- “Jewish students ‘deeply concerned’ that university encampments will fuel antisemitic attacks on campus” – Jewish students at Oxford and Cambridge fear further “intimidation” and “harassment” by pro-Palestine protesters, reports the Mail.
- “Oxford students told to ‘sign radical manifesto’ to join pro-Palestinian protest camp” – Oxford Action for Palestine is insisting that students who want to join their encampment agree with a radical manifesto, which effectively calls for the end of Israel as a country, says GB News.
- “Sunak summons university leaders after ‘unacceptable rise in antisemitism’” – Rishi Sunak has summoned university vice-chancellors to Downing Street to discuss the safety of Jewish students amid an “unacceptable rise in antisemitism”, reports the Telegraph.
- “Pro-Palestinian protesters vandalise First World War memorial” – Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Manhattan vandalised a First World War memorial and burned an American flag in Central Park after being held back from the Met Gala by police, says the Telegraph.
- “Why are pro-Palestine protesters heckling Holocaust survivors?” – It seems that Jews cannot even commemorate the horrors of Auschwitz in peace anymore, writes Lauren Smith in Spiked.
- “Hamas will be destroyed in Rafah, against the wishes of the West” – Israel must push on with its plans to invade Rafah and not buckle to international pressure, no matter how great, says Richard Kemp in the Telegraph.
- “Israel’s Rafah operation is tragically necessary” – The invasion of Rafah will be another tragic chapter in the tragic history of the Jewish state, writes Jake Wallis Simons in the Spectator.
- “It’s not racist to air concerns about immigration, says BBC review” – An independent report finds that the BBC refuses to air people’s misgivings about high levels of immigration because journalists fear being considered “racist”, reports the Times.
- “Belgian PM wants European boycott of Israeli business” – Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo is pushing for an EU ban on imports of Israeli products, says Brussels Signal.
- “Facebook to investigate ‘From the river to the sea’ posts” – Facebook’s ‘supreme court’ is investigating the social media giant for allowing users to post the controversial pro-Palestinian slogan ‘From the river to the sea’, according to the Telegraph.
- “AstraZeneca withdrawing Covid vaccine, months after admitting rare side effect” – The AstraZeneca Covid vaccine is being withdrawn worldwide after the pharmaceutical giant admitted that it can cause a rare and dangerous side effect, reports the Telegraph.
- “How Long Covid risks ‘going the same way as ME’” – Some doctors still consider Long Covid a mental health problem, but campaigners insist two million sufferers are being badly neglected, writes Miranda Levy in the Telegraph.
- “A limited hangout on vaccine harms” – In the Epoch Times, Jeffrey A. Tucker celebrates the New York Times finally acknowledging the damage caused by Covid vaccines.
- “Film Covid Collateral exposes pandemic policy errors and science censorship” – On Substack, Paul D. Thacker interviews documentary film producer Vanessa Dylyn on her new film Covid Collateral.
- “Prof. Ramesh Thakur and Ben Falconer on The Chris Smith Show” – On The Chris Smith Show, Prof. Ramesh Thakur discusses the WHO’s proposed pandemic treaty reforms, and Ben Falconer talks about the Supreme Court of Western Australia dismissing his case over refusing the Covid jabs.
- “Reeves hints people will pay more income tax if Labour wins election” – Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves says that workers may face higher income tax under a Labour government after refusing to commit to unfreezing static thresholds that have dragged millions into higher rate bands, reports the Mail.
- “Prolific burglar first to be jailed after private prosecution” – A burglar who broke into a M&S store has become the first person to be jailed in a private prosecution following the Met Police’s decision not to investigate, says the Mail.
- “The poetry of gin and tea” – On Substack, Paul Sutton explores ideological indoctrination in education.
- “Nearly half of British schools do not have a male senior leadership team member” – A new study reveals that a quarter of British schools only have white female teachers to act as role models for pupils, reports the Mail.
- “Bright kids shouldn’t be expected to help bad schools” – On Substack, Mr. Chips doubts that forcing private school kids into the state sector will improve the academic performance of their peers.
- “‘Levelling up’ chess tables costing £50,000 installed across the North West” – The BBC reports that expensive chess tables have appeared in parks across the North West thanks to the Government’s levelling-up programme, with critics questioning whether the money could have been spent more wisely.
