Starmer's vote in Holborn and St Pancras fell from 36,641 in 2019 to 18,884 today. That is incredible for an incoming prime minister. This is really significant. And no amount of media refusal to talk about these things will erase it.
The London School of Economics breaking ties with Stonewall is big news. This is a klaxon call for those on the socialist left who have been burying their heads in the ground - now is the time to take an independent left stance on all this. And not to go down with a rotten ship.
This is true. But I am very sorry,
@Peston
, you played a scurrilous role in defaming Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite or permissive of antisemitism. You went beyond proper journalism. Some of us warned anti-left propagandists such as you where this would lead to. You enabled this.
As a Jew, I have become increasingly worried that the charge of antisemitism is being levelled to silence legitimate and important debate. Antisemitism is on the rise, but there is also a rise in the unscrupulous use of the term to silence reasonable questions about the Israeli
I hope the Maya Forstater judgment gives rise to genuine reconsideration among some friends. It is not a good thing for employers to sack/not renew contracts of people on the basis of their lawful and reasonable beliefs. No trade unionist should ever have said otherwise.
The hyperbolic propagandism from Mermaids and Stonewall reacting to today's court judgment says all. Not one word of concern for the young woman who brought the case. You'd do that even if you oppose the judgment. You would... if you cared and were "kind". People are seeing this
Do people see the problem here? First, there is nothing wrong with disputing that mantra. It is not "hateful" to do so. Second, we are elevating the claim that someone's feelings might be hurt to become a rule of censorship, a condition of employment. (2/3)
Very big victory for George Galloway. Well done. A boost for the pro-Palestine movement and a blow against Establishment politics. With another 6k votes for a local independent candidate against the party machines that is 60% rejecting the rigged system. That is also big news.
The IOC acknowedges that current the 2 cases over eligibility for women's boxing are a "DSD issue" (it had to make a correction on that). The Algerian Olympic Committee says the issue around Imane Khelif is "like [Caster] Semenya's" that is 46 XY 5-ARD, a DSD of males. (1/2)
It ought not need saying, but - exclusive same-sex attraction has nothing whatsoever to do with racism. People drawing these analogies should be thoroughly ashamed. Further, if someone says "sorry, I don't fancy you", that is it. Ends.
A Sussex University student is quoted in the media today saying of Professor Kathleen Stock, โShe has said publicly that she does not believe trans men are men or trans women are women. It should not be acceptable for a professor to say things that might hurt someone.โ (1/3)
For reasons that ought to be obvious, it is not possible to apply this rule - on the basis that anyone anywhere can claim hurt feelings over anything. Instead of that, we make a democratic rule of respectful and robust debate. We must stand on that principle. (3/3)
The British Social Attitudes Survey suggests that most people hold a liberal view about trans people living their lives but do not accept dogma about literally changing sex. Many, inc
@jk_rowling
, have been monstered for that. But it is the sensible ground upon which to build.
The main attack on the BBC piece on lesbians and the cotton ceiling is that a) it should not be published, b) this doesn't exist, c) investigating whether it exists is transphobic, d) toys and prams.
Discussion is happening. We all need to get used to it. Welcome it, in fact.
A judge in London has delivered the entirely reasonable opinion that the ONS should collect census data on the basis of legal sex, not upon the non-legal assertion of identification (by proxy). There is an additional self-ID gender question. This is sense, not transphobia.
Italians liberating their city from foreign domination. Obviously, they are three men in the background and three non-binaries in the foreground. Women don't do combat, or national liberation, or anti-fascist struggle or things like that. It wouldn't conform to stereotype.
@billybragg
You've compared feminists you don't agree with to agents of the Holocaust. Now we are on to you comparing them to anti-abortion fanatics. You have a problem Billy.
A friend at a large women's conference in Portsmouth
#FiLiA2021
describes an intense contribution by a woman talking of rape as a weapon of war in the context of the Tigray atrocities in Ethiopia. Why should anyone protest against this conference? They have a right to, but why?
To
@Keir_Starmer
and
@UKLabour
, the
#WPUKManchester
event tonight shows 2 things: inside, a democratic discussion; outside, a shouty protest that doesn't seem to know or care what the issues are. So please cut the evenhanded "less heat, more light" line. Acknowledge the reality.
Some people with 5-ARD socialised (or later grow up) treated as girls/women; some, boys/men. They face social pressures and sometimes bigotry. But the issue in sports is going through male puberty and having male advantage. This needs honesty, reason and fairness. IOC fails x3.
