pro-trans: 84.6% transphobia: 15.4% that seems like a high turnout too?
Journalist, parent to two grown-ups, LGBT+ rights campaigner, trustee Equality Network, former night editor of The Times, Scotland. Lives in France. [she/her]
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pro-trans: 84.6% transphobia: 15.4% that seems like a high turnout too?
And they're already shackled themselves to transphobes, which is a dreadful start. I'm all for a Green tsunami.
I hope this leads to a major and positive change in UK politics.
THREAD Couldn't agree more.
When centrists adopt far-right rhetoric, they don’t make themselves stronger. They make themselves look inauthentic, legitimise the far right, and shift the political debate onto terrain defined by their opponents. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
Or Times/Telegraph/Mail columnist, as we call them nowadays.
An ‘ultracrepidarian’ (19th century) is one who loves to give their opinion, at length, on matters they know nothing about.
This is correct. The idea that they're all holding their noses or having sleepless nights is wrong. Nobody has stepped away. They've tried cruelty and injustice and they are comfortable with it, indeed find it exciting.
The mad dog of racism is loose on the streets of Britain and empathy has fled My column in @heraldscotland.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...
Yvette Cooper once stood at protests to protect refugees and child refugees. As Home Secretary today she has chosen to suspend families joining asylum seekers via any legal route.
I know this is only the latest betrayal of LGBTQ+ people, after a very long list of betrayals. But surely nobody can consider Labour a party of equality and human rights after this.
Politics today is less driven by ideological conviction and more by parties chasing votes based on a distorted picture of public opinion, one filtered through algorithms that amplify emotionally engaging content. This incentivises performance over substance and erodes democratic deliberation.
Keir Starmer’s new director of communications isn’t just the founder of Portland Communications – which represented Qatar, Russia and Kazakhstan – he’s also come straight from the board of the anti-trans charity Sex Matters. The government is heading in a dark direction.
An organisation dedicated to making life impossible for trans people.
What a moral vacuum looks like.
Thinking about the costs - time, money, attention, effort - of training a new employee versus upskilling an existing employee. Then looking at the transphobia in 'Your Party' versus pre-existing potential allies through different parties in UK politics. Then looking at the ticking clock of Farage.
Oh, is that right? A think tank says so? Policy Exchange, you say? They're the ones who are very right wing and won't say who funds them? Well, in that case we should definitely make it the splash. ^ ^ The Times doing what it calls journalism in 2025.
Labour is using their lords to start the ball rolling on withdraw of human rights for all. That's what it is. That's what they want.
The real threat to women’s safety has always been, and continues to be, male violence. Shifting the blame onto trans people doesn’t make us safer — it makes us more divided, and it leaves the real issues unaddressed.
You just want to weep.
THIS. If you're a Labour MP now is the time to say no.
Article 8 of the ECHR is the protection on which not only all positive trans law rests but also most LGB rights to, as well as those of families where one parent wasn't born in the UK. It prevents asylum seeking families from being split. It is utterly monstrous for Labour to want to weaken rights.
The moment you allow a government to withhold human rights from one minority group, every other minority and soon everybody's human rights are unsafe. The ECHR is the only guarantee of your rights. Little wonder would-be authoritarians hate it.
What you are looking at here is a Labour government announcing it is to remove human rights from refugees and trans people.
Still staggered that Byline has no less than six contributors named on the Kremlin’s latest stop list - way more than any other UK media organisation. But beginning to wonder if this is as much to do with our investigation of the Levedevs (who still control a raft of UK media)
It is the intention of the Netanyahu government to expel all Palestinians they haven't yet killed (it won't be 'voluntary') bulldoze the land and develop it. Trump is saying out loud what has been Israeli govt. policy for some time. It's what they intend. Will the world let them?
* commissions Telegraph/Times/Mail oped: 'Why the hyena is right. Ants ARE the future and our friends' *
I don't know if this short story by Joanne Harris is intended as a parable about journalism and a certain kind of journalist, but it certainly works as one.
It's worth just zooming in for his expression. I laugh every time I look at it. His name is Momo and we were out for a walk with his human.
Will nobody think of the shareholders?
We'll be be rich, RICH I tell you!
Concerns are either concerning or they’re not concerns. Pre-qualifying them as ‘legitimate’ seeks to delegitimise others. It’s also a way of issuing a rebuttal first - ‘My real concerns really are real’. It’s almost like the people saying they have legitimate concerns actually know they don’t…
It's right up there with 'a lot of people are saying...'
I'll pop them in the post!
Take a break from doomscrolling and look at my stretching hare icon. She’s going to be available in my exhibition here in Pembrokeshire from September 11th-14th if you want to take a closer look
How the Prime Minister's growing moral cowardice in taking on the politics of Nigel Farage is setting his own Government up for a historic defeat www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/whos-afrai...