- “Argentina’s President admits the Falklands are British and says Margaret Thatcher was ‘brilliant’” – Javier Milei admits the Falkland Islands are currently “in the hands of the U.K.” and describes former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as “brilliant”, according to GB News.
- “It’s time to reverse the Left’s long march through the institutions” – WASP domination has merely been substituted with the new woke elite class. America needs a true meritocracy, says Michael Lind in the Telegraph.
- “Vladimir Putin is sworn in for his fifth term as President” – Vladimir Putin has been sworn in for his fifth term as Russia’s President in front of dignitaries, celebrities and friends, including U.S. actor Steven Seagal and a Hell’s Angel known as ‘The Surgeon’, reports the Mail.
- “Can Putin survive a Chechen civil war?” – According to reports, Ramzan Kadyrov, the ruthless leader of Russia’s Chechnya region, is suffering from a fatal pancreas condition. Is Russia ready for a bloody succession battle? asks Ian Garner in UnHerd.
- “EV private sales fall and market downgrades 2024 sales expectations” – Shrinking appetite for EVs means the U.K. automotive sector has been forced to revise its sales forecasts for 2024 downwards, reports the Mail.
- “Garrick Club to allow female members for first time” – For more than 190 years, the Garrick has refused to admit women as members – but this has been overturned following a vote by its 1,500 members, says the Telegraph.
- “Darts star who refused to play against a transgender player speaks out” – British female darts player Deta Hedman has explained why she withdrew from the quarter final of a women’s darts tournament after she learnt she’d be competing against a transgender player, reports the Mail.
- “Lynne Pinches lauds Deta Hedman for her refusal to face trans opponent and withdrawing from darts tournament” – British pool star Lynne Pinches has heaped praise on darts player Deta Hedman for her refusal to face a transgender opponent at the Denmark Open, claiming that female athletes “should not be have to make these decisions”, according to the Mail.
- “Olly Alexander slammed as Eurovision star sparks flag row” – The U.K.’s Eurovision entrant Olly Alexander says he feels “ambivalent” about the Union Jack flag, and hopes to “reclaim the flag in a positive way”, reports GB News.
- “Women-only exhibit becomes a toilet to keep men out” – An Australian museum that was ordered by a court to admit men to a women-only exhibit plans to circumvent the ruling by transforming the exhibit into a ladies’ lavatory which are allowed to be single sex spaces, says the BBC.
- “Canada to imprison anyone who has ever posted ‘hate speech’ online” – A new Canadian law gives police the power to retroactively search the internet for ‘hate speech’ violations and arrest offenders, reports the People’s Voice.
- “Jack Dorsey leaves Bluesky board and calls X ‘freedom technology’” – Bluesky co-founder Jack Dorsey has left the company’s board a year after setting the company up to challenge X, according to Time magazine.
- “TikTok fights back against ban” – TikTok is mounting a legal challenge against a new U.S. law that it says not only threatens its existence but may also set a dangerous precedent for free speech online, according to Reclaim The Net.
- “This wins the internet today!” – Scotland’s new First Minister John Swinney makes an ‘alternative’ speech at Holyrood.
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How about ‘arse kicking’ spaces to make these proto-fascist little morons grow up?! When I was a student in the mid-1990s, prior to everyone having email, we all mocked student activists, who were a tiny minority, and used to deface their posters (usually writing ‘Cancelled’ on their meeting announcements!)
These deluded, emotionally stunted morons can all be rounded up and stuck in padded cells where they belong. They can go and collectively be traumatized elsewhere. It’s beyond pathetic now. ”Social contagion” indeed. Here’s a new 4min video clip of Prof Stock.
https://twitter.com/TimesRadio/status/1658058452239806466
I’ll confess I’m a bit transphobic. I find transgenderism weird and creepy.
At the same time I wish transexuals no ill. On the contrary, I wish them only the best. Live and let live, I say.
The people I detest and wish would just crawl into a hole and disappear are the armies of non-transexuals who pretend to be champions of transexuals and seem determined to promote transgenderism in our society and make it a normal thing. They are the same kind of people that wanted everyone to wear masks, the same people that find racism lurking around every corner, the same people that want to keep changing the words we use.
