Latest news with #SimonHeffer
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Women's rights champion and Olympic hero Sharron Davies is set to become Conservative peer
British Olympic swimming hero and gender-critical campaigner Sharron Davies is set to become a Conservative peer. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch will reportedly appoint the 62-year-old to the House of Lords alongside columnist Simon Heffer and Graham Edwards, the Tory party treasurer and mega-donor. Ms Davies has become an outspoken advocate for women's rights in sport in recent years, amid concerns that transgender athletes self-identifying is a risk to sporting integrity. She became involved in the debate after winning silver for Great Britain in the 400m individual medley at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, losing to East Germany 's Petra Schneider who later admitted to taking testosterone as part of a state-sponsored doping programme. After the landmark Supreme Court ruling earlier this year defining a woman as a biological female, Ms Davies wrote in the Daily Mail: 'Women and girls should never have had to fight for their right to play football, run, swim – whatever their choice of sport is – in a fair and safe way. 'Yet it has taken a Supreme Court judgment for public bodies and sporting organisations to wake up to what I and other campaigners have been saying for years. 'That it is not fair nor right to allow men to compete in women's sport. No one should be allowed to pick which category they wish to compete in. 'I am not saying this because I am anti-trans. I am saying this because I am pro-women and pro-fairness.' The new peerages are expected to be announced later this year, according to The Times. Ms Davies will join fellow former athletes Lord Coe, Lord Campbell and Baroness Grey-Thompson. Ms Davies backed Mrs Badenoch for Tory party leader, describing her as 'a fresh, brave and intelligent woman who's prepared to tackle issues head-on so many have ignored for too long'.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Olympic swimmer made Tory peer after trans sport ban campaign
Sharron Davies, the Olympic swimming medallist, is to be made a Conservative peer after leading a campaign to ban transgender people from women's sport. Kemi Badenoch is expected to nominate the Olympian for a peerage in recognition of her work in the autumn. Simon Heffer, the author and historian who is a columnist for The Telegraph, and Graham Edwards, the Tory party treasurer, are also expected to become Tory peers. Ms Davies won two gold medals in the 1978 Commonwealth Games and silver in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. She has played a pivotal role in the gender debate in recent years, calling for female sports to be confined to biological women in the name of fairness. Her campaigning started in 2019, four years after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) removed the requirements for athletes who identify as women to have sex reassignment surgery. She went on to write a letter to the IOC, signed by more than 60 world-class athletes, urging it to ban biological men from taking part in female-only events. Reflecting on the cost of her activism in an interview with The Telegraph in 2023, Ms Davies said: 'I lost the vast majority of my work the moment I put my head above the parapet.' Ms Davies – whose nomination by Mrs Badenoch was first reported by The Times – has warned that 'the most mediocre of men' are capable of beating women in sporting events. Earlier this month, she said British sporting bodies such as those who oversee tennis and weightlifting could end up in court if they did not take action to ban transgender women from competing. She has lavished praise on Mrs Badenoch in the past, saying earlier this month that the Tory leader was among the first ministers in the previous government to 'push back against woke'. Throughout her career, Mrs Badenoch has pledged to protect single-sex spaces for women and insisted children cannot be transgender even though they may question their identity. Columnist has backed Badenoch Mr Heffer, a historian and author who writes about cricket, politics and arts and culture for The Telegraph, is also expected to enter the Lords. He is also the editor of Henry 'Chips' Channon: The Diaries. Mrs Badenoch's first nine months as leader of the opposition have seen Reform UK surge ahead of the Tories in the polls amid claims she is struggling to cut through. But in an article for The Telegraph in April, Mr Heffer said Mrs Badenoch was 'still learning the job and making all the right noises', warning the Tories would lose all remaining voter goodwill if they ditched her as leader. Mrs Badenoch's third nomination is Mr Edwards, who became the treasurer of the Conservatives in 2022. In a sign of his success winning back support from businesses since the election, the party raised almost six times more than Labour in private donations in the first quarter of this year. Data reported to the Electoral Commission showed the Tories raised £2.8m from individuals and companies from January to March, while Labour raised £530,000.
Telegraph
20-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
The BBC's output is no longer of a standard that justifies the licence fee
SIR – I agree with much of what Simon Heffer says about the present output of the BBC (Hinterland, April 19). With a few notable exceptions, such as the documentaries of David Attenborough and Simon Schama, it offers little that interests or instructs, and spends too much time attempting to appeal to younger viewers. The BBC also shoots itself in the foot when it shows older programmes, reminding us what the standards used to be. It was such a joy to watch reruns of Yes Minister, say, or Porridge, which assumed an intelligence in their audience. Meanwhile, the daily news bulletins, although essential viewing, do not always concentrate on the most important matters, and occasionally display bias in favour of one side or the other, rather than the impartiality that we expect from our national broadcaster. What is the solution, now that the corporation has to compete against ever more dominant streaming services with deeper pockets? I wish I knew. Alan Reeve Taunton, Somerset SIR – Simon Heffer's suggestion that there has been no good content on the BBC this century is laughable. Line of Duty? Happy Valley? The Office? Fleabag? All of them woke to the hilt, as I recall. There's an argument for getting rid of the licence fee, but it has to be made in the context of secure funding and editorial independence. 'Parliamentary scrutiny' is a Trojan horse for state censorship, from whichever party is in power at the time. Conservatives should beware of what they wish for. Daniel Karlin Bristol SIR – One way for the BBC to improve its intellectual and cultural standards would be to revive The Brains Trust. This has been tried before, with little success, but another attempt is definitely in order. The BBC has an obligation, under its 'inform, educate and entertain' remit, to allow younger generations – along with their parents and grandparents – to hear the most fertile minds and articulate speakers debate the issues of our time, just as we were able to listen to Bertrand Russell, Isaiah Berlin, Jenny Lee, Jacob Bronowski and many others in the 1950s. John Birkett St Andrews, Fife SIR – Simon Playle (Letters, April 19) rightly notes the increasing number of popular pieces by Ravel, Debussy and Handel being heard on Radio 3. I don't object to this in the case of Handel – he is my favourite composer – but I do wish we could hear more from his numerous operas, especially the less well-known ones, in which Radio 3 seems to have curiously little interest.
