“Liar” isn’t a word voiced in Parliament often, at least not by politicians within earshot of the public. But on Wednesday, during a Women and Equalities Select Committee hearing, Kate Osborne MP complained that Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch had accused her of lying, and of being a liar. This followed an acrimonious — and thoroughly entertaining — exchange.
Osborne railed against the minister, accusing her of “using inflammatory language that likens children and young people coming out as trans to the spread of a disease”. To which Badenoch replied: “I have never said that. That is a lie.” With the weary air of a kindergarten teacher reprimanding toddlers, the minister went on to remind the committee “we have to use facts in this room, we can’t just make stuff up”. After Badenoch asked Osborne when and where she had apparently made a statement using the word “disease”, she received a muffled and incoherent response.
Badenoch has never compared “children coming out as trans” to a disease. She has, however, referred to the surge in referrals to NHS gender identity services as “almost an epidemic”. And while it might be an emotive word, there has been a 1,607% increase across the past decade in referrals to NHS Gender Identity Services (Gids) at the NHS Tavistock and Portman Foundation Trust. Although the Tavistock clinic has now been shut following a report which slammed the service as “not safe” for children, there are still 8,000 youngsters on the NHS waiting list for help with gender confusion. This unprecedented rise in need for Gids can rightly be understood as an “epidemic”.
More widely, “epidemic” is one of those words that gets lazily tossed around by politicians. Osborne has herself referred to a drink “spiking epidemic”, a “child poverty epidemic” and an “epidemic of violence against women and girls”. Yet outside of the murky depths of social media, no one would seriously accuse Osborne of suggesting that the victims of drink spiking, children living in poverty or female survivors of male violence are diseased.
In accusing Osborne of lying, Badenoch breached the political etiquette of parliamentary debates. But in doing so she gave a voice to the powerless. To young detransitioners such as Keira Bell living with the medical consequences of taking experimental puberty blocking drugs and hormones. To the teachers and clinicians who fear losing their jobs if they fail to affirm the children in their care who believe they’re the wrong sex. And to the families living in terror that social services might take their sons and daughters into care if they challenge the idea that they are trans. In batting away Osborne in such a fashion, Badenoch was merely standing up for the truth.
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SubscribeKate Osborne simply using standard Social Justice Warrior cry-bully modus operandi.
1. Take something their opponent says out of context
2. Project their own worst interpretation of it onto their opponent
3. Pretend to be outraged by it
4. Make the debate all about their outrage
5. Avoid addressing the substantive points their opponent raised
Tale as old as time.
Whether one agrees with KB’s broader political views or not, its refreshing to see a politician who refuses to be intimidated on Trans issues by weaponised faux outrage.
Badenoch’s defence is that she said epidemic rather than disease?!?!?
Cry me a river, sunshine.
Yes, “Epidemic” as in “sudden rapid spread, growth, or development”
Epidemic Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster
She didn’t need to ‘defend’ anything. The rise in referrals to GIDS in the last 10 years can certainly be accurately described as “almost epidemic”
But what she meant was this:
an outbreak of disease that spreads quickly and affects many individuals at the same time : an outbreak of epidemic disease
From your link!
An outbreak or product of sudden growth of something – this can be applied to any social behaviour or factor (e.g. epidemic of bankruptcies, violence against women, obfuscation of relevant facts in an attempt to further an ideology.) You seem to be desperately trying to avoid the truth in this discussion.
Champagne Socialist, I’ve read a number of your posts on various topics and have concluded that much of the time you do not argue in good faith. So I don’t see any point or value in engaging with you.
If I do ever feel like immersing myself in left wing gaslighting, I’ll just go to the source and read Owen Jones’s column in the Guardian.
Thanks and best wishes.
The SJW’s accusations are usually bluffs. If they had real quotes of whatever politician saying something inflammatory, they’d already be shouting it from the rooftops, on social media, and anywhere they could get a journalist to listen to their outrage. What I don’t understand is why the bluff is so rarely called. Perhaps I should be bluffing more often when I play poker.
The different explanations for this are particularly interesting. One is that this increase is due to young people now understanding their condition, and being encouraged to do something about it, by the increased publicity and the decline in stigma. Changing social attitudes have revealed the restrictive and oppressive nature of gender roles, and those youngsters who would have lived lives of quiet desperation are now stepping forward. There are probably a lot more still to come, what with traditional gender roles being such a social construct.
