So true, Colin - both hard hitting and elegantly expressed. Grammar schools throughout the country in previous decades produced quality politicians who could compete with the brightest from private schools. The current quest for ‘one size fits all’ in education together with focus on DEI rather than meritocracy produces mediocrity. Our country deserves and needs better.
You´re right, this would not be such a disaster if things could be rectified once Labour are removed but the damage they have done, and are still doing, is probably irreversible. Shame, we used to have quite a good country.
colin you always express so eloquently exactly what is on my mind.
i pull my hair out regularly at the inadequate state of our politicians , truly abysmal would be more accurate, but just lately i have looked around me and listened to people's comments about politics and I really do think we deserve the government we have.
only by raising the general consciousness of society will anything change.
I see this state of affairs conected to two things , the internet and social media, of course but also the steep decline in the Church of England to offer real moral guidance. the church has lead the way in the abolition of shame , this has allowed all our institutionsto be radicalised. There is nothing to look up to any more.
To use one of your phrases, I could go on but I will leave it there.
Bravo, Colin. Attacking private schools is right out of the socialist playbook. They want equality, but their perverted idea of equality involves cutting down the tall poppies, so that we are all on the same level. To really understand the damage the education secretary is doing, listen to what the Head teacher of Britain's most successful state school has to say. That person is Katharine Birbalsingh. You would think that an Education secretary would visit her Michaela Community School, to learn from its incredible success. However, despite many invites, she never visited. Instead, the Ed Sec imposed new rules which will adversely affect the operation of this school. Birbalsingh has stated in the past that Labour hates their success and has put blocks in her path before, when she tried to open a second school - Labour brought in objectors from other counties, by bus. Labour does not approve of the success Birbalsingh has in inculcating British values to other cultures. Her Muslim pupils take pride in their uniform, sing our National anthem and learn about British history. Michaela is producing integrated, assimilated British citizens. Labour's aim is NOT integration into our country; they have swallowed the post-modern idea that all cultures are of equal value and want to create separate sectarian communities. Micaela's intake is from typically poor immigrant families. By objective measures, Michaela gets results on par with Eton. It shows how far Labour has fallen from its original mission to represent the working class. Socialism no longer wants to improve the lot of people, just produce a lot of dependent proles. Bridget Phillipson was a real and present danger to our country - will the new Ed Sec be any better?
As an example of the intellectual paucity of this government, consider the “Anti-conversion therapy” Bill it seeks to introduce. This Bill is truly terrible example of activism. It is yet another result of the Denton Law firm’s advice to gender activist organisations. That advice is to smuggle a contentious issue under a headline and inside a different matter which already has widespread public support. We saw this play out in Ireland, where the Bill on Gay marriage passed with popular support but which also contained a change to “self-ID” in law which was highly contentious but largely went unnoticed or misunderstood by politicians. This Bill on banning conversion therapy pulls the same trick. Banning the conversion of Gay people has widespread support (and is already illegal). That parents who encourage “watchful waiting” for their gender-confused child should be Criminalised, does NOT have widespread support. The two matters are completely different – and conflating them is mendacious. It is, as can be seen in the following, of vital importance to separate these two issues.
A public consultation on this Bill was held by the last government and I and many others contributed to that consultation. The last government did not proceed with it.
The claim for this Bill is that it will protect children, whereas it will have the opposite effect.
Trans Activists (nb: not clinicians) have claimed that:
a) doing anything other than “affirming” a gender-confused child as Trans will greatly increase rates of suicidality;
b) that use of puberty-blockers can harmlessly “pause” puberty, allowing the child time to think;
c) that puberty-blockers are reversible
d) that unless puberty is stopped, it will prevent later transition.
Dr Hillary Cass is Britain’s leading paediatrician. She conducted 4 years of research into England’s NHS Tavistock Gender clinic. In her findings, she found no evidence for any of the above claims.
Indeed, she found evidence that refuted all of them. For example, if a prepubescent boy desires transition and is given puberty blockers, this will prevent the natural and necessary development in the child’s body; and lack of puberty-induced penile development will prevent later surgery to create a “neovagina” by inverting the penis, as there is not enough tissue. In such cases, surgeons have used intestinal tissue, which is risky and has caused deaths.
Cass found that even “social transition” (the wearing of typical clothing of the opposite sex and changing the child’s name) was not harmless. Specifically, children who commit to this social transition often progress to puberty blockers and lifelong medicalisation due to their sunk cost in social transitioning*
Cass found that 85% of the children presenting to the gender clinic were same-sex attracted and were uncomfortable with those feelings. Perversely, using lifelong medicalisation and surgeries in a futile attempt to resemble the opposite sex (it being impossible for humans to change sex) is tantamount to “gay conversion therapy”, the very thing this Bill seeks to stop! Staff at the Tavistock say that they joked “soon there will be no gays left”.
