The draft bill has been published, the generic “I have not read this yet but I must say something” statements have been made by politicians, and now it’s time to read what the bill actually says.

First impressions: It’s not a bill I could come close to supporting without major changes, but it’s an improvement on previous attempts. It’s also long. At 299 pages, very long indeed. The 35 page extended press release at the start, titled a “guide to powers and safeguards” is interesting, but of course doesn’t actually have any legal force. Many of the initial comments about the bill made by politicians seem to have been on the basis of reading this guide, and not the full bill. One comment I would pick up on in the initial section is that the bill is “bringing together existing powers”. Simplification on existing legislation always sounds good, but the Equality Act 2010 was also supposedly a consolidation exercise. Many readers will know my less-than-positive feeling on that particular piece of legislation!

Another highlight of the intro is the assertion that there are “862 suspected paedophiles” that this bill might help catch. You can’t publish a bill like this in the UK without using the “but, but… terrorists and paedophiles!” line. As investigations of both are, of course, shrouded in secrecy this makes scrutiny that much harder.

It’s going to take time for everyone to digest it all and figure out where any remaining problems lie, so discussion will probably take weeks before there is any kind of consensus. I’ve read it properly – highlighter in hand – once through so far and it’s likely I’ve missed bits but here’s what I have noticed so far. (This is not a list of what I would want to see in an Investigatory Powers Bill, as that would include things such as notification to individuals, just a commentary on what is actually present)

Judicial Oversight
Rejoice, for we have judicial oversight of interception warrants!

OK, hold on a second. We have some oversight but you can drive a coach and horses through much of it. Three major problems jump out:

The standard of proof required is that of “Judicial Review”. Quoting from the Courts and Tribunal’s web page: “[A Judicial Review] is not really concerned with the conclusions of that process and whether those were ‘right’, as long as the right procedures have been followed“. Essentially, we’ll have a group of very well paid judges checking that the Home Secretary signed the warrants correctly.

Warrants can be modified after issue to add names to them. In the case of “minor” changes, such as adding new phone numbers, they can be authorised by the police themselves. However, major changes only need a minister to approve the change – a judge does not need to be involved.

Finally, “urgent” warrants do not need reviewing for five working days. Judges are already used to being woken up at unsociable hours so that warrants can be applied for, so five days seems excessive. It still requires ministerial approval, and getting hold of a judge would seem easier and quicker than getting hold of a government minister.

Training warrants
Interception warrants can be issued for “testing, maintenance or development” of interception systems and “training of persons” who carry out interception, without any need that data collected should be destroyed without being examined. I do wonder how many people might find themselves “accidentally” intercepting the communications of people they know, or doing it to someone “who won’t possibly mind, because they have nothing to hide”.

Wilson Doctrine & Journalistic Sources
Looking on the positive side, the additional protections given to members of parliament would be put into law for the first time by this bill and explicitly cover members of other many other legislative bodies. However, these protections are watered down significantly from the original doctrine – rather than a blanket ban on interception of MPs communications, any warrant would require that the Prime Minister be consulted.

Journalists fare little better – judicial authorisation is required to get access to data on journalistic sources even in situations where a judge would otherwise not need to be involved. Other professions (Doctors, Lawyers and Ministers of Religion) get “extra consideration” in the Codes of Practice, but no extra safeguards against interception in the main bill. It’s clear that the intent is to make any exceptions to surveillance as limited as possible.

Communications Data Retention
A very important point for many people will be exactly who is required to keep bulk data – ie lists of web sites etc, visited by users. There’s a cost associated with collection that the Home Office may pay for, although they seem to be pushing the cost on to service providers with the latest bill. Luckily, only providers who have been notified by the Home Office that they need to collect data are covered and nothing prevents an operator stating that they have received or not received a retention notice. This allows privacy-conscious ISPs to be able to state publicly that they are not performing bulk retention of data. As Keith points out in the comments, section 77 does prohibit revealing the existence of a retention notice.

