Mick Hartley

On the other hand the Labour government, to their credit, has been firm on the Cass Review, and the banning of puberty blockers. George Chesterton, in the Telegraph, heralds the changing mood – "After years of kowtowing to extreme ideology, Britain’s institutions are finally questioning some of the trans lobby’s most dangerous ideas":

Aftershocks can occur days or even weeks after an earthquake. So it is, it seems, with the Cass Review.

Five months on from the “Big Bang” moment in April when Dr Hilary Cass’s findings reset the terms of the trans rights debate, some of the most significant reverberations were felt this week.

Cass’s report warned of a “toxic” debate in which parents felt forced to allow their children to change gender, fearing they would otherwise be labelled transphobic. At the time, the findings by Cass, a leading paediatrician, were roundly criticised by trans activists. But now the narrative is changing.

In the space of just a few days it was revealed that the campaigning charity Stonewall – which has long been in the vanguard of trans activism – is ending its controversial training programme for schools. Then, the SNP health minister told the Scottish parliament that the Government had accepted Cass’s review and would implement its recommendations. The Good Law Project campaign group also announced it would no longer take trans-related legal cases following high-profile defeats. All this a couple of weeks after the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, decided to uphold the emergency ban on privately accessed puberty blockers for anyone under 18, against vociferous opposition from fellow Labour MPs.

“On the whole, the trajectory seems to be in a sensible direction and the Labour Party moving this way too is huge,” says gender critical philosopher and writer Kathleen Stock. “Even for those sympathetic to the ideas of trans activists it is hard to oppose the Cass Review.”

Though the BMA has launched a last-ditch challenge – to general derision.

All in all, it’s been a week of retreat for the trans lobby, which made significant inroads into institutions across education, health, charities and corporations over the past few decades, and a triumphant week for those who campaign against its doctrine. “It feels like the grown-ups are back in the room,” says Maya Forstater, CEO of human rights charity Sex Matters.

It's too soon for complacency, though. 

With Streeting’s firm line on Cass and puberty blockers, the battleground upon which trans-rights groups can prosecute their war is shrinking. This may be contributing to the increasing vehemence of activists, who stress the heightened risks of suicide to trans children. Maugham claimed that the upheld puberty-blocker ban would “kill trans children. My feelings about Wes Streeting are unprintable.” Susie Green, former chief executive of Mermaids, says Streeting has “blood on his hands… How dare Wes Streeting put so many trans kids at risk by continuing this murderous ban.”

This type of language and its basic assertion were branded “unfounded and dangerous” earlier this year in a government review conducted by Prof Louis Appleby, chair of the national suicide prevention strategy advisory group.

“There’s been 30 years of institutional capture that doesn’t just go away with the Cass Review,” says Forstater. “There have been lots of turning points, but it’s more like pulling up bindweeds. You just have to keep at it as it keeps growing back.” As Stonewall says, the gradual retreat is strategic. There has been no Damascene conversion – if anything the events of this week suggest militancy is likely to increase as their opportunities to influence diminish.