The Edition: gender wars

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News Commentary, News, Daily News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2023

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the podcast this week:

In his cover piece for the magazine Iain Macwhirter writes in the aftermath of the government’s decision to block the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill from gaining Royal Assent. He joins the podcast with Observer columnist Sonia Sodha to discuss the Union’s new battle line (01:03).

Also this week: why are our prisons still in lockdown?

Charlie Taylor, HM’s Chief Inspector of Prisons writes about some of his recent observations visiting institutions around the country. He says that control measures are failing both inmates and the taxpayer. He is joined by journalist David James Smith to examine this post-Covid inertia in UK prisons (16:48).

And finally:

In The Spectator this week opera singer and comedian Melinda Hughes says that BBC Radio 3 is failing classical music fans by copying the likes of Classic FM and Scala Radio. She is joined by Sir Nicholas Kenyon, former controller of Radio 3 and the Telegraph’s opera critic, to debate whether the station is dumbing down (27:01).

Hosted by William Moore.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is sponsored by Can Accord Genuity Wealth Management, experienced wealth planners and
0:05.7	investment managers who offer unwavering support in challenging times. Visit can-dowealth.com for more
0:12.0	information. Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator.
0:24.6	Each week we look at three pieces from the magazine with the writers behind them.
0:28.9	I'm William Moore, the Spectator's Features Editor.
0:31.8	On this week's episode, I'll be talking about self-ID and the Union's new battle line,
0:44.3	discussing the effect of COVID on British prisons, and asking whether BBC Radio 3 is dumbing down. First up, in his cover piece for the magazine, Ian McWurter writes in the aftermath of the government's decision to block the Scottish Gender Reform Bill from gaining Royal Ascent.
0:54.9	He says the gender wars will test the harmony between England and Scotland, and joins me now
0:59.8	alongside Observer columnist Sonia Soda.
1:03.2	Ian, to start with, could you give our listeners an understanding of what the Scottish
1:07.8	Gender Reform Bill aims to achieve and why the UK government decided to block it.
1:14.8	Right, well, Nicholas Durgeon, you know, she is sincere in her support for minority groups and transgender people.
1:21.0	But she's a nationalist politician at the same time.
1:24.0	And this legislation has the effect of creating a kind of border issue, portraying the
1:31.5	UK Tory government as in some way transphobic and bigoted and right wing, and also running roughshod
1:37.1	over Scottish democracy because of the section 35, never been used before. It's usually called
1:43.8	the nuclear option. Now, what Scotland has
1:46.5	done is ever introduced something called self-ID, self-identification for trans people. That means in
1:52.4	Scotland now, you can, at the age of 16, you can become, if you're a man, you can become a woman,
1:57.8	or vice versa, merely by stating the fact. You don't have to go through
2:01.0	any kind of medical intervention and you can do so after three months. South of the border, it's very
2:06.2	different. First of all, you have to persuade a medical panel that you have gender dysphoria.
	...

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