Author: Mick Hartley

Letter from Saqib Bhatti, Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities.

A letter in the Times today from a number of leading academics:

Sir, As long-time advocates of academic freedom and freedom of speech in higher education, we support the clear and proportionate sanctions imposed by the Office for Students on the University of Sussex (“Universities review trans policies after big fine”, news, Apr 5) . The university’s serious failures to uphold the rights and liberties of its staff are deeply troubling, as are similar incidents elsewhere. Universities must not compel academics to adopt contested positions on matters of public or scholarly debate, nor prevent them from expressing lawful opinions in a personal capacity. Appeals to sensitivity cannot justify the restriction of legitimate academic discourse, and policies aimed at preventing bullying and unlawful harassment must be carefully framed to avoid doing so. We encourage universities with policies similar to Sussex’s to reconsider and withdraw them promptly. Censorship undermines the fundamental mission of higher education.

Amen to that.

The North Koreans know how to do this properly. Tariffs? Bah! For weak people! A total ban is the only way. From the Daily NK:

North Korea has implemented legal prohibitions against importing American cigarettes, Coca-Cola, and other U.S. products.

Daily NK recently obtained the full text of the “Customs Law Implementation Regulations” enacted in 2022.

They were there before Trump.

Article 3 of these regulations details prohibited imports, notably including “American cigarettes, Coca-Cola, denim fabric and products made from it.” However, the regulations specify an exception: “excluding those carried by foreigners.”…

Article 3 also prohibits importing: ▲materials that could damage national authority ▲binoculars ▲long-distance recording devices ▲military items ▲printed materials that could negatively impact the country’s political, economic, military, cultural development or social order ▲products made in countries or regions banned from trade.

And it works! Banning imports encourages local production:

[R]eports indicate that carbonated beverages labeled “Coca-Cola” are being sold within North Korea, suggesting the country may be importing these products through alternative channels or selling products that appropriate the name.

6, 2025

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Hubert H Humphrey Building by Marcel Breuer (1977)

James V Forrestal Building by Curtis and Davis Architects and Engineers (1969)

DC Metro Stations
[Photos: Ty Cole]

The brutalist contingent is only a small part of Washington's architecture, of course. The overwhelmingly dominant style, round the White House and the Capitol and the National Mall, is neo-classical. Very neo-classical. It was meant to echo the Republican virtues of Ancient Greece and Rome, but nowadays it's not hard to see the more bombastic side, with, well, echoes of a more fascist aesthetic.

Questions to which the answer is 'yes'. From the Telegraph.

el.”

Yes, we knew that. Still…the destruction of another country as a government's top priority is something to think about. And we're still wondering what on earth Obama was thinking of when he decided that the US should cold-shoulder Israel, abandon Syria, and base their Middle-Eastern foreign policy on being nice to Tehran.

Trevor Phillips in the Times this morning on the parlous state of free speech in the UK, comes round to the universities:

And finally, the education secretary appears at last to have found better advice about the wildfire running through our universities and colleges on this issue and decided to allow the Office for Students to do its job of protecting freedom of expression on campuses. As a result, last month the University of Sussex was hit with a fine of £585,000, mainly for its sheer spinelessness. The academic bosses there had allowed student and faculty activists to bully the philosopher Kathleen Stock out of the university because of her refusal to bow to fashionable but entirely bonkers minority views on sex and gender. The fine has triggered a scramble across higher education to quell the rampage of gender ideology and critical race theory. It will take time to expunge the stain of cowardice that has taken hold of much of Britain’s intellectual life.

Yep.

🚨BREAKING🚨

Two men will face each other for a women's championship title at the Ultimate Pool Women's Pro Series Event 2 tonight in Wigan, UK.

Harriet Haynes and Lucy Smith, both trans-identified males, beat all female competitors to take the spots in the women's final event. pic.twitter.com/CNrfPuWEB7

— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) April 6, 2025

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Added:

BREAKING: Two MEN competed in the finals for the Ultimate Pool Series WOMEN'S Pro event in England.

Literally beyond parody. What a time to be alive pic.twitter.com/l9Yd0wfyP5

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 6, 2025

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The latest on the nurse who faced investigation at St Helier Hospital for misgendering a trans paedophile. Yes, she's now been suspended:

Jennifer Melle, 40, was previously investigated and disciplined by St Helier Hospital in Carshalton, London, after refusing to refer to a child sex offender patient as a woman.

Following widespread coverage of her case in the media, she was suspended this week and accused of breaching the patient’s confidentiality.

After a five-minute meeting with a manager, she was ordered to collect her belongings and escorted out of the hospital in tears.

It's barely possible to even imagine how we got here, or how the St Helier management could be so tone deaf. A dedicated nurse, suspended for calling a man – a child sex offender, no less – a man. But we now have more detail of what actually happened:

Last year, the patient, known only as Patient X, arrived from a men’s prison at Ms Melle’s ward to receive treatment for a urinary problem.

During the evening shift, a colleague told Ms Melle, the senior nurse on staff, that the patient wanted to self-discharge and a doctor was called for guidance.

Ms Melle spoke with the doctor on the phone outside the patient’s room, during which Ms Melle referred to the patient as “mister” and “he”.

She said she was discussing a catheter, for a male person, which needed to be removed, adding: “This was a real-life medical scenario that required accurate terminology to avoid any doubt between medical professionals.”

Overhearing Ms Melle, the patient who was born a man but identified as a woman, took issue with the male pronoun and title.

The nurse replied that she was “sorry I cannot refer to you as ‘her’ or ‘she’, as it’s against my faith and Christian values, but I can call you by your name”.

The patient began to verbally abuse the nurse, saying: “Imagine if I called you n—–? How about I call you n—–? Yes, black n—–.” The patient also lunged at her despite being restrained and threatened to make a complaint, she said.

However, it was Ms Melle who was investigated and disciplined by the hospital in October, with a final warning and a referral to the Nursing and Midwifery Council NMC).

She is now filing a legal claim, supported by Christian Legal Centre, against the Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust for harassment, discrimination and human rights breaches.

It is understood that she will remain on full pay following her suspension.

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said her treatment was “completely crazy”. Mrs Badenoch added: “She has my full support. It’s time the Government pulls its finger out and intervenes to make it clear no one should be punished at work for stating biological reality to paedophiles.”

Well exactly.