So DOCTOR Adrian Harrop decides it would be a wizard idea to blab to a journalist (a highly partisan journalist) for publication during his GMC hearing. And share documents with the journalist. The journalist is Ben Hunte, the outlet is Vice.

We don't see the case papers.

In an exclusive interview with Dr Harrop, Ben Hunte writes he "was sent all of the material being discussed in the tribunal, including the full dossier of allegations, witness statements, & documents defending the doctor."https://t.co/pkNW2rfsE0

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) November 17, 2021

The artcle is archived here: https://t.co/HTpp70xEib

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) November 17, 2021

From Ben Hunte’s dispassionate journalisticky report:

A British doctor who used social media to defend trans rights

School of trans.

A primary school in Birmingham has given children the assignment of writing a diary from the perspective of a bear that believes it is transgender. Children draw the trans flag and write that the bear's life improves by revealing its new gender identity https://t.co/aPViFh9Xv3

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) November 17, 2021

Anna Slatz has more:

In October, Colmers Farm Primary School gave its Year 6 studens an assignment to write diary entries from the perspective of “Tilly, a transgender bear.” The school initially posted about the results of the project on their Twitter, but has since deleted the month-old tweet, likely due to some emerging public attention. The tweet had included screenshots of some of the

Oh honestly.

"I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with trans people at all," says Labour MP Rosie Duffield

"Hundreds of my constituents have concerns about self-identification and how we're going to manage that with single sex spaces"https://t.co/wHYWst78se #PoliticsLive pic.twitter.com/2IrIgzyxNv

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) November 17, 2021

The BBC woman to the right of Rosie Duffield asks her: “Do you understand why transgender people and groups of people who have been excluded from that definition have become upset about it?”

For god’s sake! The whole point of definitions is to exclude almost everything! You can’t make definitions “inclusive” without destroying them as definitions. Let’s define definitions as being inclusive of all the meanings, possible and impossible – that will be … Read the rest

I saw a shrinkwrapped notice/sign stapled to a utility pole this afternoon with rainbows in the upper left and lower right corners, and the message:

ALL HUMANS ARE WELCOME

Citizens Unite!

We Do Not Discriminate

Based On Sex, Gender

Race, Creed, Age

Vaccination Or No

Vaccination

And below that, in much smaller type:

END THE MANDATES

Picture me rolling my eyes.

I took it down. We’re not supposed to staple things onto utility poles anyway.… Read the rest

IOC to women: sucks to be you.

NEW – new IOC trans guidelines
1) Remove need for trans women to lower T
2) "No presumption that athletes should have an advantage due to their transgender status"
But 3) sports can restrict athletes if peer-reviewed science shows "disproportionate advantage” exists & for safety

— Sean Ingle (@seaningle) November 16, 2021

That second one is so stupid. The issue isn’t being trans, the issue is being male. It’s grossly and obviously unfair for men to compete in women’s sports, and calling themselves women does nothing to change that fact.

And…disproportionate advantage? Why should women have to accept men in their sports if some committee decides that the male advantage is … Read the rest

FAQ Q&A your questions answered:

Isn’t there…isn’t there already an Alaska Pacific University?

There might be, sure. Lots of things have similar names, or share initials.

OK but “Pacific”?

Alaska borders the Pacific Ocean.

The reason that’s funny is that there already is a University of Texas at Austin, which is quite well known and well regarded. (It’s also, come to think of it, the location of that tower where one Charles Whitman locked himself in and shot a lot of people in 1966, a time when mass murders of that kind were a novelty. That part’s not funny.)

Will there be “safe spaces” or “trigger warnings” at The APU?

No. No topics are disallowed and no uncomfortable subjects

And we call that “theocracy.”

Michael Flynn tonight: “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God.” pic.twitter.com/ShGVrsQ9hW

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) November 13, 2021

Sounds great, right? Like Pakistan, like Saudi Arabia, like Iran, like Afghanistan…like Ireland until quite recently, like El Salvador now. Mullahs or priests – always male, of course, and not “identifying as” male either but the real thing – telling you what you can and can’t do.… Read the rest

Oh will they now.

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson will join filmmaker Chris Columbus and other cast members from all the #HarryPotter films for an HBO Max special to celebrate the anniversary of the franchise’s first film, which premiered 20 years ago today. https://t.co/BtWi5emDKu pic.twitter.com/SKyAvpCM8k

— Variety (@Variety) November 16, 2021

That’s rich seeing as how they’ve all shat on the source of their fame and wealth i.e. JK Rowling.… Read the rest

Two down…

Exactly a week after former New York Times opinion columnist Bari Weiss unveiled the creation of a hypothetical new “university” stacked with advisers united by “a common dismay at the state of academic and a recognition that we can no longer wait for the cavalry,” two riders in that brave regiment have resigned their commissions.

Robert J. Zimmer, the chancellor of the University of Chicago, and Steven Pinker, the Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, quit the University of Austin’s advisory board on Monday.

Just one week. It seems so embarrassing for the project.

“As is often the case with fast-moving start-ups,” a statement from the University of Austin said, “there were

Hm, not going so well.

University of Chicago chancellor Robert Zimmer is distancing himself from the University of Austin, a newly announced institution that’s drawn scrutiny for its critiques of higher education and politicized nature, officials announced today.

Jeez. After a week?

Zimmer was initially listed as a member of the board of advisers when the website was launched last week, but he has since stepped aside, a U of C spokesman confirmed.

