providing refuge for asylum seekers on merseyside in northwest england. now it s time for political thinking with nick robinson. hello and welcome to political thinking. the row about how and why a rapist called adam ended up in a women s prison has shone a spotlight on a debate which in truth, has been raging notjust for months, but for years. at the centre of that debate is the charity and campaigning organisation stonewall. my guest on political thinking this week is the new chair of stonewall. he s ian anderson and he s got a cv that might surprise you. he s a lifelong conservative. he went to school with michael gove
in terms of creating a more inclusive approach for lg btq+ people. but i disagree with nicola sturgeon on some of the language she might use and personal view. 0bviously, again, the one thing that s not changed in all this is i m a very committed unionist. you will know that the way people in our world, this village of westminster, we both occupied in different ways, in different roles, often say the measure of leadership is whether you challenge your own side. you ve already said something rather different from what we often see and read on twitter in particular. are you willing, as the chair of stonewall, to stand up to your own side and say, show a bit more respect? respect is everything that i m about. respect is, i hope, how people work with me, how i try and work with them.
it s a good word, and i think it s a good comment. that is my approach. we might even get that ten open again and you can have some of your critics in it, as well as people who are. well, yeah. ian anderson, chair of stonewall. thank you for coming on political thinking. thank you. when stonewall chose as its chair, someone who was seen in westminster as a smoothie, as a fixer, as a pr man and a lobbyist, some thought the cynics, you might say, that this was just putting a new gloss, a rather more comfortable language on top of stonewall s existing positions. 0thers hoped that ian anderson would actually lead stonewall in a new direction, willing to have the big tent conversation he talked of, but doesn t yet seem quite ready to embrace.
biological woman is. and stonewall is not saying anything to change that. what it is saying is that we believe that a trans woman is a woman. 50 believe that a trans woman is a woman. ,, ., , believe that a trans woman is a woman. , w, ., , , believe that a trans woman is a woman. , , .,, , , woman. so in this case the rapist is a woman? woman. so in this case the rapist is a woman? what woman. so in this case the rapist is a woman? what i woman. so in this case the rapist is a woman? what i am woman. so in this case the rapist is a woman? what i am not woman. so in this case the rapist is a woman? what i am not trying - woman. so in this case the rapist is a woman? what i am not trying to l woman. so in this case the rapist is i a woman? what i am not trying to do is convince a woman? what i am not trying to do is convince people a woman? what i am not trying to do is convince people of a woman? what i am not trying to do is convince people of anything - is convince peo
in aberdeen and he ended up running a leadership campaign for ken clarke. he s also a westminster insider who s operated behind the scenes at very high level with ministers of all political parties. he set up and he now runs one of the largest lobbying firms in britain, cicero. he now fears that we are entering an american style culture war and we might in britain be going back to the future in a way that makes him as a gay man deeply uncomfortable. ian anderson, welcome to political thinking. thanks, nick. good to be with you. now, after years of operating behind the scenes in westminster, you and i have come across each other over decades of nine years. why on earth did you want to walk into this minefield? well, firstly, you re making me feel very old. upfront? yeah. i ve been doing this for a long time. quite simply, stonewall