Filtering
There is a large section on “filtering” in the bill that deserves some explanation. Although data would be stored by ISPs, the Home Office would like to create a system (An API) so that they can remotely query and filter data on the ISPs systems without necessarily needing to talk to someone at the ISP. This removes a safeguard against wide-scale bulk data access without proper authorisation, and potentially allows someone to go on fishing expeditions that are marginally relevant to a warrant that’s been issues such as allowing queries like “tell me everyone across multiple ISPs who have accessed terrorist-hub.com”.

Security of collected bulk data
The headline issue has been retention of data for 12 months by ISPs, which is longer than many other countries. But how securely is the data kept? The bill answers that in a surprisingly poorly written clause: “subject to at least the same security and protection, as the data on any system from which it is derived“. The draft bill will no doubt have had the attention of many security experts within the Home Office, so it’s surprising that they did not pick up on the obvious point: Hacking a router gives you relatively little ability to capture much data without someone noticing but hacking a pre-existing bulk data archive gives you much more data and is thus a bigger target. As a result of this, the security of retained data needs to be significantly higher than that of other systems and I am surprised not to see reference to some soon-to-be published technical guidance on the measures required.

There is also no prohibition on the use of data collected by service providers for commercial purposes, such as being sold on to marketing companies or used for targeted advertising. (If it’s allowed for in the ISP’s terms and conditions, it’s not unlawful disclosure!) There are major privacy issues here that we’ve seen already on a smaller scale, where people access help sites for domestic violence or LGBT+ issues and then other members of their household receiving targeted advertising as a result. Service providers can do this already to an extent, but it costs money to do. If they’re going to have to do it anyway (Either paying for it themselves or being paid to do it) then they might as well make some money from it.

Finally, and most critically, there is no prohibition on a court ordering the disclosure of collected data to groups like copyright holders. It would become very easy for someone to apply to the courts for a list of everyone who has accessed Pirate Bay, Popcorn Time etc and send them not-so-nice legal letters.

Equipment Interference
…or “hacking into other people’s computers” as most people call it – although the bill would force service providers to cooperate in hacking attempts. Although more analysis of the bill is needed this is one area where the Bill looks like an improvement on the existing situation, as hacking is currently going on without proper scrutiny. The most obvious omission is the lack of any consideration for the side effects of hacking should they cause problems, by taking down critical computer systems or installing back doors into systems that are then abused by others.

Overseas
There has been a history of quid pro quo arrangements between security services where countries spy on each other’s citizens because the law doesn’t allow them to spy on their own citizens. Although the act prohibits formal arrangements of this type, it does not (that I can see) stop someone using information that they have been given that would otherwise have required an interception warrant. The act also allows the Home Secretary to sign agreements with other countries to honour each other’s warrants, but there is little to suggest that warrants from other countries would require the same level of authorisation and oversight as locally issued ones.

I will probably notice more on later re-reads of the draft bill, and I will post again if I find anything substantial.

Ahead of the publication of the latest incarnation of the Communications Data Bill, due out tomorrow, I thought I’d take another look at how the UK compares with other countries when it comes to the number of requests for user data. There are many articles that quote the raw numbers and the US invariably comes out top in those terms – with a population of well over three hundred million people, that’s hardly surprising.

Instead, I look at the number of requests per million population – i.e, as a citizen how likely is it that someone such as the courts or police will be looking at my data. The UK has an unenviable record in this regard, topping the charts as the most-spied on population back in 2010. The UK remained top in Europe until the latter half of 2012, when France just managed to get ahead – a trend that was repeated in 2013.

Since then, more data has been made available. Originally, only Google produced data but many other companies have followed suit. The big three who publish useful data, in terms of requests received, are Google, (Including Google Plus) Microsoft (Including Skype) and Facebook. Below is the chart for the latter half of 2014, which is the latest period for which full data is available. France and the UK are still neck-and-neck on user data requests per million population, beaten only by Singapore’s recent obsession with collecting data from Google.

Legal Requests graph 2014H2

User data requests per million population – July-December 2014

Another gender/sex/deception case is back in the news – this time, in Chester. So far, this case is not as directly relevant to trans people as previous cases, so it will likely not be followed as closely as others. However, what follows is a brief summary of what has been reported so far.