The other is that these young people are simply being swept up in a craze of talking about this nonsense, and are being encouraged by unscrupulous adults to take irrevocable steps. It’s like deciding you are a Goth, and having the word tattooed across your face to prove it.
My money is on the second explanation. I note that my teenage daughter, apparently happy with her gender, is nevertheless extremely sensitive to “transphobic” language (worse than racism!!) and thinks that the trans kids in her school are cool and brave. Someone has told her this stuff. And I note that for most of her school life, she has also been fed some soft liberal victim-focused pabulum about gender, race, human differences, and how in a relativistic world every opinion is as right as every other.
Both things can be true at the same time.
There can have been an increase in recognition of a previously concealed mental health condition, ie. gender dysphoria.
There can also have been a simultaneous increase in social contagion which is influencing children who are questioning their sexuality (or simply want a “thing”) to declare themselves trans.
(Incidentally it can also be true at the same time that there are increases in emboldened sissy fetishists and opportunistic abusers.)
Nobody knows how many gender-questioning children and teenagers fit into the first or second group, let alone the third and fourth. Which is why its so important that adults discuss these issues dispassionately, children are given scientifically sound information, and we have robust medical protocols around treatment.
The purpose of the histrionics and fantastical claims of the trans rights activists is to stop this happening.
I agree, though there are histrionics on both sides. Also, on both sides, unwarranted claims to settled science on the issue. And few adults are even trying to discuss the issues dispassionately.
What we need above all is a better understanding of what is actually going on.
“I agree, though there are histrionics on both sides.”
I may have missed it but I haven’t noticed any gender critical feminists trying to stop trans activists meeting and threatening to punch them.
That would be because you are only paying attention to what you choose to.
We know what is going on. Courageous people have been explaining it to us for the past ten years; during the past couple of years the overt questioning of the trans agenda has become more mainstream. The call to look at the issue “dispassionately” sounds like it’s coming from someone who’s only just woken up to the debate? Should we be “dispassionate” about sophisticated adult collusion in child abuse?
The Social Conservatives are the ones attempting the child abuse.
The science of sex determination in mammals is utterly settled… depends on whether an X or Y bearing sperm enters the X bearing ovum at fertilisation ( which, by the way, is 4-5 days before the embryo even implants in the uterus). Everything else is nature making mistakes (so-called intersex-not a useful word these days) or a refusal of the mind to accept the reality of our sexed bodies.
The science of sex determination in mammals is utterly settled, in the many different ways it can go other than the merely usual, yes.
“There can also have been a simultaneous increase in social contagion which is influencing children who are questioning their sexuality (or simply want a “thing”) to declare themselves trans.” <– Except we do know that.
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/no-social-contagion-gender-transition
Also, regret rates have not budged above 1% for quite a while.
the trans kids in her school are cool and brave.
They’re so brave you’d better guard your tongue around them, lest you say some unfortunate remark that might scar them for life.
The same way you should avoid racist insults to ethnic minorities, yes. Isn’t such an awful burden you are not given at least one group of innocent people you are allowed to abuse publicly? So tragic for you.
“I note that my teenage daughter, apparently happy with her gender, is nevertheless extremely sensitive to “transphobic” language (worse than racism!!)”
The point I make to my own children is that transphobia is obviously bad. But the real questions are what counts as transphobia, who gets to decide and how.
Transphobia, meaning alarm at the increase in serious mental disorders ( eg born in the wrong body) or resentment at men usurping female spaces, the ‘ wig and a dress’ syndrome? I believe that assuming the latter to gain from female favours ( all women party lists for example) is pretty deliberate and dishonest. Trans activists attacking and abusing whomever they want to, that’s fine.
It is not a mental disorder Anna, it is a physical variance of birth more akin to a harelip.
“…what with traditional gender roles being such a social construct.”
The very recent conflation of traditional gender roles, which have been in place since mankind first inhabited the earth, could be one main reason why gender dysphoria is growing so rapidly.
It’s hard to believe that a female’s role as mother and nurturer is considered a “social construct”, given the undisputed fact that it is within her body that a child is conceived, gestates for 9 months and is born through her birth canal. And it is her breast milk that feeds the newborn. Was it also merely a “social construct” that males, who cannot bear children, were the ones who hunted and gathered food for the rest of the clan?
Warren
You appear to be confusing differences in biology with socially constructed gender roles/stereotypes, which are about expectations around behaviour, preferences, clothing etc.
As for men being the only ones who hunted and gathered food…. *sigh*
Women Hunters Were Extremely Common in Ancient and Modern-Day Foraging Societies | Discover Magazine
Come on Barbara S. Get a grip.