Basically they are people who are pathologically drawn to bossing others around and do so by finding some moral high ground upon which they can crawl and from which they can talk down to everyone else.
They couldn’t give a shit about transexuals. In fact, they use them and exploit them and will drop them the moment they find a higher moral ground to clamber up to and preach more hate and division from.
They are destructive, despicable people.
Phobias are a class of mental illnesses and that’s the whole point of all these somethingphobic neologisms. I find men trying to appear to be women instinctively repellent. But that’s an aesthetical preference and not based on underlying state of (pathological) fear. Likewise, I also find naked men singularly unattractive (to say the least) but again, that’s not because I secretly fear them for no reason. Lastly, I don’t want to have anything to do with bearded wearers of nightgowns handing out religious text in pedestrian zones but I don’t fear them. They’re just not like me and I’m not like them.
Good point. I’ve unthinkingly adopted the word phobia when you’re absolutely right that it isn’t a fear at all. It’s more of a “no thanks”.
“The people I detest and wish would just crawl into a hole and disappear are the armies of non-transexuals who pretend to be champions of transexuals and seem determined to promote transgenderism in our society and make it a normal thing.”
Transgenderism is quite different from transsexualism.
Good words, Stewart. I wholeheartedly agree. It is this woke mob in the shadows looking to control others. They are despicable.
This kind of dispute is not new. I remember trying to get Enoch Powell cancelled from speaking at my university in 1969. I can’t remember whether we succeeded. Nowadays I side with the Richard Dawkins of this world but I don’t think it such a big deal.
So allowing debate of opinions that some people disagree with is not a big deal?
It depends on who is doing it and what exactly they are seeking to prevent. Putin preventing anyone in Russia expressing any opinion against the war is a very big deal. A bunch of students and junior academics seeking to prevent Kathleen Stock speaking at the university is a shame – mainly for the university and those who are deprived of the opportunity to hear her -but it is not comparable in its significance.
Well, different countries have different mechanisms by which speech is suppressed. But suppressing free speech is never going to lead to more happiness and prosperity in the long run.
What the Russian government does in Russia is insignificant to anyone who isn’t living there. OTOH, junior academics and students in England having the politcal power to effectively deprive others of rights they’re supposed have according to the law of the land is significant in England. They’re not a sovereign government acting on its undisputed territory but just a bunch of bullies seeking to harm others because they believe they can.
Toxic culture of bullying and harrassment is code language for People who are convinced their opinions are actually true debating them. Like everything, truth is also relative in the enlightened progressive universe: People may well believe that 2 + 2 equals 4, however, arguing about that with people who prefer 2 + 2 equals – 23 is just a form of conversion therapy and thus, to be banned.
I had a moment of clarity about this while discussing the covid hysteria, net zero and leaving the EU while staying with some old friends of the public sector metropolitan elite variety recently. I suddenly realised that I was not trying to change their mind, I was telling them why they couldn’t change mine.
“‘transwomen are women’”. Maybe if we called them exactly what they are, that would clear up any confusion. That would be men, in a dress.
Transvestites, I believe.
No. And the statement is built on ignorance.
Are any of the downtickers able to provide evidence to support their position? Sadly the reality is that even the downticks are based on ignorance.
Whatever happened to; I do not wish to hear what you say, so I will not go to your event. The bullying used by the self appointed moralistic elite, is only to be expected as it is the only way they can get attention. And by doing so, proves the very fragility of their own arguments. These actions of bullying call into question the very intelligence and qualification requirements to enter these academic establishments. Moreover, the removal of debate and reflection removes the very essence of the University’s existence.
I quite agree. By their behaviour these idiots are perfectly illustrating why they are unworthy and ill-prepared for university life. This would never have been tolerated, certainly not pandered to, when I was at uni. The problem is now that we live in a cancel culture which is stacked in favour of the snowflake generation. Unfortunately the authorities side with these radical, half-baked loonies that are evidently mentally ill ( whilst simultaneously doing a great disservice to regular trans folk who just wish to get on with their lives and aren’t all about making their transness define them ) which just enables and empowers these hysterical idiots.
