More on the ballroom saga – or should that be the ballsroom saga?

Trump has hired a new architect to oversee the construction of a vast ballroom at the White House, officials said.

Following reports that Trump had clashed with the previous architect, James McCrery, over the size and scope of the addition, the White House said architects Shalom Baranes Associates will take over the project. Mr McCrery will remain as a consultant.

Ah the size and scope. Do they think it’s too small and modest? Do they think it ought to be huger and more self-aggrandizing?

According to US media, Mr McCrery was concerned the ornate 90,000 sq ft (8,360 sq m) project would overshadow the rest of the

When in doubt, punish the nearest women. Don’t ask any questions about who did what to whom, just punish the nearest women. It saves time in the end.

Bristol city council has banned two gender-critical women from stepping foot in City Hall after they asked Green Party councillors if the Supreme Court judgment on trans identity was “offensive or transphobic”.

The council alleged the questioning of the two councillors in the public lobby after a heated council meeting last month, in which Green councillors staged walkouts and held trans rights placards, was carried out “in a way that they found intimidating”.

Did they though? Or did they just say they found it intimidating?

Men don’t usually find women talking … Read the rest

Trans journalist: not a real journalist.

God, give me strength. pic.twitter.com/lIxDtak2SB

— Stuart Macintosh (@stueymaco) December 5, 2025

He writes things. Nobody pays him to do so. He’s not a journalist.… Read the rest

Ah the good old days.

President Donald Trump uploaded a series of wistful posts on Thursday evening that included photos of a younger Trump standing next to celebrities, civil rights leaders, musicians and artists during “the good old days,” some of whom he said no longer want to spend time with him.

Well, Don, think about why that might be.

I can just tell you why: it’s because you’re a bad man who does bad things. It’s also because you’re not a good (or wise or amusing) man who does good (or wise or amusing) things. Sensible people don’t want to spend time with you because you do harm and because you’re not quality company.

Breaking from his line

Hmmm.

One of the arguments defense officials have been quietly pushing in response to heavy criticism of the killing of the two survivors in a second strike on 2 September, is that they were legitimate targets because they appeared to be radioing for help or backup.

But Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the GOP chair of the Senate intelligence committee, admitted to CNN this morning that he didn’t see evidence of the men on the boat trying to use a radio to call for help.

He went on to defend the second strike, saying:

They were clearly not incapacitated. They were not distressed.

They were trying to get the boat back up and to continue their mission of spreading these

Jill Lepore has a good essay in the New Yorker on living in trumpworld.

Peer into the dark. Earlier this fall, Trump reposted on Truth Social a four-minute news clip generated by A.I. The clip purported to be a segment from Lara Trump’s Fox News show, reporting on Trump’s announcement of the launch of “medbeds . . . designed to restore every citizen to full health and strength” at special hospitals about to open all over the country. Medbeds, which can cure all ailments and reverse aging, appear regularly in science fiction. (Think of the “biobeds” in the “Star Trek” sick bay.) They began featuring in online conspiracy theories in the early twenty-twenties; QAnoners claim that medbeds exist, and have existed for

Ugh.

This is disgusting. @KirralieS has been refused the chance to appeal to have a personal safety order removed and she has been burdened with the trans identified male complainants costs. All for identifying a male soccer player as a male soccer player in a women’s league. The… https://t.co/iRpyqmC0Zx

— Angie Jones (@angijones) December 4, 2025

… Read the rest

This is indeed magic.

OJ is very sarcastic about women’s rights.

Trans girls booted out of Girlguiding – against the wishes of the women running the organisation.

Definitely not pointless cruelty – a HUGE victory for women's rights!

Has to be up there with women securing universal suffrage a century ago!

Hope those behind this are SO PROUD! pic.twitter.com/yFUI3DRorh

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) December 3, 2025

Boys booted out of Girlguiding – I’m not seeing the problem. Girlguiding is for girls. There are organizations for children and adolescents of both sexes, and there are organizations for one or the other sex. That’s ok; we can do that.

We probably ought to do that. It’s just a fact that humans are sexually dimorphic and that … Read the rest

She “thinks” in slogans and blurts.

Trans rights aren’t for debating. They’re for defending.

— Dr Helen Webberley (she/her) (@HelenWebberley) December 4, 2025

Ooooh deep – until you think about it for one second. What are trans rights? Kindly spell them out.

Is there a “right” to change sex? No, just as there is no “right” to fly like a bird or live underwater or run faster than a cheetah. It’s absurd to blather about rights to do the impossible.

Trans people have human rights. Nobody says they don’t. Trans people don’t have a right to force us all to agree with their fictions. It’s pretty simple.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by maddog on Utmost regret and sadness.

Never mind that WI can celebrate and fawn over the completely ignored part of the “transgender communinny,” the transgender people who are actually women, i.e., the “trans men.”

They wail and gnash their teeth about how tragic and unfair it is to make them exclude “trans women,” who are men, and pretend that the new landscape forces them to discriminate against the “trans communinny,” as if there weren’t an existing component of the “trans communinny” who actually belong in the Women’s Institute: the women who so deeply feel the oppression of women that they seek to escape it by pretending to be men.