Moreover, the primary caregiver role is assumed by the mother in almost all species of mammals. In many species, the behavior patterns of males and females differ in many ways beyond those directly related to child rearing. Most species demonstrate at least a few behavioral differences between genders. The same is true of many non-mammalian species as well. Only humans have the conceit to imagine we invented the concept and can abolish it at our leisure.
It is your conceit to think you have said anything relevant.
I think that there has been genuine unfairness to trans people. Firstly, they probably risk violent attacks, especially the men who dress a women. Secondly, I suspect, they will have had a difficult time going to work dressed as the opposite sex. Maybe, the extreme trans activists have pushed us to be more accepting of the ordinary trans person trying to live a quiet life.
Having said that; men cannot be women and women, men. While most of us would prefer not to upset our friends and colleagues with inclinations this way, the pressure the trans activists try to exert to make us say what isn’t true is unacceptable. Secondly, some of their behaviour is very obviously misogynistic, moreover, rather nastier than more typical male sexism which is a thoughtless rather than hateful.
Once again, the aggression of some, makes like tougher for those facing the same issues.
There’s a man dressed as a woman who works at my local Waitrose. Whether he’s a trans woman or a transvestite I have no idea but he certainly doesn’t seem to have a difficult time at work, either from his colleagues or from customers.
There is no doubt that trans people who wish to go about their lives peacefully will have struggled. I suggest, this has always been the case.
These, however are not those in much higher numbers, who parade and lobby for an apparent equality for others they do not really represent.
A significant economy has developed around this issue by those seeking self-aggrandisement, money and media exposure.
I think trans activists have had the opposite effect – made people less tolerant. Kemi Badenoch pointed this out in the debate following her recent statement on Gender Recognition.
“Having said that; men cannot be women and women, men” <– Which has nothing to do with it. A transgender woman is already a woman, and has always been female in the properly determinate respect — which respect is already acknowledged in law for other conditions ad that in some cases for millennia.
The question is why bigots should be afforded to make a special pleading to be allowed to abuse transgender people.
The most striking thing about this exchange to me is that it does not seem a big deal. Much of the debate is about “ unparliamentary language”. A year ago all hell would have broken loose with the trans lobby calling for a ministerial resignation and most commentators keeping their heads down out of fear of denunciation. It is a sign of how far the pendulum has already swung back towards sanity.
They shoulda gone with Kemi!
(They might still if you believe the New Year Putsch rumours doing the rounds).
Fear she would be too little and too late.
We need a new party without the wets.
Do the Tories deserve Kemi? She’s too good for the vast majority of that lot.
She’s too good for parliament as a whole as it stands. I don’t think many come close. New Party – free of the baggage of the Conservative Party is what is needed.
I reckon we need a Tory wipeout; KB becomes leader; KB rebuilds the Conservative Party with conservatives.
Like a girl in a fairy tale, Keira has been cursed for life to have a man’s voice when she speaks. She pricked her finger on Gender Ideology’s spindle poisoned with lupron & there is no one who can undo the spell in real life. She can only save other unhappy girls. And she has. She is the hero of her story.
Keira Bell was a liar who lost her case upon appeal as her deceits became known to the court. They have nothing to say other than not to lie or dissemble.
Not got much time for the Tories, but do like Kemi. Quick on her feet, no nonsense.
Now whether the ERG loons still in love with her after she sensibly opted not to put a bonfire under thousands of bits of EU legislation another matter. Although that was just another demonstration of good sense before ‘performative twaddle’ that marks her out.
Though I likely do not align with Kemi Badenoch on many issues, I can say for sure, speaking from across the pond, that we could definitely use a Badenoch here in the US. I admire her fact- as opposed to ideologically-driven approach to gender identity issues. She does her homework, speaks with clarity, and does not waffle or try to finesse. With thanks to Jo Bartosch, also, for her unwavering commitment to the truth.
Her only interest is her ideology, she is bereft of facts.
The Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) at the Tavistock Clinic is still open. Its closure has been pushed back twice if not three times. The new date for its closure is March 2024. Kemi Badenoch was magnificent. Kate Osbourne should hang her head in shame. She, and many others of her ilk, will doubtless backtrack like there’s no tomorrow when the trans penny finally drops. As far as I’m concerned, realisation can’t come soon enough
“The Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) at the Tavistock Clinic is still open. Its closure has been pushed back twice if not three times.” <– Because no funding is forthcoming for the expansion as is proper for the services it provides.