Parents (and the law) do not permit Prepubescent children to vote, to experience sex, to drive a car, to drink alcohol and many other things – but we are supposed not to intervene to protect them from the social contagion of having a trans identity, which effects are devastating and include sterilisation, loss of sexual function, lifetime exogenous hormonal treatments, and painful surgeries (often with complications) – all in the impossible attempt to “pass” as the opposite sex.
I can have no objection to an adult choosing to transition, because an adult knows the cost – he or she knows what they stand to lose. How can a girl who has never experienced sexual pleasure or of giving birth, or the joyous bond of breast-feeding her own child, know what it means to permanently lose these things? Trans surgeries on children is the greatest medical scandal in my lifetime, worse than Thalidomide. A child is unable to assess consequences and as parents, it is our job to guide them. Many children will desist, post puberty.
*social transitioning is happening in schools, often without parental knowledge. Pupils are allowed to choose a different name and to keep alternative clothing in a locker. Hiding this from parents is another piece of advice from the US legal form, Denton. At least two teachers (one in Ireland, another in Surrey) have lost their jobs by not agreeing to social transitioning, deeming it to be a safeguarding issue). In the case of Surrey, the school referred the matter to the DBS, preventing his employment. He has been given leave to bring a Judicial review.
Why are people so narrow minded their hate will be their downfall. I don’t get their problem if the rich like Charlie Mullins paid £120 million tax how is he costing us anything.
A brilliant speech and truth of what The Labour Party are doing to the people who are wealthy and caused 17,000 high earners to leave taking with them the taxes they used to pay into the economy.
Excellent critique of the current political crop. However, I'm not sure it's confined to the UK scene. My impression is that it is an issue that extends right across all/many/most Western democracies. (Certainly the same is true in my antipodean homeland!) If so, there would seem to be a fundamental flaw in the nature of the current democratic & social systems of the West. We can debate the creep of populist socialism; the decline of general education and the ability to reason; the erosion of ethical/moral/spiritual foundations; the shallow, technology fuelled, materialistic, narcissism of present culture; the intellectual vapidity of our media (both mass & social) obsessed age, etc. But perhaps our current politicians (elected by US no less!) merely reflect the prevailing vacuous, puerile, egocentric, selfish, humanist, foolish society we have been creating for ourselves for quite some time, through the self-centred and self-interested power of the democratic system. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the global reach of this problem.
So true, Colin - both hard hitting and elegantly expressed. Grammar schools throughout the country in previous decades produced quality politicians who could compete with the brightest from private schools. The current quest for ‘one size fits all’ in education together with focus on DEI rather than meritocracy produces mediocrity. Our country deserves and needs better.
You´re right, this would not be such a disaster if things could be rectified once Labour are removed but the damage they have done, and are still doing, is probably irreversible. Shame, we used to have quite a good country.
colin you always express so eloquently exactly what is on my mind.
i pull my hair out regularly at the inadequate state of our politicians , truly abysmal would be more accurate, but just lately i have looked around me and listened to people's comments about politics and I really do think we deserve the government we have.
only by raising the general consciousness of society will anything change.
I see this state of affairs conected to two things , the internet and social media, of course but also the steep decline in the Church of England to offer real moral guidance. the church has lead the way in the abolition of shame , this has allowed all our institutionsto be radicalised. There is nothing to look up to any more.
To use one of your phrases, I could go on but I will leave it there.
Bravo, Colin. Attacking private schools is right out of the socialist playbook. They want equality, but their perverted idea of equality involves cutting down the tall poppies, so that we are all on the same level. To really understand the damage the education secretary is doing, listen to what the Head teacher of Britain's most successful state school has to say. That person is Katharine Birbalsingh. You would think that an Education secretary would visit her Michaela Community School, to learn from its incredible success. However, despite many invites, she never visited. Instead, the Ed Sec imposed new rules which will adversely affect the operation of this school. Birbalsingh has stated in the past that Labour hates their success and has put blocks in her path before, when she tried to open a second school - Labour brought in objectors from other counties, by bus. Labour does not approve of the success Birbalsingh has in inculcating British values to other cultures. Her Muslim pupils take pride in their uniform, sing our National anthem and learn about British history. Michaela is producing integrated, assimilated British citizens. Labour's aim is NOT integration into our country; they have swallowed the post-modern idea that all cultures are of equal value and want to create separate sectarian communities. Micaela's intake is from typically poor immigrant families. By objective measures, Michaela gets results on par with Eton. It shows how far Labour has fallen from its original mission to represent the working class. Socialism no longer wants to improve the lot of people, just produce a lot of dependent proles. Bridget Phillipson was a real and present danger to our country - will the new Ed Sec be any better?
As an example of the intellectual paucity of this government, consider the “Anti-conversion therapy” Bill it seeks to introduce. This Bill is truly terrible example of activism. It is yet another result of the Denton Law firm’s advice to gender activist organisations. That advice is to smuggle a contentious issue under a headline and inside a different matter which already has widespread public support. We saw this play out in Ireland, where the Bill on Gay marriage passed with popular support but which also contained a change to “self-ID” in law which was highly contentious but largely went unnoticed or misunderstood by politicians. This Bill on banning conversion therapy pulls the same trick. Banning the conversion of Gay people has widespread support (and is already illegal). That parents who encourage “watchful waiting” for their gender-confused child should be Criminalised, does NOT have widespread support. The two matters are completely different – and conflating them is mendacious. It is, as can be seen in the following, of vital importance to separate these two issues.
