“No debate” about the impact of “trans rights” on women has been the iron rule for as long as most of us can remember. Now, all of a sudden, it’s not. Former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell recently made the patronizing revelation that he and Tory ex-minister Rory Stewart would be “happy” to have JK Rowling on their podcast, The Rest is Politics.

Of course they would. Rowling would be a catch for any podcast. But they can’t seriously have expected her to agree after spending years telling us that the (non-existent) trans debate is “toxic”. Campbell’s source on these matters is apparently his daughter Grace, who made a podcast last year in which she described women’s rights campaigners as “ugly, ugly, ugly”. (Juvenile is barely the word for it.)

The test of the podcasters’ sincerity is whether they would be equally happy to talk to women who don’t happen to be one of the world’s most famous authors. And we got an answer to that as soon as the spat with Rowling blew up last week.

The three women known collectively as For Women Scotland (FWS) were in Westminster last week, celebrating the first anniversary of their historic legal victory at the Supreme Court. They are also, as it happens, the very women accused of the unforgivable sins of “ugliness” and dressing badly by the aforementioned Grace Campbell.

“Well, here’s a challenge for @campbellclaret,” FWS declared on X. “We are still in London. He can ask us on the podcast and call us toxic to our faces. If he has the guts.” Earlier this week, they returned to Scotland, uninvited and uninterviewed by the supposedly broad-minded duo.

It has to be said that there are any number of other women, experts on matters such as the impact of trans-identified males on women’s sport, who are available if Campbell and Stewart are genuinely interested in hearing the other side of an argument they’ve steadfastly ignored to date.

What we’re witnessing is not a change of heart, however. It’s a dramatic shift in context, driven by the Supreme Court judgment and a realization that the law is not just clear — trans women are not women — but has to be obeyed.

Men such as Campbell will never admit they were wrong. Instead, they are trying to present themselves as reasonable blokes who’d love to listen to feminists but have been refused. Hence, his line that this isn’t the first time he’s invited Rowling onto the podcast, saying regretfully that “previous attempts have been rebuffed”.

Rowling wasn’t taken in for two seconds. “That’s because I wasn’t interested in being used to boost the viewing figures of a pair of exceptionally arrogant men whose understanding of this issue drips with classism and misogyny,” she fired back.

She’s right, and the cheek of it is breathtaking. Being noisy “trans allies” has been fashionable for so long that these men — not just Campbell and Stewart, but actors like Pedro Pascal and David Tennant — have left copious receipts.

We’ve all seen their arrogant refusal to recognize the appalling and indeed violent behavior of trans activists, and an attack of faux-reasonableness won’t take us in. After years of censorship, cancellation and demonizing of feminist voices, it’s too late now to pretend that all anyone ever wanted was a civilized debate.

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Joan Smith is a novelist and columnist. She was previously Chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board, and is on the advisory group for Sex Matters. Her book Unfortunately, She Was A Nymphomaniac: A New History of Rome’s Imperial Women was published in November 2024.

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