Aviva CEO tells of shock at sexist remarks from shareholders at AGM

Amanda Blanc tells Guardian incident may prompt rethink on how boards interact with investors

The chief executive of Aviva, Amanda Blanc, has told of her shock at being on the receiving end of misogynistic comments at the insurer’s annual meeting last week, saying the incident could prompt a wider rethink on how boards interact with shareholders in future.

Blanc was the target of sexist remarks from individual shareholders at the Aviva AGM in London, with comments from the floor that she was “not the man for the job” and that she should be “wearing trousers”. Aviva chair George Culmer responded to the remarks, saying he was “flabbergasted”.

Trans people ‘not an ideology’, MSPs weighing gender recognition reform told

Director of Stonewall Scotland speaks to parliamentarians as they take evidence on draft bill

MSPs have been urged to keep foremost in their minds that trans people are “human beings wanting to go about their daily lives”, as a Holyrood committee begins taking evidence on a draft bill that aims to streamline the process by which an individual can change their legal sex.

Colin Macfarlane, the director of Stonewall Scotland, told members of the Scottish parliament’s equalities, human rights and civil justice committee: “There has been a whipping up of a moral panic and an othering of trans people in the public discourse. Trans people are not an ideology – trans people are our friends, our family and our colleagues.”

Discredit where it’s due for ‘hepeat’ offenders | Brief letters

Sexist behaviour | Lib Dems and Tories | Making the Green party count | Gandhi T-shirt | Nature springs back

As a victim of “hepeating” on occasion, I was delighted to read about this practice (Pass notes, 16 May). It reminded me of a great Jacky Fleming cartoon and postcard: “That’s an excellent idea, Miss Brown. Would one of the men like to make it?”
Liz Bavidge
Halifax, West Yorkshire

• Ed Davey “can’t remember a time when the Liberal Democrats were more important to getting the Tories out of power” (Lib Dems ‘already campaigning’ for Tiverton and Honiton byelection, 15 May). Is that because they spent half of the last decade keeping them in it?
Alan Gray
Brighton