“when the trans penny finally drops.” <– Nothing such as you imagine will ever happen, it does not exist.
In this world, being a good gender clinician means deferring to patients’ self-understandings
But there is nothing specifically trans in this. It is based in central woke ideas of multiple personal “truths”, the trumping of reality by lived experience, and the abandonment of any idea of normality except as a form of oppression (as in “heteronormativity”).
The real questions are how such ideas – essentially fringe ideas, belonging to fringe groups – became so mainstream, when this happened, and is there any route back?
Mary – you just lifted one of my comments!
“being a good gender clinician means deferring to patients’ self-understandings” <– No, it means no denying them or abusing them for expressing them. That is what all therapy other than gender affirming therapy to date has been.
This author sees Osborne’s mention of an “epidemic of violence against women” and thinks only of “female survivors of male violence.”
In fact, it is within lesbian relationships where women stand the greatest chance of violence. 45 percent of lesbians report physical abuse at the hands of a female partner.
Also, given that the majority of trans subjects are females wanting reassignment as males and the most vocal supporters of gender reassignment are young women, a great deal of the violence against these particular women and girls appears to be coming from other women.
Well spotted.
“45 percent of lesbians report physical abuse at the hands of a female partner.”
Wow….
Since lesbians are almost invariably in a relationship with….other lesbians…. are we then to conclude that the other 45% are physically abusive?
And thus 90% of lesbian relationships are abusive?
Hmmmm……toxic femininity, amongst a subset made into idols by the Far Left.
Poor understanding of statistics! No, the 45% may be abused by a much smaller number of abusers, just as the % of women reporting rape is greater than the number of rapists.
The maths behind your question are off, but it has long been reported that about 90 per cent of lesbian relationships contain abuse–usually emotional rather than physical. From memory it arises because one partner is usually more ‘attached’ than the other. Can’t remember the correct word just now.
The “45 percent of lesbians report physical abuse” stat comes from a 1999 study of data from the 1990s (Burke, Leslie K., & Follingstad, Diane R. (1999). Violence in lesbian and gay relationships: theory, prevalence, and correlational factors. Clinical Psychology Review, 19 (5), 487-512.), but several others studies from the same time period gave other numbers which results in a range of 17-45%. Considering that similar studies show 35% of women in heterosexual relationships report physical abuse, and 40% of women in relationships with cops report physical abuse, it sounds like you’re trying to shift the blame for violence onto women?
I would say rather that it is an attempt to restore balance in an area that was one sided and over politicised. A view was pushed that this was always about male violence towards women, and that it was about patriarchal oppression.
Whatever the actual numbers, both men and women can be victims, perpetrators or may simply be reacting to other abuse.
It’s been known since Erin Pizze’s days that violence in heterosexual relationships is equally distributed and non-gendered.
A little more balance when writing about such things would be helpful. Problems can’t be solved unless there is honesty about the cause.
Multiple down votes? Are voters questioning your evidence or your conclusion–ie your call for balance and honesty?
The truth conflicts with the man bad, women good message.
Probably their feelings are hurt.
Facts don’t care about feelings.
I don’t like Badenoch but she’s right about this.
Badenoch was magnificent. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth 5 minutes of your time.
Do you have a link – would like to see it.
It’s on Parliament Live from 4pm 13/12 doesn’t actually start till about 4.20 though….
Do a search on YouTube and it will come up straight away
Kemi Badenoch is brilliant but in that multiple pile-up of a government, she might as well be a unicorn.
She’s one of vanishingly-few MP’s who isn’t scared to state that an anti-science ideology isn’t a civil rights issue. The dire UK media has almost entirely capitulated to gender ideology and most MP’s are scared to be honest about it.
The gender critical ideology is the anti-science ideology. It is objecting to biology as it really is.
In adolescence as at other points in our lives ‘being-in-the-body’, like ‘being in the world’, can fills us with deep unease. We sense an ‘otherness’, an alienation, within ourselves and go for the ideological solution, the concrete fix. We should recognize being in our body can often be a difficult ‘place in being’. That doesn’t mean ‘change my body’. That is crude, literal, and a deep existential, symbolic misreading of our human condition. Not my body is ‘wrong’, rather, is there a need to reflect more deeply on my attitude to my body and to my ‘being-in-the-world’.?
“That doesn’t mean ‘change my body’. That is crude, literal, and a deep existential, symbolic misreading of our human condition” <– Only if you will similarly condemn anyone’s being a man or woman will you even possibly have the beginning of having a point — which you have yet to make in any case even granted that. Of course, your ridiculousness and even your insanity is then too clear.
