King Lear
Update 852. Respect My Sex Special. #BeMorePorcupine.
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Onwards with the Dusty,Nicola, Moodie and Rex Film Series 😀 Please keep the suggestions for films coming in but please check the list first which I am updating as we go along. Please send suggestions in the comments here at this link:
King Lear is a 1971 British film adaptation of the Shakespeare play directed by Peter Brook and starring Paul Scofield. Set in pre-Roman Britain, the play depicts the consequences of King Lear's love-test, in which he divides his power and land according to the praise of his daughters.
When we were studying Lear at school, the film came to the local cinema. My three mates and me persuaded the English teacher to let us have the afternoon off to go and see it. Very early on in the film a scuffle broke out between us. I can’t remember quite how this happened but Steve ended up upside down with his legs in the air minus his shoes and socks. A flashlight swiftly came down the aisle and we were ejected. Somehow we managed to cope with the English teacher’s questions about the film the next day!!
Many years later I watched the whole film!
In the clip:
Paul Scofield is Lear
Anne-Lise Gabold is Cordelia
Tom Fleming is The Earl of Kent
Thanks to three wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.
Protect Sex Not Gender Identity
Thanks to Liz Parker for sending me this very long piece by ISBI3 , otherwise known as Allesandra Asteriti. I haven’t read it yet but EDI Jester has and he recommends it:
UK - 07 May Elections
We have, of course, looked at the main parties in the Scottish and Welsh Elections. I have suggested questions for your local candidates in local elections. Here are the suggested questions again:
Following the Supreme Court judgment in the case of For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers, can you confirm that you will try to make sure that [ name of council] will ensure that all women’s single sex spaces in public facilities are for biological women only and that no trans identifying men are playing in local women’s sport at all levels of sport?
Can you confirm that you will try to ensure that there will be no teaching of gender identity in local public schools and no use of inappropriate materials with regard to sex education in those schools? See the Protect and Teach website:
https://protectteach.co.uk/
I appreciate that this is outside your remit but can you let me know if you agree that the proposed clinical trial of puberty blockers for children should not proceed?
Can you confirm that you agree that the local police should be concentrating on solving real crimes and not pursuing people because of supposedly offensive online comments? Would you agree with the repeal of all hate crime legislation?
Sex Matters discuss the issues that are important for us Terfs:
Sex matters in local elections
Apr 15, 2026
On Thursday 7th May 2026, voters across Scotland, Wales and England will head to the polls in a major set of local and devolved elections. This includes 5,014 council seats across 136 English local authorities, six directly elected mayors in England, and the Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections.
The work of local authorities touches us all. They run and commission services that usually include social care, leisure centres, education, libraries, community healthcare and public health. Most people will use a local-authority service at some time.
Local authorities are major employers. The Local Government Association reports that local authorities in England alone employ close to 600,000 people, not counting police or fire services (with which local authorities work closely). The total local authorities headcount in Wales is 140,000 and in Scotland it’s 260,000. That’s more than a million people directly affected by local-authority workplace policies. Other sources report up to two million employees across the UK.
Yet many local authorities have failed to amend their policies in line with the law. Council-run buildings generally offer toilets marked Male and Female, but most also have some form of “transitioning at work” policy that tells men who identify as women that they are entitled to use the women’s facilities, and vice versa. This affects both employees and visitors, who may be confronted by a male in the women’s toilets. Female employees may know this, and face the prospect every day; female visitors probably will not know until it happens.
The same is happening in swimming pools and leisure centres. The shocking case of Miranda Newsom, barred from Southwark Council’s leisure centres when she objected to a trans-identifying man in the women’s changing room of her local gym, shows how councils are still pandering to the men’s demands instead of complying with the law.
Traumatised women who flee male violence still face the prospect of a man being given a place in a refuge alongside them, because local authorities are claiming that the law is not clear and that trans-identifying men have to be treated as if they are women.
Many men are also uncomfortable with trans-identifying women being allowed into male spaces.
Local authorities are still “waiting for guidance”
In July 2025, Sex Matters wrote to every local authority in England, Scotland and Wales asking for assurance that they were complying with the law. We asked for assurances in four areas:
Use of toilets and changing rooms at work. Every staff member needs to know that facilities are provided based on biological sex, as specified by the 1992 Workplace Regulations. Policing the facilities is not necessary. Disseminating a clear policy is.
Toilets and changing rooms in buildings operated by the council which are used by the public, such as leisure centres, libraries and day centres. Staff and service users need to know the council policy, which cannot allow mixed-sex usage if a toilet or changing room is marked as Male/Female, Men/Women, or any other signage indicating sex.
Transitioning at work. A statement to the effect that transitioning employees may use the facilities they feel comfortable with, or which match their gender identity, is likely to be unlawful, since it results in single-sex facilities becoming mixed-sex.
Education. Schools and colleges should follow school premises regulations, and the Supreme Court has made clear that single-sex provision must be on the basis of biological sex.
