Hi,
Not much to report this week. Perhaps that’s a good thing, given what’s going on in the world. I think it would drive you potty if you worried about all of it.
I did have a chat with our local MP about the recent Supreme Court business. They did listen and the impression I got was that politics is not unlike a large business. We’ll skip over the comedy option of “the cat has left it’s business…” 🙂
What I mean is in – my limited experience – of large organisations, is there’s the Chain of Command. Some orgs are built to deliberately allow communications to flow quickly and there’s various reasons why they want that. Others, less so 😉
Information can be -ahem- filtered, delayed, ignored, etc at any point. Sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally, etc.
So in this case, it seems that local MPs are talking to each other (a good thing) and they are hearing that constituents feel the ruling is incorrect/unfair (again a good thing)…. and then we hit the buffers: “leadership team”
Ah yes, Schrödinger’s team: they are both there and not there, depending on your needs…. and theirs 😉
With the above in mind, the magical Yes, it is very important, and we’re quite busy with this as well force field has appeared. I’m getting a strong sense of the old – yet still startlingly accurate and funny, old BBC satire, Yes, Minister 😉
Still, you can only try.
L x
Former civil servant here. Yes Minister was painfully true; ditto The Thick of It. Politics is business but an equine business rather than a structured corporation. It’s about egos jockeying for position, horse trading over what might or might not become law (and often it doesn’t matter to lawmakers what does) and ensuring that the stewards, like public servants and judges, have something to do, too. Indeed, much of government policy is actually cooked up by the unelected stewards. Actual people and people’s problems are bargaining chips in the process. Trust me when I say that it is almost unheard of that anyone involved in government treats people empathetically as people; people are just horsemeat. So while most trans people would like nothing more than to live normal, quiet lives, now we are a bargaining chip in the sordid game of political ego stretching.
You did right to talk in person to your MP – and many thanks and girl stars for doing so. You family, friends, allies, Chams members and so on should do the same or write to their MPs (don’t bother writing directly to whatever ministry is now responsible for justice – that’s often a waste of a stamp). MPs do want votes and the more noise there is the more they are inclined to take on board the concerns of that person or group of people. Being in a marginal constituency carries more clout, obviously, but that shouldn’t put off anyone in hardcore Labservative country.
Best of luck. And thanks again.
Sue x
PS I quit Whitehall sick with disgust – taking a job there was by far the worst mistake I’ve ever made in my life and I still have nightmare flashbacks to those awful days. Yours truly, Disgusted of Westminster. …Anarchy rools!
“No gods. No masters”, Sue? 🙂 Of course, you do realise we’ll both be tagged and classed as “tranarchists” now! 😉
A good friend of mine had a job in a government department. He could not get any help around a certain task. The latter was basic IT planning: no change, no culture issues, etc. M says that it wasn’t until he watched a news report on the Post Office scandal, that the penny dropped. He heard the phrase “the minister does not consider this a problem”. So, I guess the department had decided things would never break, and to speak out would be the famous phrase, “career limiting”.
I guess the above is not dissimilar to the Emperor’s New Clothes story. Is this fairly common, given there’s an old story about it and we have the term “Elephant in the Room”?
Sorry to hear that you had a poor experience in that job.
Will it change things? You can only try. Maybe with enough feedback, matters will improve to restore rights and dignity.
I thought all weekend how best to answer the questions, admittedly somewhat rhetorical, you raised. Hannah Arendt’s seminal philosophical/psychological work “Eichmann in Jerusalem – A Report on the Banality of Evil” is perhaps the best study of people who work for the powerful and how normal human desires for a steady job, career progression, honest work and the like all get twisted, almost inadvertently, into doing sick and evil things.
As far as trans rights in the UK go, politicians will go with whatever provides more traction in their personal pursuit of power: if supporting TERFs and their wealth and, above all, conceding to the right-wing press that has a big influence on voters sounds more promising to them, then they will support that; if they feel the public are not buying the transphobia then they will offer a more progressive line.
This situation seems to me, then, to be a case of the public themselves making noise. When we’d actually prefer a quiet life.
Sue x
Thank you for the extra information and thoughts. I’ve not read the book that you’ve mentioned, although I think I understand what you refer to.
On a personal note, if I eat meat, I’ve abstracted that an animal has died – or more accurately, been killed – to become food. I am not vegan and I do not judge anyone who chooses to eat animals or who does not. I’m merely commenting on my own experiences.
I wonder if there is a similar disconnect in working for an employer, in which inadvertently – and even, directly – one becomes part of the problem. If I took a job at Barclays’, given their recent decision around trans access to bathrooms, have I sold out? Likewise our local Co-op sells newspapers that peddle hatred. Am I turning a blind eye to that, respecting the choice offered, or acknowledging that others may to choose to read such things?
There may also be a level of privilege at play. My skills, location, and experience are such that I can choose not to work for organisations I don’t agree with. If it was a case of ‘work in predatory job* or go hungry’, how long before my money worries trump my ethics?
( * As in sketchy companies who prey on vulnerable people: pay day loans, wellness quackery, etc )
To try and connect back to your points, I agree that is about stories, perceptions, and – in my words, not yours – bandwagonism. Some how, this falsehood of “trans is bad” has gained traction. Possibly, IMO, by voices who seek to reduce queer equality, and as they can’t (yet) go after ‘the gays’, they’re targeting the trans community. I think there’s some Useful Idiots being platformed and it’s the classic distraction technique to keep us busy.
As much as there’s BS in the media and other areas, I think they are losing. Trans people have always existed and we will not go quietly.
Beware politician of a parent’s love and strength in supporting their queer child. We will not go quietly.