Mick Hartley

Politics and Culture

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  • The washing of the hands

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  • Embedding diversity and inclusion

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    "The festival is proactive in embedding diversity and inclusion in all that we do, and discrimination of any sort – whether it be on the grounds of race, gender, ethnicity, visible or invisible disabilities, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, age, family status, social class or education – is not tolerated."

    Except for Jews of course. "Fucking Zionists".

  • Overshadowing Kneecap

    The JC on yesterday at Glastonbury:

    Hundreds of festival-goers at Glastonbury chanted “Death to the IDF” during a performance by punk duo Bob Vylan, shortly before Irish rap group Kneecap took to the stage with their own anti-Israel messaging.

    The chant, calling for the death of the Israel Defence Force, was broadcast live as part of the BBC’s festival coverage.

    A spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy in London, Orly Goldschmidt, described the performances as “a hate fest.”

    The chant occurred during Bob Vylan’s set on Saturday afternoon, half an hour before Kneecap’s appearance on the West Holts stage, who went on to lead a “F*** Keir Starmer” chant.

    During the Bob Vylan set, one member of the duo – the pair do not use their full names – launched into an anti-Zionist tirade and expressed solidarity with Kneecap.

    “I worked for a record label and it’s funny because when I worked there, the boss of the record label, we would talk every so often and he would speak very strongly about his support for Israel,” he said.

    “And then this list of names came out recently or people trying to stop our mates Kneecap from performing here tonight. Who do I see on that f***ing list of names but that bald-headed c***t I used to f****ing work for,” Vylan added.

    That bald-headed c**t, I think we can safely assume, was one of…you know….them. The ones with the hooked noses.

    This appeared to reference a leaked list of 30 music insiders who had urged Glastonbury organisers to drop Kneecap from the lineup.

    Referring to working in bars and “for f***ing Zionists,” he told the crowd: “If we can do this, I promise you lot you can do anything that you put your mind to.”

    Yes them. The fucking Zionists.

    I imagine Kneecap are quietly seething after Bob Vylan stole their thunder. They were supposed to be the outrageous anti-Zionist nasty lads, and here come these Bob Vylan upstarts getting all the headlines. 

  • Not Glastonbury

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  • Back to the future

    Here we go.

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    A kind of hip Nuremberg.

    Next up, Kneecap…

  • The Queer Birth Club

    And we thought all this was behind us. From the Telegraph:

    NHS midwives have been trained by a trans workshop that promotes male breastfeeding, The Telegraph can reveal.

    The Queer Birth Club runs “LGBTQ+” competency and lactation classes, using the tag line “birthing people ain’t all women”.

    The group has provided training sessions for NHS England and a number of trusts across the UK, and its founder has given talks at the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).

    One nurse who raised concerns about the training is now facing disciplinary action.

    The NHS worker told The Telegraph: “The content of these sessions undermines established clinical standards and introduces extreme ideological beliefs that have no place in healthcare settings.”…

    The Queer Birth Club has said that it has also provided training in universities and its courses are embedded in some midwifery and doula training programs.

    It promotes breastfeeding by trans women and claims that it is “transmisogyny” to say that the milk produced by biological men is “less”.

    This is despite concerns over the safety of the milk, which is produced after taking a series of medications to induce lactation.

    Domperidone, the drug commonly used to stimulate lactation, was not intended for this purpose, but is prescribed off-label by doctors. Janssen, which manufactures the drug, has recommended against it because of possible side effects to a baby’s heart.

    A small price to pay for the validation felt by the man celebrating his fetish new gender identity.

    Concerns have also been raised about the impact testosterone could have on babies who are being naturally breastfed by trans men.

    The Queer Birth Club say that their “lactation competency” training, which they advertise with a cartoon of a person breastfeeding with the message “trans joy” covers “inducing lactation, feeding after top surgery, co-nursing”.

    Feeding after top surgery? After a double mastectomy? Good luck with that.

    Another of their posts on social media shows a drawing of a person with a beard and a pregnancy bump with the slogan: “Boys have babies too.”

    The club has previously provided “cultural awareness” training for midwives through NHS England and courses for a number of NHS trusts across the UK. It is listed as a recommended resource on several NHS websites.

  • Donkeys

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    Full text:

    JKR’s charity Lumos has, to date, helped more than 23,000 children.

    Her sexual assault service Beira’s Place has helped at least 2000 women gain access to support.

    She helped fund the rescue of more than 100 females lawyers and their families from Afghanistan when they faced being murdered.

    She opened a fund to help women who have been discriminated against due to their gender critical views.

    She has given courage to thousands more women to stand up for their sex-based rights.

    So lads, we know who you mean by ‘the rest of us’.

    It’s men, isn’t it?

  • Bookshops against Rowling

    From the Telegraph:

    JK Rowling’s books have been removed from shelves in a San Francisco shop after the author said she would fund her transgender critical advocacy with the profits from sales.

    Booksmith, which refers to itself as a “group of queer book lovers”, has stopped selling Rowling’s titles in response to her new legal fund, created to support “women’s sex-based rights”.

    “With this announcement, we’ve decided to stop carrying her books,” the San Francisco bookshop wrote on Instagram, encouraging fans of the Harry Potter series to buy second-hand copies instead….

    The move sparked a censorship row on social media, with one person commenting: “So you’re going to curate your selections to only sell books by authors that you agree with politically. Good to know. I’ll be shopping elsewhere.”

    Another accused Booksmith of “choosing to silence someone you disagree politically with”.

    There's something about the book world that draws in these airheads, as Matilda Gosling showed with her report this week on the state of publishing here in the UK.

