Mick Hartley

Meanwhile, in Wandsworth:

A Labour-run council has told staff to announce their pronouns at the start of meetings.

Bosses at Wandsworth borough council are also encouraging employees to add general neutral pronouns such as “ze/zir/zem” to email signatures and their social media profiles.

In an internal memo, seen by The Telegraph, it is argued that “people from the non-binary and transgender communities” need to be “more seen and recognised”.

The authority says adding the pronouns such as ze/zir/zem to email signatures and announcing them at the start of meetings is a “simple step” towards this.

I thought this nonsense was all behind us now. Apparently not. Not in Wandsworth, anyway.

Susan Smith [For Women Scotland] told The Telegraph: “Perhaps Wandsworth council are short of things to worry about, although it might help signal which members of staff should not be taken seriously.

“Will they be asking staff to declare star signs or belief in the tooth fairy?

“More seriously, pressuring staff to make this declaration could be a discriminatory act against those who do not subscribe to this ideology and who will be concerned that this will be used to root out heresy.

“At best, they are making the council a laughing stock, at worst, they are providing evidence to be used against them in future tribunals.”

Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at sex-based rights charity Sex Matters, added: “It’s ludicrous that Wandsworth council is encouraging staff to support the fantasy that people can be the opposite sex, or no sex at all, by adding pronouns to their email signature.

“That a public body has given the example of zi/zir/zem as so-called ‘neo-pronouns’ – invented words that supposedly indicate being neither a man nor a woman – is so silly that it feels like satire.

“This sort of nonsense is already going out of fashion, and Wandsworth council needs to join the many organisations that have withdrawn pronoun policies such as this one, having belatedly realised that they don’t reflect reality but rather discriminate against staff and clients who don’t hold fringe gender-identity beliefs.”