Author: Mick Hartley

Back up to Hampstead this morning:

ning Star to win the Rochdale by-election and soon after was fawned over in a long interview with Novara Media's Aaron Bastani in which he admitted he did not support LGBT equality as gay people were "not normal" (Bastani, who only after the negative public reaction to Galloway's comments became clear issued a statement dissociating himself from the wannabee Trump, had merely demurred that a better description might be "not typical"). None of this should really be a shock given Galloway's record and politics. But he has clearly sniffed which way the wind is blowing, i.e to the populist, misogynistic and pseudo-religious far right, and like RFK Jnr he wants a slice of the action."

of liberated New York women in Sex and the City. She had her daughter's breasts surgically removed – so no chance of a repeat there.

From her Wiki page: "In June 2018, Nixon revealed that her older child is transgender." That should be: "In June 2018, Nixon decided that her older child is transgender."

[She also – what a surprise – "supports South Africa's genocide case against Israel. She contributed to a video series, published by the Palestine Festival of Literature, in support of South Africa's motion, accusing Israel of genocide against civilians in Gaza."]

Added:

To @AOC , @IlhanMN, and other feminist politicians in the U.S.—imagine if Israel had jailed this woman for singing, showing her hair and dancing. You would launch global campaigns to condemn it. But here’s the bad news for you: this isn’t Israel. This is the Islamic Republic of… pic.twitter.com/KKZ2iA1Xk6

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 4, 2025

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

"This is the Islamic Republic of Iran, where women are imprisoned, beaten, and even killed simply for wanting a normal life."

Here we go. ‘It Shouldn’t Be Happening Here’ Parents of trans children in NYC are outraged as hospitals quietly shift their approach to gender-affirming care. 

That stress has affected one mother in the Bronx whose son transitioned at the age of 3. He just turned 12, and his doctor at NYU Langone informed her that he will not be able to get a puberty-blocker device implanted in his arm this spring as planned. She was told the hospital is interpreting the order’s ban on “surgery” to include this quick outpatient procedure. While the medication-delivery device lasts a year, the alternative is quarterly injections, which would mean a two-hour commute by train every three months. Plus, her son is afraid of needles. “I haven’t even told him yet because things feel so in flux, and we’re hoping they can be ashamed or shocked or forced by law into giving the care they need to give,” she says. “This is a civil rights issue.”

Transitioned at the age of 3.

J.D., who is the trans dad of a 15-year-old trans daughter, tells me he stockpiled a year’s worth of meds for her after the election and has shared information with other families on how to do the same. “It’s a life-and-death issue,” he says. “There’s nothing more important in her life than having this care. We’ve known she was trans since she was 2 and a half.” The mood in their home has been brutal since the election. “We are an all-queer family. I’m a trans person myself,” he adds. “I’m very angry and I have a lot of despair.”

Trans since the age of 2 and a half.

These people are in the grip of a cult. It's like waiting for the aliens to arrive. It's Jonestown on the Hudson.

consensus; (4) evidence-based medical practice and guideline development; and (5) conclusions regarding the validity of the Cass Review’s findings. The Cass Review’s careful, balanced investigations and judgments were a comprehensive, evidence-based response to the controversies in this pediatric clinical arena. Recently-published critiques of the Review have contained incorrect or inadequately contextualized claims. Because accurate information about medical interventions is essential to informed consent, it is important to correct errors in potentially influential publications.

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Acorn Weevil. Photo (c) Matthew Thomas

Smiling Damselfly. Photo (c) Benjamin Salb

Jagged Ambush Bug. Photo (c) Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, age 17

siness are being sent to greenhouse construction sites.

The agents are also using accusations of “non-socialist behavior” – such as improper dress or street vending – as justification for conscripting people into forced labor. Those sent to the construction sites typically end up digging holes or sorting rocks.

These roundups appear linked to Kim Jong Un’s recently announced plan for extensive greenhouse construction. The initiative was originally presented as a way to improve living conditions in flood-damaged areas, but has now become a pretext for forced labor.

It's the old story of grand projects being promised from on high, followed by the realisation that there are no means of delivering said projects. So…forced labour. Drag people off the streets and into chain gangs.

The sweeps are affecting people across different areas and social groups. “A moonshine trafficker in Kaechon was detained by Unified Command 82 on Jan. 15 and forced to clear ground at a construction site for three days. Housewives are also frequently being conscripted,” the source added.