Flippancy about snowmobiles and fur coats aside, not to mention the risks of emboldening far right misinformation, there's a lot here which is just plain cruelty. Parents can't try and save to buy a child a toy, people can't listen to audiobooks. It really is a "they should suffer" type of policy.
For reference, just one branch of the peach tree two weeks ago.
All hail the Hand of Thiel!
Today is peach jam day. Each batch from the 4ltr pressure cooker yields five 370gm jars. Every 4ltr of raw peaches is roughly equivalent to 1% of the total amount of peaches on the tree. I'm a jar hoarder, yet there's not nearly enough. And there's no more room in the freezer.
You take what you can from it. Live in the moment. Carpe diem and all that.
If it doesn't happen today, well... it's going to happen soon enough. Although never QUITE soon enough.
The amount of mass shooters since 2018 who were transgender is 4. The amount of mass shooters since 2018 who were not transgender is 4,193 Transgender individuals represent less than 1 percent of perpetrators in all mass shootings over the past decade, according to The Gun Violence Archive (GVA)
The SNP needs to tool up for a dirty fight to the death with the far-right The Scottish government should lead the battle against extremism … because the Tories and Labour certainly ain’t gonna do it My @heraldscotland.bsky.social column www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...
Thread
A barrister, Sarah Phillimore, led a campaign of harassment of a trans woman so wicked that she sought to take her own life. Jk Rowling saw the threat of regulatory sanction for that misconduct and offered to pay her legal costs. That's where she now is.
I agree, he's done his party and the electorate a lot of good.
Ta!
As I'm now deemed too impure and foreign to listen to BBC Sounds, I wonder if there are any podcast outlets? Can't seem to find any on the usual platforms.
Do read this. It's wonderful. Peter writes like a god. No, not that sort of god. Urgh. We've heard enough from them. I'm talking about the kind that slips through reeds and bracken and is glimpsed in the sun shafts of a forest glade. That sort.
#ICYMI: How is “free speech” abused and misunderstood? What’s up with #debateme culture? And what happens when powerful people claim they “can’t say anything anymore”? Hear sociologist of the far right @aaronwinter.bsky.social @versobooks.bsky.social on this and more. buff.ly/v1CumW2
Following the recent release of Lucy Connolly, mainstream media outlets, the far right, and Connolly herself have framed the case as a 'free speech' one and represented her as a martyr and symbol of the cause. In light of this, I'm re-posting my @thesociologicalreview.org #UncommonSense interview:
The Quakers are doing exactly what all public services are legally allowed to do even if the EHRC wants to pretend they're not: say gender-based toilets are inclusive and for anyone bothered by that as a matter of belief, there are stand-alone cubicles that they are very free to use. 1/
The original Gender Recognition Act 2004 came because of a ECtHR case. It's absolutely vital to the progression and retention of human rights in the UK. Which of course is why the far right want us out.
Ghost of Peter Cushing is sitting at the bar asking for a Grand Moff Tarkin with soda. And a bicycle pump.
Reform MP says they will negotiate with the Taliban.
Division is everywhere but we can all unite around one belief: the people who play music on public transport without their headphones in are monsters and their antics should be banned My column on the scourge of blasterbaters in @heraldscotland.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...
goodlawproject.org/i-knew-it-wo... Disgraceful behaviour by a barrister.
The United States, just months before its 250th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the edge into authoritarianism and fascism.
I'm craving a crumbly, salty cheddar. Hard to find in these parts.
Sounds great!
I've written about the concerted effort by the combined forces of the right to turn convicted race hate monger Lucy Connolly into a victim, a saint and a martyr. @bylinetimes.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2025/08/27/l...
He got there!
Profoundly important from @davidallengreen.bsky.social. The lack of meaningful restraints against executing power in our system leaves us utterly exposed in the face of a Reform government. They could do whatever they want. open.substack.com/pub/emptycit...
I’ve often wondered why Nigel Farage, who as godfather of the Brexit fiasco engineered the biggest British foreign policy disaster since Suez is continually offered so much space in some newspapers and broadcast media. Serious question. Thoughts welcome.
For the guitarists ... I'm learning Django's parts of Minor Swing and the information overload is making my head hurt.
For trans and non-binary organisers across Scotland! Despite the challenges, your efforts are helping to build a stronger, more vibrant community. This series of meetings is all about bringing us together. Let’s share knowledge, collaborate & amplify our impact. www.outsavvy.com/event/29503/...
I imagine that Starmer recognises the "strength of feeling" of this particular far-right chump convicted of smuggling migrants. It's all about legitimate concerns, right?
