Mick Hartley

Julie Bindel in the Telegraph – Labour has chosen trans extremists over JK Rowling:

There was a brief moment recently in which it seemed the Labour Party might have seen a little sense on gender ideology. With Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, conceding he had gone too far in the past by repeating Stonewall’s “trans women are women” mantra, and Sir Keir Starmer admitting (while stopping short of an apology) that Rosie Duffield MP was correct in saying only women have a cervix, a correction appeared to be underway.

But, as is becoming tradition with Labour, women have yet again been de-prioritised. In the last few days, the party has reinstated a number of trans policies many had hoped had been shelved.

It looks as though Starmer and his henchmen have chosen to bend the knee to trans activists rather than listen to the likes of JK Rowling, who has become a proud spokeswoman for right-minded citizens across the UK.

Yet it is painfully shortsighted for Labour to fail to recognise that capitulation to these bullies will leave them facing further demands, if elected. A Starmer administration could be railroaded into introducing full legal self-identification; allowing schools to teach gender ideology to five-year-olds; threatening therapists with legal sanctions for declining to “affirm” so-called “trans children” and introducing legislation to render “mis-gendering” a hate crime.

Trans activists will stop at nothing. Having smelt blood, they will go on to rip the throat out of women’s rights, while Labour pretends it is only supporting a marginalised minority.

It's perhaps fair to note that Starmer has today said that he won't allow ‘gender ideology’ to be taught in schools, after Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, had refused to make any commitment on the matter. The general tenor of the (Times) comments is that yes, he would say that – but do we trust him?

As I've said before, Starmer has risked a lot in cutting out the Corbyn poison, in terms of alienating Labour's radical left. Is he willing to face them down again in another of their pet causes? I'm not at all sure.

But the pressure from women like Rowling is beginning to tell.