This is Northumberland Calling 24.05.24
The Rice Krispies: Snap Election -- crackles and pops edition
Hello American (Particularly Central Ohio) this is Northumberland Calling
With a torrential downpour on Wednesday, Sunak unleashed the only weapon he had left and called a snap General Election, set for 4 July. Labour are widely expected to win which means it is their election to lose. Because it is a snap election, all parties are scrambling to get candidates and policies in place as well as election campaigning material. Labour has yet to make a decision about if Diane Abbott who had the whip removed for anti-Semitic remarks can stand as a candidate. They have not restored the whip to Jeremy Corbyn who will stand as an independent for Islington North. Labour’s initial campaign launch had to be taken down because of a misspelt graphic ‘Swich on GB Energy’ The slogan sounds a bit like an ad for an electric company even if spelt correctly. Sunak’s launch did not go much better as he became wetter and wetter and wetter. Sunak has challenged Starmer to a series of six debates which Starmer has refused. I am not sure how I feel about it becoming more presidential with debates between the two main contenders…as there are a lot of local issues for every candidate, including the people who would be PM. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/24/general-election-rishi-sunak-latest-news-keir-starmer/
These are some of the famous faces who are supposed to be standing, hoping to become MPs. No mention is made of Kellie Jean Keen a noted GC activist who is standing against Lloyd Russell-Moyes, a proponent of trans-activism in parliament and who is the Labour candidate for Brighton Kemptown (updated as I got it wrong — see comments). Blur and Gogglebox to Olympic gold: The famous faces who could become MPs | Ents & Arts News | Sky News
There is a lot of unfinished business which Parliament is now scrambling to finish. Once parliament dissolves all unpassed bills etc have to start from scratch and the new government may not take any notice of previous reports and consultations. This is unfortunate as Lord Walney’s long awaited report into countering political extremism has just been published and will now most likely be kicked into the long grass.
This is why the Health Minister’s brief announcement in the Commons that she is using special powers granted to her under the 1968 Medicines Act to ban Puberty Blockers with limited exceptions is important. This will stop medical firms from selling, supplying or importing puberty blockers. The limited exceptions will include things like precocious puberty and the proposed PB trial. Wes Streeting who is the Labour shadow Health minister (ie the person most likely to become health minister after the election welcomed the move. Basically he signalled that he would not change this and then of course, Labour can turn to its activists and say it weren’t us, guv, it was the wicked, wicked Tories, now can we get on with implanting toothbrushing for children in schools. https://x.com/Transgendertrd/status/1793609023465660597
Another piece of legislation which will go through today is the bill quashing the convictions of the sub postmasters. Unfortunately because of the time frame, the amendment about including the sub postmasters who were prosecuted by the Dept of Work and Pensions will not be included. Imperfect but a welcome step forward.
Paula Vennells has been giving testimony in the PO inquiry. She is every bit as infuriatingly Nursery School teacher nice as the Mr Bates v PO tv series made out. A real Dolores Umbrage type. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/23/paula-vennells-is-the-bland-face-of-british-mediocrity/ or https://archive.ph/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/23/paula-vennells-is-the-bland-face-of-british-mediocrity/
The long time minister Michael Gove who was working on community cohesion and countering extremism until the snap election was called gave a stirring speech against antisemitism in North London on Tuesday. In it he pointed that one viewpoint increasingly unites all the extremist groups – far-Right, far -Left and Islamist – namely a virulent antisemitism. “The calls for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions from protestors are endorsements of a campaign - the BDS campaign - which I can see is explicitly antisemitic. The Britain-Israel Communications and Research Centre has submitted evidence to Parliament making clear that the “founder and ideologue of the BDS movement - has repeatedly made clear his non-recognition of the rights of Israel to exist”, and that the BDS campaign“[they] oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine”. The end point is clear - the elimination of Israel.
Being clear about what the BDS campaign wants is very far from giving the Israeli government, any Israeli government, a free pass. It is, of course, legitimate, and sometimes necessary to criticise the conduct of Israel’s government. That is why we have continually, since October 7th, stressed the need for aid to flow freely to civilians in Gaza, we have worked for diplomatic progress towards peace, emphasised that there will have to be, ultimately, a two-state solution and argued that military action must be governed by international humanitarian law.
But while it is necessary to be clear about where we may differ from the Israeli government at any point, just as we differ from other friends from time to time, it is even more necessary to be clear about what is going on more broadly. We must draw attention to the way in which Israel, unique among nations, is so consistently treated differently from others. To consider why. And to see what the impact of that is on the Jewish community in Britain.
There are no BDS campaigns directed against Bashar Assad’s Syria, the regime guilty of killing more Muslims in living memory than any other. There are no student encampments urging university administrators to cut all ties with China given what is happening in Xinjiang or Hong Kong, or what happened in Tibet. I know of no efforts to organise marchers in their thousands to demand immediate action to stop the persecution of the Rohingya or Karen people by Myanmar’s Government. I may have missed it, but agitation to end the war in Sudan, or in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Mali or Ethiopia does not seem to energise our campuses.