The usual approach of finding the first and most comprehensive news sources that have published the case has been used. This typically gives the most complete source and unbiased of information, which in this instance is the Chester Chronicle, who first published the story Monday night with two followup stories on Tuesday (1, 2) and Wednesday. Secondary and often tabloid cases have a habit of sensationalising stories to the point that after a few rounds of stealing borrowing stories from each other, they bear little resemblance to the facts.

As with previous cases, a “woman has posed as a man” to obtain sex, but similarities seem to end there. There is no hint in the reporting that Newland, the defendant, is in any way transgender and there are several key facts differentiating this from the McNally and other cases:

  • There was penetrative sex using a “prosthetic”
  • The alleged victim knew Newland (as a woman) separately from the online relationship
  • There is a claim that the alleged victim knew what was happening all along

The last of these is most interesting, as it mirrors the situation that a trans person might find themselves in having to defend a sexual assault charge under the McNally “you must disclose trans status before sex” rule, or in having to defend against forced marriage annulment. Specifically, how does someone prove that their partner knew the situation and is not just an ex trying to get revenge? Whilst the standard of proof in criminal cases is “proof beyond reasonable doubt”, the courts can not just accept someone’s word that they told their partner some fact or every non-violent rape case would be defended with “they gave consent”. This leaves the prosecution merely having to convince a judge or jury judge that of course they didn’t know someone was trans or they’d never have consented to sex/married them

The tables seem to have been turned in the current case, as the alleged victim has been forced to address the defence accusation that she must have known something was up and she has admitted that she may have been foolish. She had been asked to wear a blindfold during any sexual encounters, having never met her partner outside of meeting for sex – a fact that, according the reporting, the defence is making much of.

The the other two points regarding use of a prosthetic and knowing Newland already are covered by existing laws, specifically deception as to the nature of the act and deception over identity of a real person. Although it is possibly stretching the legal definition, if the jury is not convinced by the “alleged victim knew and went along with it” defence, the resulting verdict will depend heavily on those two points and not just the McNally “deception as to gender vitiates consent” ruling.

The trial continues.

The demands of campaigning meant I did not have time to prepare a pre-election post on trans* candidates prior to the election, but now that I am no longer delivering leaflets or knocking on doors, we can have a look at both who was standing and how people fared.

Prior to the elections, there were no full-time openly trans politicians in the UK at a District Council level or higher – May 2014 having been the first time in at least 14 years that this has been the case. We now have (at least) two elected trans politicians, back up to the pre-May-2010 peak.

As with last year, I have not produced a list of Town/Parish council election candidates, nor anyone not “full-time”. This predominantly because at that level, events are hard to track. Parish elections usually receive little media attention, are not well-publicised even on council web sites and are generally run on a non-partisan basis, even if candidates are actually party members.

Parliamentary Candidates – Listed in order of selection, none successful
Charlie Kiss Green Party Charlie Kiss
Islington South and Finsbury
8% – 5th place
Stella Gardiner Green Party Stella Gardiner
Bexleyheath and Crayford
2.2% – 5th place
Labour Emily Brothers
Sutton and Cheam
11.1% – 3rd place
Zoe OConnell Liberal Democrats Zoe O’Connell
Maldon
4.5% – 5th place
District Council Elections – Successful Candidates
Zoe Kirk-Robinson Conservatives Zoe Kirk-Robinson
Bolton Council – Westhoughton North and Chew Moor.
41.3%, majority 2.7% (Simultaneous by-election)
Zoe OConnell Liberal Democrats Zoe O’Connell
Cambridge City Council – Trumpington Ward
29.9%, majority 2.6%
District Council Election Candidates – Unsuccessful Candidates
Labour Anna Booth
Trafford Council – Davyhulme East Ward
2nd – 41.4%. (Majority of winner: 1.1%)
Alice Chapman Liberal Democrats Alice Chapman
Cheshire West and Chester Council – Winnington and Castle Ward
7th – 4.21% (All-up elections: 2 places)
Anwen Muston Labour Anwen Muston
Wolverhampton City Council – Penn Ward
2nd – 37.6% (Majority of winner: 5.25%)

Federal Conference Committee met yesterday afternoon to discuss all the last minute items required to make conference happen such as amendments, topical & emergency motions, appeals and so on. It is nominally a two hour meeting, so it has to be quick considering there were 55 amendments to get through – despite getting stuck straight in at the start, we still overran slightly.

