Latest news with #TavistockClinic
Telegraph
02-07-2025
- Telegraph
Christian artist reported to police over gender-critical views
A Christian artist was reported to the police and banned from her own exhibition because of her gender-critical beliefs. Victoria Culf also claims a council worker wrongly accused her of being under police investigation when she was not. Mrs Culf launched legal action against Watford borough council last year on nine grounds, including breach of contract, discrimination and harassment. The 44-year-old, who has been an artist for 20 years, had been setting up her independently funded exhibition at Watford Museum when she became engaged in a conversation with a council worker about transgender issues. While making a cup of tea, the council official revealed that her child was 'socially transitioning' and that they had tried to get puberty blockers from the Tavistock gender identity clinic. Mrs Culf claims to have politely said that owing to her Christian beliefs and her experience working with children and young people, she believed transitioning to be harmful. The artist claims to have also said the Tavistock clinic should be shut down, reasoning that 'children are too young to properly assess risk'. 'I wouldn't be being true to myself if I agreed with you,' she claims to have said. Harassment allegations While Mrs Culf believed the conversation to have ended 'calmly and amicably', she later received a call from the council informing her of 'harassment' allegations and decreeing that she must give 24 hours' notice before entering her exhibition. According to court documents, Mrs Culf's accuser wrote to Paul Stacey, the council's associate director of environment and communities, in the aftermath of the conversation, claiming the police had 'recorded it as an incident'. The police logbook, however, revealed that the police told her accuser they were not recording it as an incident or investigating it and described what she had said as 'free speech'. The council worker is said to have nevertheless emailed her boss at the council to say: 'The Hate Crime Officer called me. It has been logged as an incident.' The employee is also accused of inventing a crime number. The Christian Legal Centre, which is advising Mrs Culf, will argue that pressure from the council official and the council led to Mrs Culf being excluded from a community art project run by BEEE Creative, her artwork being damaged during the exhibition and ultimately the termination of her contract. Commenting on the latest disclosure of evidence, Mrs Culf said: 'I genuinely feared a knock at the door or a call asking me to explain myself, or worse. 'I now know this was a pack of lies, designed to intimidate me. It's deeply troubling that my accuser misled the council, and yet they were all too willing to go along with it without impartially investigating it for themselves.'
Times
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Times
Universities pay a price for selling out gender critics
In the past decade, British academics have been attacked, vilified and ostracised simply for asserting that sex is real, binary and important. They include Kathleen Stock, compelled to resign from the University of Sussex after a sustained campaign of intimidation, and Michele Moore, abandoned by London South Bank University and forced to use a kitchen annexe for an office after shining a light on abuses at the Tavistock Clinic. In a climate where people are frightened to express their views or even to ask questions, universities have a responsibility to act as bastions of critical analysis, where reasoned debate and the pursuit of knowledge thrive. This is not only about protecting individuals but also the integrity of scientific research and scholarship. Instead, universities have, perhaps unwittingly, institutionalised behaviours which undermine free speech and inquiry. Equality, diversity and inclusion policies and networks have been turned against groups they are supposed to protect, including women and particularly lesbians. Harassment aimed at silencing has not been robustly tackled by universities, who have too often denied that the problem exists. Universities have created excessive bureaucratic processes which have become levers for activists seeking to stifle dissenting voices. These include ethics committees which have advised against collecting data on sex and blocked research on detransitioners. My government-commissioned review into barriers to research on sex and gender tells the stories of academics who have suffered severe personal consequences. It also tells the less visible stories of those who have been hamstrung by bureaucratic procedures or who have bitten their tongues to avoid becoming victims of the next witch hunt. We know that the real-world impact of this censorship includes harm to vulnerable people. In her 2024 review of gender services for children and young people, Baroness Cass lamented the lack of quality research into the effects of puberty blockers and other interventions. Sex is a fundamental category in all research concerning humans, from biology to sociology. When certain facts become unspeakable, it doesn't just hurt individuals, it compromises the integrity of scholarship. This weakens public trust in universities, science and scholarship, and ultimately undermines our democracy. At a time when higher education faces grave financial difficulties, my recommendations provide an opportunity for vice-chancellors to cut bureaucratic bloat and promote research integrity — a win-win for the sector. Alice Sullivan is professor of sociology at University College London
Wales Online
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Wales Online
The three things terrorist Alexander Dighton blamed for his vicious attack on police officers
The three things terrorist Alexander Dighton blamed for his vicious attack on police officers The 28 year-old loner said his grievances which led to his attacks on police had been brewing for 15 years or more. He made a fire under a police van to lure officers out (Image: PA ) Sentenced to life for a ferocious attack on a police station in South Wales loner Alex Dighton launched into an unhinged tirade against what he sees as government corruption. He blamed three things that he saw as being possible reasons for violence against the state. Addressing the judge Mark Lucraft KC at the Old Bailey on June 13 the 28-year-old from Pontyclun, said he was "not interested in fame" but wanted a "conversation" about matters that bothered him. Airing grievances ranging from lockdown parties held by Boris Johnson to the Tavistock gender clinic, Dighton, who represented himself in court, cited issues he said had been bothering him for years. Sign up for our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here. The Old Bailey heard he defendant harboured extreme anti-Islam, anti-immigration and anti-government views. He had sympathy for far right politics and misogynistic Incel groups. Alexander Dighton has been jailed for life (Image: PA Media ) A police investigation into Dighton's activities after the attack showed he had shared some of these entrenched views on social media, including X, and in chat rooms , but they had not been so extreme as to have broken the law. The gamer also identified with characters on Warhammer. Article continues below Addressing the court as he faced a life sentence behind bars Dighton said in a matter of fact tone: "I don't care about myself being noticed. Fame is not important to me. What I think is important is having a conversation about where Britain is right now. Whether violence against the state is justified. "Has the state got to a point where violence is justified? You have grooming gangs and Boris Johnson having parties in lockdown. Open corruption. You have the Tavistock Clinic mutilating children. 'I have been watching this for 15 years…this is years of build up. People have such a short memory. 'I will be done. It doesn't bother me." Dighton was armed with a knife, sharpened poles and Molotov cocktails when he attacked Talbot Green police station on January 31 this year. Today he was jailed for life with a minimum of 22 years in prison for the attack. The loner, who lived in Pontyclun, previously admitted 10 charges relating to the attack, including attempting to murder of a police officer. Dighton, who the court hard has been of good behaviour in custody and had no previous convictions, was considered to have been motivated by terrorism, the judge said. He had shown no remorse for the attack which left police officers needing hospital treatment and still held "rigid" and extremist views. The former prize winning student, who won a Wales-wide competition in advanced mechanical engineering for his computer-aided design of a wobbler engine aged 18, told the court his unhappiness with the system had begun at school. Diagnosed with Asperger's aged seven he spent two years at a special educational needs primary before going on to mainstream secondary and university. The court heard he had had some mental health problems and a "difficult" family upbringing. Article continues below But the judge deemed there were no mitigating factors for the violence he committed at Talbot Green police station, other than early guilty pleas, and he represented a continuing danger with his lack of remorse and entrenched views.