Whatever you think of George Galloway of the Workers Party, it is profoundly anti-democratic to exclude him from the 7-strong leaders debate while including Nigel Farage who has been rejected seven times at the ballot box. Reform has never won a parliamentary seat.
This is damning. The Speaker of the House of Commons "extended a favour to Keir Starmer" so as to avoid a Labour rebellion of possibly over 100. And he used the excuse that constituents would be angry at Labour MPs for not voting fo the SNP motion. Utterly outrageous.
I mean this sincerely: after today's judicial ruling on the collation of the census, shouldn't Stonewall and other outfits stop with the battle against reality and perhaps find common ground in fighting for the additional resources and material things LGB and T people need?
It is profoundly anti-democratic for the Mermaids charity and an ever-crowdfunding KC to go to court to try to overturn the registration of the LGB Alliance as a charity. At bare minimum: there is an ideological/political dispute. The courts are not the place to resolve that.
@The_TUC
Someone has won an EAT in the course of a fight against unfair termination/not renewal of contract.
You are a TRADE UNION confederation. Can you please start from the basics: there are the employees and the employers. And we are on the side of the workers.
One thing that astounds me when socialists are asked the "what is a woman question" by the media is not so much the frequent blather, but that they don't immediately go into a riff about women's oppression being the oldest and deepest specific social oppression... (1/6)
When Maya Forstater was fired some soi-disant "(revolutionary) socialists said she wasn't sacked, just had not had her contract renewed. If you use bosses' arguments in the era of insecurity and employer power, don't talk to me about the working class.
#IStandWithSashaWhite
@billybragg
You have a real problem with women in public life who disagree with you, don't you? Do you think you are doing anyone any favours with these frequent ejaculations - women, gays, transpeople? Why are you polluting space for public discourse in this way?
Among the most shocking aspects of what Prof Kathleen Stock is going through is how those justifying the physical threats requiring security precautions cannot cite anything she has said or alternatively cannot show why it is beyond the pale. This is a dangerous witch hunt.
@soniasodha
You know this, but for others' benefit Nicolson is the vice-chair of the parliamentary grouping on LGBT+ issues. It seeks to persuade other MPs of its points of view. It produces reports that are quoted by journalists. He has not read the Cass report that leads GIDS to close.
@SkyNews
He's right. People can fulminate if they wish and give their views positive or negative about George Galloway. That is totally legitimate. At the same time, let's be grown up and address the issues. George Galloway is right about this and most people will I suspect agree with him
If various diversity grifters do not want a perfectly reasonable tribunal judgment to be misinterpreted as a licence for harassment then a) they shouldn't have misrepresented the case as about that and b) they should stop doing that now. 1/2
The police in Cardiff today decided that a group of lesbians were not allowed to take part in a Pride parade because other people threatened them. Get this clear - the police decided who can take part in a cultural-political procession. The police. This is dangerous.
@MrsHenders4652
Against the wishes of 82% or female athletes it surveyed. The IOC is a disgrace. It has single-handedly created problems for DSD athletes, undermined women's sport, added to global confusion, and helped those who want to fight a culture war, not solve things rationally.
Complaining about the cynical - but professional - Tory machine identifying a wedge issue and playing it for all it's worth in the runup to elections is like a ship's captain carping about the weather. The criminal irresponsibility is that Labour gave them the "woman issue".
There is normalisation here. Medics "arrested" or "taken in for questioning". This is not a civilian policing operation within a state. It is a foreign state militarily seizing doctors and nurses of a territory it illegally occupies. Israel is the invader and aggressor.
Shocking case
#IStandWithSashaWhite
In addition to the alarming authoritarianism, there is the fact that some people think "activism" is getting feminists sacked from their jobs. How about a left that kicks up, not down and - you know - collectively fights against sackings?
The response from the likes of Owen Jones to thousands of women raising concerns via
#Expelme
is to welcome a mass purge of the Labour Party. Do these people have no idea why many Tory smears stuck in the election and how much they look like nasty little authoritarians?
The effort at anathematising
@ALLIANCELGB
by claiming that it "does not represent L, G or B people in no way shape or form" betrays a confusion that underpins a lot of the totalitarian moralism from some in this debate - and there is a debate. (1/14)
"These gentlemen think that when they have changed the names of things they have changed the things themselves. This is how these profound thinkers mock at the whole world." - Friedrich Engels
#IStandWithMaya
#SexMatters
Thousands roamed the streets in Vienna as part of
#GazaGlobalAction
Millions around the world have said their word, united from the far east to the far west with one demand: STOP the Israeli genocide on Gaza immediately.
