Mental Block

And there you have it. The Government says that Holyrood does not have the power to legislate for gender self-identification, or at least that it ought not to use any such power, and that is what Nicola Sturgeon will be challenging in court. Not a word about the principle.

Conservative MPs who are backing the Government are saying one or both of those things, that this is simply not devolved, or that there cannot be one law on this in Carlisle and another in Dumfries, or both. Again, not a word about the principle.

The only exceptions are the tiny, tiny number who have been active in this cause for years, because this has been going on, under a Conservative Government, for half a decade. There are more Conservative than Labour MPs like that, but only in proportion to the House as a whole. Both of the absolute figures are extremely small.

The Government had been all ready to let this go, merely disapplying Scottish Gender Recognition Certificates in the rest of the United Kingdom, until Keir Starmer opportunistically waded in, and until it needed something to distract from Nadhim Zahawi. If it lost the court case at some stage, then let's see how far it would appeal. Even if it lost in the Supreme Court, then it could seek to amend the Statute Law. But that would involve Divisions of the House of Commons.

That would also involve the Government's opposition to the principle of gender self-identification. It has expressed no such opposition. It would be quicker to count the opponents than the supporters of gender self-identification in the Cabinet. The right-wing papers are also shifting on this, in line with corporate advertiser requirements, Middle English opinion, and the views of rising contributors. Of course, those three are intimately connected.

The Conservative and Labour frontbenches at Westminster and Holyrood, where a Conservative free vote saw two frontbenchers and a former Leader vote in favour, will come up with a "compromise" such as Starmer had outlined, and present that as the "sensible" option, by and for "the adults in the room". As such, it would obviously have to be given effect throughout the United Kingdom.

Those of us who did not want adult male genitalia in little girls' changing rooms would thus be placed at "the opposite extreme" to those who would castrate five-year-olds. Yet we would stand more chance than they would of being visited by Prevent, which is itself based on a proven hoax, and by the good, old-fashioned, armed likes of David Carrick and Wayne Couzens, still including those who had given them their nicknames. Under the Conservatives, those visits have already been happening for years. By the way, if there are any Police Officers even more carefully vetted than those of the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, then they are the ones such as never noticed Prince Harry's cannabis, cocaine or magic mushrooms.

But Starmer's dishonesty is becoming a story. He lied to his party members to get their votes, so he would lie to anyone else to get their votes. We are heading for a hung Parliament. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not.