Mick Hartley

After trans activist and writer Gretchen Felker-Martin celebrated the killing of Charlie Kirk – “Thoughts and prayers you Nazi bitch,” and “Hope the bullet’s okay after touching Kirk,” – he received a call from the comics publisher DC, cancelling the series he’d been working on and terminating their relationship. A blow against free speech, no doubt, but in America the tables have turned. The left denied there was ever such a thing as cancel culture while happily cancelling anyone who didn’t agree with their particular line – in particular gender woo and “trans rights”. Now, though, with Trump and the rise of MAGA culture, some of these woke warriors are getting a taste of their own medicine.

Sarah Ditum at UnHerd:

“It’s an absolute shame that DC fired Gretchen Felker-Martin for exercising free speech,” wrote the feminist author Roxane Gay on Bluesky. “Every writer here should be decrying this because we have to stand up for each other! This is ridiculous.”

She had nothing to say earlier, though, about the persecution and cancellation of anyone who transgressed the in-fashion trans ideology. Reputations were trashed; careers ruined. But they were bigots and Terfs, so that was fine.

Gretchen Felker-Martin’s 2022 book Manhunt openly celebrates the brutal murder of Terfs and other lowlife who dare to question trans dogma – notably JK Rowling and Jesse Singal.

The fact that Felker-Martin is obnoxious, misogynistic and crass doesn’t mean he deserved to lose his job over a bad tweet. But, realistically, he only had that job because this is the kind of person and the kind of art — obnoxious, misogynist and crass — that the liberal culture of the last five years chose to celebrate. Manhunt is not a good novel: it lurches from scene to scene with little explanation of how you got there, and the characters are so loosely drawn that they blur into each other. This is not even James Herbert, and yet it was lauded by critics as though it were George Eliot. Felker-Martin could only have achieved cultural prominence in a milieu that prized rightthink above artistic quality.

Liking Manhunt was a test of allegiance to the cause. The more violence you could stomach, the more you were overcoming your unconscious transphobia; and (for female readers) the more you could find pleasure in the degradation of women, the more you proved that you weren’t a part of the despicable “cisterhood” who apparently deserved this degradation. His pattern of sexualised harassment against individuals such as Singal was ignored because, as a trans woman, Felker-Martin could claim the perverse privilege of the most oppressed.…

The recent rediscovery of free speech is difficult to swallow from people who have spent the last 10 years or so either airily downplaying the threat from their own, or actively making it worse.

From the Sun:

Synagogue terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie was a warped follower of an extremist hate preacher who described Jews as “animals” before visiting Manchester.

Firebrand cleric Sheikh Mishary Alafasy has made a string of racist and violence-stirring comments, including celebrating the October 7 2023 atrocity by Hamas in Israel.

Fury erupted when the Kuwaiti religious leader was welcomed to the UK earlier this year for a speaking tour across London, Birmingham and Manchester.

And cops investigating how Al-Shamie became radicalised are expected to look into whether he was inspired by Alafasy’s rantings.

The Jewish Leadership Council responds:

Alafasy should have never been allowed into the UK, let alone speak at a council owned venue. We warned at the time that this posed a real danger to the safety of people in this country. Sadly, the events on Yom Kippur must now act as a stark reminder that allowing extremism to go unchecked has deadly consequences.

Though it’s not as if we don’t have our own hate preachers…

Added: see also, Jacob Jaffa at the JC:

Muhammad Abdullah Shakir, imam at the Greenwich Islamic centre, called on his audience to “protect Al-Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem] from the usurping Jews”. Police said they had examined the footage and determined that “no offences were committed”.

Similarly, as the JC reported at the time, imams in Bradford and Manchester used their pulpits to openly attack Jews and lead prayers for a Hamas victory in the wake of October 7, with one asking Allah to “purify” the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem from “the filth of the Jews”. No action was taken against him.

On October 20, 2023, Abu Ibraheem Hussnayn at the Mohammadi Masijd Alum Rock in Birmingham openly quoted a hadith during his sermon which describes a war between Muslims and Jews.

He said: “This is not antisemitic, this is part of our tradition, we simply relay the hadiths.

“The prophet…told us that the trees and the stones will speak and say ‘Oh Muslim, behind me is a Jew, come and kill him’.”

No investigation resulted after the clip was shared online.

In July 2025, Asrar Rashid at Lozells Central Mosque quoted the same hadith and said: “We shouldn’t be frightened of the term antisemitism or being labelled antisemitic.”

No action has yet been taken against him.

The list goes on….