I’m not defending Osborne, but I guess her objection is to large numbers of children “coming out as trans” being seen in a negative light (rather than in a positive or neutral light). Epidemics are rarely positive things.
What really needs to be determined is whether what we are seeing is people “coming out” after the weakening of a taboo (the trans view) or something going badly amiss with young peoples identities (the critical view).
If the latter, then we need to know what. Is it hormones in food or drinking water, the result of decades of feminist onslaught on the notion of gender or something else entirely?
The question is why are those “coming out” largely limited to children and young adults? Surely if it is simply a matter of societal acceptance and freedom “to be” then we would see a far more even spread of transitioning across the ages? Furthermore, very few adult trans undertake the brutal surgeries because they know they are a drastic sop to dysphoria rather than a means to magical transformation. So my second question is why aren’t they telling the kids this? When “emergency life-saving trans health care” is based on blatant obfuscation by adults, serious questions must be asked.
A further question to add to yours is why the majority of these children and young adults “coming out” as trans are now young females.
It’s hard to believe that it is coincidental that this is happening at the same age as many girls and young women experience fear and self-loathing about their changing bodies and implications in respect of reproduction etc.
I suspect that a lot of these girls would once have identified as masculine presenting (“butch”) lesbians eventually. Now they self interpret as trans, because that interpretation is available to them.
Of course neither is a priori the correct interpretation.
But we should be completely honest to these young people about our ability to transform girls into boys. Basically we can’t, and never will be able to. And at present the best we can manage is a crude approximation with lots of downsides and permanent medication. And no easy route back.
“Basically we can’t, and never will be able to.” <– A falsehood. The transition can be accomplished exactly as described, no more, no less. And since genitalia transplants now number in the several hundred for cisgender men, it is a matter of time before a FtM person benefits from such.
If that doesn’t qualify for you, I suggest you quit pretending you are motivated by anything other than emotion.
“And no easy route back.” <– And? Regret rate is under 1%, and is far lower among those honest with their therapists and themselves.
It often seems (and I have zero stats for this, just what I see reported, so this could be way off base and no doubt someone will correct me if this is not the case) that in the teenage cohort, it is predominantly girls who wish to be boys, but as you go up the age brackets we see a lot of men who decide to become women and need access to female spaces (sports, prisons).
I think it’s more that this used to be mainly a M2F thing, but F2M is now higher. So it’s not so much age as passing time. It’s possible of course that the two things may be completely unrelated, but are classed together as “trans”.
Corruption of the language is a big contributor. FtM and MtF are lies, sex change is impossible every nucleated cell has XX or XY ( and the way isolated cell cultures behave also reflects their chromosomal makeup). There is of course no such thing as the LGBTQI+ community even L people have little in common with G people, leave alone the Ts and the medically unfortunate Is!!
“FtM and MtF are lies,” <– No, that is a lie.
“sex change is impossible” <– Except it can be changed exactly as the healthcare providers involved say it can.
“every nucleated cell has XX or XY” <– Not only false but utter nonsense in and of itself. Read the first sentence, learn something real.
https://www.britannica.com/science/human-genetic-disease/Abnormalities-of-the-sex-chromosomes
“There is of course no such thing as the LGBTQI+ community” <– If there were never any such, the abuse of such ignoramuses as you would create it.
The medical transition for a FtM person other than HRT is quite more costly and difficult, and until recently has less cosmetically and functionally useful outcomes. In the last decade that has changed, and more FtM people are seeking medical transition as a result.
“The question is why are those “coming out” largely limited to children and young adults? Surely if it is simply a matter of societal acceptance and freedom “to be” then we would see a far more even spread of transitioning across the ages?” <– Why would imagine that to be true?
The advantages in their future life to transitioning medically as youth are not minor.
“Furthermore, very few adult trans undertake the brutal surgeries” <– About 1/3rd to a half.
“So my second question is why aren’t they telling the kids this?” <– Why are you pretending it is not said?
“When “emergency life-saving trans health care” is based on blatant obfuscation by adults,” <– Prove there is obfuscation.
“serious questions must be asked.” <– In the future, you should try doing that.
It’s ironic that feminists have identified male behaviour as toxic while simultaneously making the “girl boss” with her male traits the standard to which all women in the workplace should aspire.
When the most vocal members of your own sex are pointing to the other sex as the template for success is it any wonder that girls and young women are increasingly confused about who they are.
