Private Eye on the Supreme Court judgment

[Manderleyagain]

I hope the images appear the right way around.

'Lady Justice' has covered the supreme court ruling, and how Starmer and others have struggled with the issue.

So brave! Imagine coming out with a call for compassion and communication now!
Thanks lads 👍

There is also a cartoon below the Lady Justice article calling everyone cowards which I interpreted as including themselves - no idea if that's what they intended.

Disappointed not to see an explanation re HIGNFY editing out Ian Hislop's wise words on SC Judgement. If he really did cover the topic then I am genuinely interested in what he said.

The WhatsApp Keir Starmer conv also covers it for 1/2 the column

I feel they could have devoted many more pages to it but were scared.

Good spot, I hadn't noticed the cartoon. I think maybe they all have red rosettes on? So labour politicians?

oh yeah, I hadn't spotted the red rosettes! Yeah, I interpreted some self-comment there in that cartoon.
But they could have done so much more

Not bad, not great, not very brave.
I only spotted one thing for the SC Ruling Bingo Card - trans people who 'just want to live a quiet life'.

Mumsnet gets a mention, but it's followed up with a bit of ageism. Still, at least they're talking about it

And this

Thanks for sharing OP.

It would be good to know if Ian Hislop still thinks the debate is "not as important as those who are involved in it believe".

https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/ian-hislop-knew

Hopefully he now recognises that it's a fundamental issue of free speech, a cornerstone of women's rights and a huge medical and safeguarding scandal. Unless of course he does recognise all of that but doesn't find any of these issues to be important.

If he's had a change of heart on it, great. But it's rather hypocritical to criticise others who also seem to have done so quietly.

Good to see MN mentioned. If you're reading this Ian, hi! You know it makes sense to acknowledge it openly, especially to those like Graham Linehan who have lost so much while in the thick of it all (it's fine not to like his blunt style but it's well worth reading the content of what he says in his long form writing on it all - his often brutal summaries then make a lot more sense).

Well said. You've clarified for me why I'm disappointed.

There were some people who had the power to influence how this debate was/is viewed by mainstream, and I think Private Eye was one of them. But they didn't stand up, they hid from it (unless I missed their previous coverage). And by their cautious coverage in this week I still think they're hiding from it.

Private Eye should be ashamed of itself.

The political posturing around the ideological nonsense of gender identity is exactly the kind of thing it sets itself up as holding to account. Still, on this issue, they have been nowhere. Worse, when Hislop was challenged on his positioning of the Eye, he tried to dismiss the issue as unimportant to disguise his cowardly calculation that there was far too much downside to speaking this particular truth to power.

His public school boy privilege has never been more obvious with his implication that the silly women should shut up about their tiresome "rights" and leave him and the boys free to think about more important (male) things.

As a previous devotee of Private Eye, I can say with my hand on my heart - Fuck Him.

All mothers assumed to be middle-aged by posh boy Hislop and his team?

And all of us women who just want a quiet life dealing with our women-specific bodies in the loos must put up with the transwomen who judging by that "protect the dolls" hashtag on X have very little idea how poorly they 'pass'?

The Eye has always been a boys' club, and I don't think that's been improved by the addition in recent years of younger, woker writers. Certainly doesn't compensate for the retirement of Francis Wheen, one of those men who genuinely likes and understands women.

As for Glinner, I don't always love his style - I think everyone who likes him goes through a period of slapping our heads and saying "fuck sake Graham, that would have been more effective if you weren't shouting" - but I always find it very telling when he's simply dismissed, even more so when Frankie Boyle of all people is held up as a good example of reading the room.

Oh gosh, yes, it's more of the same. We're not really worried, we're just busybodies who are looking for something to get excited about. Unlike those sensible, put upon male women who just want a quiet life.
I'd bloody love a quiet life, mate.

Well, the assumption is that we're all just looking for rare events to take offence at. Like the way Mark Steel used to parody Daily Mail readers (maybe he still does)

So we have (a) the quiet respectable TW just trying to live a quiet respectable life, and (b) the bloke in fishnets who gets his kicks wanking in the ladies' loo. Both types exist, I've encountered both. But if the assumption is that (a) is the overwhelming norm and (b) is the extremely rare outlier, I've gotta say I disagree.

Hislop is thick as fuck on this.

I've been saying it's a wedge issue for years - not because it's about gender identity but because it's an authoritarian idea v a liberal idea because it asked everyone to go full on Winston. It was NEVER going to end well.

In his head he automatically dismissed it as unimportant because it was apparently about sex and feminism. (It never really has been if you understand the issue - it's about lack of safeguarding and classism). Which only serves to show up his hugemongous level of sexism.

This 'betrayal of reality' was always going to come back to bite people on the arse in the context of a wider public collapse in trust in politicians, press and positions of authority.

This is what I can not get my head around.

I've been taught this shit - it's a history and political propaganda classic scenario thing. It's the bread and butter of liberalism and the collapse of liberalism. It's not a wildly out there concept that should pass by people with a good understanding of society and institutional function in a democracy.

With Hislop's education and general beliefs he should have seen it coming a bloody mile off. Instead he's very much been part of the problem of establishment being too far up it's own arse to pay attention.

And that why Hislop has been one of the biggest disappointments of all. He should have been all over this subject from the start. Instead he went totally AWOL. Which only serves to highlight he did understand bits but actively CHOSE to ignore the subject.

I posted this on another thread but I’ll put it on here as well as it’s worth reading.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-dont-satirists-like-ian-hislop-think-the-gender-wars-are-a-laughing-matter/

I’m a middle aged woman who has had a subscription to private eye for 20 years and I am incandescent about them completely ignoring this issue. I did write to them but it was ignored. Guess they just didn’t have the balls to tackle the issue head on. Cowards!

He could have said it was the 'Winston Question'. You can make it more interesting from this point of view. He's a smart guy. He's a funny guy. He could have made it more interesting.

He didn't bother. He couldn't be bothered.

And yet again - oh sadness and horror, some poor man may have to use the men's toilets because third spaces aren't there yet...

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK WE'VE BEEN DOING WHILE MEN SWANNED AROUND IN OURS? NO ONE FUCKING CARED!

The sexism is off the charts.

The previously silent or pro-trans politicians and media figures coming out with this "obviously common sense has now prevailed" stuff are in many ways worse than the TRAs.

This.

Thaaannkkks for you support there mate.

(rolls eyes)

Just leaving this here! 🤣

Edit to add: Kathleen Stock’s opinion… you may need to click on the image.

Literally each paragraph of that piece could be its own story, and certainly should have been over the years. Will be interesting to see what’s reflecting in the next letters page.

This was supposed to be an image of 'nursery times' which hasn't come through. I'll try again.