A public consultation on this Bill was held by the last government and I and many others contributed to that consultation. The last government did not proceed with it.
The claim for this Bill is that it will protect children, whereas it will have the opposite effect.
Trans Activists (nb: not clinicians) have claimed that:
a) doing anything other than “affirming” a gender-confused child as Trans will greatly increase rates of suicidality;
b) that use of puberty-blockers can harmlessly “pause” puberty, allowing the child time to think;
c) that puberty-blockers are reversible
d) that unless puberty is stopped, it will prevent later transition.
Dr Hillary Cass is Britain’s leading paediatrician. She conducted 4 years of research into England’s NHS Tavistock Gender clinic. In her findings, she found no evidence for any of the above claims.
Indeed, she found evidence that refuted all of them. For example, if a prepubescent boy desires transition and is given puberty blockers, this will prevent the natural and necessary development in the child’s body; and lack of puberty-induced penile development will prevent later surgery to create a “neovagina” by inverting the penis, as there is not enough tissue. In such cases, surgeons have used intestinal tissue, which is risky and has caused deaths.
Cass found that even “social transition” (the wearing of typical clothing of the opposite sex and changing the child’s name) was not harmless. Specifically, children who commit to this social transition often progress to puberty blockers and lifelong medicalisation due to their sunk cost in social transitioning*
Cass found that 85% of the children presenting to the gender clinic were same-sex attracted and were uncomfortable with those feelings. Perversely, using lifelong medicalisation and surgeries in a futile attempt to resemble the opposite sex (it being impossible for humans to change sex) is tantamount to “gay conversion therapy”, the very thing this Bill seeks to stop! Staff at the Tavistock say that they joked “soon there will be no gays left”.
Parents (and the law) do not permit Prepubescent children to vote, to experience sex, to drive a car, to drink alcohol and many other things – but we are supposed not to intervene to protect them from the social contagion of having a trans identity, which effects are devastating and include sterilisation, loss of sexual function, lifetime exogenous hormonal treatments, and painful surgeries (often with complications) – all in the impossible attempt to “pass” as the opposite sex.
I can have no objection to an adult choosing to transition, because an adult knows the cost – he or she knows what they stand to lose. How can a girl who has never experienced sexual pleasure or of giving birth, or the joyous bond of breast-feeding her own child, know what it means to permanently lose these things? Trans surgeries on children is the greatest medical scandal in my lifetime, worse than Thalidomide. A child is unable to assess consequences and as parents, it is our job to guide them. Many children will desist, post puberty.
*social transitioning is happening in schools, often without parental knowledge. Pupils are allowed to choose a different name and to keep alternative clothing in a locker. Hiding this from parents is another piece of advice from the US legal form, Denton. At least two teachers (one in Ireland, another in Surrey) have lost their jobs by not agreeing to social transitioning, deeming it to be a safeguarding issue). In the case of Surrey, the school referred the matter to the DBS, preventing his employment. He has been given leave to bring a Judicial review.
Wholeheartedly agree
🫡🙏🏴
👏
Puberty blockers are child abuse by a different route.
Brilliant. Needs shouting from the rooftops.. Perfect journalism
On the money and articulated perfectly
So bloody sad it’s true
Why are people so narrow minded their hate will be their downfall. I don’t get their problem if the rich like Charlie Mullins paid £120 million tax how is he costing us anything.
Couldnt have put it better clearer or more correctly than this.
A brilliant speech and truth of what The Labour Party are doing to the people who are wealthy and caused 17,000 high earners to leave taking with them the taxes they used to pay into the economy.
Gutfeld says that students were promised something that didn't materialise.
they are low earners with degrees, basically haters.
it's not quite position id take
freakishly large majority of 30% of the electorate
I've noticed for nearly 20 years, competence in government falling 🫣
Excellent critique of the current political crop. However, I'm not sure it's confined to the UK scene. My impression is that it is an issue that extends right across all/many/most Western democracies. (Certainly the same is true in my antipodean homeland!) If so, there would seem to be a fundamental flaw in the nature of the current democratic & social systems of the West. We can debate the creep of populist socialism; the decline of general education and the ability to reason; the erosion of ethical/moral/spiritual foundations; the shallow, technology fuelled, materialistic, narcissism of present culture; the intellectual vapidity of our media (both mass & social) obsessed age, etc. But perhaps our current politicians (elected by US no less!) merely reflect the prevailing vacuous, puerile, egocentric, selfish, humanist, foolish society we have been creating for ourselves for quite some time, through the self-centred and self-interested power of the democratic system. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the global reach of this problem.