Bloody hell that Unherd piece should be read by every one of the 338 "colleagues" who signed that idiotic sinister letter.
As for Kath Viner. What a disaster. A decent editor would have spent the past 10 years investigating and owning the issue of gender ideology and trans issues. It is perfect Guardian territory, of interest to all their readership groups - teachers, prisons, law, social work, psychologists, woksters, older lefties, feminists, LGBT, parents. Even sports fans.
There is so much under the hood that needs investigation that is too many to list - kids, prison policies, mainstreaming of fetishes, impact of porn, availability and suitability of mental health services, police and the law, scientific and pharmaceutical developments, the practice of people bypassing medical standards by getting medication online or flying overseas for cowboy surgery. Then there is the campaign for self ID and mainstreaming of gender ideology - where does it come from, who funds it and who benefits? Then the campaign against gender ideology - same questions, who funds it (err we do), who benefits (err, ditto). Then the backlash to the campaign against gender ideology - the women losing jobs, de-platforming etc etc.
Journalistically I can't understand how Kath Viner could have side stepped such a huge, fascinating and impactful issue. You look at the bravery of editors in the past - the Boston Globe on child abuse in the Catholic church. Watergate. A brave editor and a good journalist wouldn't haven't been able to avoid covering it - they would have had to scratch that itch and to hell with the consequences.
The only conclusion I can come to is that KV is crap. She isn't a very good journalist, isn't a good editorial leader, isn't a good manager. The signs were there when she put Semus Milne on sabbatical when he signed up to be Corbyn's comms director. That was a massive red flag that her judgement was fucked.