The Women’s Institute can be incloosive … Read the rest

Ashley Louise James is resigning as Girlguiding ambassador.

Yes, these spaces make a difference to girls. What about these spaces makes a difference to girls? The fact that they don’t include boys. Boys can bully or intimidate or out-compete girls in ways that are generally out of reach to girls. That means girls need to be away from boys at times in order to do their best work.

The fact that boys are every bit as bright, joyful and deserving as any other child is beside the point. The point is that boys are not every bit as strong as girls: they are stronger.

It’s not entirely true that boys who claim to be trans girls, and their families, … Read the rest

Thank heaven for little girls, yeah?

Can you imagine anyone being so cold hearted as to sign a letter to a club that little girls love to go to, telling them that some girls should be banned from going? That is sick.

— Dr Helen Webberley (she/her) (@HelenWebberley) December 3, 2025

… Read the rest

The Telegraph on the WI ructions:

The Women’s Institute (WI) has banned transgender women from becoming members.

The National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI), the WI’s umbrella organisation, revealed on Wednesday that, in light of a Supreme Court judgment on gender, it could not legally offer formal membership to biological males from April 2026.

Pathetic that they want to offer membership to males. It’s not the Men’s Institute.

The announcement by the WI – the UK’s largest women’s membership organisation – has prompted calls for public bodies to also comply with the Supreme Court ruling. Many have refused to change their policies and prevent trans women from using women’s facilities, such as toilets and changing rooms.

They have said

Even more weeping and wailing about no longer being able to let men into organizations for women. The Graun:

The Women’s Institute will no longer accept transgender women as members from April following the UK supreme court ruling on the legal definition of a woman, the Guardian can reveal.

Melissa Green, the chief executive of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, said the organisation had taken the decision with the “utmost regret and sadness”, adding it had “no choice” but to exclude trans women from its membership.

“Incredibly sadly, we will have to restrict our membership on the basis of biological sex from April next year,” Green said. “But the message we really want to get across is that

The Guardian version:

Trans girls will no longer be able to join Girlguiding, the organisation has announced, saying it has made the decision after seeking legal advice as a result of the supreme court ruling on gender earlier this year.

Blahblah. The question is why were boys allowed to join in the first place? What’s the point of having Girl Guides if you let boys join? This business of boys joining relies on the presence of girls, after all. If all the girls leave then what are they left with? Another thing for boys. Don’t they have enough yet?

The statement from the top people

added that Girlguiding “believed strongly in inclusion” and would continue to support young people and

Ew. Yet another horrible man I didn’t know about.

It’s a bit late to stop buying Harry Potter.

More seriously, what horseshit. No we’re not “wealthy.” No this is not plutocrats grinding the faces of the poor. What an idiotic thing to say. Trans ideology is not progressive or socialist or socialist-adjacent or leftwing in any other way. It’s an absurdity adopted by a lot of gullible wannabe radicals who don’t know their ass from their elbow.

“some isolated billionaire”? Meaning JKR? Jeez, we should all be so isolated. More centrally, we’re not talking about “a little girl” here, we’re talking about boys who pretend to be girls and want to invade Girlguides. It’s not sheer, pointless cruelty to tell … Read the rest

She’s right.

'He has a point, but he's too blunt.'

From the start, a key tactic of the gender identitarians has been linguistic prescription, and it's proved shockingly successful. Trans activists' shibboleths and euphemisms have been allowed to penetrate the upper echelons of our culture… https://t.co/DuV4iGkVrl

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 1, 2025

From the start, a key tactic of the gender identitarians has been linguistic prescription, and it’s proved shockingly successful. Trans activists’ shibboleths and euphemisms have been allowed to penetrate the upper echelons of our culture with devastating consequences to freedom of speech and belief. Huge swathes of liberal media, the arts, academia and publishing have thrown themselves with gusto into the defence of a quasi-religious belief causing

Brilliant title.

BBC shift towards accuracy angers the gender identity faithful

Oh no, not a shift towards accuracy!!

The BBC has ‘given way to transphobic rhetoric’, according to US activist Erin Reed. Erstwhile celebrity India Willoughby says a new editorial policy is ‘dehumanising’ trans people. Their indignation is reflected across gender activist social media.

Erin and India, in their current iteration at the BBC, are ‘biological males who identify as women’. Earlier this year they would have been trans women. Last year they would have been women.

This in a nutshell is the reason for the anger. Perhaps next year Erin and India will simply be he/hims in BBC copy.

Erin’s piece last week, and India’s latest car protest video,

From The Critic nearly four years ago:

Police are investigating a woman for raising safeguarding concerns about Girl Guide commissioner Monica Sulley

We’re in UpsideDownLand again.

A teacher and mother-of-three has been questioned under caution by Merseyside Police for sending a letter to Girlguiding UK raising safeguarding concerns.

Her story begins in November 2021 when it emerged that Girlguiding UK had appointed a local commissioner called Monica Sulley, a role that involves overseeing Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers in Southwell, Nottinghamshire. 

Social media reports showed that Sulley, a trans woman, had posted pictures of herself on Instagram wearing dominatrix clothing, one of which was captioned “Now behave yourselves or Mistress will have to punish you #mistress.” She had