Latest news with #JenniferMelle
Times
07-08-2025
- Health
- Times
The NHS must accept the reality of sex
The Supreme Court's ruling on the definition of sex in the Equality Act ought to have been the final word in a particularly ugly chapter of public discourse. Four months on from that landmark verdict, however, not enough has changed for the women who have suffered most from the capture of the public sector by gender extremism. It is time for ministers, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), to lay down the law that too many public bodies are still ignoring. Just look to Fife, whose NHS trust is still spending exorbitant sums of public money fighting an employment tribunal against a nurse, Sandie Peggie, who refused to share a female changing room with a transgender doctor. Ms Peggie, a working-class woman whose NHS career was curtailed after 30 years for standing up for the existence of biological sex, has been dragged through the mud for daring to object to a male-bodied colleague watching her deal with a menstrual flood. It was always absurd and offensive that Ms Peggie should be disciplined for expecting single-sex changing facilities. Now the law has been clarified, there should be no reason for the NHS to persist in wasting public money on tribunals brought by working women subjected to similar indignities. In Darlington, a group of nurses who similarly objected to a transgender colleague changing in their single-sex space will fight a full tribunal from October; others, including Jennifer Melle, who was racially abused by a trans-identifying male paedophile she called 'mister', have been suspended. • Trans doctor Beth Upton lamented lack of guidelines on changing rooms Enough is enough. The public sector in general and the health service in particular cannot be allowed to treat the law as optional. It is time for ministers to assert their authority. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has been admirably assertive in his dealings with the trans lobby in banning the prescription of puberty blockers to children. Now he must show the same initiative in forcing hospitals, NHS leaders and the NHS Confederation to abide by their legal obligations to female staff and patients. Mr Streeting must also ensure that the Scottish government duly falls into line. It now falls to the EHRC to state those obligations beyond reasonable doubt. The watchdog has dragged its feet on providing new guidance to ministers. It need not be difficult. The EHRC should state that trans women must not be allowed in single-sex spaces. And when it comes to women's sport, the guidance must be clear that transgender competitors cannot take part. The Supreme Court ruling has finally settled the question of what defines sex; the EHRC must now ensure it is understood and delivered across all parts of society, with statutory underpinning. • Janice Turner: Class snobbery is at heart of NHS gender war Once that guidance is submitted to ministers, it must be implemented without delay. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary and equalities minister, showed admirable courage in overruling wrong-headed Labour MPs to appoint Mary-Ann Stephenson as the next chairwoman of the commission — someone who has three decades of experience in human rights law and will lead in the vein of Baroness Falkner of Margravine. The rest of her cabinet colleagues must back Dr Stephenson too. The era in which careers could be destroyed, reputations traduced and taxpayers' money wasted denying objective reality on sex and gender should have ended with the Supreme Court ruling. It is long past time for ministers to impose their authority in the name of sanity.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Yahoo
Condemning Hamas is now a risky business
Speaking the truth is now a risky business in Britain. NHS nurse Jennifer Melle was admonished by the hospital she works at in Surrey for referring to a male paedophile as 'Mr'. The man, known only as Patient X, identifies as a woman. He's also a convicted child sex offender. And yet it was Ms Melle who found herself in hot water, because when this criminal was brought to her hospital for treatment she called him 'Mr'. That sounds perfectly polite to me. Not to mention accurate. But apparently it's a reprimandable offence to prefer reality to fantasy. And now we discover that a sewage worker was sacked for calling Hamas 'disgusting terrorists'. Damon Joshua was given the heave-ho by Severn Trent Water after slamming the Jew-killing terrorists of Gaza. On the first anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack, he posted an image of the Israel flag on an internal staff site alongside some stiff criticism of Hamas. It's a year since Israel was 'horrifically attacked by a group of violent and disgusting terrorists', he wrote. We must 'stand in solidarity', he added, 'with our Jewish, Israeli and Zionist colleagues against the evils of Islamist terror'. The post was taken down by managers on the basis that 'the terminology was very derogatory'. Yes, how dare you be rude about Hamas? That's as bad as causing offence to a paedo. Welcome to modern Britain, where you can get in trouble for calling a man a man and calling terrorists 'disgusting'. This is now a nation where saying 'Mr' to a fella and lamenting the 'evils' of Islamist violence could see you hauled before your bosses to explain yourself. I miss the days when you had to say something really outrageous to get a telling-off. Now you just need to say what every student of GCSE biology and every person with a moral compass knows to be true: that men are men and terrorists are scum. The case of Damon Joshua is intriguing. You would think that the least controversial thing you could say is that Hamas are bad people. It's the law of the land, after all: Hamas is designated a terrorist organisation in the UK. And yet if you were to hit the streets and holler 'Hamas are terrorists!', you might get more than a telling-off – you could get a roughing-up. That has been the experience of Iranian-born activist Niyak Ghorbani, who frequently stands on the sidelines of 'pro-Palestine' marches in London with a placard saying 'Hamas is Terrorist'. He's been jeered at and shoved by the anti-Israel mob. Last March he was even arrested by the Met, supposedly for his own safety. The police said they wanted to 'prevent a breach of the peace'. All they really prevented was a man from