May’s Scottish elections are fast approaching, and Scottish Labour has its foot firmly on the accelerator. In a previous article for The Student, I mentioned being bombarded over Christmas with the party’s leader, Anas Sarwar, imploring voters to “shake things up in Scotland” in a campaign ad. Now, seemingly daily, Mr Sarwar appears on my laptop screen before a YouTube video, solely to let me know what a great guy he is. He’s nice. He’s decent. He’s a family man; hasn’t he mentioned?
Sarwar has now announced plans to stop all transgender women who are convicted of a crime from being incarcerated in a women’s prison. The policy announcement comes amid a legal battle between the Scottish government and For Women Scotland, the group which forced the UK Supreme Court’s verdict that the Equality Act does not consider gender in its definition of a woman – although I’m sure the prospect of sticking a knife in the side of the SNP, on an area of policy which has previously summoned public disagreement, played no part in Scottish Labour’s policymaking. Incidentally, a tweet of Sarwar’s announcing the policy suggests its justification is to “uphold and respect the Equality Act” – a legalistic framing which would enable Sarwar to explain to more progressive voters that he has no political objection to pro-trans arguments, he’s just following the law. How fortuitous.
Sarwar is hardly a radical and has taken a consistent view on the subject of transgender inclusion in women’s spaces, so this is no volte-face. But it is interesting to see the tides of political opinion drift away from the shores of left-wing thinking and towards conservatism, with politicians no longer signalling a sensible approach to government through advocating progressive causes, but by a tentative moderacy in the social sphere.
The Labour government in Westminster has already gone through this change of heart. The Prime Minister tells us he does not believe transgender women are women, despite telling The Times in 2022 that they are—a view which he also backed up by saying that the law agreed with him. Look elsewhere to Keir Starmer’s indefatigable opposition to immigration, having previously decried a “racist undercurrent which permeates all immigration law.” Even St Paul’s conversion was less dramatic.
All this is in keeping with the Blue Labour tradition within the party. Politicians like Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood have declared a “natural affinity” with the Labour faction, which professes a socially conservative tendency in concurrence with economic progressivism. Maurice Glasman, very much the Old Major of the movement, advocates “build[ing] a house on the left side of the MAGA square.”
Compare that to the Blair government, where economic and social reform went hand in hand, particularly in the LGBT+ sphere: Section 28’s abolition, the equalisation of the age of consent. Even David Cameron’s Conservative government sought to project a modern impression through the legalisation of gay marriage.
It seems the continents of political opinion have slowly drifted rightwards. A politician’s projection of common sense no longer comes from the taking-as-read of social progressivism, but a staid scepticism towards perceived Leftist excesses. It’s all very don’t frighten the horses.
And Sarwar’s prison policy is of a piece: Labour is a common sense party seems to be the message. And, supposedly, the way to articulate that message is not through pragmatism and detail, but a blanket ban.
The fear of the loony lefty has sparked a conservative turn to signal the fact that you’re reasonable. Vote Labour: it’ll be all Right.
“AnasSarwarMSP” by Scottish Parliament is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
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Scottish Labour’s Policy on Transgender Prisoners is a Step Further to the Right
May’s Scottish elections are fast approaching, and Scottish Labour has its foot firmly on the accelerator. In a previous article for The Student, I mentioned being bombarded over Christmas with the party’s leader, Anas Sarwar, imploring voters to “shake things up in Scotland” in a campaign ad. Now, seemingly daily, Mr Sarwar appears on my laptop screen before a YouTube video, solely to let me know what a great guy he is. He’s nice. He’s decent. He’s a family man; hasn’t he mentioned?
Sarwar has now announced plans to stop all transgender women who are convicted of a crime from being incarcerated in a women’s prison. The policy announcement comes amid a legal battle between the Scottish government and For Women Scotland, the group which forced the UK Supreme Court’s verdict that the Equality Act does not consider gender in its definition of a woman – although I’m sure the prospect of sticking a knife in the side of the SNP, on an area of policy which has previously summoned public disagreement, played no part in Scottish Labour’s policymaking. Incidentally, a tweet of Sarwar’s announcing the policy suggests its justification is to “uphold and respect the Equality Act” – a legalistic framing which would enable Sarwar to explain to more progressive voters that he has no political objection to pro-trans arguments, he’s just following the law. How fortuitous.
Sarwar is hardly a radical and has taken a consistent view on the subject of transgender inclusion in women’s spaces, so this is no volte-face. But it is interesting to see the tides of political opinion drift away from the shores of left-wing thinking and towards conservatism, with politicians no longer signalling a sensible approach to government through advocating progressive causes, but by a tentative moderacy in the social sphere.
The Labour government in Westminster has already gone through this change of heart. The Prime Minister tells us he does not believe transgender women are women, despite telling The Times in 2022 that they are—a view which he also backed up by saying that the law agreed with him. Look elsewhere to Keir Starmer’s indefatigable opposition to immigration, having previously decried a “racist undercurrent which permeates all immigration law.” Even St Paul’s conversion was less dramatic.
All this is in keeping with the Blue Labour tradition within the party. Politicians like Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood have declared a “natural affinity” with the Labour faction, which professes a socially conservative tendency in concurrence with economic progressivism. Maurice Glasman, very much the Old Major of the movement, advocates “build[ing] a house on the left side of the MAGA square.”
Compare that to the Blair government, where economic and social reform went hand in hand, particularly in the LGBT+ sphere: Section 28’s abolition, the equalisation of the age of consent. Even David Cameron’s Conservative government sought to project a modern impression through the legalisation of gay marriage.
It seems the continents of political opinion have slowly drifted rightwards. A politician’s projection of common sense no longer comes from the taking-as-read of social progressivism, but a staid scepticism towards perceived Leftist excesses. It’s all very don’t frighten the horses.
And Sarwar’s prison policy is of a piece: Labour is a common sense party seems to be the message. And, supposedly, the way to articulate that message is not through pragmatism and detail, but a blanket ban.
The fear of the loony lefty has sparked a conservative turn to signal the fact that you’re reasonable. Vote Labour: it’ll be all Right.
“AnasSarwarMSP” by Scottish Parliament is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
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