It was an absolute pleasure to welcome Ollie Sykes back to the council chamber last week for his third stint as councillor for Brunswick and Adelaide ward.
Ollie replaces Jilly Stevens who stepped down recently due to ill health and I wish her all the best in her recovery. Ollie brings with him a wealth of knowledge on local ward issues and a keen eye for scrutiny – our group will be all the stronger for his joining.
Earlier this month we sadly lost a real stalwart of local politics as the former leader of the council and councillor for more than 30 years Mary Mears sadly passed away. A passionate housing campaigner and respected politician, Mary and I didn’t cross paths that often due to differing committees, but when we did, she was always pleasant and respectful - qualities that should never be lacking in the council chamber.
The chamber has certainly become a more muted place since the introduction of the cabinet system by the Labour administration, with the ability of opposition groups dramatically curtailed by the lack of scrutiny opportunities. Having previously co-chaired a policy committee, I know all too well the long nights we had in those sessions. However, they gave opposition councillors a real chance to drill down and sometimes improve the decisions of an administration,but now sadly we just have the pantomime of the cabinet.
Last weekend our city celebrated Trans Pride for the 11th time. This annual gathering shows the best of our city’s vibrancy and accepting attitude at a time when this is a particularly precious thing. The march comes at a time when much of the faint hope that a Labour government would mean better rights and medical support for transgender people has been lost. This is in large part due to a recent announcement from the new Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has stated his intention to permanently ban the use of puberty blockers for transgender children, including for those currently on the medication. While Streeting claims his decision is a product of the Cass Review, forcing transgender children already prescribed puberty blockers to medically detransition was not a recommendation of the Cass Review. No groups representing transgender people were consulted in this decision.
Labour ran on an election manifesto to “remove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition and acceptance”. Instead, they are taking a position of removing healthcare from trans people who indeed deserve recognition and acceptance. I am glad that some Labour MPs, such as Nadia Whittome, Zarah Sultana and Stella Creasy have spoken out against their government on this. However, I suspect we will hear nothing from our two local Labour MPs in a stark contrast to Sian Berry, who has rightly stated that this move is desperately concerning and that Labour must put this right. The best response to this culture war is compassion, not doubling down on your predecessor’s policy to appease a diehard anti-trans lobby.
It remains nonetheless a relief to see the back of the former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for many reasons. One reason is that he was seen as using his place at the dispatch box to mock transgender people, even in front of Esther Ghey, whose daughter Brianna was targeted and killed in part due to being transgender. Our new Prime Minister Keir Starmer was right to condemn this at the time and to raise this again in debate with the election campaign.
Yet despite this, his government is pushing ahead with policies which are a direct threat to transgender children. This is not a unique problem with Wes Streeting but a wider, symptomatic problem within the Labour Party as a whole. For instance, when speaking on the draft guidance on gender questioning children, Keir Starmer stated that “parents have a right to know” if their child is transgender. Many LGBT+ people are sadly abused or made homeless due to being outed and trying to force schools to tell parents that their child is transgender without consideration of the child’s own needs is an inhuman approach to take.
I hope the new government considers the groundbreaking work our council has led on with respect to this and heeds its advice in the response it did to the draft guidance.
I share concerns with many of our local schools regarding the review of the relationships, sex and health education guidance which was undertaken by the last government.
Steve Davis is leader of the Greens on Brighton and Hove City Council
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