And nowhere is there any suggestion, other than with Israel, that the errors or even crimes of a country’s leaders should necessitate the end of that country’s independent existence. No one argues that the state of Syria is illegitimate, or Myanmar should be dismantled or deconstructed. Understanding, and countering, the rise in antisemitism all around us is central to the wider struggle against extremism, division and hate and the defence of democracy, freedom and civilisation.
That is why the argument that the cry of “From the River to the Sea”, or calls for the globalisations of the intifada, or demands for victory for the resistance are not really antisemitic are so disingenuous. They are cries targeted against the reality of collective Jewish experience. Denials of the reality of collective Jewish suffering. Calls for the end of collective Jewish existence.”
It is worth reading his speech in full as it is very good. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/secretary-of-states-speech-on-anti-semitism
It is important to keep the BDS agenda which Gove outlined in mind as Fossil Free (they appear to have abandoned Book Workers 4 Palestine) have been very active in promoting it as an omni-cause in order to convince various authors to boycott the Hays Literature festival and any other literature festival that the investment firm Ballie Gifford sponsors. They have seemed to miss that without sponsorship many of the less known names would not get paid and indeed the festival might not happen. But hey, it is a great way for certain authors to virtue signal. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/23/nish-kumar-hay-festival-sponsor-baillie-gifford-israel-link/ or https://archive.ph/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/23/nish-kumar-hay-festival-sponsor-baillie-gifford-israel-link/
Despite all the wins on Gender Critical beliefs being protected, the Russell Group of Universities (this includes Durham, Cambridge, Birmingham UCL so basically the top 24 universities who have clubbed together for lobbying purposes) appear clueless. They first submitted a response about free speech on university campuses which first conflated Gender critical views with antisemitism and Islamophobia. Then they apologised and said they had accidentally put ‘gender critical’ when they meant ‘transphobic’ and this was a genuine mistake. It would interesting to know which writing programme they used where the words were automatically substituted and the lawyers etc missed it. It is the sort of behaviour that employment tribunals do not look favourably on, calling it harassment, and have resulted in large damages. I suspect the documents will go in future bundles of gender critical academics seeking to prove unlawful discrimination. https://x.com/ObhishekSaha/status/1793621570625434048
And because it is just breaking (substack by a prominent feminist Scottish author explaining the full significance
) the Literary Alliance Scotland have put out a leaflet on how to support trans people which goes far beyond the Equality Act 2010 and suggests blacklisting TERFs and not stocking their books because the mere presence of such literature can make trans people feel uncomfortable. Do they really think bookshops should not stock the Scottish author JK Rowling for example? Bookshops are businesses and JK Rowling is a hugely popular author. Or maybe they just mean those lesser known authors who dare to raise their heads above the parapet. In other words, this document advocates the shadow banning or BDS of gender critical authors to hit them where it counts in the interests of creating some sort of cotton wool cocoon for trans authors. This sort of censorship goes way beyond the remit of Literary Alliance and should not be permitted in a pluralistic democratic society. It is astonishing that a government funded agency thought it could put something like this out. This is the document: https://literaturealliancescotland.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Supporting-Trans-Writers_LiteratureAllianceScotland.pdf
There again, perhaps I should not have been surprised. It was revealed this week that Creative Scotland did in fact know they were funding a hard core porn film when they gave the £84k funding. Funding which they have since said was a mistake. When you consider what else they could have funded, it shows the ideological capture. https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/12719394/creative-scotland-controversial-show-sex-acts/
And speaking of Scotland, Police Scotland have handed its report on Paul Murrell, the husband of Nicola Sturgeon to the charging authority for further action over the embezzlement of funds. Further inquiries into Strugeon’s activities/knowledge of the missing funds remain ongoing. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/23/police-scotland-report-peter-murrells-embezzlement-snp/ or https://archive.ph/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/23/police-scotland-report-peter-murrells-embezzlement-snp/
Here it is the late May Bank Holiday, a time of county shows and if you are up in Islay the whisky and trad music festival or the Feis Ile in Gaelic. It is when the limited edition whiskys are released. There are problems with the ferries this year (surprise, surprise) but my youngest reports the Port Charlotte pub is doing a good line in music, food and whisky!
Enjoy Memorial Day Weekend in the States!
Currently, I am trying to get my manuscript finished but keep finding plot holes. One good question to ask yourself when doing editing is why would a character do x. What is the motivation? And then you have to make sure you foreshadow that in an oblique way so that it is not a surprise to the reader, but you don’t want to do a huge backstory dump aka two parlour maids discussing them upstairs scandalous behaviour as they dust the drawing room (a fave device of Edwardian playwrights). It will be off to my editor next week!
Paddy was not fond of the driving rain and spent a long time curled up in a ball after we went out for a walk. On Wednesday I made the mistake of thinking that the rain was clearing, only to be drenched halfway around. I felt for Sunak and his soaked suit.
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This is the Daily Mail article about the Russell Group likening GC beliefs to anti-Semitism https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13454217/British-universities-plunged-free-speech-row-Russell-Group-issues-statement-likening-gender-critics-anti-Semitism.html
This is the link to the substack which explains the ins and outs of the Literary Agency thing: https://open.substack.com/pub/magigibson/p/the-strange-case-of-terfs-fascists?r=8gufl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web