Yes, feminism has lost all coherency and morphed into a hate group.
Yes – if we entertain for a moment the idea that boys are boys, and girls are girls and that their stereotypical behaviours are more or less normal (taken on average) then we may have a theory for the cause of the problem.
Telling girls that the role they are drawn to is inadequate and unfulfilling, and boys that their natural behaviour is toxic – is pretty much a recipe for internal conflict and gender confusion.
Isn’t it odd how feminism seems to have morphed from a movement with genuinely sound goals: legal rights for women, into a movement which seems to teach girls to hate anything feminine. Except being a desirable, passive sex toy, which is liberating, people!!
Not too keen on masculinity either.
““girl boss” with her male traits”
Good job we have an elderly male here to explain to everyone what a “girl boss” is!!!
Where did you read about it? Did Jacob Rees Mogg do an editorial about it in the Spectator?
Glad your here too, to demonstrate middle class elitist bigotry.
It is in no way a positive thing that so many young people are feeling they’re born in the wrong body…
It is a positive thing the more they are not abused for it, as in the past. Such abuse should be extinct.
It’s being pushed on to them. I see this at the school I am currently teaching in. Well-meaning, but rather stupid, teachers are promoting this. Most of the children themselves hate this stuff, but know that any form of criticism is strictly verboten. Many of them are Muslim and therefore largely immune to LGBQT indoctrination. It’s coming predominately from teachers and weird social media personalities, not children. Children don’t learn this stuff in a vacuum.
Can I recommend Time To Think by Hannah Barnes. It’s a remarkable piece of work.
It’s beyond question now that children who are not Trans are being caught up in the ideology. There’s no argument left, history has borne it out.
“It’s beyond question now that children who are not Trans are being caught up in the ideology. There’s no argument left, history has borne it out.” <– Nonsense. History has already disproven the idea that ROGD exists.
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/no-social-contagion-gender-transition
For that matter, the regret rate at medical transition has not budged above 1% for decades.
“Epidemics are rarely positive things” unless they are epidemics of wokery!
Like anorexia, it is a mental virus.
No, it is not. Being transgender is not a mental problem at all.
Over a 1000% increase in kids coming forward to be medicalised and harm their healthy bodies IS a negative thing!!
But yes we need to understand what ails our young people.
Understand 1 in 150 is born transgender, and a large fraction of them are seeking care appropriate for that circumstance.
“What really needs to be determined is whether what we are seeing is people “coming out” after the weakening of a taboo (the trans view)” <– For which substantial evidence exists.
” or something going badly amiss with young peoples identities (the critical view).” <– And for that view no evidence exists.
Some bloke wants to go around dressed as a woman that’s just fine. Same for a woman dressing as a man, there’s no problem do whatever you want, you’re not hurting anyone and it is a free country. However a quick look below will tell you what you really are (and what we know you are) ..they all need to just get over this unfortunate truth.
Once again, KB steps up and doesn’t disappoint. My understanding was that you do not refer to a fellow MP as a liar while in the chamber, but find creative ways of exposing their twisting of the truth. For a situation such as this, getting straight to the point seems quite appropriate. I would love to see Sir Kneelalot have to face her.
There is no epidemic. Being transgender is not contagious.
What there is is full public awareness of what being transgender is (Social Conservative bigots and deliberately ignorant idiots aside) and most who are transgender who want to are seeking what medical care can be had for their medical problem. No more and no less.
There is rarely full public awareness on anything. If asked, I think you would find that most members of the public are ignorant on the topic. They have not weighed the evidence, but applied a simple heuristic which groups them with those considered to be the “good people”. Opponents will do something similar – but with a different view of what constitutes being good.
“There is no epidemic. Being transgender is not contagious.”
Whether deliberately or not, you are simply repeating Kate Osborne’s calumny.
Contagion is not a pre-requisite of an epidemic, whether the word is being used in a medical or a more general societal sense.
You could have an epidemic of diabetes or an epidemic of homelessness. Both of which are non-communicable.
No, you can not have a non-communicable epidemic. You can choose to use a word tendentiously for propaganda purposes, as here.
Badenoch is the liar, obviously.
As a Tory minister that goes with the territory, but she rivals the hideous Braverman in finding victims for her “populist” hatred, trans kids in this case whereas with the hideous Braverman it is immigrants.
In both cases they attempt to victimize the weakest and most vulnerable members of society. Thankfully they will both be in the dustbin of history very soon!
You are the liar, obviously.
Don’t feed the troll. It lives for downticks.