The reasonable, serious men can’t be seen recognizing that something close to the hardest-line view is correct. But that is one thing that makes this issue distinctive. The side that commands the support of the universities, the mainstream media, the legal and medical professons,… https://t.co/EODeeBgD97

— Daniel Kodsi (@dfkodsi) October 6, 2025

“The side that commands the support of the universities, the mainstream media, the legal and medical professons, the arts and all left of center parties—the side that decries its opponents as fascists, bigots and genocidaires—is completely and absolutely wrong, wrong from head to heels, wrong from the bottom up. It multiplies error and ignorance in service of a fetish.”

Summing up the gender debate…

This is depressing, but – given what we know of the NHS – predictable. From the Telegraph:

Trans activists have taken over a research group set to underpin the future of NHS care for gender-questioning children, critics have claimed.

The James Lind Alliance (JLA), a taxpayer-funded project was set up to address the “weak evidence” around treating children who question their gender in response to the Cass review.

But the project has now been accused of “bias” by openly promoting puberty blockers and sex-change surgery.

The JLA also labels gender dysphoria – a medical condition – as “gender diversity” and collects data on gender identity instead of biological sex.

It was commissioned by the NHS in the wake of Baroness Cass’s review into gender-questioning children’s care to understand “what future research evidence will help secure the best outcomes for children, adolescents and young adults”.

However, it is asking children as young as five to talk about their “gender diversity” in its survey.

The survey states that anyone under 14 is simply able to press a button to confirm they have parental consent to fill out the questionnaire, and is not required for anyone older.

Speaking to The Telegraph, concerned parents claimed research is being set up to fail in its intended goal of providing a balanced and independent view and could compound a loss of trust in the NHS to care for children experiencing gender dysphoria.

The steering group leading the research protocol includes a mix of healthcare professionals and people with “lived experience”.

“Lived experience”? Ah yes. That would be lived trans experience.

Five of the six teenagers and young adults with “lived experience” are living as either a trans man or trans woman. Only one has detransitioned having temporarily lived as the opposite gender to the one they were born while a teenager, and were belatedly added to the panel after concerns were raised internally.

All three parents involved have trans children, including one who accessed puberty blockers privately for their child and was a Tavistock patient, and another whose child “began her gender journey at approximately five years old” and has since been diagnosed with autism, Tourette Syndrome, and other conditions.

So it’s all set up to provide the answers the trans activists want.

Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at sex-based rights charity Sex Matters, claimed the research “seems to be designed by gender activists”.

“Rather than building on the findings of the Cass Review of health services for gender-distressed children, it uses made-up concepts like ‘gender diverse’ – which is not a medical term, and can only mean not conforming to sex stereotypes.”

She claimed that the project raised “significant safeguarding concerns” and “doubts about the research team’s neutrality”.

“Then there is the biggest fail of all: the study does not record the sex of respondents,” she added. “The team behind this research needs to revisit the Cass Review urgently and redesign their work to take its considerations – as well as basic safeguarding – into account.”

Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder and director at Transgender Trend, claimed the study was “very firmly placed within an ideological framework, based on the non-scientific concept of ‘gender identity’”.

“This is no different to the activist understanding that was used, and ultimately brought down, the Tavistock gender clinic. It is as if the Cass Review never happened,” she said.

‘Listen to Jews, take their concerns seriously and treat them with the same respect you afford more electorally significant minorities. Until then, take your solidarity and shove it.’

My @DailyMail column on political posturing and the synagogue attack.https://t.co/bU35afirRM

— stephendaisley.substack.com (@JournoStephen) October 6, 2025

From the article:

Unfounded claims that the Jewish state is committing a genocide. The amplification of every slander churned out by the anti-Israel lobby.

Unquestioning acceptance of casualty tolls that ultimately originate from the Hamas government in Gaza. Calls to boycott goods produced by Jewish communities in the West Bank….

Notice, too, the double standard. Whenever there is a grave matter in the news which might reflect poorly on this minority or that, or be exploited by extremists to justify prejudice and worse, the political class strains itself to speak with the utmost sensitivity.

See, for example, how cautiously they discuss the exploitation of white British children by Pakistani-heritage grooming gangs. 

So cautiously that, until a half-informed Elon Musk blundered on the issue, many politicians simply didn’t talk about it, for fear that even mentioning it would prompt hostility or even violence towards British Pakistanis.

When it came to Israel, however, all caution was cast aside. Even as reports recorded appalling, street-level anti- Semitism being directed at Britain’s Jews since October 7, 2023. Even as communal organisations pleaded with politicians to tone down the rhetoric lest it push some already unstable or fanatical character just enough to snap.

He’s aiming at Scottish politicians in particular here, but it was no better south of the border.

And we can add the BBC to the list.