First up, amendments. When discussing motions, the ultimate decision is a yes or a no, but with amendments there is also the option of accepting it as a drafting change, i.e. it’s a simple enough change that it does not need to be formally moved and can be published in Conference Daily.

And, as with motions, there are a few reasons for rejection, such as it’s a topic that’s already been well debated as policy, it’s not considered significant enough for debate as an amendment, it’s covered by another amendment or simply we don’t have time. You can reasonably get one or two amendments in a 45 minute policy motion slot and two or three in a one-hour slot. Going beyond that leaves no time for actual debate.

Finally, before I list the amendments I should mention that the descriptions given here are my own summaries, as unlike with motions no title is submitted by the author.

F4 – Mental Health
11 amendments submitted for a 60 minute slot.

  • Accepted for debate
    • F4D: Conversion Therapy – LGBT+ Liberal Democrats (In reworded form)
    • F4F: Support for children & Young People – Liberal Youth
  • Accepted as Drafting Change
    • F4A: Local Government inclusion – ALDC
    • F4B: MH PSHE & Support – Bassetlaw and Sherwood & 28 reps
    • F4G: Mental Health First Aid – Oxford East (Parts only)
    • F4H: CCG governing body membership – South Central Region
    • F4I: Mental Health & Debt – 13 conference reps
    • F4J: “…get into and remain in work” – 14 conference reps
  • Not taken
    • F4C: Multidisciplinary integration & co-location – Hastings and Rye
    • F4E: Gender Identity Clinic Funding – LGBT+ Liberal Democrats

F6 – Stronger Economy, Fairer Society, Opportunity For All (Manifesto Motion)
16 amendments submitted for a 100 minute slot.

  • Accepted for Debate
    • F6C: Independent Living Fund – Central Beds, 18 conference reps, EMLD
    • F6I: Limiting reductions in Welfare Budget – 4 local parties, 57 reps (The Mark Pack Amendment)
    • F6J: Regulating Biometric data & gov’t databases – 10 conference reps
  • Accepted as Drafting Change
    • F6H: Working towards Land Value Tax – Tatton, 26 conference reps
    • F6O: Religion, Belief, Humanist Marriage & Caste Discrimination – 17 conference reps (Parts Only)
  • Not taken
    • F6A: Fairer Economy, Stronger Society – Camberwell and Peckham
    • F6B: Tackling Discrimination – Central Beds, 14 conference reps, EMLD
    • F6D: Youth Development Find – Central Beds, 18 conference reps
    • F6E: Promoting Fair Trade – Liverpool
    • F6F: Promoting the Living Wage – Liverpool
    • F6G: Ending “taxes on poverty” – Liverpool
    • F6K: Environmentally Sustainable Economy – 10 conference reps
    • F6L: Mental and Physical Health care & accessibility – 12 conference reps
    • F6N: Legal Aid & Court Fees – 14 conference reps
    • F6P: Religion – 19 conference reps
  • Withdrawn
    • F6M: Legal Aid, Judicial Review & Court Fees – 14 conference reps

