Mick Hartley

Matthew Syed, in praise of JK Rowling:

Reading the column by JK Rowling in The Times yesterday criticising Labour’s shifting and often craven stance on trans issues confirmed to me the spinelessness of the political class — the willingness of frontline politicians to follow what they perceive to be the path of least resistance; not to say the right thing to avoid being seen to say the wrong. In many ways it is a summary of much of what has gone wrong with western culture in the social media age: free speech has been replaced by fear of cancellation and groupthink. Reading Rowling’s words made me feel depressed about the state of the Labour Party but also exhilarated that a high-profile figure has the guts to call it out.

I should perhaps say at the outset that I have long wanted Labour to win the election (I don’t think I’m alone in regarding this Tory administration as woeful), but my fear all along has been that this front bench is flaky and willing to bend to the latest manifestation of progressive opinion. It appears to be packed with chameleons who don’t really have solid foundations and can therefore be cowed by a transitory mob, as long as it is co-ordinated and determined, like the extreme end of the trans lobby during the high point of its cultural power.

Many in this shadow cabinet, after all — including Keir Starmer himself — openly supported Jeremy Corbyn (Starmer said he would make a “great prime minister”) and paraded themselves with this radical socialist when they thought it was in their interest but are now seeking to pass themselves off as fiscally responsible types, hoping we will not notice the contradiction. Others happily dog-whistled to the antisemitic base in the Labour Party when it was in the ascendancy and then surreptitiously backtracked when the wind shifted.

Is it any surprise, then, that when we hit peak trans activism, they started to obediently spout the ideology of the dominant group, like Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution?

And if they fell so heavily for gender ideology, what future absurdities will they embrace in the belief that they're "progressive"?