WHY is it that women have to strive for a voice? In 1918, a mere 105 years ago, only women over 30 were granted the vote – only women who occupied land or premises with a rateable value above £5 or had husbands who did. Between 1912 and 1918, if all women had been enfranchised then due to loss of men in the war, women would have been the majority vote. A hard-won fight to get the vote then – heaven forfend a women-majority voting population!

Now women have the vote without restrictions but yet again are striving for a voice. I do not want to share women-only spaces with men, be this changing rooms or toilets, nor to be in fear of any area which potentially may be accessed by predatory men, and the GRR Bill allows a window of opportunity for this, whether Nicola Surgeon and other supporters of this bill believe it or not. The bill ignores comfort, dignity and privacy in too many areas – for example personal care.

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When bringing up my children I encouraged them to be as independent as possible but if I were now bringing up a child – male or female – I would not allow them to use a toilet facility or changing area on their own. Maybe this far into this letter it would appear an afterthought that I do sympathise with trans people, but it is a minority imposing on a majority.

Even in schools there are now shared areas – think hard on how it must be for young girls going through hormonal change to have to see to their intimate needs in mixed toilet areas. Equally so for adult males. This splits both ways, having spoken to many men who equally do not want to share toilet spaces or any “mixed” areas.

But it is mainly women who feel these changes the most, and yet again are striving for some more thought to this whole issue. For the record – I have opposed this bill from the beginning seeing too many areas where there are weaknesses, not just for trans people but for everyone’s rights. The right to privacy and to feel comfortable in situations should be and in my opinion must be a right.

Frieda Burns
Stonehaven

BEING a 76-year-old “straight” guy, I first of all had to look up “TERF” to find out who/what they were. Having done so, I consider a placard saying “Decapitate terfs” a hate crime. Last time I checked, decapitation involves cutting off the head of an individual, therefore the placard is inciting the killing of a group of humans. Surely this MUST be an offence!

I have no axe to grind here. When I meet someone, I’m only interested in whether I like them, based on their personality and social/political views ... NOT how their genitals are arranged or their dress sense.

Inciting murder is NOT acceptable, irrespective of who it’s directed at.

Barry Stewart
Blantyre

TV on Monday night was a bit boring and I was flipping up and down the channels to see what was on. Well, I landed on a Police Interceptors programme which just happened to be the next station to the Darvel v Aberdeen match. The adverts came on and I switched to the football just to kill time. Needless to say, I never got back to the Interceptors!

I joined the game at the 52nd minute and was amazed to see that Darvel were 1-0 up. But after watching it for no more than five minutes I was no longer amazed. I was fascinated. Here was a team that was five levels below Aberdeen and they were not just taking them on, they were actually out-performing them. Every time an Aberdeen player got the ball he was swamped by three or four Darvel players. It was almost as if they had twice the number of players on the pitch as Aberdeen had.

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I usually watch Sportscene Highlights on a Sunday but in all the time I have watched it I have never seen any team show such purpose and determination as Darvel did on Monday night. They were bloody marvellous! Aberdeen may well have been a bit unfortunate to have their goal disallowed, but the way they played they didn’t even deserve a draw, never mind the opportunity to have a home replay.

Darvel were the better team throughout the 38 minutes that I watched, and well deserved the win. In fact it would have been unjust for them to have had to undergo a re-match in Aberdeen. On this occasion, the absence of VAR allowed a just and astonishing result to be marked up.

Charlie Kerr
Glenrothes

KEIR Starmer has said that a Labour government will end tax breaks for private schools. Let us hope he keeps his promise. It would mean private school fees would become liable for VAT.

The average cost of boarding a sixth former at a private school is £39,000 per annum. If the cost of VAT is passed on to parents it will lead to an increase in fees of 20%.

In the meantime private education remains a key part of the class system. Only 6% of school children are at private schools, yet 30% of Oxbridge admissions are from the private sector. And two-thirds of the current Cabinet were privately educated.

Alan Stewart
Co-ordinator, Republican Socialists, Glasgow