The law has never told you which door to useThe EHRC's Code of Practice for services came into force this week. Single-sex services are now offered on the basis of biological sex, and providers may ask a person to confirm theirs. 167 MPs signed Nadia Whittome's motion to disapprove it, the majority of Liberal Democrat MPs among them. It was never debated. One fact has been almost entirely absent from the argument, and it changes the shape of it. The law has regulated lavatories and changing rooms since the 1890s. Every one of those provisions regulates what must be provided. Not one regulates who may walk in. There is ... (more) |
Ellen Wilkinson: the first female Minister of EducationThe latest edition of the email newsletter for my podcast, Political Fictions, is out and you can also read it in full below. But if you'd like to get future editions emailed direct to you as soon as they are published, sign up now: Ellen Wilkinson: pioneering politician and thriller writer Our next podcast episode features our first book! We will be discussing pioneering MP Ellen Wilkinson's locked-room murder mystery The Division Bell Mystery. Her political career culminated in being Minister of Education in Clement Attlee's 1945 government, the first woman to hold that post or its predecessor posts. So ... (more) |
Tories select former neo-Nazi activist for Somerset council electionIt appears that it isn't just Reform UK who have a problem with vetting candidates. The Guardian reports that a former neo-Nazi activist with convictions including for harassing a Jewish MP has been selected as a Conservative candidate for a local election in Somerset. The paper says that Joshua Bonehill-Paine, the creator of the viral Crewkerne Gazette series of AI clips, is due to stand for election to Somerset council next year in a new Crewkerne South district. He told the Guardian he was an executive member of the Tories' Yeovil branch, working as an events organiser: "The branch and ... (more) |