James Kirkup on the Green Party's meltdown

[TimeLady]

blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/09/how-caroline-lucas-fell-foul-of-the-transgender-thought-police/

Go James!

Hello beloveds, I’ve not been here for a while, having a big catch up.

I am in fact faintly encouraged by the amount of people who are now coming to see the madness of this all, especially younger women, who feel totally unable to express how they feel in their peer group, but are cropping up more and more.

The more this kind of thing happens and it will keep happening, because only total compliance with the ideology is acceptable, the more will turn people away from supporting it. I bet Caroline has just peaked.

Love to you all. I’m off for some biscuits ( terrible hate spewing biscuits, that deny the exsistance of other biscuits )

Jaffa cakes are cakes. #NoDebate

Some of them identify as biscuits, however.

So over the past year I have stopped reading the Guardian (been reading since I was an early teen and I'm now late 40s); and last weekend I took out a subscription to The Spectator.
Strange times.

I know.

Biscuits don't have penises.

Except Hobnobs.

I don't think I'd actually heard of James Kirkup until he started writing on this subject. I didn't really pay attention to The Spectator either. I'm another lapsed Guardian reader.

Biscuits don't have penises. Except Hobnobs.

Wins the internet today for me.

tries to make a joke about ginger nuts

Anlaf

Me too. Avid Guardian reader until c. 3 years ago, I'll never take it seriously again.

I now subscribe to the Times and thoroughly enjoy it. I don't agree with everything in it but that is also part of the joy.

Who'd a thunk it.

tries to make a joke about ginger nuts

and custard creams

white

What, no rum balls in the running for pertinent biscuits/cakes of dubious status?

Kirkup's Social Market Foundation has a free talk about carers on Thursday in London that will also be live-stream free on Periscope. www.smf.co.uk/events/asktheexpert_jillmanthorpe/

Relevant to a lot of women.

In this talk Professor Manthorpe will address the key workforce issues confronting employers, central and local government, as well as individuals who need treatment, care and support. She will discuss what we know about the workforce and the key policy questions facing the sector. These include the role of the state, in regulation, wage levels and training funds, in addition to the role of individuals and families who are the main providers of care and support. Governments face competing demands here – in wanting families to care, yet wanting labour market participation. Squaring this circle is one perennial policy challenge – but also faces families across the land.

aspie 😂!

Is there anyone nearby who can pop in & hand James a large bottle of gin in thanks from GC MNers for his sterling work in getting a debate on this underway?

Thank you once again Mr Kirkup. You're doing a grand job

It's a great article. Serious point, but also laugh out loud funny, esp the line about DrH. I shared it on another forum as well, where it was equally appreciated.

Thanks James K. Another ex guardian reader here. The way they reported the trans prisoner case (can't recall name) without mentioning once that they were in prison for sex crimes against teenage girls was my wake up call. I consider myself very left wing but I much prefer honest people/newspapers with a different ideological slant to virtue signallers so high on their own self righteousness they can't see the depths of their misogyny.

You know what? In our haste to laud James, there is a danger we overllok the significant accomplishments of WPUK, Transgender Trend and all the other brave feminists who’ve been banging the drum at considerable cost to themselves. Thank you all for EVERYTHING that you have done. There’s no way we’d have made it this far without you calm, sustained campaigning on this.

Oh FFS, so many typos.

Absolutely, boatyard. As great as it is to see men finally paying attention and speaking out, years of women's work has gotten us to this point.

And I'd like to thank Mumsnet for letting us talk here, despite all the pressure to shut us up.

...but it is a truth universally acknowledged that a bunch of women fighting for their rights are in need of a man to be given the credit irrespective of whether he tries to take it, surely?

Agree with you boatyard, but I don't only thank James. I don't think this thread is taking anything away from those others on the frontline, just that this particular article was such a joy to read. Tbh, all the women drawing attention to the issues involved in this ideology have my gratitude; had it not been for this corner of Mumsnet, I don't think I'd have been able to articulate my concerns about all of this in the way I now feel confident to do IRL.

IMO, James and other men writing about these issues have also acknowledged that they get much less abuse for doing so than women who speak out, such as the groups you mentioned, and also individual GC women such as Janice Turner, Hadley Freeman, Frances Barber and Alison Moyet, amongst many others.

just that this particular article was such a joy to read.

Oh yes, it was indeed joyous.