Pride Month concludes with fewer corporate sponsors amid DEI pushback
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Spectator
7 hours ago
- Spectator
Why women trust Farage more than Starmer
Labour's attack dogs have Nigel Farage firmly in their sights. A vote for Reform will leave women and girls at risk from all manner of online nasties, is their latest salvo. Apparently, only Labour can offer us women the protection we need. Well, as one such woman, I would far sooner have a pint with Farage than be looked after by Starmer. First came technology secretary Peter Kyle, who, at the end of July, accused the Reform leader of 'wilful disregard for the safety of children online' after he proposed repealing the Online Safety Act. Angela Rayner then ramped up the panic. Scrapping online safety laws would enable 'a vile, misogynistic culture on social media' by opening the floodgates on revenge porn, the Deputy Prime Minister proclaimed. This would 'fail a generation of young women,' she added for good measure. And now this week sees the launch of a Labour attack ad scurrilously linking Farage to Andrew Tate – a self-declared 'misogynist' and 'sexist' facing charges, which he denies, of rape and human trafficking in more than one country – after Farage discussed Tate's appeal to young men in a podcast. The crude message being drummed home to voters is that women and girls will not be safe with Farage in charge. That Labour needs to confuse online and real world harms, that it seeks to blur the boundary between the actions of Jimmy Savile and internet pornography, not only speaks of desperation, it is insulting to women. There isn't a woman alive who doesn't know the difference between a podcast interview and being intimidated or physically threatened in real life. Or, for that matter, between even the vilest online content and the actions of a rapist or paedophile. To suggest women don't know this – and need to be protected in the online world just like girls – is patronising in the extreme. In case Labour's PR team needs reminding, women are morally and intellectually equal to men. Of course there are things online I would not want children to see. But, as a mother, I consider it my role – not the job of government ministers – to protect my daughter. Because, let's be honest, when it comes to protecting women and girls in real life, the Labour government does not have a leg to stand on. Just this weekend, while Rayner was busy arguing Farage would fail women, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy joined Wigan's Pride march sporting a 'Protect the Dolls' T-shirt, 'doll' being slang for a man who 'passes' as a woman. Was a government minister really suggesting that males should be allowed access to women's single sex spaces – presumably including toilets, changing rooms and hospital wards – places where women really are vulnerable? So much for women's safety. And if we're discussing risks to girls, what has Labour done about the Pakistani-heritage grooming gangs that have preyed on working class girls in towns across Britain? Jess Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, huffed with irritability when forced to listen to Conservative Katie Lam's Parliamentary plea for justice for the victims of 'racially and religiously aggravated' crimes. When the issue of grooming gangs was raised on Radio 4's Any Questions, Leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell, dismissively retorted, 'Oh, we want to blow that little trumpet now do we,' and 'let's get that dog whistle out shall we'. And let's not forget that Starmer initially ruled out a national inquiry into grooming gangs, accusing those calling for one of jumping on a 'far-right bandwagon'. So much for the safety of girls. Labour has nothing to offer women and girls other than promises of censorship. Restricting free speech online might suit the current government but it is scurrilous to use women's safety as a reason for this control. In any case, patronising women while smearing Farage could backfire spectacularly. With women now leading protests against asylum seekers being housed in hotels, Reform is targeting female voters directly. Women are listening: latest polls suggest that Reform is gaining ground not just among women but among young women in particular. Even trendy women's mag Cosmopolitan has been forced to admit that 'Nigel Farage and co are winning over more female voters.' It seems I'm not the only one who would prefer a pint with Farage to being looked after by Starmer. Joanna Williams is an academic and author. Follow her on Substack here
Telegraph
a day ago
- Telegraph
Lisa Nandy criticised over pro-trans ‘protect the dolls' T-shirt
Lisa Nandy has been criticised for wearing a trans rights T-shirt with the slogan 'protect the dolls'. The Culture Secretary posted the images to her social media page after joining the Pride march in her Wigan constituency. But critics slammed the decision as a 'disgrace' and said a government minister should not be promoting a slogan 'designed to centre trans-identifying men at the expense of women and girls'. 'Doll' is a slang term from the 1980s for biological men who 'pass' as women. Trans people who do not look as feminine are referred to as 'bricks'. The slogan has previously been criticised as both misogynistic, as it compares women with dolls, and transphobic, as it excludes those who do not succeed in looking like the gender they identify with. The term has seen a revival in recent months after a number of celebrities including Pedro Pascal, Madonna and Tilda Swinton were photographed in a £75 designer T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan. Pascal's appearance in the T-shirt prompted a backlash on social media, with commentators saying that the 'creepy' slogan 'dehumanises' women and treats them like toys. It was later used on placards used by activists protesting against the Supreme Court ruling that trans women are not legally women. Campaigners' message 'dehumanises' women Fiona McAnena, the director of campaigns at human rights charity Sex Matters, said: ''Protect the dolls' is the latest vacuous trans-activist slogan designed to centre trans-identifying men at the expense of women and girls. 