F8 – Five Green Laws
17 amendments submitted for a 45 minute slot

  • Accepted for Debate
    • F8O: Resource Efficiency & Zero Waste Britain Act – 22 conference reps
    • F8P: Energy efficient housing & Fuel Poverty – 23 conference reps
  • Accepted as Drafting Change
    • F8B: Promote Cycling & Walking – Calderdale, 14 reps (Slightly shortened)
    • F8K: Include “conserve nature” in Nature Act heading – 11 conference reps
    • F8M: Correction – 11 conference reps
    • F8Q: Correction
  • Not taken
    • F8A: Funding for Local Government – ALDC
    • F8C: Ending fossil fuel use on railways – Calderdale, 15 reps
    • F8D: Environmental planning & building – 11 conference reps
    • F8E: Detection & prosecution of waste crimes – 11 conference reps
    • F8F: Delete open tendering clause (2a) – 11 conference reps
    • F8G: Delete 10mph clause (3d) – 11 conference reps
    • F8H: Thorium Cycle Reactors – 11 conference reps
    • F8I: Rewording IV – 11 conference reps
    • F8J: Rewording 3c – 11 conference reps
    • F8L: Rewording 4b – 11 conference reps
    • F8N: Rewording 3i – 11 conference reps
    • Request for separate vote on lines 86-88

F11 – A Better Deal for Britain’s Workforce
5 amendments submitted for an 45 minute slot

  • Accepted for Debate
    • F11A: Review Employment Tribunal feels & benefit sanctions – Barrow & Furness
    • F11C: Strengthen Minimum Wage enforcement – Liberal Youth
  • Not taken
    • F11B: Raise Minimum to Living Wage, Phase out zero-hours contracts – Camberwell & Peckham
    • F11D: Living Wage by 2020 – 3 local parties, 26 reps
    • F11E: Large political donations – 10 conference reps

F18 – Freedom of Expression in Europe and Beyond
7 amendments submitted for a 45 minute slot

  • Accepted for Debate
    • F18E: Right to practice and change religion – 19 conference reps (Merged with F)
    • F18F: Repeal of laws restricting practice or change of religion – 19 conference reps (Merged with E)
    • Request for separate vote on line 41 “considered” to end of line 42
  • Accepted as Drafting Change
    • F18B: Abolition of blasphemy & Apostasy laws – Merton
    • F18C: Police data requests against journalists – 10 conference reps
    • F18D: Drafting Amendments – 17 conference reps
    • F18G: Drafting Amendments
  • Not taken
    • F18A: Peaceful protest & Freedom of association – Calderdale, 14 conference reps

Next up was Emergency motions and topical issues. FCC needs to decide if submitted motions are genuine emergencies that could not have been foreseen at the time of the initial motion deadline. If more than one emergency motion is considered valid, there is a ballot of members at conference to decide which is debated.

Four motions/topics were submitted in total:

  • Access to Justice 800 years after Magna Carta
  • Making a Fairer Immigration System for All
  • Leaders’ Debates
  • The detention of women in Immigration Centres (Topical issue)

The Magna Carta motion was withdrawn and the Fairer Immigration motion was not considered an emergency, so only the Leaders’ Debates motion remains. The topical issue will also be discussed in that slot, but as it is not a motion there is no vote at the end.

Finally, there was one appeal against non-selection of a motion on coalition negotiations. The appeal was not successful.

In some welcome news, it has been announced today that the General Medical Council (GMC) have dismissed a long-running case against Richard Curtis, a London-based doctor specialising in trans healthcare.

The case had been due to be heard next month, but the GMC have decided that it does not even warrant a hearing. The final case, before it was dismissed, had been reduced to two allegations failing to follow an older version of the WPATH Standards of Care that was out of date by the time of the complaint and two of providing “misleading” information when referring for surgery that may have been related to patients giving inaccurate information about when they updated their name.

This hopefully brings to an end a long-running campaign against doctors trying to provide progressive treatment in the best interest of trans people which started with the case against Dr Russell Reid nearly a decade ago.

Dr. Curtis’s full statement is below.

It is with much relief that I announce the conclusion of the GMC investigation which has now been in process for nearly four years.

In short the GMC have entirely dismissed the case. There was no Fitness to Practice hearing and no sanctions.

The conditions which were imposed over three years ago, as it turns out, inappropriately, will be removed when the process for that to occur is administered by the GMC and should be a formality.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for all those who have given their support during this very difficult time.

