Yesterday, I blogged about right wing parties deliberately stoking anti-LGBT+ sentiment for political gain.

Last night:

‘According to one insider, Number 10 has been polling “culture war” issues, such as transgender rights, to see whether they can be weaponised against Labour in northern working-class constituencies.’https://t.co/5iB7AAMVhn

— Aditya Chakrabortty (@chakrabortty) September 2, 2019

The Conservatives deny the report, as they denied reports last week that the Prime Minister would prorogue Parliament.

Leaving aside the implication that the Tories think everybody north of Watford is a bigot, there’s a very cynical calculation here. Trans people are such a tiny minority you can demonise them without losing a significant number of votes.

Sure, your attack ads will get many of them beaten up, maybe keep a few more in the closet, persuade a couple more to kill themselves. But that’s okay. They don’t really vote anyway, and when they do they don’t vote for the Conservatives.