Mick Hartley

The latest on the gender front:

The NHS is treating nursery-age children who believe they are transgender after watering down its own guidance, The Telegraph can reveal.

The health service was previously set to introduce a minimum age of seven for children to be seen by its specialist gender clinics, claiming anything less was “just too young”.

The limit was removed after the proposals were put out to consultation, with new guidance due to be published showing that children of any age are eligible.

However, a source close to the consultation process said NHS England had “caved to the pressure” of trans activists to remove the limits.

The children are not given powerful drugs such as puberty blockers at the clinics, but are offered counselling and therapy along with their family.

Up to 10 children of nursery age are being treated, according to new data, while as many as 157 children aged nine or younger have been referred to the clinics.

"Caved in" to pressure from trans activists. Well perhaps….but it's hardly a tidal wave of cases – "up to 10 children of nursery age" – and they're not giving out puberty blockers. And there are children who claim to have gender dysphoria. Or rather, whose parents claim their children have gender dysphoria, and have been fooled into believing the "born in the wrong body" nonsense.

Stephanie Davies-Arai, the director of Transgender Trend, said: “Although it seems unbelievable that children under five are being referred to the new gender hubs, it was a recommendation of the Cass review that children are seen as early as possible.

“This makes sense because parents have been given such bad advice for so long, and may believe their child is ‘transgender’.”

She added: “Trans lobbyists have told parents that children know their ‘gender identity’ from age three and there is no harm in ‘affirming’ a child’s identity. It is important that these parents can get proper information and sensible advice from the gender hubs rather than listening to activists.”

It's the parents rather than the children who need the counselling and therapy.

Helen Joyce:

“The question for the new NHS hubs is whether they perpetuate the failed ‘affirmation’ model of the now-closed GIDS clinic, in which case parents should keep their children well away, or whether they offer genuinely holistic care based on evidence, not ideology."

Still the best: