Author: Mick Hartley

  • The riddle of “TERF Island”

    January, which seeks to make human sexuation, as it were, great again).

    Hitherto, to suggest as much has typically incurred incandescent indignation on the part of feminism’s Brexiteers—the self-styled anti-woke left-liberal single-issue cissexists whose reactionary brand has long been hegemonic in the UK. This camp has long promoted itself as profoundly un-American. But, increasingly, its hatred of the Black, abolitionist, gender-abundant, utopian international left supersedes its patriotism, leading it to align itself with MAGA (unlikely inheritor of the “true” feminism the left abandoned) without shame….

    Preferring the term “gender-critical,” 21st-century TERFs have protested for years that TERF is a misogynistic slur; still, the more of British society they’ve captured, the more they’ve grown content with the moniker. “Welcome to Team TERF,” gloats UnHerd every time an A-lister turns transphobe. “2023 is the year of the TERF,” declares the far-right rally Let Women Speak. “We will fight,” jokes Rowling in another revealing effort to claim Churchillian glory for her cause, “on the beaches of TERF Island.” The copious “strong borders” imagery readily reveals TERFism to be a female cultural nationalism or sexual nationalism, premised—Brexit-style—on the securitization of the tacitly white and innocent body politic against dysgenic gender “refugees.”

    The pogrom-inciting tenor of what has been called “the trans debate” was normalized from the get-go by feminism’s moral alibi and the nepotism of Britain’s commentariat class. The hyper-respectability of many of its ringleaders surely didn’t hurt, either. Helen Joyce, one of the most influential trans-annihilationists currently heralding the Supreme Court decision as a personal win, is a former editor at The Economist. Her buddy the celebrity anti-trans philosopher Kathleen Stock is a royally honored academic. Rowling, of course, is a national treasure. Meanwhile, the publishing industry has glutted itself on trans-“skeptic” books just asking questions—not just by Joyce and Stock—and these all receive rave reviews in the UK Guardian. (Back in 2018, the US office of that newspaper was even moved to denounce its British counterpart over its participation in the self-styled “feminist” moral panic.)

    The riddle of “TERF Island” continues to intrigue those international onlookers who intuit feminism and transphobia to be opposites. Unlike the supposedly very different—crassly “polarized” and “partisan”—makeup of the American fight for trans rights, in Britain it’s a point of pride that genteelly genocidal anti-gender-ism cuts across Conservative, Labour, and feminist milieus.

    Phew. "A ghoulish culmination of fascistic “family values” agitation"; "trans-annihilationists"; "pogrom-inducing"; "genteelly genocidal". I think we get the point.

  • Unequivocally rejecting

    ay defines how women present themselves, or dress, or behave, or think. Years of Gender Studies, Queer Theory, and reading Judith Butler can do that to you.

  • The bonkers Greens

    en’s new supporters are about to learn the hard way.

    They've also shown themselves more concerned with promoting a hatred of Jews and of Israel than with saving whales, with the election last year of Green Party councillor Mothin Ali in Leeds, amongst others…

    The Green Party faces a showdown with Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, over the conduct of councillors newly elected under its banner.

    One who shouted Allahu akbar (God is greatest) and described getting a seat on Leeds city council as a “win for the people of Gaza” had previously been involved in the harassment of a Jewish university chaplain driven from his home.

    Two who won seats in Bristol had been involved in social media posts which led the city’s Labour Party to fear that the Greens were becoming a haven for antisemitism.

    A Peterborough Green councillor has also been shown by the Jewish press to have made insulting anti-Israel comments….

    The new face of the Green Party, which has traditionally been involved in campaigning to save hedgerows and improve air quality, came as a surprise to observers of last week’s local elections.

    Three of the four councillors whose activities have raised cause for concern were previously Labour supporters or activists, raising the likelihood that Jeremy Corbyn fans have been migrating to the Greens and changing their culture.

    Mothin Ali, wearing a keffiyeh, the scarf symbolic of Palestinian resistance, celebrated his victory in Leeds by raising his arm in the air and saying: “We will not be silenced. We will raise the voice of Gaza. We will raise the voice of Palestine. Allahu akbar!”

    The Greens have, sadly, become a haven for nutters.

  • Promoting an “our things are best” sentiment

    Laundry soap that doesn’t clean, toothpaste lacking flavor, toothbrushes too stiff. It's a losing battle. 

    North Korean authorities are restricting the distribution of foreign products in markets while encouraging the sale of domestically produced items. However, people are responding coldly to these locally made goods.

    A source in South Pyongan province recently informed Daily NK that Pyongsong’s commerce department issues monthly directives requiring vendors to prioritize domestic products. The source explained that earlier this month, local market management offices were instructed to restrict the promotion and widespread distribution of foreign goods, while requiring domestic products to be prominently displayed for customers.

    This move appears to be an attempt to counter the widespread preference for foreign goods among North Koreans by promoting a “our things are best” sentiment….

