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“Calm down, dear!”

We have been told, over and over, that the women’s sex-based rights campaign needs to be more nuanced, more polite, and more sympathetic to those opposing sex-based rights. We have been told we should use the language and the parameters of debate those who oppose us dictate. We have been told we should listen to…
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It’s a legal issue

“Why are you obsessed with trans people?” I must have been asked this a hundred times in the last five years or so – usually by the same few people – I don’t think they ever listen to the answer, but here it is anyway: for most of the last five years, I’ve been saying…
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Book signing at Thaxted

What is the best way of launching a new biography in Covid-19 times? As 26 March 2022 would have been the birthday of Isobel Holst (born in 1876), singing in the Dulwich Choral Society concert on that day, with a programme featuring works by her husband Gustav and daughter Imogen, as well as by their…
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Where is Dennis?

Elon Musk, freedom of speech and – the battle of the billionaires? I went along to a zoom about freedom of speech during lockdown. It was hosted by one of the organisations the Labour Party has now banned for being too free with their opinions. I thought the debate would be short and the result…
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Help! They’re getting away!

I posted this on Facebook earlier, and I had this feeling there was something I’d forgotten… … in the comments, someone mentioned the ‘dead cat’ strategy – you know, what do you do when a meeting’s not going the way you want? You throw a dead cat on the table, and everyone’s so shocked, and…
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Questions for council candidates?

Yes, women are asking candidates about sex. I do rather worry that unscrupulous politicians (like Boris Johnson) will just say whatever they think the women want to hear, whilst those who’ve been bullied will say absolutely nothing, whatever their views. It doesn’t need to be complicated though. If you’re a candidate and receive ‘the questions’…
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Left in the Middle with You

It has been a very wearing experience being a woman doing battle for the Corbyn movement in Labour, and then a woman doing battle with the remainder of the left in Labour after Corbyn. (Yes I had to stop and read that sentence back, too.) This is an article about solidarity In the Corbyn years…
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Prepare to support your trans comrades

***long read*** No, I am not saying be ‘a trans ally’. That’s identity-politics nonsense, it’s being partisan, it’s like joining a football supporters’ club – but the thing is, the wheels really have come off Stonewall’s #NoDebate train in their self-ID/queer theory/gender-ideology campaign, and it’s time to re-assess the situation. It’s a real shame it…
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I have made up my mind

I’ve had a few friends, both on social media and in real life, getting cross with me lately for giving consideration to all sorts of odd ideas on the situation in Ukraine. On the one hand yes, I know it’s hard to stay calm when something’s suddenly a hot topic, and all kinds of whacky…
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We are getting somewhere near to having that debate!

Come on politicians, come on councillors, teachers and GPs – do the reading, do the thinking, take responsibility… Here is a brief summary of an excellent article in the current edition of The Spectator, ‘The true cause of No10’s conversion therapy muddle‘: The government just shocked everyone by throwing out a plan to pass a…