Alastair Donald

"Instead of seeing your opponent as somebody you disagree with, you see them as morally wrong. So it’s not, 'I’m right, you’re wrong'; it’s, 'I’m right, you’re bad.'" @MaeveHalligan @ #BattleFest North "Disaffected youth: are young people becoming more extreme?" 👇

JOIN US on Fri 5 - Sat 6 June for our 2nd Annual Literary Festival! Tickets from £35 (non-Members) / £25 (Members): eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-2nd-new-… Speakers incl: Allison Pearson David Betz Dominic Frisby Frank Furedi Lord David Frost Lord Nigel Biggar Sir Bill Cash Sue Cook (formerly BBC Crimewatch etc) Dr. Philip Kiszely Ben Jones of the Free Speech Union Dr. Tim Aker Gully Foyle Dr. Tiffany Jenkins David Oldroyd-Bolt Peter Barnes Matthew Hamilton Martin Plaut Andreas Campomar

Starmer decks himself out as Europe's chief anti-fascist, in a performative display meant to conceal his own hostility to preserving elementary British liberties, such as trial by jury, and uncancelled elections. He's like a drab Don Quixote claiming to fight imaginary windmills while dragging the country everywhere closer towards a crack-up.

“The return of gay conversion therapy” The UK government wants to bring back the medicalisation of same-sex attracted people. My latest post is now up. Link below. ⬇️

lIf you do anything today, watch @MaeveHalligan at the Cambridge Union. I genuinely think this was the first time many people in that room were confronted with the hard reality of the trans debate, rather than the slogans that usually surround it. @BuckAngel was exceptional: calm, articulate, humane. Ultimate respect. And then there was Helen Webberley. I remember once thinking the criticism directed at her by GC women was excessive, especially the claim she was ‘pure evil’. After hearing her speak, I no longer think that. She is totally insincere. I can deal with hard ideologues- they believe they are telling the truth; they are genuine, @HelenWebberley is different. One audience member, a trans-identified male and former patient of hers, stood to speak during points of information. His account of how he had been treated was deeply disturbing. Watch the full debate. It is worth your time.

Excellent book by Moroccan/French academic Marie Daouda that breaks the lazy white oppressors vs oppressed-everyone-else frame in which so many debates are now placed. Highly recommended.

A Labour source texts: ‘That might be believable if he hadn’t already asked 26 other MPs first’

Giving the Orwell prize to a propaganda outfit like Al Jazeera sounds kind of….what’s the word

James Murray, the new health secretary, voted in favour of assisted dying

The ideology is alive! It’s alive!

EU staff told they cannot criticize the EU, even in their free time, and anon accounts will be investigated “EU and national investigations capabilities exist”, staff at the European Commission were told last week in relation to anonymous/pseudonymous social media accounts From my newsletter this week: EU staff were invited to a training session, hosted by one of the staff unions and the head of DEI, on what they can and cannot say in their private life. The webinar title singled out “UKRAINE-GAZA-IRAN-VACCINES-POLITICS”, as touchy subjects, but they didn’t dare mention gender, even though it is by far the most toxic topic inside the EU bureaucracy. Here’s some proof: at the exact same moment that the webinar was ongoing, there was a street protest by EU staff against Commission’s policy towards Gaza and Israel, on Place du Luxembourg in Brussels. I happened to walk past it, and I approached the protestors to ask if they knew they were probably breaking some rules. They said that they hadn’t heard that there was any interdiction on their very loud, very critical, very regular, and very EU-branded protests (and bake sales, and marathon participation, and so on…) The Commission tried to ban all internal talk of gender a couple of years ago, and eventually fired me a few weeks ago for it. There is nothing in this world more sensitive among the elites than the sex-erasure issue. Not even Israel-Gaza.

Andy Burnham campaign badges are out.

If you relied on Politico’s reporting today you would be forgiven for thinking people don’t oppose the conversion therapy lie. Read this to learn what they are not telling you. brussels.mcc.hu/news/mcc-bruss…

er … This whole article is deeply troubling but the most alarming bit is this … Not only have 8 foreign speakers been banned from entering the country but for the first time, police have imposed speech conditions on speakers at the Unite the Kingdom march (and the Palestinian march) Organisers are now being held responsible for ensuring invited speakers don’t break the law by … “platforming unlawful extremism or hate speech” and they will be held responsible if they do. Whatever your politics, this is terrible for free speech. Who decides what hate speech is? People who simply don’t like what is said? In addition live facial recognition will only be used at the Unite the Kingdom march. These are pre-emptive speech controls used subjectively to shut up dissent and close down debate … for your safety.

FPÖ Raises Alarm Over Austria Grooming Gang Scandal After immigrant gangs abused young girls unpunished for decades in the UK, reports suggest Austria might be the next country where the government is turning a blind eye to the problem. europeanconservative.com/articles/news/…

I am the student speaker on this side at the Cambridge Union tonight. Really excited for what promises to be a good debate.

Spot on

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse... Neville

In a move that comes as absolutely no surprise to us locally, the Tories (the second largest party on the council) have backed a rainbow coalition under the leadership of the Greens, along with the Lib Dems. This is what they've been itching to do since last year's election.

Wes doesn’t clearly doesn’t have the numbers Burnham clearly doesn’t have a seat Public have already clearly said no thanks to Ed Miliband And Rayner far from cleared despite her spin. All going swimmingly.