Their behaviour is appalling and if the uni supports them then that is unprofessional and unforgivable, frankly. There should be blanket zero tolerance to bullying and intimidation in all universities, and this is what this behaviour amounts to. It’s like civilised society has been dismantled and is being put back together all wrong, and this obviously applies to all the worrying changes afoot that we’re seeing, which all appear to be escalating in recent years.
“whilst simultaneously doing a great disservice to regular trans folk who just wish to get on with their lives and aren’t all about making their transness define them”
Thanks for intelligence and common sense Mogs.
Good for the profs. Oxford, like most Unis, is probably beyond saving. Hopefully some rich person or firm will stump up a few hundred million to found some new Unis that believe in free speech and they can all leave and join those.
‘…students have tried to cancel Prof. Stock’s talk, claiming that she is transphobic for disputing that ‘transwomen are women’.’
Nope, transwomen are not women. No matter how long or how hard they infer or affirm that they are women, they are not. Irrespective of whatever illusion, delusion, aspiration or fantasy they labour under; irrespective of whatever they ‘identify’ as, they are not women.
Irrespective how strongly – and in some instances violently – they insist that they be known as women, they are not.
Irrespective of their desire to be seen and treated differently, they cannot force others to see them as anything but what they are. WYSIWYG – a man in a frock. Women – never in a month of Sundays…
The world-famous Oxford Union should grab the opportunity to sever ties with the grubby little cabal of pseudo-political dweebs and grifters that the Students’ Union invariably is. Move to a donation model if funds are tight, they’ll be rolling in it.
Putting a list on social media isn’t the most noble of endeavours. Anyone could do that if they wanted to push their cause. Is this a simple formulation of the argument from authority? Surely that contradicts your position at a fundamental level?
Expel all who will no doubt protest outside the event. They’re wasted in education, they already ‘know everything’
They are the equivalent of the screaming toddler sitting on the floor of a shop and throwing a tantrum. We should deal with them just as we would the toddler. But with real consequences actually followed up, not with sweeties and a kiss.
Trans women are men, especially if they keep their junk. If you’ve had the snip, I’m a bit more sympathetic, but with this constant sh¡t I’m losing even that shred of kindness. This movement needs to be utterly destroyed.
El Gato Malo makes some good points about the lack of shame these people have. They’re cosseted and have never had to self reflect on their behaviour because nobody has ever held them properly accountable in their lives.
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/the-goldilocks-zone-of-shame
“we have enabled the age of the crybully whose cultivated infirmity and fragility bubbles over into endless demands for redress and accommodation at the expense of everything and everyone.”
Another problem is that the literature doesn’t support the intervention of surgery or taking hormones in curing gender dysphoria. Unsurprisingly the medical-industrial complex has jumped on this bandwagon and is exploiting vulnerable individuals who are in dire need of decent talking therapies and nothing else. The obvious result is that we have mentally ill young people doing irreparable damage to their bodies and actually making their existing psychiatric issues even worse. You don’t need to look far online to hear tragic stories of people who have, or wish to, detransition, but the support is not available to them and their bodies will never ever be the same again. Dr McCullough cites a study here;
”Sadly, TGD adolescents were more likely to have a mental health diagnosis (OR 5.45, 95% CI [4.77-6.24]), use more mental healthcare services (IRR 2.22; 95% CI [2.00-2.46]), and used psychotropic medications (IRR = 2.57; 95% CI [2.36-2.80]) compared to normal siblings. Diagnoses included adjustment, anxiety, mood, personality, psychotic disorders, and suicidal ideation/attempted suicide. Among 963 TGD youth (age ~18 yrs) using gender-affirming pharmaceuticals, mental healthcare did not significantly change (IRR = 1.09, 95% CI [0.95-1.25]) and psychotropic medications increased (IRR = 1.67, 95% CI [1.46-1.91]) following gender-affirming pharmaceutical initiation.
These data suggest transgender medicine makes the overall burden of psychiatric disease worse and clearly increases the costs of psychiatric care. Parents should understand that transgender medicine is not effective in handling the psychiatric drivers of gender dysphoria in their teenagers.”
https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/mental-healthcare-burden-of-transgender
Welfare spaces? If it’s so traumatic then why go at all? I think this is all rather sad and pathetic.
