With all the furore about whether men should be allowed on all-women shortlists, Labour needs to ditch this Blairiest of ideas once and for all. No one has ever liked it, it has always struck most people as self-evidently illegal, and it has delivered many candidates and MPs who would have been classified as far too young if they had been men (in the traditional sense of the word), or indeed if they had been women in open competition.
Either that, or, although of the usual age, they have had little or no political experience, but that has been held up as somehow a good thing. In either case, the result has been the easily manipulated lobby fodder that the Blairite machine has wanted. Meanwhile, what with this and the general exclusion of the Left, a generation of talent has been lost.
It is no surprise, then, that in the battle to save all-women shortlists by conforming them to the spirit of this age of gender fluidity, the key player is Wes Streeting. Ask him and his courtiers what the Blair Government ever did, and see what their answer would be. Under no circumstances must politics become a matter of economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends. Oh, no. It has to be about genitals, and preferably male genitals.
If they can cope with a man, but a man who is perfectly willing to keep his gender fluid to himself, then the TERFs are more than welcome to give generously here. I would not have post-pubescent penises in the women's changing rooms. I would not have all-women shortlists at all, but if they must exist, then they ought at least to be confined to women. And Owen Jones hates my guts. What's not to like?
Either that, or, although of the usual age, they have had little or no political experience, but that has been held up as somehow a good thing. In either case, the result has been the easily manipulated lobby fodder that the Blairite machine has wanted. Meanwhile, what with this and the general exclusion of the Left, a generation of talent has been lost.
It is no surprise, then, that in the battle to save all-women shortlists by conforming them to the spirit of this age of gender fluidity, the key player is Wes Streeting. Ask him and his courtiers what the Blair Government ever did, and see what their answer would be. Under no circumstances must politics become a matter of economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends. Oh, no. It has to be about genitals, and preferably male genitals.
If they can cope with a man, but a man who is perfectly willing to keep his gender fluid to himself, then the TERFs are more than welcome to give generously here. I would not have post-pubescent penises in the women's changing rooms. I would not have all-women shortlists at all, but if they must exist, then they ought at least to be confined to women. And Owen Jones hates my guts. What's not to like?
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