Mick Hartley

A history lesson from Jonny Best at The Critic:

It’s understandable that Conservatives would want to stick it to Starmer’s Labour after the Supreme Court’s ruling on the meaning of sex in the Equality Act. Labour has supplied the Tories a target-rich environment, from David “men can have a cervix” Lammy, to Dawn “a child is born without a sex” Butler, and Stella “some women have penises” Creasy. Towering over them all in his moral failure is the supreme political coward himself, the Prime Minister — a man who loves talking about all the terribly difficult decisions he has to take as PM, how he’s “country before party”, how he’s so much better than the rest of us — but is too scared to say boo to the trans activist radicals in his own party, or to say anything at all to former Labour MP Rosie Duffield who was hounded out of Labour for views which now, apparently, the government has always shared.

Yes, the Labour Party deserves a thoroughly good kicking — and Badenoch, whose record on these issues is stellar, has the moral right to deliver it.

But the decade of gender madness which might now, hopefully, be drawing to a close, was not begun by Labour.

It was the Conservatives, under Theresa May, who invited extreme, misogynistic trans activists into the policy making process.

It was the Conservatives who wanted to make gender recognition certificates available on demand.

It was the Conservatives who sought to replace “sex” with the absurd concept of “gender identity” in law.

It was the Conservatives who took one look at Stonewall’s ludicrous, totalitarian package of trans activist demands and said “we’ll take the lot!”.

Ultimately, it was the Conservatives who, in cahoots with Stonewall, initiated a decade of cruelty and stupidity, which saw women hounded from their jobs, harassed and attacked by trans activists, demonised and abused. A decade which frightened many from speaking openly about their own experiences, their own bodies, lest they too lose their jobs and reputations….

Theresa May — who in 2002 had slightly disturbed the party conference with her “nasty party” comment — had become PM and declared her aim the rooting out of “burning injustices”. She had taken an interest in trans issues while Home Secretary, co-authoring the “Advancing Trans Equality” report with her coalition government partner, Lynne Featherstone, in 2011. She also became pals with Stonewall at this time, giving speeches at their events, and her rise to the premiership coincided almost exactly with Ruth Hunt’s promotion to CEO at Stonewall.

The stage was set for Stonewall’s new trans-first agenda to be ushered wholesale into government.

The roll-call of Tory trans champions, apart from Theresa May, included Maria Miller, Penny Mordaunt, Caroline Nokes, Alicia Kearns…. They've all gone a bit quiet.