Magnolias at Golders Hill Park this morning:
Mick Hartley
Politics and Culture
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Another German trans saga, from Reduxx:
A trans-identified male accused of murdering a security guard at a refugee shelter was placed in pretrial detention for women in the federal state of Brandenburg, where he terrorized female inmates and threatened to kill them. Henrico Hilton G., a refugee from South Africa, was supposed to have been deported before his gruesome act and is now demanding in court to be addressed as a “female” named “Cleopatra.”
The court, of course, complied.
In a bizarre twist, three hours after fleeing the murder scene, Hilton contacted police to report that he had been “misgendered” at an Edeka supermarket in Schöneberg. Unaware of his connection to the murder, local officers recorded Hilton’s complaint without recognizing his connection to the ongoing manhunt, allowing him to remain free after taking his report. Information from this incident eventually led to Hilton’s arrest.
Initially placed in pretrial detention at Luckau-Duben women’s prison, Hilton reportedly terrorized the female inmates, leading to criminal complaints from two women. Witnesses at his trial described his behavior as aggressive and threatening, including frequent harassment and issuing death threats. Following numerous complaints, he was transferred to the men’s prison in Neuruppin-Wulkow in August 2024.
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Great column by James Marriott in today's Times:
Watching Justin Welby bleat out vapid non-apologies for his handling of the church abuse crisis on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, I wondered what St Anselm or Thomas Cranmer would make of the most recent occupant of the See of Canterbury. Not much, one suspects.
Welby — with his bland managerial face, his rimless spectacles, his shapeless paunch and his casual open-collared shirt — has all the archiepiscopal gravitas of a mid-ranking management consultant. I would not trust him to restructure the regional distribution networks of a medium-size company, let alone save my immortal soul. He was not wrong to warn of the “immense distrust for institutions” currently prevalent in society. But his performance emphasised another important threat to British institutions: the mediocrity of those who lead them.
21st-century Britain is beset by mediocrities. Every new scandal at every supposedly august organisation seems to reveal that there were never any grown-ups in the room, only spineless non-entities squatting ineffectually on top of the mess. Paula Vennells at the Post Office is perhaps the pre-eminent example. And the type is notably well represented in the senior management of our universities….
Britain seems peculiarly vulnerable to such characters. I suspect part of the problem may be traced to the fact that our economy is heavily weighted towards the service sector. Many in Britain’s elite have spent their careers at several removes from real life and real consequences, in industries such as public relations or consultancy. It surely matters that where once our leaders were imperial administrators, soldiers and industrialists, we now draw our overclass from professions oversupplied with what the anthropologist David Graeber famously called “bullshit jobs”.
The bias towards bullshit extends deep in British life, from hospitals that are run by managers not doctors, to universities that employ vast bureaucracies staffed by administrators who are better paid than actual academics.
They're the same people who put pronouns in their bios, and make sure that everyone goes on Stonewall courses about trans inclusivity. They didn't get where they are today by thinking for themselves.
Then again, on X – "You’re lucky to have mediocrities. We here in the States can’t seem to find anybody that good."
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Let’s be extra careful with the wording here:
Female lawyer who proclaims she’s a man spends her time helping boys beat your daughters in athletic events.
That’s Chase Strangio. And that’s some kind of messed up. https://t.co/N4gNUrJxoH
— Christina Dalcher (@CV_Dalcher) March 31, 2025
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It's difficult to make out what she's saying, with that weird strangulated voice. Her interviewer also seems to be having some difficulty…
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Washington D.C. "Paragon adjustable and reversible aircraft propeller created by Spencer Heath and tested on October 11, 1922, at Bolling Field."
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Irish politician Clare Daly does her bit to bolster Ireland's reputation as the most antisemitic country in Europe. From MEMRI TV:
Former EU Parliament member and Irish politician Clare Daly attended the International Quds Day rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on March 28, 2025. In an interview with Al-Masirah TV (Houthis-Yemen), she stated: "This is the future." She added: "Thank you, Yemen, for everything you have sacrificed, and for the leadership you have shown all over the world. We will try to emulate your actions in our countries".