Dr Richard James Curtis

It’s hardly unsurprising that a letter in the Observer, “We cannot allow censorship and silencing of individuals, contains misleading statements and half-truths. After all, it has been signed by a number of high-profile campaigners against equality for trans people and sex workers who have long found any criticism of their position inconvenient.

What is surprising, and why the letter is deserving of closer scrutiny, is the inclusion of Peter Tatchell’s name at the bottom. My first thought was to check that this was the same Peter Tatchell as the notable gay rights campaigner and not just someone with the same name. Sadly, as can be seen from his twitter feed, it’s the same guy.

Lets take a look at the points raised in the letter one by one. It is a poor selection of arguments indeed as I do not need to cherry pick points from the letter – this is every item in the letter trivially and quickly taken apart by just a little knowledge of the facts and issues involved.

  1. First up, the events surrounding Smirthwate’s show being cancelled. The letter says:

    The fate of Kate Smurthwaite’s comedy show, cancelled by Goldsmith’s College in London last month is part of a worrying pattern of intimidation and silencing of individuals whose views are deemed “transphobic” or “whorephobic”.

    What they didn’t mention was that the show was cancelled in part because of a lack of interest, with only 8 tickets sold. Goldsmith’s Comedy also provide us with more background via Tumblr – specifically, that Smurthwaite herself had warned (Falsely) of a picket of “hundreds”, which the university society simply wasn’t in a position to handle safely, and that “the show will end up being me crying”.

    Free speech does not include the right to an audience but the message here is “Nobody wants to hear me cry and that violates my free speech

  2. Next up:

    There were calls for the Cambridge Union to withdraw a speaking invitation to Germaine Greer

    This one really is a continuation of the last point: Cambridge Union decided to host the event, as is their right, so a parallel event was organised and was, by some accounts, more popular than the original.

    Message: “People talking about me violates my free speech, but I’m allowed to talk about them”

    (It is worth noting that free speech means that Cambridge Union are not free from the consequences of their choice to host Greer: We’re allowed to think that they acted immaturely with their pointless digs at CUSU LGBT+ on Twitter)

  3. My personal favourite is about Cambridge PPC Rupert Read:

    The Green party came under pressure to repudiate the philosophy lecturer Rupert Read after he questioned the arguments put forward by some trans-activists.

    There is only one possible take-home statement from this: “The freedom of speech of the establishment trumps the freedom of speech of everyone else, because we can’t stand criticism.” For Tatchell to sign a letter stating politicians should be free from criticism is especially bizarre, given his history. I hope he simply did not read it properly before signing.

    In other words, All people are equal, but some people are more equal than others.

  4. And finally:

    The feminist activist and writer Julie Bindel has been “no-platformed” by the National Union of Students for several years.

    No platforming is bad, right? Not if you understand what No Platforming is: As the name says, it recognises that someone does not have the right to demand a platform, nor do they have the right to demand to engage with debate against a group.

    The signatories of this letter are stating that they should be allowed to barge on to any university campus or private property anywhere in the land, despite any attempt to create a safe space policy, and start a discussion of their choosing. (For reasons unclear to me, this seems to be a one-sided right: Transphobes have a long history of involvement in events that prevent some women not just from a platform but from turning up at all)

    Or: “Even though we have already established we have free speech and you don’t, we still want more“.

Spring 2015 Conference SubmissionsI have been posting updates on my work as a member of Federal Conference Committee (FCC) on my FCC Facebook page, but based on feedback, some people would prefer to see this hosted somewhere other than Facebook, so I will start posting FCC-related content on this blog, and linking to it from Facebook.

As you have hopefully seen, the provisional agenda for Spring 2015 conference has been published. FCC is now also submitting formal reports of it’s meetings but they have yet to appear on the party-members-only committee page. As a result, the information on which motions failed has yet to be made public even though it is not a secret – so here it is.

First, a quick recap from my earlier update on how motion selection works:

First, an FCC member who is responsible for each policy area gives a quick one minute brief on each motion including feedback received from SPAds, Ministers and HQ along with a recommendation to accept or reject the motion. At this stage, the decision is purely on the basis of the motion itself, not considering debate time available. For some motions the recommendation is uncontroversial and it goes through without discussion. For others, a short debate occurs where FCC members give their views on keeping/rejecting the motion and a show of hands takes place.