Brent Council paid this man to tell its female staff about his “My Long Walk to Womanhood”.
October 2025 pic.twitter.com/gee3ea04Ax

— Gay Not Queer (@Gaynotqueer1) October 5, 2025

That would be trans ambassador Katie Neeves. Be sure not to miss last month’s Metro article, I had to wait 7 years for a vagina – now I feel complete. Perhaps he shared the details with his audience of lucky Brent ladies.

See also this comment to Josh Glancy’s article on Britain’s proud record of welcoming Jews since Cromwell – “this country’s first ethnic minority” – and the recent resurgence of antisemitism.

Two decades ago, as callow 14-year olds travelling home from religious school on London public transport, a friend and I were attacked without provocation by a much older, fully bearded youth, who explicitly stated that he was doing so because we were Jews and he was “a Muslim, an Arab.” My friend was quick enough to block the first punch, and we were both lucky that an even bigger passenger stepped in to grab the guy from behind and throw him off the bus. As he was being dragged away, he threatened that he had a knife and would use it on us. This was my first taste of the imported Muslim antisemitism that is increasingly blighting this once tolerant country, and it’s why, although shocked, I wasn’t surprised when I read the news on Thursday. As the UK Muslim population continues to increase, the problem will only get worse; Jews will only grow more uncomfortable, and many will leave. They will be right to.

Again the Sunday Times, with Hadley Freeman:

Jews are used to being caught in a pincer movement. Scapegoated throughout history by the right and the left, condemned as communists, reviled as money hoarders. What has felt different in recent years in this country is that the antisemitism has come from three directions: the far right, the far left and radical Islam. And since October 7 the last two are increasingly allying with each other.

It is what the philosopher James Orr has described as an alliance of “rainbow and crescent”, united by a shared loathing of Israel. The fringe hard left has been mining the rainbow and crescent alliance for years — see: Jeremy Corbyn, George Galloway — insisting that Islam’s less than progressive views on women, gay people and Jews could be jazz-hands-ed away for the greater good of joining to rail against Israel. But that fringe has been moving towards the mainstream over the past decade, ever since Corbyn became leader of the Labour Party, and it has accelerated rapidly since October 7.

Glastonbury blanketed with Palestinian flags, but no mention of the Nova music festival, where young Israelis were murdered by Hamas; the Green Party now run by Zack Polanski, a Jewish gay man who once claimed he could make women’s breasts grow with the power of his mind, and his deputy, Mothin Ali, a conservative Muslim, who celebrated his electoral victory last year by chanting “Allahu akbar”; everyone’s favourite protest group, Queers for Palestine: such are some recent examples of the rainbow and crescent alliance.

Which brings me to last week. To recap, a man named Jihad al-Shamie — honestly, Chris Morris would have rejected this plotline for Brass Eye as too on the nose — rammed his car into Heaton Park synagogue, caused the deaths of two Jewish men and attempted to slaughter the entire synagogue of Manchester Jews on the holiest day of the Jewish year. Twenty-four hours later it emerged he was on bail for rape and his father, Faraj, a trauma surgeon, had described the October 7 attacks as “a miracle by all standards”. At least we know he meant his son’s name to be taken literally.

How did pro-Palestinian activists react to this, the worst antisemitic atrocity in this country in living memory? By holding anti-Israel protests on Thursday and Saturday, featuring the usual demographics: young white people in keffiyehs (cultural appropriation is good when it’s Palestine, FYI), older white people, some in keffiyehs (ditto), men who look like they got lost on the way to a Millwall game and conservative Muslims.

And not so conservative Muslims. Lots of young radical Muslims.

But imagine if a British mosque were attacked on Ramadan, British Muslims murdered. And imagine if a planned anti-immigration protest still went ahead that night, decking the town in Union Jacks and (gasp) St George’s flags. That would seem pretty callous, wouldn’t it? Cruel, even? Well, that’s how this feels.

The British community is tiny but strong, and we can withstand the lone crazies. But mobs so obsessed with a foreign country that they no longer see the pain of their neighbours? That’s a problem.

The witlessness of the “progressives” who march in step with the Islamists never ceases to amaze – happily chanting about “globalising the intifada” and “from the river to the sea” without understanding that they’re calling for the death of Israel and the killing of Jews.

Or maybe they do understand….

Powerful stuff from Lionel Shriver in the Spectator – Transgenderism proves people will believe anything:

The fad for transgenderism is unbelievable and should stay that way. This movement gleefully defies biological reality. Sex is not in the mind but is written in our every cell. ‘Some people are born in the wrong body’ is an absurd, medieval fiction. Because it’s impossible to change sex, transgenderism is merely a psychically, socially and financially expensive form of playacting. We’ve allowed a wicked but highly profitable industry to burgeon. Cynical, fanatical or criminally naive, its doctors impede and corrupt adolescents’ natural development into adulthood, butcher and amputate perfectly healthy body parts, destroy erotic function and systematically sterilise young people. Yet for at least a solid decade anyone objecting to this modern-day voodoo has courted infamy, ostracism and unemployment.