@zarahsultana
@stonewalluk
There was a considered debate in UCL about this. The equalities committee is not some supreme arbiter. Lots of us who fought in the 1980s do not agree with Stonewall's approach. You are of the radical left. Please don't bow to a multi-million pound corporate outfit.
In this Billy Bragg is saying that erotic/carnal attachment to someone of your own sex is at odds with biological reality. These people deep down are so anti-liberatory and reactionary in their presumptions. We are light-years away from gay, women's and sexual liberation here.
This. Has. To. Stop.
And if you are iffing and butting about it rather than forming a common front to stop it, then look at yourself.
What progressive movement tries to beat up a leading feminist writer, campaigner and lesbian activist? None. It's reactionary bollocks.
Horrified to learn that
@bindelj
was attacked after a panel discussion event on women's sex-based rights at
@EdinburghUni
tonight, which we understand was otherwise an extremely thoughtful and respectful meeting.
#SexBasedRightsEd
Defence brief: "My clients did not demand her sacking. They simply backed a campaign of threats, intimidation and harassment to drive her out of her profession."
Judge: "So their 'defence' is to plead guilty to a worse offence? Interesting."
@UCU
(in need of union training).
@GussieGrips
@KarenAdamMSP
Well done. I have to say a number of Scottish parliamentarians are coming out of this looking really bad. They need to be reminded that they are servants of the people, not the other way around. And they should stop misrepresenting feminists they don't agree with.
The harassment of
#IStandWithKathleenStock
at Sussex Uni, which the management have permitted up to now, is not only an assault on free speech as a general concept, nor just upon academic freedom as critical to education. It is an attack on *women's speech*. That's the issue.
Never in the crowded field of cherry-picked citation have eight words been more egregiously misrepresented so as to justify the exact opposite of the author's intention and entire, seminal thesis.
This is important: under what law was she arrested? How do the police justify this? If this happened in Thailand journalists - in so far as they wrote about it - would be talking about authoritarianism.
@billybragg
@Womans_Place_UK
Billy - I've seen you do meetings on all white panels discussing racism and Englishness (you and Martin Smith, recall?) So please cut out the tweeness about hearing voices of the oppressed. It. Is. Not. Honest.
The images from around Britain of support for and wider participation on RMT picket lines and rallies are something else. I think you have to go back 30 years for similar. It is towns and cities. And there's a big sense for radical redistribution. The Tories are in trouble.
@AyoCaesar
You haven't read the Equality Act 2010, have you? Her position is entirely congruent with what it says. In fact, she references exactly the act and the balances it strikes. We do need a calm discussion, but also an informed one.
Dear
@Keir_Starmer
,
You have an opportunity to begin to rectify some serious errors. You can say over Prof Kathleen Stock at University of Sussex - "She has every right to express her views without threats that are nothing to do with democratic protest." (A cautious minimum.)
Good to see Arthur Scargill at the
#MinersStrike
Anniversary at the Hatfield Main Pit Club. Particularly enjoyed seeing his Palestine badge. He started his speech with Gaza ๐ต๐ธ
@legalfeminist
@ALLIANCELGB
Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took...
I try and hopefully achieve (more often than not) the virtue of empathy, and the moral imagination it requires. However, the idea that a witness for a corporate charity accused of bullying requires in court "his mother, his support person and his support dog" is taking the p*ss.
In 1984-5 there was Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. We sought to bring together strands of resistance against the government, the state and the system. So-called activism around trans rights today is nothing like that. Sucking up to power & money, and dividing resistance.
Solidarity with
@Docstockk
. According to some unhinged comments "a thought experiment" is evidence of not-philosophy, instead of prejudice. But the technique is philosophers' stock in trade. Are people going to put up with this anti-thinking barbarism?
That moment when you are told that someone who could have assisted sensible discussion 5 years ago but who instead contributed to a toxic climate for feminists in her trade union now says, "Well, no one really believes TWAW, do they?" At least privately, restitution is in order.
@_NatashaDevon
This is a very weak and, if I may say, juvenile argument. It would be much better if you raised to the level of the debate, which is increasingly public - and actually clarifying - as society becomes more aware of the issues at stake.
She and all MPs were warned not to name where asylum seekers were being dumped or forced into as it played a role in racist and far-right violence. This MP ignored that early last week. Tonight the hotel in her constituency is on fire. She ought to resign.
