Alex Massie on the determination to put women in danger for the sake of male games.

Voters should know that if they vote for the SNP (or the Green Party), they really are voting for men convicted of some of the most heinous crimes to be housed in the female prison estate simply because these men have decided they are in fact women themselves.

Or, in fact, because these men have decided to pretend they think they are in fact women themselves, in order to be housed in the female prison estate.

Note that there’s no way to tell the difference. Note that the SNP and the Green Party don’t even care that there’s no way to tell. Note the concern for male fantasies [or deliberate deception] at the expense of female basic safety.

None of the practical arguments in favour of the government’s approach withstands the slightest scrutiny. The prison service has plenty of experience when it comes to managing difficult or vulnerable, or simply unusual, prisoners. It stretches credulity beyond snapping point to think that it cannot safely house male prisoners who wish to identify as women. Indeed, we know it can, as plenty of trans-identifying men are already incarcerated in male prisons. Rapists, such as the notorious Isla Bryson, are housed in the male estate.

…

As far as the government is concerned, women who object to this should know their place and pipe down. Ministers argue that testimony from female prisoners unhappy at being imprisoned alongside men is “irrelevant”. It is hard to see how the government could more clearly signal its contempt for women. Their rights are contextual and qualified, whereas the rights of men who think themselves women are absolute and unequivocal.

Men matter; women don’t.