Baroness Nicholson 'cancelled' by Booker board

[BaronessSnippyPantsofCroneArmy]

They will not rest until every disobedient woman is purged from society.

www.thebookseller.com/news/booker-prize-nicholson-barr-1207926

Patrick Gale? Arse.

I don’t get it. Why do these organisations bow to the mob (I’m assuming here that they don’t agree with the mob...)

For fucks sake, if Dominic Cummings can survive several days of righteous national outrage and still come out with full government confidence
Why would an annual book prize giving body give a shit about a few misogynistic SJWs kicking off at them on Twitter?

Patrick Gale, how little it takes for a man to sell his soul. It's not homophobes he's scared of it's the LBGT mafia.

Yes, we do need a list of the authors who waded into this one (many without doing any research on it I suspect).

Here are some of the ones I saw liking and commenting:
Sarah Perry
Helen MacDonald
Sara Collins ('The Confessions of Frannie Langton')
@ArmisteadMaupin
@PatrickFreyne1

Interesting surprisingly few of the 'Big Names'/Blue Ticks. I suspect most of them have the good sense to keep their head down and their mouths shut if they know who buys their books (hint: it's women over 50!)

Also Waterstones Piccadilly - so don't shop there.
@WaterstonesPicc

Fuck sake. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton opposed gay marriage at one point. Many politicians did, not at all long ago that it was not seen as not at all mainstream as it now is.

i find it frightening, i dunno what else to say.

theyve set out their stall very clearly about what will happen to any women who dissent.

The said:

"The issues are complex, but our principles are clear. We deplore racism, homophobia and transphobia—and do not discriminate on any grounds."

Why are they talking about racism? What is the relevance to this decision?

Also, they might as well have announced "But we absolutely support sexism, and completely endorse anything David Willetts has said to that effect. All quotes from David Willets, however recent can be assumed to fully express his and our views now."

So they deplore racism, homophobia and transphobia, but misogyny is fine?

It's the latest mantra. The rule of threes. Transphobia (which is everything) = homophobia = racism.

Nonsensical, really, and an insult to anyone who has genuinely suffered from any of these prejudices.

Can you be a believing Catholic or Muslim, or believe in traditional Protestant or traditional Jewish doctrines, and simultaneously believe in everything that modern social liberalism teaches?
I'm an atheist (and socialist and bisexual) but I think it's a concern if people are saying that religious people are no longer welcome in national life.

You know, I'm about done with this fight.

When I look at the huge list of young women authors merrily giving away their rights, the women on Porth Rugby Team, or Kent Women's Cricket team, the Lisa Nandys of this world saying they see nothing wrong with putting male rapists with intact penises into women's prisons...

I have no skin in this game any more. I'm middle aged. My only child is male - he'll be fine. My sporting days are long past. I'm vanishingly unlikely to end up in prison.

Younger women - you want to live in this world? Fine. Crack on. I'm sure you'll still love it once you get old enough that biology comes back to bite you, or you find yourselves facing a rugby team whose entire front row is 6'3" transwomen.

I tried, I really tried on your behalf. But sometimes there's no helping people.

Fuck that.

The Emperor is wearing no clothes.

Human beings cannot change sex.

Women's rights matter, raise up women and you raise up society - we have to be able to name ourselves to do that. No man can have the title of woman.

The rule of threes. Transphobia (which is everything) = homophobia = racism.

And they're apparently too stupid to see the profound homophobia and racism at the heart of trans ideology. I suppose that would require them to actually spend a few minutes thinking.

Literature is open, plural and questioning."

War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength

Literature is open, plural and questioning but we have decided to be closed, singular and dogmatic in our beliefs.

@CaraDune I often feel like that too, Im middle aged, I don’t have children, I’m unlikely to end up in a prison or refuge, I wonder why I bother

But I will not give in to these bastards! Men cannot be women end of story - the word woman is taken, they can find another

Part of a review of Marlon James' work from a self-confessed fanboy.

So "virulent misogynist thinks women should STFU? Behold my shocked face.

Convenient when you think "never buying your books, then" and quickly realize that you never would have anyway, though.

On the subject of same sex marriage, as we have some open minded critically thinking people here, it was another argument about language for some people.

Just as woman = adult human female, marriage = one man and one woman.

That is no longer true, but many people saw it that way and felt that using the word for a same sex couple was illogical.

They weren't bigots, had no issue with same sex couples, but we're concerned about casually redefining a word and the potential legal implications that may have.

So my reading of this is that they wanted to get rid of her but were advised by lawyers that they could end up with a lawsuit on their hands as it could be considered discrimination on the basis of belief. So, to cover their arses, they got rid of her position (and all the other similar positions). Am I getting that right?

It's so gutting watching the authors line up for their nonsensical woke cookies on Twitter. I am really disappointed in the blind refusal to join the dots by Sara Collins in particular. I can't believe she doesn't see it.

But, on the other hand Jane Harris is magnificent and brave, as always. She is marvellous. @blablafishcakes if anyone isn't following her already.

Scrimpshaw thank you for the hand squeeze. I'm with Cara on the Massively Pissed Off bench today.

I appreciate everyone thinks this is a sacking of a woman, but it's clearly not.

The statement said they are ending the use of honarary titles.

Honarary titles are a joke, they are given out for any old reason, I've sacked useless people everyone hated who pleaded for an honarary title to save face and was given one. They are a pointless anachronism which I am sure the Baroness agrees with.

They have shut down the frothing by ceasing the practice of using these empty misleading titles, because, as they set out in the statement, many people seemed to think they had some relevance to the prizes. They have no purpose.

They are one of the least egalitarian trinkets of the great and the good and there are a lot more too.

I think they have played the shouters at their own game.

TwoHopes

It's a title only. Not a position, not a job, not employment, nothing. No discrimination is possible.

Patrick Freyne wading in with the pitchfork?
I had thought better of him - much better

But, on the other hand Jane Harris is magnificent and brave, as always. She is marvellous. @blablafishcakes if anyone isn't following her already.

She is wonderful on Facebook too -- the only SM platform I use to any extent. Completely openly GC. She was recently horribly abused on an author's forum.
Her FB is private, though, she can say what she wants there. But even on a private FB, few people come forward. It's so sad.

Shocking.

And more. This is a blatant attempt to silence a person who thinks for herself and forms her own views. This is dangerous.