Matthew Syed, in today’s Sunday Times, asks some of the pro-Palestine demonstrators a question. It doesn’t go well:

Let me transport you into the heart of London — Trafalgar Square, no less — in a nation that likes to pride itself on tolerance, the rule of law and mutual respect. There is a circle of people on the lower tier of the square, under the shadow of the National Gallery, surrounding a few hundred more holding placards proclaiming support for Palestine Action, a proscribed terror organisation.

I approach a group of three women — perhaps in their fifties, brown-skinned, British accents — and one of them recognises me: “You are that journalist Matthew Syed.” Yes, can you talk? They assent so I ask what I take to be a fair-minded question to elicit their position and why they are here. “Who do you blame for what is unfolding in Gaza? Do you think Hamas bears any responsibility?”

For the avoidance of doubt, this was the extent of my question. I didn’t say anything else about Hamas: that their founding charter is committed to the killing of Jews; that they have consistently said that they wish to commit October 7-style atrocities again and again; that they are funded by Iran, which wishes to expunge Israel from the pages of history; that the mullahs have sometimes insinuated that Muslims have a duty to kill Jews wherever they are found — perhaps, who knows, the inspiration for a man called Jihad, born to a Syrian father who described the Hamas attackers as “men of God on Earth”, attempting mass murder in Manchester.

No, all I asked was: “Is Hamas partly responsible?” Here’s what happened next, as their friendly faces turned to, well, something else. “Go away,” one said. “Go away. You are a bad faith actor. We don’t want to talk to you. Just f*** off. It’s a really boring old line. You are disgusting.” “I am disgusting?” “Yes, you are disgusting. You are not a journalist. It’s very clear what your position is here.” Now, their voices were getting louder: “Piss off.” “Thanks for your time, I appreciate it,” I said retreating, but they were not finished. “What are you doing here anyway? You are prejudiced. Hopefully nobody will ever buy a book you write. You are a charlatan. You are a f****** racist.”

Those surrounding us started to join in. “Well said, sister.” “Yeah, well said!” Others in the enclosure began to applaud. I noticed a tall man with a Palestinian flag a few metres away and he pointed at me, although I wasn’t sure why. A younger woman approached and said: “I have seen you all afternoon trying to get a rise from people.” “I only asked if Hamas is partly responsible. Is that so very provocative?” “You are here to cause trouble and you are going to get trouble,” she said.

I wish I could tell you that this was a one-off but I spoke to at least two dozen people and, with two exceptions (including a lovely black guy from north London who conversed intelligently and politely), the motivation for being here was obvious, potent and implacable. The hatred of Jews. I heard conspiracy theories (October 7 was a false flag operation), blood libels, and the pervasive view that the Manchester atrocity was not a heinous attack but righteous comeuppance for an evil people. My sense is that many felt liberated to say what they really thought by the proximity of like-minded others; the classic symptom of mob mentality.

That they couldn’t even summon up the decency to hold off with their relentless demonstrations after the Manchester killings says everything about these people.

You perhaps won’t be surprised to hear that most were virulently left wing. I almost felt like crying as another anonymous hater — perhaps 22, white, middle-class accent — started to lecture me about intersectionality and colonialist oppression. It was like woke bingo. I couldn’t help asking about the oppression of women in Gaza but her face went blank. “How the f*** do you know women are treated badly?” Er, Amnesty International. This momentarily fazed her since she couldn’t quite place Amnesty in the institutional framework of the Jew-funded global conspiracy. But she recovered quickly: “Well, I haven’t read about that, but I have read about Jewish occupation and genocide.”

Because she only reads what supports her narrow little point of view.

Many of these people do not just hate Jewish people, they have an ideology to justify and legitimise their hatred; one conveniently protected from doubt by the unwillingness to engage with anything that challenges it. In this sense, it is not so very different from the myopic fundamentalism of the group so many here admire. Hamas.

I left Trafalgar Square even more convinced that the government has demonstrated criminal complacency about the rise in antisemitism over recent years. Now is the time for robust action. Otherwise we will see more atrocities like Manchester, and ever greater fear among a group that has made a huge contribution to this nation and regarded it once as a place of refuge.

Depressing but, of course, it’s what you’d expect. It takes some courage, though, to actually go in and engage with the hate.

In the old days, when all this hate was from the right, we had the likes of the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism. Going further back we had Cable Street against Mosley’s fascists. Where’s the fight-back going to come from here? The government’s no bloody use – and Tommy Robinson is no kind of answer.