shortfall. At the 2014 Scottish Trades Union Congress annual conference, Lamont outlined plans to establish a Workers' Charter, saying she would work with the SNP government to achieve this. Lamont is a signatory of the Labour Women’s Declaration, which originated amongst Labour members but is not affiliated with it. The declaration, which has been criticised as transphobic by some Labour members, opposes reform of the Gender Recognition Act which would allow transgender people to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate on the basis of a statutory declaration, rather than the existing Gender Recognition Panel system. In the Scottish Parliament, the Labour Women’s Group, of which Lamont is a member, opposes protections for trans people being included in the Scottish Government’s Hate Crime bill, saying: "Cross-dressing is at best a fashion statement, and at worst the public enactment of a male fetish to wear women’s clothing, particularly lingerie. We do not think it should be protected in law." Media image After her inaugural session of First Minister's Questions on 22 December 2011, the BBC's Brian Taylor called Lamont's performance "confident, direct and salient". Cochrane has suggested that she emerged as the prevailing force at the weekly debates with Salmond, writing in May 2013, "it's been obvious for some time to those of us in the cheap seats that Johann Lamont has more than got his measure." Peter Hetherington of The Guardian quotes an unnamed political observer at Holyrood who said, "She's getting under [Salmond's] skin like no predecessor." Writing for The Scotsman as Scottish Labour gathered for its conference in April 2013, Andrew Whitaker felt that Lamont's tenure as party leader had been successful, citing Labour's local election achievements and her weekly exchanges with Salmond at First Minister's Questions as examples: "Ms Lamont has made Labour at Holyrood respectable again and less of the laughing stock than the ravaged party that emerged from heavy defeat in 2011." Her media appearances were criticised for their awkwardness. In September 2012, Richard Seymour of The Guardian described how she "fluffed her lines" during an interview with STV reporter Bernard Ponsonby following her announcement of Labour's public service policy review. Peter Ross of The Scotsman cites another interview, in which she was repeatedly questioned about her views on the UK Trident programme. But he describes her in person as "articulate, reflective, self-deprecating and at times very funny. It would be unfair to condemn her for not