The school is being established to combat cancel culture and promote intellectual diversity, its founders say. They also lamented that higher education is fundamentally broken and that elite schools are failing students.

And Bari Weiss is front and center, which…

“University of Chicago Chancellor Robert J.

The Adrian Harrop tribunal started today. The issue: was his Twitter activity inappropriate for a medical doctor? As is only right, there is a Harrop tribunal Twitter account.

Harrop, as this point said the complainant was “transphobic” and he was “using his public platform for good.” Dr Harrop was reminded of guidance and warned further complaints would leave to a referral to GMC.

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) November 15, 2021

General twitter conduct; offensive tweets and insulting individuals through replies for example. Referring to one particular tweet now. It’s a response and states ‘the conclusion is that you are just a bit cognitively impaired… and the anti- trans bigots will take care of you’

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) November

Steve Bannon is starring in The Steve Bannon Turns Himself In show.

Bannon arrived at the FBI Washington field office in a black SUV shortly before 9:40 a.m. He was met by a swarm of media and was defiant when addressing TV cameras outside the building, saying, “We’re taking down the Biden regime.”

Anything for attention.

Moments before turning himself in Monday, Bannon went live on social media and told his supporters to “stay focused.”

“I don’t want anybody to take their eye off the ball from what we do every day, OK,” Bannon said to a camera for his online show “WarRoom.”

“I want you guys to stay focused on message,” he added before walking into the FBI office.

There may be many hooray responses to the LGBTQ+ letter to Middle Temple on Twitter that I’m not seeing because Twitter selects what we see, but the ones I am seeing are not at all impressed. They are especially not impressed that these are people who argue for a living, and yet they pitch a fit because ooooh a dissenter ewwwwww.

The standard of pupil appears to be dropping rapidly.
At the Bar, precious darlings, one not only has to hear, but one also has to make, arguments which are personally unattractive. I’m afraid that if you cannot stand to hear Naomi Cunningham, the Bar is not the career for you. https://t.co/qbrtKDe0U5

— Philip Sinclair (@PipSinks) November 15, 2021

Isn’t

Here we go again.

You can’t do that, you can’t say that, you can’t invite her, you can’t do anything without our prior approval.

This morning, a group of over 100 barristers, pupils and students sent a letter to Middle Temple to express our profound disappointment at the organisation of the inaugural Middle Temple LGBTQ+ Forum. This is the letter in full. Please read it.https://t.co/feUUUSyZWi pic.twitter.com/CoAldn6eky

— LGBTQ+ Solidarity at the Bar (@LGBTQBarristers) November 15, 2021

I did read it. It’s utterly typical and utterly contemptible.

None of them are “LGBTQ+” because no one can be all of those things. By “allies” they don’t mean people who think same-sex attraction should not be ostracized or shamed in any way, … Read the rest

Oops.

Sam Smith, the pop singer whose gender identity is non-binary, has been excluded from the gendered categories at the 2021 Brit awards.

Well he would, wouldn’t he. Or was he expecting to be nominated in both categories as opposed to neither?

The awards system has maintained its usual artist categories, with prizes for British solo male and British solo female. That means there is no room for Smith…

It’s not that there’s no room for him (poor little baby Jesus), it’s that he doesn’t fit. If you’re a sculptor you can’t expect to be nominated for a Booker prize, either. You have to fit the categories.

In a statement on Instagram, Smith said: “The Brits

Hm.

Well, no doubt, because it’s more soothing to be cuddled and flattered than it is to be disputed and asked for reasons, but the fact remains that we can’t have good policies or ideas or institutions if we refuse to think carefully about what they are.

Like, what does Bartram mean about being LGBTQ+? Does it mean being all those things? Some of which are incompatible with each other?

And if we don’t know the answer to that question, how can we know what it is that’s being loved and affirmed? You don’t want to go around loving and affirming pure evil, so you really do have to know what you mean before you say it, instead … Read the rest

Uh huh. What I said. They can’t and won’t. They can’t because we won’t – we won’t give up the luxuries we’re used to, and if they try to force us they’ll lose.

China and India will have to explain themselves to climate-vulnerable nations, COP26 President Alok Sharma has said as the summit ends. It comes after the two nations pushed for the language on coal to change from “phase out” to “phase down” in the deal agreed in Glasgow.

By which they mean “do as little as possible.”

Mr Sharma said the deal struck in the Glasgow climate pact was a “fragile win” and urged China and India to “justify” their actions to nations that are more vulnerable

The post by Naomi Cunningham that Maugham calls “profoundly offensive to trans people and their allies”:

Mridul Wadhwa is the CEO of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre. The job was advertised as being restricted to women, under schedule 9 of the Equality Act 2010. 

So they hired a man.

At this point I must digress briefly. I have written before about “misgendering” (here and here). In writing about Wadhwa’s appointment to this role, I will use the nouns and pronouns appropriate to his biological sex. I do not apologise for doing so. I do so because I am writing about a situation in which sex matters. I have a serious point to make, and I intend to make it

The arrogance of this guy.

This isn’t Maugham talking to Middle Temple, this is Maugham bullying Middle Temple in public.

A tweet Jolyon Maugham seems to have thought better of – but for anyone interested the blog post he took such strong exception to is here: https://t.co/vz60tpmtlq pic.twitter.com/VzKvnC7bTO

— Legal Feminist (@legalfeminist) November 13, 2021

It clearly doesn’t concern him at all that appointing a man CEO of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre is profoundly offensive to women.

Now to discuss that Naomi Cunningham post.… Read the rest