    Despite these efforts, consumers remain unimpressed with domestic products. Local residents generally recognize that many so-called domestic items primarily consist of imported components repackaged as North Korean goods. Many dismiss the government’s “our things are best” campaign as unrealistic propaganda that ignores quality issues.

    Citizens also complain about the few decent domestic products being prohibitively expensive and limited in quantity. North Korean instant noodles, for example, are priced similarly to Chinese versions but are less popular due to inferior taste and texture. Recently produced necessities like soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, and conditioner from local factories are also widely rejected for their poor quality.

    The source reported that laundry soap doesn’t clean effectively, toothpaste lacks flavor, and toothbrushes are too stiff—all contributing to the negative reputation of domestic goods.

    Furthermore, people criticize the corruption surrounding these directives, as merchants routinely bribe market supervisors to avoid compliance. Vendors often display domestic products for show while secretly selling foreign goods behind the counter.

  • Grassroots

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    In full:

    This legal victory was won by small grassroots organisations taking on the Scottish government, the Equalities watchdog and a huge NGO from their living rooms – one while running a farm!

    Reminds me of this quote:

    "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has" – Margaret Mead

  • Licence to offend

    could cause offence.

    Hours before a private viewing on Wednesday, organisers of Licence to Offend told guests not to go after a last-minute decision by the venue, the TownSq co-working space in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London.

  • Dragged kicking and screaming

    an style=”font-size: 11pt”>What was fascinating was the domino effect. One by one they fell: first the FA, which belatedly realised that the Supreme Court verdict meant it had to comply with the law, and then, within hours, England Netball and the England and Wales Cricket Board, who were saved by football’s abrupt about-turn from any need to make a stand on their own.

    Even on this long-awaited day, with three major sports accepting the imperative to exclude males from the female category from the grass roots to the elite, the language was pitifully lily-livered.

    “Complex”, the FA called it. What exactly is complex about banning males – forget the label “biological males” in this instance, given the Supreme Court’s clarity that there is no other kind – from competing against females in a contact sport?

    The only reason it was ever presented as some fiendish dilemma is because the FA, in common with many supine governing bodies, was more interested in pandering to Stonewall lobbyists and militant trans activists than in defending the truth. While the 2010 Equality Act was crystal clear in declaring that sports should be single-sex wherever a physical advantage existed, it has taken until 2025 for the FA to recognise what was staring it in the face. It is unforgivable.

    For sports read the overwhelming majority of the establishment – the NHS, the BBC, the Civil Service, schools and universities – who all bent the knee to Stonewall. It's a long walk back…

  • Led by science, not ideology

    =twsrc%5Etfw”>May 1, 2025

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    Even a Trump-backed review can be right sometimes:

    An NHS puberty blocker trial is “not ethical”, according to a Donald Trump-ordered review of children’s gender medicine.

    The US federal review goes even further than Britain’s Cass Review by raising “serious concerns about medical interventions” of any form in children and teenagers.

    Its Department of Health and Human Services concluded that “the overall quality of evidence is very low” to justify giving puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to adolescents, including in trials such as the Pathways research planned by the NHS.

    The highly critical review likens the trial of puberty blockers by the health service to trying to test the harms of jumping out of a plane without a parachute.

    It was ordered by Mr Trump within days of taking office, having made gender ideology a central theme of his campaign in the run-up to the election.

  • An alarming case of mass social brainwashing

    orexia. No one suggested that these girls were right, that they really were fat, that starvation was being true to their authentic selves. And at least with anorexics cure was possible, and many many women now can look back on it as a stage they went through and came out of. With gender dysphoria "treatment" on the other hand – puberty blockers, hormone treatment, mastectomies – the damage is permanent.

  • FA trans change

    within the law and international football policy defined by Uefa and Fifa.

    “Our current policy, which allows transgender women to participate in the women’s game, was based on this principle and supported by expert legal advice.

    “This is a complex subject, and our position has always been that if there was a material change in law, science, or the operation of the policy in grassroots football then we would review it and change it if necessary.”

    It's not a complex subject. It could hardly be less complex, but the old "complex" excuse is always trotted out to justify their inertia. Men shouldn't be playing in women's football. Simple as that. Now they're moving in the right direction, but with as little grace as possible. The poor men who can no longer have fun competing with women who are much less strong and fast as muscular as them are the ones who get all the sympathy – those men who "want to play the game they love in the gender by which they identify". Far more sympathy than the women ever got.

    Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at Sex Matters, said: “This is welcome but long overdue. The FA has had ample evidence of the harms to women and girls caused by its nonsensical policy of letting men who identify as women play in women’s teams. The requirement to lower their testosterone tells you that everyone knew they were not women.

    “Thankfully, the UK Supreme Court has now confirmed this, saying it is lawful to exclude ‘all men, including trans women, regardless of their GRC status’.

    “Every other sporting body now needs to re-establish a genuine women’s category, and this shameful period in history will finally be brought to an end.”

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