This is now a damaging story for Labour because two high profile campaigns signed up to a stupid set of pledges from a potemkin campaign. The individuals responsible have no business running a whelk stall, let alone a political party.
#Expelme
Mhairi Black is totemic of a soi-disant "left" that is supremely arrogant, unpleasant, undemocratic, disdainful of most people and thrives on antagonisms over the wrong things at the expense of practical unity of purpose over the right things. A parody of the historic left.
@lorrainenutt
@stellacreasy
@HJoyceGender
"Ok - let's not say Stella met these 4 organisations because she didn't - and that's no one's fault, not even the Romans. But suppose we say that Stella has the *right* to say that she met these 4 organisations!"
- Why?
"It's symbolic..."
... of her struggle against reality.
@amnesty
The reactionary politicians and clerics know who they are targeting. Because they are men and know they are men. You are not being "inclusive", Amnesty. You are excluding the social reality of one of the most important fights for women's rights at this moment.
Because some of us came into the movement in the 1980s seeking to smash gender. We are still of that movement. That is a source of opposition that you completely evade by pretending that this is only something from the right.
That's why.
Apologies if I've missed them, but where are the right-wing libertarians calling for protest over a nurse fined ยฃ10,000 by Manchester police for holding a covid-safe demonstration over the 1% NHS pay insult? Is it only freedom to spread the virus not deal with it they care about?
@ucu
This is so dishonest. Your union branch is supporting threatening and harassing protests of a member of staff. No one is threatening the branch executive - just emailing them! And you turn this around? Victim becomes the victimiser. You should think about this.
Sorry - but butterfly knives are for stabbing people. Completely impractical for "survivalism" in the wild. As are IEDs. People who are engaged in this stuff often have far right fantasies. The British police have a problem as big as the German.
Amidst the celebration of Holy Saturday by thousands of Christians, Israeli occupation authorities brutally arrest the Greek Consul's guard at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in occupied Jerusalem.
What was it,
@billybragg
, about seeing the word "misogyny" deployed by a prominent feminist that first led you to take it personally and start comparing feminists you don't agree with to anti-abortion fanatics? Please stop this and engage in serious discussion instead.
Being labelled a misogynist by anti-trans activists is like being called a baby killer by anti-abortionists, who stubbornly refuse to take into account any views you have expressed regarding the welfare of babies.
Whoever
@BBCNews
decided it was a good idea not to show the case against Israel at the Hague yesterday but provide live coverage of Israel's defence today has no idea just how badly this will go down way beyond a politicised minority. This didn't work over Iraq. Won't work now.
I say this, with permission, because some of us have seen our mum jailed wholly unnecessarily and damagingly, not least for her five kids. I wish I could be at
#WPUKPrisons
meeting. It is a cry of rage for women and for working class people. THIS is the right side of history.
Inside
#WPUKPrisons
meeting seems important testimony and huge research about the damage of the British incarceration system to women. I've just seen a clip of people outside hurling abuse and sexualised crap. Some of us know the reality. Don't chat right side of history at us.
I share Lachlan's indignation. I'd add a sidebar, when the Lammys and Butlers and Joneses and the rest (including soi-disant Marxists who should know better) declared this a simple left/right issue transcending fact and science, they also did immense damage to the whole left.
My contempt for these wankers, especially these straight wankers, who have facilitated this, and called those of us issuing warnings dinosaur bigots, knows no bounds.
Yes, thats you, Lammy.
.
@stonewalluk
, you'd be welcome at
#wpukfairplay
tonight, could speak from floor & report on event. You should be there. And you shouldn't be blacklisting people like
@Transgendertrd
. There is a way f'ward. Will you take it? Coz women - and some of us men - are not shutting up.
The research hypothesis was about how freely or not academics felt able to engage in discussion of sex & gender. This kind of reaction to its conclusions rather confirms that there is an unhealthy inhibition. It's a modern equivalent of medieval auto-da-fe. Also cry-bullying.
For friends especially outside the UK. The person tweeting here is the joint general secretary of the largest teaching union in Europe, the NEU. Both he and the union are highly respected and *never* relay anything but balanced and accurate information and opinion.
#WPUKLab19
I decided to come and see what the
@Womens_Place_UK
meeting was all about tonight.
The protestors outside are banging on the windows so loud that you canโt hear yourself think inside. That canโt be the right way to deal with the issue
#WPUKLab19
This is part of the problem
@PoliticsUK
in reporting the news of a pogrom in Rotherham refers to "illegal migrants". They are not illegal. They are people whose claims are being processed. The people at Politics UK will think they are decent and centreground. They enable racists.