FCC started out with 27 motions, (not including the manifesto motion, as FPC-submitted motions cannot be rejected) and the first pass reduced this to 14. Given a substantial amount of time was given over to the manifesto debate and spring conference is shorter than autumn, there is time available at conference to discuss four or perhaps five non-emergency policy motions – just because a motion is rejected it does not mean that FCC does not like it. For comparison, spring conference in 2014 debated seven non-emergency policy motions.

The second, third and fourth passes are to whittle down the list based on time available.

Four more motions were dropped in round two via a vote but without debate. Short debates and votes dropped the list down again to just six motions. Four of those were motions that FCC definitely wanted to hear debated, leaving two motions to be debated head-to-head and voted on.

Now, for the motions. Firstly, those rejected because they not considered suitable for debate. This is often due to wording of the motion and not necessarily because FCC does not like the topic. One key item of feedback I would give to those submitting motions is to ensure your motion is clear in terms of what it refers to (E.g. does “education” mean just children or adult education too?) and that the items in “conference calls for” have not already happened in part or whole.

  • Education: Citizenship Education and Political Education as part of Wider Political Reform. (Submitted by Brighton & Hove)
  • Education: Practical Action to Promote Equality and reduce poverty. (Calderdale)
  • Education: The accountability of OFSTED. (10 Conference Reps)
  • Energy and Climate Change: Fracking. (City of Peterborough) Rejected due to the 2 year rule: Conference does not usually re-debate a topic within 2 years.
  • Energy and Climate Change: “Fracking” Extraction of shale gas (or oil) by hydraulic fracking. (11 Conference reps) 2 year rule.
  • Health: Protecting our communities and children from conversion therapy. (Calderdale) Two nearly identical motions were submitted, but the longer one was preferred.
  • Home Affairs, Justice and Equality: Gangmaster licensing authority (Barrow and Furness)
  • Transport: A south coast mainline railway. (Hastings and Rye) More suitable for a regional conference
  • Work & Pensions: Taxes on Poverty (Liverpool)
  • Party Business: Negotiations in a hung parliament (27 Conference reps)
  • Party Business: Principled Liberal Democracy (Calderdale)
  • Party Business: Recruiting our way to greater diversity (EMLD)

Next, motions that had been considered worthy of debate but rejected due to lack of time:

  • Round 2 (Vote but no debate)
    • Energy and Climate Change: Energy efficiency first (24 Conference reps)
    • Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Resource efficiency for green growth (25 conference reps)
    • Transport: Improving health by cutting vehicle pollution (23 Conference reps)
  • Round 3 (Vote after debate)
    • Education: Youth Services (14 Conference reps)
    • Health: Electronic Cigarettes and harm reduction (Calderdale &amp 13 Conference reps)
    • Health: Protecting our communities and children from conversion therapy (LGBT+ Liberal Democrats & Liberal Youth) Could be an amendment to the Mental Health Motion
    • Home Affairs, Justice and Equality: Magna Carta Today (Liberal Democrat Lawyers Association)
    • Transport: Rail Fares (Eastleign & 10 Conference reps)
    • Work & Pensions: Scrutiny and advice panels for job centres (Cambridge)
  • Round 4.
    • Culture, Media & Sport: Harnessing the power of the creative industries (11 Conference reps) This was effectively a head-to-head debate against the Freedom of Expression in Europe motion, as the other 4 motions FCC had a choice over were clearly going to be debated.
  • Successful Motions
    • Business, Innovation & Skills: A better deal for Britain’s workforce (17 Conference reps)
    • Education: Funding (12 Conference reps)
    • Energy & Climate Change: 5 Green Laws (Kingston)
    • Foreign Affairs: Freedom of expression in Europe and beyond (20 Conference reps)
    • Health: Mental Health (10 Conference reps)
    • Stronger Economy, Fairer Society, Opportunity for all (Submitted by Federal Policy Committee – FCC must accept for debate) This is the manifesto motion.