Her Wiki page. She has interesting views on Russia and Ukraine:
Daly has consistently voted against resolutions that have been critical of Vladimir Putin's Russia. She said that, while she has not supported Vladimir Putin, she is "an unapologetic opponent of the rampant Russophobia that prevails and only benefits the military-industrial complex". A clip from a European parliament speech by Daly was broadcast on Russian state media Rossiya 1 and Channel One Russia, where a presenter and a guest said it was "evidence that western politicians were coming around to the Kremlin point of view on the Ukraine invasion". For her statements about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine added Daly to a list of public figures it regards as spreading Russian disinformation and propaganda. Daly responded by accusing Ukraine's government of a "smear campaign against international figures who refuse to toe the line"…
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Every month on @womensart1 is #WomensHistoryMonth ♀ ❤ pic.twitter.com/wJxoCY06Ms
— #WOMENSART (@womensart1) March 31, 2025
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From the Daily NK:
Enforcement squads of local youth are patrolling Chongjin, North Hamgyong province, targeting people wearing “inappropriate” clothing. These squads have sparked public anger by even cracking down on children’s attire.
“Clothing crackdowns have been happening daily between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. in Chongjin,” a source told Daily NK recently. “Socialist Patriotic Youth League enforcement squads made up of high school and university students conduct these operations—they study in the morning and patrol in the afternoon.”
Squad members find it uncomfortable to confront people their age or older, but they continue making arrests—whether they want to or not—because failing to meet quotas means returning to patrol the next day.
“Each person serves on a squad every five or six days, but if you don’t catch anyone during your shift, you have to go out again the next day. This forces squad members to make arrests against their will,” the source explained. “On slow days, enforcement squad members sometimes even fight among themselves trying to catch just one more person.”
The worst? Clothing with English text.
On March 22, a Chongjin resident named Kim was stopped by an enforcement squad while out with his 7-year-old child, who was wearing clothing with English text printed on it. The squad detained Kim and his child for three hours before calling them to the city’s Socialist Patriotic Youth League office for another two hours of questioning….
“Clothing with English text is popular among young people, so when enforcement squads are around, they take backstreets to avoid getting caught,” the source said. “People will ultimately wear what they want, no matter how much you try forcing them to dress according to socialist lifestyles.”
North Korean authorities target “capitalist delinquent” clothing as an ideological test. Their primary targets are people not wearing badges with portraits of late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, along with those wearing jeans or clothing with English text.
Those caught face consequences ranging from writing self-criticism letters to public shaming via local broadcasts. In severe cases, they’re sentenced to forced labor.
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A toddler was suspended from nursery after being accused of being transphobic or homophobic, The Telegraph can reveal.
Department for Education (DfE) data show the child, aged either three or four, was suspended from a state school in the 2022-23 academic year for “abuse against sexual orientation and gender identity”.
The school and further details of the case were not disclosed.
But statistics show that 94 pupils at state primary schools were suspended or permanently excluded for transphobia and homophobia in 2022-23.
These included 10 pupils from year one and three from year two, where the maximum age is seven.
One of these included a child of nursery age, the data show.
Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at Sex Matters, said: “Every once in a while, the extremes of gender ideology throw up a story that seems too crazy to believe, and a toddler being suspended from nursery for so-called ‘transphobia’ or homophobia is one such example.
“Worse still, this is not an isolated case. Apparently 13 four and five-year-olds were suspended or permanently excluded from school for the same reason.
“Teachers and school leaders involved in this insanity should be ashamed of themselves for projecting adult concepts and beliefs onto such young children.
“It’s unforgivable for children’s vital early education to be so traumatically disrupted by school leaders who prioritise activists’ demands over their charges’ wellbeing.”
Added:
This is totalitarian insanity. If you think small children should be punished for being able to recognise sex, you are a dangerous zealot who should be nowhere near kids or in any position of authority over them. https://t.co/IZI0sP58ss
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 31, 2025
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John McInally demolished this ludicrous reactionary bollocks in the Morning Star last year. pic.twitter.com/OD1R7VyOGH
— TAFKAMacM (@TAFKAMacM) March 30, 2025
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You don't have to buy the whole Marxist schtick to get this.
In full:
Mick Hartley 