    Julie Bindel in the Telegraph:

    The bookstore is a commercial enterprise that seems quite happy to forego certain profit by refusing to stock such hugely popular titles as the Harry Potter series and Robert Galbraith Strike novels; virtue-signalling is clearly considered much more important. But when it comes to identity politics and gender nonsense, publishing is one of the worst-affected institutions. During a tour in the US to promote my book on feminism, one bookstore cancelled my event at the last minute because a trans activist customer had complained. This was despite the fact that it had sold out.

    The revenue from JK Rowling’s books probably funds a good chunk of the publishing industry worldwide, yet these for-profit enterprises would rather have huge display tables groaning under the weight of books by trans activists that barely sell at all….

    It would be interesting to know whether this particular bookstore will be ploughing through its thousands of titles to check that all of its staff agree politically with the premise of each and every author and the contents of each and every book.

    It looks very much as though this so-called civil rights movement is actually a witch hunt against women – for the crime of daring to assert our rights rather than rolling over and capitulating to misogynistic bullies.

    As it dawns on the extremists that they are going down with a sinking ship because they overreached on their demands and bullied and cajoled refuseniks, their rising desperation only makes them look more ludicrous. Some time ago, when yet another trans activist announced on X that he was burning Rowling’s books, she had the perfect riposte: “I get the same royalties whether you read them or burn them. Enjoy your marshmallows!”

  • The effects of oestrogen on men

    As criticism mounts over the proposed puberty blocker test on children, here's an article in City Journal on the disastrous effects of cross-sex hormones – specifically the effects of oestrogen (aka US estrogen) on men:

    In recent years, administering estrogen to males who identify as transgender women has become increasingly common, including among adolescents. Often paired with testosterone blockers, this treatment is marketed as part of “gender-affirming care”—a term used to describe medical interventions intended to “align” a person’s body with his or her “gender identity.” But as more young people pursue medical transition in the absence of long-term studies, concerns about safety, efficacy, and informed consent have grown more urgent.

    A recent review article in Discover Mental Health, entitled “Emerging and accumulating safety signals for the use of estrogen among transgender women,” and authored by Lauren Schwartz and colleagues, tries to fill that gap. It compiles studies, case reports, and group data to spotlight a range of serious health risks—some well-known, others emerging—associated with long-term estrogen use in males.

    So….infertility, obviously enough, together with damage to the testes. Also…

    Cardiovascular complications are another well-documented concern. Multiple studies cited in the review report higher rates of dangerous blood clots—known as venous thromboembolism (VTE)—and strokes among trans-identifying males taking estrogen. One meta-analysis found VTE incidence more than twice as high as in non-trans-identifying males. A cohort study showed that after two years of estrogen use, the risk of VTE was over five times higher; after six years, the risk of ischemic stroke was nearly ten times higher than in non-trans-identifying males….

    The paper also highlights potential cognitive risks, including memory loss and early-onset impairment. While short-term studies haven’t consistently shown problems, longer-term research on older transgender-identifying males taking hormones has found poorer performance on tasks involving memory and processing speed….

    Perhaps the most alarming finding cited in the paper is the increased risk of early death. Schwartz and colleagues reference a Dutch cohort study of patients treated at a major gender identity clinic, which found that “the overall mortality risk of [trans-identifying men] . . . was higher compared to men in the general population . . . and even higher compared to women.” Leading causes of death included heart disease, cancer, and suicide. An earlier study found a 51 percent higher mortality rate in trans-identifying males than the general population. Notably, current estrogen use, rather than past use, was linked to these increased risks, suggesting long-term exposure to feminizing hormones may amplify health risks over time.

    And that's not all.

    Beyond these headline findings, the paper outlines several additional risks. Autoimmune diseases such as lupus and systemic sclerosis have occasionally appeared or worsened following the initiation of estrogen therapy. One patient with a skin-limited autoimmune condition developed life-threatening kidney complications after starting hormones. At the population level, males with gender identity disorders have been found to have a more than sixfold increased risk of developing multiple sclerosis—raising the possibility that estrogen may act as a trigger for autoimmune responses in some individuals.

    Estrogen also appears to affect metabolism. Hormone therapy has been associated with increased fat mass, muscle loss, and reduced insulin sensitivity—an early warning sign for diabetes. In one study, insulin resistance rose by more than 80 percent over two years of use. Elevated triglycerides—a type of fat in the blood—have been linked to serious complications in trans-identifying males, including pancreatitis and gallstones.

    The authors also review cancer risks. Trans-identifying males on estrogen are significantly more likely to develop breast cancer than non-trans-identifying men. One cited analysis estimated the risk to be 22 to 40 times higher. While breast cancer remains rare in men overall, such increases are noteworthy.

    The paper also highlights elevated rates of thyroid and testicular cancers among trans-identifying males on estrogen. Some studies suggest a potential link between testicular cancer and long-term use of estrogen or testosterone blockers. Public drug safety databases in the U.S. and France reflect similar concerns, listing tumors, cardiovascular complications, and brain tumors—such as meningiomas—among the most frequently reported adverse events.

    One especially unsettling section explores how estrogen may affect the male brain. A few small brain-imaging studies found that several months of estrogen use led to “an increase in ventricular volume and a decrease in brain volume.” Studies in male rats showed similar effects: estrogen and testosterone blockers reduced brain volume and altered brain chemistry. The authors suggest these changes may result from disruptions in how water is regulated in brain cells—potentially mimicking patterns seen in degenerative diseases.

    The paper also notes that levels of BDNF—a brain chemical critical for mood and memory—tend to decline in patients on cross-sex hormones. Low BDNF is associated with depression and shrinkage of the hippocampus, a brain region essential for memory. Taken together, these findings raise the possibility that estrogen may produce lasting changes in male brain structure and function.

    Not to worry. It's all part of "gender-affirming care".

  • “We Will Dance Again”

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