@billybragg
@Womans_Place_UK
It's a debate about women's rights and whether there is an affinity between Nazism and feminism on the basis that feminists (and Marxists) believe sex is a material reality with political consequences in a sexist society. You attack feminists right enough. Stop dissembling.
This is what both Tory and Labour want to stop. It isn't violence. It is peaceful protest that means MPs cannot evade the consequences of their actions as if it were all a bit of a laugh in parliament. We need more such democratic pressure.
Harrow residents shouted โShame on youโ and โWhile youโre dining, kids are dyingโ as
@RhonddaBryant
attended a fundraiser for
@GarethThomasMP
after admitting to filibustering to prevent a vote on the SNP motion for a ceasefire in Gaza.
It is perfectly legitimate to interrogate those who do this and to put a huge question mark over their claims actually to be focusing on rights of trans people. I can think of little more damaging than to misrepresent a legal action to claim it is about abuse when it is not. 2/2
At least one from the frontbench of every political party should get over now to
#wpukfairplay
and *listen*. They may find themselves agreeing. They may not. But they and the whole political class need to listen to this grassroots phenomenon.
@GeorgeMonbiot
In any case, George, we need that sense of hope and collectivity tomorrow as much as today, come what may. Thank you for all your intelligent and human contributions, across the piece.
You are not going to get a more self-consciously balanced and measured piece than this. So if anyone throws their toys out of the pram about it, you know they are simply incapable of any discussion that does not unquestioningly agree with them.
Pretty telling that a bunch of people have decided to turn a day dedicated to remembering transpeople globally killed through bigotry-driven violence into a pile-on against a female Labour MP in Britain. Makes you ask what those people's priorities really are, doesn't it?
How the US authorities treat philosophy teachers.
Her name needs to be known tonight in every philosophy department globally.
This is where all of good conscience in public life must be. If the young people are being dragged away by masked force - we should stand with them.
WATCH: Among those arrested today were Noelle McAfee, Chair of the Philosophy Department at Emory University.
Iโve asked for a comment from Emory on this arrest, no word yet.
This video provided to us by an
#Emory
PHD student. You can hear him in this video.
@ATLNewsFirst
Nasty misogyny. The T*rf slur has enabled all sorts of people to express their animus towards women, especially older women, under the delusion of being progressive and "on the right side of history". Instead, it is another form of reaction.
We are heading towards early 80s levels of unemployment, a resurgence of the pandemic and manifold social crises. A species of unhinged "activism" claiming to be of the left thinks the most important thing is to get people they don't like sacked. The far right laughs & waits...
They don't say that in looking at today's society & politics we must recognise and account for millennia of oppression (or defeat) of the female sex, and that upon that have arisen all sorts of discriminations, oppressions and bigotry in the field of sexuality and "gender". (2/6)
The soon-to-be completed review of child gender identity services in Britain chaired by Dr Hilary Cass lifts the issues above sloganeering to the level of scientific health policy making. Politicians miring this question in facile slogans and culture wars are shamefully wrong.
This is a serious escalation. The words are not illegal. That is the determination of a court. The police officers making this arrest ought to be investigated.
MUSLIM WOMAN ARRESTED AFTER CHANTING FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA
A Muslim woman was arrested after chanting "From the River to the Sea" in Guilford, Surrey, yesterday.
The incident happened after police were called to a protest organised by West Surrey Palestine Solidarity
What's the gameplan of politicians such as this? It is not about seeking a unifying solution over contested issues. It is not about focusing where it should be: on common struggle against the government. It is not about intelligent discussion on the left. It is... what is it?
@jeremycorbyn
@PinkNews
The CEO of Pink News does not tell the truth. It is such a shame that you don't recognise this. Pink News is not the Pink Paper, which you and I remember. It is so important to grasp this. You make a mistake on this question by outsourcing the line to others. Am I a reactionary?
@LouisStaples
Are you out of your mind? You are a deputy editor of a serious newspaper. How on earth can you suggest that someone's been "radicalised online" for agreeing with the settled view of the vast majority of people on the planet. This is unhinged.
@thejamesmax
@Iromg
@talkRADIO
@spectator
What is the other side? This is important because for some years we were told
#NoDebate
. Now it seems just about all accept there is a debate - a rational exchange of arguments in a dialogue. So make your points. Check out
@Womans_Place_UK
for sustained dialogue for 4 years.