Umm...wow. "HOPE not hate can reveal that Lee Twamley, photographed at the front of Britain First’s “March for Remigration” in Manchester this month, has served prison time for trying to smuggle Vietnamese migrants into the UK." hopenothate.org.uk/2025/08/19/e...
Tony Gallagher isn't fit to edit The Times, which is now a sewer full of far right ideological turds. If you're the one writing these leaders, give up and go find a useful life that doesn't involve spewing deadly poison into public life.
Also calls out the discredited Cass Review in the process. #TransRightsAreHumanRights
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Unsurprisingly, the Daily Mail this morning is one goose step away from a rerun of its infamous 1934 "Hurrah for the Blackshirts!" #r4today
So do you recognise my 'strength of feeling' Starmer?? And the 'strength of feeling' of everyone - and I'm confident in saying there are fucking millions of us - who don't want to live in a country where racists shout the odds and the rest of us have to accommodate their small-minded ignorance?
"Ok, I hear you, concentration camps. But how will you fund them" is... man I just don't know anymore, where does one even start
Nigel Farage is using attacks on women to stoke his anti-migrant agenda, while turning a blind eye to the real crisis of violence against women in the UK. We’re fighting back. Join us ⬇️ action.goodlawproject.org/tell-reform-...
His journey down the Thames is on YouTube, if you've not seen it. Also most interesting. He's a sweet guy.
Farage never mentions his €77,000 annual pension for life that he receives from the EU does he? Oh no, the media never mention it either
"We are not very far away from major civil disorder" over migration, says Nigel Farage for the umpteenth time. So far this "major civil disorder" has involved a handful of protests outside some hotels with around a hundred protesters at each
No surprises here but at least people are speaking. A whole load of stuff follows once the dam breaks & the EHRC Guidance for trans exclusion is announced amid what is already de facto a range of bans of trans people from everyday life. Its about womens' bodies. www.thepinknews.com/2025/08/25/t...
Lucy Connolly is held up as a martyr by swathes of the British press and leading politicians. To offer any succour to someone like Connolly is to revile decency, humanity and respect for the law. We are a nation unhinged. Britain has lost its moral bearings www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...
In a sane, normal country, Lucy Connolly would be treated as a contemptible extremist. Not in Britain. But then this is no longer a sane, normal country. Britain has lost its moral bearings My @heraldscotland.bsky.social column www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...
Deeply concerned that changes to trans rights could be approved without MPs or the public seeing details. This risks undermining accountability on issues affecting lives and freedoms. Proposals must face scrutiny before approval. Everyone deserves to know what’s being decided in their name.
This needed saying and it needs to be repeated every day. @rebeccadonkennedy.bsky.social talking to @neilmackay.bsky.social is an exceptional read.
'Many media outlets are no longer interested in the truth. They’re concerned with rage-bait, clicks and sensationalism' www.heraldscotland.com/news... @neilmackay.bsky.social
Just gonna keep re-sharing this to annoy the absolute worst people on the planet
This is an informative article about Scottish woman Rebecca Don Kennedy, who runs the Equality Network. She talks about the attacks, abuse and hate she’s suffered campaigning for trans people. It’s attracted extreme hatred, which is insane given how reasonable it is! archive.is/202508241117...
"We all have human rights. If some of us don’t have them, then none of us do. As soon as you start that divisive pulling apart you weaken the armour and the tools that we have for moving forward." Our CEO in the Herald yesterday: www.heraldscotland.com/news/2541309...
'As a woman, who has been harmed by men and suffered prejudice, discrimination and misogyny, why would I fight for trans rights if I thought it was impacting women’s rights in a negative way?' www.heraldscotland.com/news...
Of course they are. These are far-right agenda issues that fall apart under scrutiny.
Then I remembered this picture of voters whose human rights Labour betrayed at the expense of handing the next election to Farage.
Absolutely right.
I found this picture of all the voters that Labour are chasing at the expense of handing the next election to Farage.
It's hard to escape that conclusion.
This and the brouhaha over a supposed 'wave' of right wing anti immigration demos that attracted only handfuls of idiots should make it very clear that Sky, BBC and ITN newsrooms are getting it disastrously wrong. They're dancing to the tune of the far right and misleading viewers.
‘I’m a lesbian and feminist. I’ve been harmed by men. So I wouldn’t fight for trans people if it hurt women’s rights. Yet I’m called a groomer and a misogynist’ Rebecca Don Kennedy, head of the Equality Network, on how dark it’s got for trans people in Britain www.heraldscotland.com/news/2541309...
Only once did I find it anything other than grim. On 9/11 I was in a small town on a small island in the Pacific northwest. As the news broke, people came out into the downtown to talk and embrace their neighbours. By the evening, there were candles burning and flags flying from every porch.