Sinuiju residents have grown increasingly resentful of the large-scale construction project. “People here don’t want these greenhouses or other facilities. They’re worried about being drafted for state construction projects nationwide and being forced to pay for building materials again this year,” the source said.

In a few years time, if this follows the usual trajectory, it will turn out that this large-scale construction project, like all the other large-scale construction projects, was shoddily built, using cheap defective material, and is now falling apart.

create a council on Islamophobia and is lining up a former Tory minister to lead it, The Telegraph can reveal.

The 16-strong council will help advise on drawing up an official government definition for anti-Muslim discrimination and will provide advice to ministers on tackling Islamophobia, according to sources.

Dominic Grieve, the former Conservative attorney general and a prominent Remainer, has been “recommended” to chair the council within Ms Rayner’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) as a politician who has been actively involved in tackling Islamophobia.

He chaired the Citizens’ UK Commission on Islam, which aimed to promote dialogue between Muslim and non-Muslim communities, and wrote a foreword to a controversial all-party parliamentary group’s report in 2018 that set out a definition of Islamophobia, which the Labour Party adopted.

The definition has been criticised for being so widely drawn that it curbs free speech, amounts to a de facto blasphemy law and stifles legitimate criticism of Islam as a religion….

Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said: “The Government should drop its plans for such a deeply flawed definition of Islamophobia. Of course we should tackle anti-Muslim hate wherever it occurs, but this definition is a Trojan horse for a blasphemy law protecting Islam.

“Why do Labour MPs think it is acceptable to mock Christianity but not Islam? Time and again this Labour Government displays an Orwellian disregard for freedom of speech.”….

Paul Stott, co-author of a Policy Exchange report last week on extremism, said: “The Government is giving off worrying vibes – that it is potentially amenable to restrictions on ‘blasphemy’ and that its mind is made up in favour of a definition of Islamophobia. If so, that is terrible news for freedom of speech.”

Well, we were warned…

The rats are deserting the sinking Stonewall – even, as Julie Bindel reports, the Greens. Yes, it's that bad. So why, asks William Yarwood, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, is the British taxpayer keeping them afloat?

Research by the Taxpayers’ Alliance reveals that Stonewall, the LGBTQ+ charity, managed to increase its funding from government sources last year by nearly £50,000 – up to £618,000, from £572,000, in 2023. This will go some way to make up for the now dwindling income it receives from Diversity Champions, its controversial ‘LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion’ scheme that has netted it millions from employers over the years.

The extent of Stonewall’s public funding is particularly shocking in light of its recent history. It has been among the fiercest advocates of gender self-identification and the use of puberty blockers for ‘trans’ children. It has mutated from a charity advocating for gay rights to a radical trans-activist group, pressuring institutions into adopting extreme positions on gender ideology. As a result of its controversial campaigning, it’s unsurprising perhaps that the BBC, the Department of Health, Ofsted and Ofcom, just to name a few, have now broken ties with the charity.

It’s a good thing government bodies are shaking off Stonewall, but we should never forget the damage it has inflicted on public policy in the UK and the influence it has wielded at the highest levels. The now-discredited Tavistock clinic pushed puberty blockers on to children based on guidelines that had Stonewall’s fingerprints all over them. In 2018, intense lobbying from Stonewall led Theresa May’s Tory administration to flirt with the idea of introducing gender self-identification. In fact, such was its influence on the government that Stonewall was able to use its Orwellian ‘Workplace Equality Index’ to ‘mark down’ government departments that failed to toe the line on some of its extreme positions. Infamously, using the word ‘mother’ instead of ‘parent who has given birth’ was enough to attract Stonewall’s ire.

It’s easy to look at the recent shifts in the corporate world, especially in the US, and think that the fight to get woke out of our institutions is over. But this would be a mistake. Stonewall has proved adept at maintaining government support despite the negative headlines, and despite the broader turn against DEI. Given Stonewall’s struggling finances (its deficit is more than £800,000), it’s pretty clear that taxpayers’ cash is just about the only thing keeping it afloat.

With Stonewall’s campaigning increasingly at odds with public opinion, now is the time to stop its public funding. Businesses have woken up, and it’s high time the UK’s public sector followed suit. It’s time to defund Stonewall once and for all.

The government hand-outs would suggest that Stonewall still have government support. That would be a gross misreading of the public mood.