The first female to male transgender surgery in the world was performed in the UK in 1946-9. The patient was Laura, later Michael Dillon, who wrote a series of short monographs about his thinking. I have made my own analysis of his psychological state, and that of Robert Cowell, who became Roberta with Dillon’s help, but I would be interested to see a proper study of both done by a proper psychiatrist, which I am not. To say that both were strange and tortured souls would be fair, but their milieu was much less accepting of surgical alteration than now. Liz Hodgkinson has written an excellent book about Dillon. Perhaps more people should read it.
The Labour Party wants to reduce the voting age to 16. Seeing how the minority of students are controlling their fellows, it makes a case for increasing it to 25 or even older. Why is there no objection by the students to the actions of the LGBTQ+ society? I assume this is either because our universities have a disproportionate number of people in this group, or their actions are so despicable towards people who object to them that they are frightened to try to prevent their control of student life. In addition to putting their name to this excellent letter, the professors should do more to help protect students who might agree with it. I am disappointed that students in general do not seem to value free speech or have the courage to fight for it.
The Labour Party wants to reduce the voting age to 16.
The telling thing here is that they doubtlessly don’t want to reduce the age where people may drive a car or buy alcoholic drinks and cigarettes. They’re confident that they can get people with no real life to worry about yet to vote as they’re supposed to and need them because the number of their (boombaby) peers who’ve kept the COVID! Climate Change! Critical Race Theory! (Communism!) show rolling so far will keep dying in increasing numbers and someone needs to neutralize the votes of the people they plan to harm. But they’re absolutely not confident that their lifestyle choice, were they allowed to make them, would differ very much from those of the remainder of the population.
The notion that someone can vote for a Member of Parliament before they are old enough to stand as Member of Parliament is illogical. It is a question of mature judgement and must apply to both parties. In the end only individualism and the endless variety of human nature can save us from these attempts to transform society into a Brave New World, revisited in the twenty-first century. Science is not wisdom – it needs to be kept in its proper place as a servant and help to people. Ethics and morals matter. One of the first things to meet the reader in the 1931 BNW is the sexualization of very young children – just as the WHO would wish. It is more important than ever that people should be free to exchange views and send the would-be World Dictators away to drown in their own drivel.
Age-based voting restrictions are never logical – to paraphrase Heinlein Why should a 45 year imbecile have a right to vote while a 12 year old genius hasn’t? –
it would make more sense to base this on some concept of skin in the game, eg, people with property have a right to stand in elections, people paying income tax have a right to vote. And there should still be some exceptions to guarantee a functioning state, for instance, civil servants have no right to vote because they’re not supposed to influence decisions regarding what their job is supposed to be.
Universal suffrage works best because every adult needs to be able to vote for change or to improve their circumstances – sometimes from a position of poverty or powerlessness. What you suggest is really turning back the clock. Votes for the privileged few was a truly rotten system and we cannot betray those who fought to abolish it. I have met an awful lot of geniuses with no common sense. Mankind in its infinite and imperfect variety is a safer bet than handing over to people who believe they know what’s good for you.
There is no such thing as universal suffrage and claiming that the present system of voting restrictions would be the one proven to work best is something I certainly don’t agree with as it has brought us almost nothing but slower motion and quicker motion disasters, including the wholesale abandonment of the notion that individuals would have any rights for a period of years for no particular reason except that a bunch of shady international NGOs wanted that. That was the very thing supposed to be absolutely impossible with our so-called democracy and thus, provides conclusive proof that the system is broken.
The Heinlein paraphrase is from Starship Troopers (novel published in 1959) and a rethorical question that’s part of the justifcation why the fictional state described there restricts voting to people who have served their time in the military. As such, is rather not suitable for the generic Beware! Technocracy! rant you’ve tried to attach to it.
As there are apparently people who don’t quite understand how this universal suffrage is anything but universal: In order to vote in general elections in England, a person must be of the required age, must be legally resident in the UK and must be a citizen of a Commonwealth country (this includes Great Britain).
I’ve been legally resident in England since December 2010, have paid a lot of taxes since then and have indefinite leave to remain (EU version, settled status). Because I’m German, I have no right to vote.
A student from Kenya who comes here with a student visa for the next term who didn’t and won’t ever pay any taxes in the UK and never really lives here, ie, who just finishes his studies and then leaves again, does have full voting rights the moment he enters the UK.
That’s obviously not universal and not even particularly logical.