Author: Mick Hartley

I knew what I was getting into when I entered this debate and compared to what others have suffered, I've got off lightly. Even so, it continues to astound that Kemi Badenoch remains the only UK political leader offering unequivocal solidarity to women defending their rights. https://t.co/TNYJNyH5fM

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 21, 2025

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ruling? He has not. Are we surprised? We are not.

Trans people have not lost a single right in this country. What they don’t have — and never had, despite the claims of activists — is a right to be treated as biological women. The hysterical response to the judgment is a cry of pure fury, an echo of every time an entitled man has heard the word “no”. And that makes it an exceedingly dangerous moment for women.

As a former prosecutor, Starmer should know this perfectly well. The most dangerous moment in a woman’s life is when she stands up to an abusive man. Trans activists have nowhere to go except the streets, and some of them appear to be itching for a confrontation; it is clear that someone could get seriously hurt. The Prime Minister has, in the past, been quick to denounce public disorder, but the sight of women being shouted at by thugs with trans flags appears not to move him at all.

Refusing to speak is taking sides. Starmer has tolerated and enabled misogyny in the Labour party for far too long. His silence is no longer tenable.

You'd think it would be a good opportunity for Starmer to extract himself from the gender mess he got himself into and show some leadership…but no. The sound of silence.

e demanding the right to urinate wherever they please. I’m serious: ‘We piss where we want’, said a placard at the Manchester demo.

Tell me you’re a man without telling me you’re a man! ‘We pee where we want’ is literally the cry of unpleasant blokes everywhere. That haughty demand was made in St Peter’s Square. People once gathered there to demand the right to vote, giving rise to the Peterloo Massacre. Now they gather there to demand the right to relieve themselves in the women’s bathroom. It’s less Peterloo than Portaloo: from demanding the franchise to advertising your fetish.

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. . . As president, Bukele bars journalists he dislikes from press conferences and directly communicates via social media. He has a domination complex: according to one of his former aides, Bukele “is explosive. He doesn’t listen, nor is he tolerant. If he meets with you, he’s not asking for your opinion. He just wants you to do what he says.”

Also:

Currently, El Salvador has an incarceration rate of 1,659 per 100,000 of the total population — #1 in the entire world. Second is Cuba, with less than half that: 794 per 100,000. That’s the kind of country Trump loves. European democracies? Nothing but sneering contempt.

//t.co/i8u41UkpQg”>pic.twitter.com/i8u41UkpQg

— Helen Lewis (@helenlewis) April 20, 2025

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through ours. I’ve lost friends but I’ve gained so many funnier, smarter ones, women — gay and straight — I never would have met were it not for all the men screaming that trans women are women. That’s how I explain the past decade to myself: this was a test. Some passed. A lot more failed.

us, angry young men calling me all sorts of abusive names. So that’s when I first logged on to Mumsnet and there were all these smart, funny women who really knew what they were talking about, and I thought, ‘Oh thank God.’”

Sums it up. The left/liberal media were always on board with the gender woo: if you wanted the truth you had to look elsewhere. Freeman's time at the Guardian was soon to come to an end, with her gender-critical views making her an increasingly isolated figure at Kings Place.

to revive the Caliphate. In response, Saudi and the UAE are trying to draw Al-Julani away from Turkey’s orbit. It’s a complex power struggle.

The Israeli concern is twofold. The first is from jihadist elements near its border that could carry out cross-border terror attacks. The second is the more strategic threat posed by the possibility of Turkey’s entrenchment in Syria, which could threaten Israel’s operational freedom – especially in countering Iranian threats. To counter the jihadis, Israel has seized control of a buffer zone in southern Syria and targeted Syrian military infrastructure to keep it from being used against it.

But Jerusalem increasingly views Turkish influence, not jihadi groups, as the greater threat. Turkish entrenchment would shrink Israel’s room to manoeuvre and jeopardise its air operations in the region. In response, Israel is aggressively targeting Syrian military infrastructure, such as airports, to keep them out of Turkey’s control and to set new red lines.

Turkey also, alarmingly, has Jordan in its sights.

If Turkey succeeds in entrenching itself, it will not stop at Syria. Its expansionist drive, under the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideological banner, could destabilise Jordan where the Brotherhood is gaining power. A Brotherhood takeover there would be catastrophic, opening another hostile front at Israel’s eastern flank.

Stability in Syria hinges on Israel and Turkey, whose relations have hit their lowest point since diplomatic ties began. Only the US, trusted by both sides, can broker an arrangement that secures their vital interests and outlines a shared future in Syria.

Hmm. A trust in the US, now, seems foolishly optimistic. 

Such a deal could recalibrate Turkish ambitions, reassure the Gulf states, and potentially revive the Abraham Accords, leading maybe to the ultimate prize: Israeli-Saudi normalisation. If Syria stabilises and Al-Julani distances himself from jihadist ideology, reconstruction and eventual normalisation with Israel might even be possible. This would reshape the Middle East, ease tensions, and lay the groundwork for a new regional architecture aligned with President Trump’s vision – including a reformed Palestinian Authority in a post-Hamas landscape. The alternative? Regional chaos and rising danger for everyone.

With Trump? Ah well….we'll see.

At the bottom, though, beyond the Sunni/Shia clash, is the same Islamic determination to destroy Israel, and its presence on what they see as inalienable Muslim land.

With Hezbollah's grip on Lebanon severely weakened thanks to the IDF, will the Sunnis now assert their claim to dominance? From MEMRI TV:

Lebanese Sunni Islamic scholar Aboubaker Zahabi, speaking at a Beirut protest in support of the people of Palestine, aired on Palestine Today TV (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) on April 7, 2025, said, "Our religion is the religion of Jihad," and declared that they will come to slaughter the "sons of Zion." He quoted the hadith which states that Muslims will fight the Jews at the End of Days, and the Jews will hide behind trees and rocks. Zahabi added that on Judgment Day, Allah will send the "sons of Zion" to Hellfire for eternity, while the martyrs will be in Paradise and the fate of the Muslims will be victory.

And this, from Julie Burchill:

In the process of dignifying a male sexual fetish – autogynephilia – into the latest human rights crusade, careers have been ruined and reputations wrecked by trans activists and their creepy ‘allies’: all in the name of the ultimate patriarchal plan; to colonise everything won by women, from toilets to trophies, until we have nothing left of our own except the wombs in which the young among us may carry foetuses for rich homosexual men.