'No elected representative of the public – let alone a government minister – should be promoting the slogan of campaigners who are calling for men to be able to identify into any space for women, even those needed most such as toilets, changing rooms, refuges and prisons. 'The Secretary of State with responsibility for civil society should know better than to align with a movement which calls for the law to be flouted. This is naive at best. What's more, this is not a benign demand. Some people are now displaying more aggressive versions of this, like 'Arm the dolls'.' Ms Nandy's T-shirt appeared to have been made for the local event as it also contained the words 'pride in Leigh'. She posted the pictures on her Facebook page alongside a message saying: 'Had a fantastic time at the 10th anniversary of #WiganPride today! Amazing turnout for the parade & celebrations. Proud to live in such a welcoming, inclusive town.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
‘State-driven censorship': new wave of book bans hits Florida school districts
A new wave of book bans has hit Florida school districts, with hundreds of titles being pulled from library and classroom shelves as the school year kicks off. The Republican-dominated state, which has already had the highest rate of book bans nationwide this year, is continuing to censor reading materials in schools, bowing to external pressures in an effort to avoid conflict and government retaliation. 'This is an ideological campaign to erase LGBTQ+ lives and any honest discussion of sex, stripping libraries of resources and stories,' William Johnson, the director of PEN America's Florida office, told the Guardian. 'If censorship keeps spreading, silence won't save us. Floridians must speak out now.' Book bans have been rising at a rapid rate across the US since 2021, but this latest wave comes after increased pressure from the state board of education in Florida. The board issued a harsh warning to the Hillsborough county school district in May, saying that if they didn't remove 'pornographic' titles from their library, formal legal action could ensue. More than 600 books were pulled as a result, and the process was expected to cost the district $350,000. The books taken off the school shelves included The Diary of Anne Frank and What Girls Are Made of by Elana K Arnold. None of them were under formal review by the district, and they hadn't been flagged by local parents as potentially inappropriate. Parents with children in the school system even had the opportunity to opt their children out of a particular reading, without removing them from the class for everyone. PEN called the board of education's mass removal in Hillsborough county a 'state-driven censorship', and concluded 'it is a calculated effort to consolidate power through fear, to bypass legal precedent, and to silence diverse voices in Florida's public schools,' in their press release. Fearing similar retribution, nine surrounding school districts have taken proactive measures, pulling books which they are worried could cause similar controversy. This includes Columbia, Escambia, Orange and Osceola, who have followed suit and quietly complied, probably to avoid similar state retaliation. 'Censorship advocates are playing a long game, and making Hillsborough county public schools bend the knee is a huge win for them,' said Rachel Doyle, who goes by 'Reads with Rachel' on social media. Doyle has two children in the Hillsborough school district system and is frustrated that they are being used as political pawns. She feels that her voice has been erased by far-right groups like Moms for Liberty and that parental rights groups do not have her kids' best interests in mind. 'I do not want or need a special interest group or a 'concerned citizen' opting out for me,' Doyle said. 'Once Florida becomes a place where this is the norm entirely, other states will follow.' In Escambia county, one of the nine school districts that have taken books off their library shelves after the Hillsborough removal campaign, 400 titles have been removed without review. These include I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, a satirical anti-war novel centered around a prisoner of war in Dresden after the Allied bombings in the second world war. What is happening in Florida is part of a broader, nationwide censorship drive fueled by conservative backlash against teachings about race, gender and diversity. Unsurprisingly, red states on average have seen higher instances of banned reading materials, with Florida accounting for 4,561 cases of prohibited titles this year, spanning 33 school districts. These bans often target authors of color, female writers and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Books that educate about any of these experiences, or that document historical periods, are the recipients of frequent censorship attacks. Rob Sanders, the author of several acclaimed children's books like Ruby Rose and Peaceful Fights for Equal Rights, and a former Hillsborough county educator, has seen many challenges to his books in Florida and beyond. 'If we eliminate every book that tells a story that is different than the life experiences of an individual or a family, there will be no books left in the library,' Sanders said. 'As an author, the best thing I can do for children is to keep writing books that tell the truth and that celebrate the wonderful diversity in our world.'
