Julie Bindel & venue for MVAW talk in Nottingham

[ifIwerenotanandroid]

twitter.com/bindelj/status/1540377548387131392

Also thank you Baroness. Tireless and elegant campaigner.

The Guardian has (finally) covered the story: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/27/julie-bindel-to-sue-nottingham-council-after-aspley-library-talk-cancelled

A council spokesperson said there were no plans to add anything to Saturday’s statement.

Looks like they're doubling down then.
Big mistake. Huge.

hey Julie, let us know when you need the steady flow of spare fivers

Seconding any PPs who would like to see centralised crowd funding set up for this and similar actions so that we can leverage the best value out of our donations.

Organiser's account of what happened. Nottingham senior Councillors sound incapable of organising a piss up in a brewery. thecritic.co.uk/what-really-happened-in-nottingham/

That account does go some way to explaining why they're doubling down - if the decision was made at the highest level, then they don't have a convenient junior councillor to be their fall guy.

Local authority lawyers up and down the country must be thanking their lucky stars they don't work for Nottingham City Council right now.

Thanks, Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - interesting to know who was behind the decision.

... you cannot discriminate in the provision of service because you are prejudiced

Oh, she's good.

They are not making any further statements because Legal will have explained how the public statement is a written public admission of decisions which will form part of a court case. If the whole management of how the event was handled was signed off by the top brass the is going to be a (disproportionately expensive) management time involved in any internal fact finding investigation.

Eg who arranged the police presence?
Was the Head of the Library service instructed to arrange for the police to turn up to prevent individuals from entering the public library?
Or was it someone else who was worried that the protesters turning up would result in a breach of the peace?

I note the choice, email is sent requesting an unrecorded phone call which to remove a factual provable record.

Baroness Nicholson absolutely right as usual. This is their prejudice. I would not be able to refuse a Muslim access to public facilities because I thought there was a risk they might incite people to terrorism - that would be my own prejudiced projection. Bindel’s views on trans issues were unrelated to the talk and entirely irrelevant, as well as being legally protected. Their discriminatory policy isn’t a defence of their actions.

@LarissaFeodorovna many people are wishing they didn't work for Nottingham city council right now. There are a few serious problems being investigated.

The enemy of my enemy is NOR always my friend. All of us on all sides of this issue would do well to remember this.

The Critic article is fascinating. Man makes a decision, woman becomes the face of that decision to take the flak. You'd think if the man making the decision sincerely thought he was making a principled stand against bigotry he'd want his name attached to it. Looks like just another spineless misogynist.

Thank you to Siân Louise for taking time to give us the background, you must be exasperated with the lot of them.

Their discriminatory policy isn’t a defence of their actions.

No it's not but I take perverse pleasure in watching stupid people, who think they can write either a contract or policy which supersedes the law of the land, get their arses handed to them. I believe this is evidence that the people involved in policy and decision making at NCC are too stupid unfit for public office.

Great choice to fuck over the woman who was organising a Save Our Libraries campaign. 🙄

I believe Sian was expelled from the Labour party over this.

“views on transgender rights”
If I was JB, I'd be asking them to set out what my views on transgender rights are.
They never can do this accurately.

Great piece.

I was left with no choice but to go ahead with the event in the library car park. We were picketed by a small group, half of whom said they were protesting Julie Burchill. She was not even there and I have never met her. These are the people Nottingham City Council are led by in their decision making: confused people who don’t even know the name of the woman they are so opposed to.

...
Later that day Nottingham City Council released a statement. They used two female councillors (who never spoke with me) as their representatives. Neither of these women, Adele Willams and Neghat Khan, are responsible for libraries. But the men who are must surely be embarrassed about banning women from a public library when all they wanted to do was speak. I would be if I were them.

This is funny/depressing.
To be fair, it is a library - aren't we all meant to SSSHHHHHHH?

I'm just going to leave this here;
twitter.com/UKHomosexual/status/1541334968248713216

Ahh, Twitter . Never change. (Obviously, do please change, a lot)
(You have to read the full thread for the full glory)

Lack of attention to facts is a feature not a bug with this ideology

Doesn't freedom of speech also mean Councils have the right to refuse a speech booking on their premises under certain grounds?

It goes both ways does it not?

That thread is absolute gold. I am literally (pre 2015 definition) crying with laughter.

What goes both ways?