality laws should be rewritten on the basis of biology rather than gender identity, thus ending the current muddle which allows transgender women to access female-only spaces including hospital wards, prisons and toilets.

The debate was opened by Tonia Antoniazzi (Lab, Gower) who had no sooner begun speaking when attention-seeking Layla Moran (Lib Dem, Oxford W) intervened to register her protest that the debate was even happening.

She claimed it was likely to scare transgender people. Ms Moran, in case you hadn’t noticed, is very much on the side of the snowflakes. No-nonsense Ms Antoniazzi, however, was adamant.

‘We are legislators and where there is something to be addressed, it is up to us to have that conversation,’ she announced bluntly. ‘It goes with the job.’ Bang on.

Ranil Jayawardena (Con, NE Hampshire) agreed. The matter was too important for the ‘shouting matches and hyperbole of social media’, he said. As a father, he was concerned women were not being protected properly. It was time to apply a bit of common sense.

Ms Duffield announced she was in favour of the law being amended

‘We all know what sex we are,’ he announced. Once again, Ms Moran leapt to her feet, angrily reminding everyone that ‘intersex people’ existed. The atmosphere was nervous. No one smiled.

It wasn’t long before tempers began to fray. Miriam Cates (Con, Penistone), who felt the difference between a man and a woman was as obvious as the difference between up and down, told a story about an NHS worker (born a man) who won a case against a hospital after it raised concerns that they had been naked from the waist down in the women’s changing room. Hannah Bardell (SNP, Livingston) angrily accused Ms Cates of characterising trans people as predators. Ms Cates remained resolutely unapologetic.

READ MORE: Setback in fight to protect key women’s rights as MPs clash over the shake-up of the Equality Act

There followed a particularly snippy turn from Angela Eagle (Lab, Wallasey) who had hitherto been listening to the speeches in dismay, mouthing an exasperated ‘What?!’ whenever someone said something she deemed unpalatable.

She blamed a hysterical media for ‘concocting this war on woke’. ‘I recognise a politically induced panic when I see one,’ she said.

Ms Eagle was particularly withering toward Joanna Cherry (SNP, Edinburgh SW) who had given a speech in favour of the law being clarified. She accused Cherry of being ‘deliberately provocative’, fixing her with a flinty stare as she did so. I swear, freshly uddered milk could have curdled under such a glare.

Speech of the day went to Rosie Duffield (Lab, Canterbury) who of course has been a brave Parliamentarian voice in advocating the need to protect female-only spaces, much to her own personal cost. She announced she was in favour of the law being amended.

‘That’s not exactly going to surprise people here,’ she joked.

Ms Duffield described the gender identity issue as so toxic she actually ‘looked back fondly’ at the abuse she received during Labour’s anti-Semitism saga compared to the ‘spite, vitriol, trolling and daily defamation’ she received nowadays.

Incidentally, last time Ms Duffield spoke out in favour of women’s rights in the Commons, she was heckled aggressively by her own side. When she arrived at yesterday’s debate she sat in a different section to her Labour colleagues. Deliberate? You betcha.

Source: Read Full Article