In the latest twist in the saga of Inhouse Pharmacy, two of their web sites (inhousepharmacy.biz and inhousepharmacy-europe.com) unexpectedly disappeared from the internet some time in the last 48 hours. Yesterday morning, users started receiving the email reproduced below in which IHP cite “anti-competitive action in the USA” as the reason for the domains being unavailable.

Blocking domain names seems to be a relatively new tactic in the campaign – presumably orchestrated by big pharma – to try to shut down online pharmacies, which are the only source of HRT for many trans women. Previous efforts have concentrated on payment providers instead.

Fortunately, other similar sites appear unaffected.

We have changed our website name

Today due to anti-competitive action in the USA it is necessary for us to become:

www.inhousepharmacy.vu

We have done this to ensure you can continue to access our affordable medications from us in the same reliable manner you have grown to trust.

Our old domain www.inhousepharmacy.biz is no longer operating, but we are, just with our .VU domain name which stands for Vanuatu, the country where we are based in the tropical South Pacific.

Business is normal, the site and prices are just the same. We are the same people you have grown to trust and when you phone us you will be talking to the same customer service team. Please come on over to our new site at www.inhousepharmacy.vu. Please remember USA shoppers right now get a 10% additional discount if paying by eCheck – give it a try.

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Trans politicians were briefly in the news today, when it was claimed that the Labour candidate for Sutton and Cheam was the “first transgender candidate for Parliament”.

After a short session of fact-checking supplied by twitter, that’s now been reduced to “first openly transgender candidate for Labour” – but as this mistake keeps cropping up it appears that a brief history lesson might be useful.

The first openly trans candidate in current political memory appears to have been Alexandra (Sandra) MacRae, who stood in Glasgow Provan for the SNP back in 1992. Twenty three years isn’t just a long time in politics – it’s a lifetime, meaning the story of her candidature is now unclear. It was certainly known that she was trans by the date of the election, and it seems likely that it was known prior to her selection, as she had previously stood at least once before transitioning (in 1996) and possibly, according to some sources, as many as three times.

Arguably, she remains the best parliamentary record of a trans person to date, securing 21.7% of the vote and coming second to Labour. But don’t expect her to stand again any time soon following her conviction and jail sentence for fraud.

Second, if we are going by coming-out date, would be Stephanie Dearden.

There is a version of events that has Stephanie being “outed” Daily Mail in 2005, but there are earlier Guardian stories which mention her in connection with the July 2004 Leicester South by-election. The attack leaflets distributed at that time, showing the Liberal Democrat candidate shaking Stephanie’s hand, include a quote from her clearly revealing her trans status – suggesting she may have never been stealth.

Either way, she certainly was not stealth by the time of her selection for Tooting constituency for the Liberal Democrats on the 4th November, 2004 and she went on to come third with 19.5% of the vote.

Next up is Nikki Sinclair, who was an MEP until earlier this year and whose background is better known. She has stood four times post-transition and as an open lesbian but before coming out as trans – for UKIP in 2001 and 2005 for Westminster, in 2009 for the European Parliament when she was successfully elected as a UKIP MEP and again for Westminster as an independent in 2010, following her departure from UKIP.

She came out as trans in 2013, but lost her MEP re-election bid as part of the “We Demand a Referendum Party”.

Fourth and fifth are the Green Prospective Parliamentary Candidates Charlie Kiss – the first trans man anyone knows of – and Stella Gardiner, who has been a Green party member since 1993 and who transitioned in 2013.

Both Stella and Charlie have been selected for seats in London in May 2015, with Stella adding that she “took the decision from the start to be out and open about being trans“.

This puts the latest announcement sixth on the list – and with just under six months to run until the general election, I’m expecting that we’ll see at least one more trans candidate announced for May 2015. There were eight openly trans politicians who stood this May, and I would expect the total to be higher in a General Election year.

This post was updated on 10th December 2014 with links showing the date of Stephanie Dearden’s selection. Thanks to Jon Ball for finding this information.