saying out loud what is written in our law. If I was a cop, my instinct would be to feel the collars of the people who are stirred to frenzied anger by the words 'Hamas is Terrorist', not the man who says those words. It is seen as fishy, or at least uncool, to call Hamas terrorists. Some on the left prefer to say 'resistance'. Or, if they don't want to give away how insanely Israelophobic they have become, they might say 'militants' or 'fighters'. Anything but terrorists. The BBC infamously avoids the T-word too. It is not the BBC's job to tell people 'who are the good guys and who are the bad guys', John Simpson wrote soon after Hamas's October 7 attack. That will be news to anyone who has watched the Beeb sneer at Brexit voters and Trump supporters these past few years. Yet when it comes to the monsters of Hamas, the BBC suddenly parks its haughty moralism and comes over all coy. The reluctance to call Hamas 'terrorists' is partly down to the anti-Israel animus that's rife in influential circles. These people hate Israel so much that they flat out refuse to condemn the army of anti-Semites that terrorises it. Yes, terrorises. But it also speaks to the baleful influence of the idea of 'Islamophobia'. Polite society is now so terrified of saying anything critical of Islam that it even balks at condemning Islamist terror. Oh no, they think, 'Islamist' is related to Islam and so I must hold my tongue, as I do on the niqab, grooming gangs and anything else that might reflect poorly on that religion. Such self-silencing will get worse if Labour pushes on with its new definition of 'Islamophobia'. This is a mad crusade to ringfence Islam and Islam alone from chatter and mockery. It's time to restore reason. If you have a penis, you are a man. And if you have a gun that you use to kill Jews, you are a disgusting terrorist. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
24-03-2025
- Telegraph
Condemning Hamas is now a risky business
Speaking the truth is now a risky business in Britain. NHS nurse Jennifer Melle was admonished by the hospital she works at in Surrey for referring to a male paedophile as 'Mr'. The man, known only as Patient X, identifies as a woman. He's also a convicted child sex offender. And yet it was Ms Melle who found herself in hot water, because when this criminal was brought to her hospital for treatment she called him 'Mr'. That sounds perfectly polite to me. Not to mention accurate. But apparently it's a reprimandable offence to prefer reality to fantasy. And now we discover that a sewage worker was sacked for calling Hamas 'disgusting terrorists'. Damon Joshua was given the heave-ho by Severn Trent Water after slamming the Jew-killing terrorists of Gaza. On the first anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack, he posted an image of the Israel flag on an internal staff site alongside some stiff criticism of Hamas. It's a year since Israel was 'horrifically attacked by a group of violent and disgusting terrorists', he wrote. We must 'stand in solidarity', he added, 'with our Jewish, Israeli and Zionist colleagues against the evils of Islamist terror'. The post was taken down by managers on the basis that 'the terminology was very derogatory'. Yes, how dare you be rude about Hamas? That's as bad as causing offence to a paedo. Welcome to modern Britain, where you can get in trouble for calling a man a man and calling terrorists 'disgusting'. This is now a nation where saying 'Mr' to a fella and lamenting the 'evils' of Islamist violence could see you hauled before your bosses to explain yourself. I miss the days when you had to say something really outrageous to get a telling-off. Now you just need to say what every student of GCSE biology and every person with a moral compass knows to be true: that men are men and terrorists are scum. The case of Damon Joshua is intriguing. You would think that the least controversial thing you could say is that Hamas are bad people. It's the law of the land, after all: Hamas is designated a terrorist organisation in the UK. And yet if you were to hit the streets and holler 'Hamas are terrorists!', you might get more than a telling-off – you could get a roughing-up. That has been the experience of Iranian-born activist Niyak Ghorbani, who frequently stands on the sidelines of 'pro-Palestine' marches in London with a placard saying 'Hamas is Terrorist'. He's been jeered at and shoved by the anti-Israel mob. Last March he was even arrested by the Met, supposedly for his own safety. The police said they wanted to 'prevent a breach of the peace'. All they really prevented was a man from saying out loud what is written in our law. If I was a cop, my instinct would be to feel the collars of the people who are stirred to frenzied anger by the words 'Hamas is Terrorist', not the man who says those words. It is seen as fishy, or at least uncool, to call Hamas terrorists. Some on the left prefer to say 'resistance'. Or, if they don't want to give away how insanely Israelophobic they have become, they might say 'militants' or 'fighters'. Anything but terrorists. The BBC infamously avoids the T-word too. It is not the BBC's job to tell people 'who are the good guys and who are the bad guys', John Simpson wrote soon after Hamas's October 7 attack. That will be news to anyone who has watched the Beeb sneer at Brexit voters and Trump supporters these past few years. Yet when it comes to the monsters of Hamas, the BBC suddenly parks its haughty moralism and comes over all coy. The reluctance to call Hamas 'terrorists' is partly down to the anti-Israel animus that's rife in influential circles. These people hate Israel so much that they flat out refuse to condemn the army of anti-Semites that terrorises it. Yes, terrorises. But it also speaks to the baleful influence of the idea of 'Islamophobia'. Polite society is now so terrified of saying anything critical of Islam that it even balks at condemning Islamist terror. Oh no, they think, 'Islamist' is related to Islam and so I must hold my tongue, as I do on the niqab, grooming gangs and anything else that might reflect poorly on that religion. Such self-silencing will get worse if Labour pushes on with its new definition of 'Islamophobia'. This is a mad crusade to ringfence Islam and Islam alone from chatter and mockery. It's time to restore reason. If you have a penis, you are a man. And if you have a gun that you use to kill Jews, you are a disgusting terrorist.