The most common response was that they were “waiting for guidance”. Some said they were compliant with the law, but did not confirm what this meant – this gives no confidence. A few said they were reviewing, but refused to disclose any outcomes; one of these later said there was no policy update to share.
The full piece is here:
I already looked at the policies I could find about the Scottish National Party and couldn’t find any that helped us Terfs. They have just released their Manifesto as reported by Wings. I don’t think I need do any further work!!!
Happy Anniversary
Posted on April 16, 2026 by Rev. Stuart Campbell
It was exactly one year ago today that the Supreme Court delivered its judgment in the case of For Women Scotland Vs The Scottish Ministers, a judgment which has still not been implemented by the Scottish or UK governments, so it was quite bold of the SNP to choose it as the launch date for their manifesto.
The judgment (which the SNP are in fact still fighting in court) is not referenced in the document and the phrases “women’s rights” and “single-sex” do not appear anywhere in it, although it does say “We are committed to upholding and protecting the human rights of trans people as far as possible within our powers and we will do all we can to ensure that trans people’s identities are recognised and respected”.
So, y’know, more of the same to come for the next five years.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/happy-anniversary/
In case you are having difficulty sleeping their manifesto is here:
https://www.snp.org/manifesto/
UK - The For Women Scotland Judgment - One Year On
Baroness Claire Fox on the Academy of Ideas substack discusses organisations still prevaricating including video links:
Supreme Court victory, one year on: why the reluctance to implement the ruling?
Even a judgement from the highest court in the land has not been enough to change policies in both public- and private-sector workplaces.
Apr 15, 2026
Exactly a year ago, I wrote this to celebrate the amazing victory at the Supreme Court. We all hoped this would clarify, once and for all, that a woman is indeed an adult human female, and that single-sex provision would never be challenged again.
However, the magnificent For Women Scotland trio – and all those grassroots organisations that had fought so hard for that win, suffering the indignity of cancelation, demonisation and threats to livelihoods and sometimes their lives for daring to change trans ideology – were not able to retire and bask in victory. Because on the first birthday of that triumph, it’s been a case of two steps forward, one (and a half) steps back. The fight is still on.
I discussed this with Penny Dee on her excellent podcast:
We also discussed this issue at Battle of Ideas North recently – listen here:
On Saturday, I attended and spoke at one of the many ‘#One Year Later – we’re back’ protests organised by #199 Days Later. With its apt slogan ‘#TickTock’, it was an inspiring show of solidarity and determination to thousands of us who are furious that the Labour Government - which parrots compliance with the clarification of the equality law – continues to scandalously drag its feet on issuing and implementing Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance.
The minister for women and equalities, Bridget Phillipson, has used every ‘the dog ate my homework’ excuse going. The former chair of the EHRC, Baroness Falkner, believes Phillipson’s tardiness in publishing the guidance is because she is scared of trans rights activists (TRAs) in her party and in the unions. Disgracefully, in response, a ‘Labour source’ responded with Labour’s go-to accusation of stoking up ‘culture wars’ to close down criticism. Yesterday, we were told that Phillipson has asked the EHRC to ‘tone down’ the guidance to make it ‘more inclusive’, with a commitment to publish once parliament resumes after prorogation in May. Critics think this is just more delaying tactics and undue political interference.
Smears about tone and culture wars won’t distract us from the facts. The consequence of the government letting the Code of Practice gather dust has been a belligerent institutional refusal to change policies to comply with the law. Instead, NGOs, HR departments, public-sector organisations from the NHS to universities, charities, trade unions, private-sector EDI managers, etc, have boasted of their continued commitment to trans inclusion, at the expense of women.
This was the theme of many of the short, three-minute speeches at the Manchester #OneYearLater protest. One very striking example was given by a former police detective and co-founder of Police SEEN UK, Charlotte Cadden, and she has kindly given us permission to reproduce her speech below. You can watch my speech on the film below as well. In the meantime, despite all these challenges, let’s acknowledge that the reason the UK is dubbed TERF ISLAND is precisely because bottom-up activism has changed the conversation on sex and gender, and I have no doubt that the sheer dogged and dedication of campaigners will prevail in the end.
Happy Supreme Court Ruling anniversary!
Claire
The full piece is here:
Meanwhile Kemi Badenoch has attacked Ms Phillipson and told Tory Councils that they must make sure that they are complying with the law. Well done, Kemi but I would point out that the long court challenge of For Women Scotland began under a Tory Government who could have stepped in and clarified what the law meant!
Daniel Martin in The Telegraph ( Tory councils ordered to enforce single-sex spaces 16 April) reports:
Kemi Badenoch has ordered Tory councils to enforce women’s right to single-sex spaces on the first anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman.
The Conservative Party leader has told Tory-led councils to draw up plans to ban biological men from women’s toilets and changing rooms, and said that if she were to become prime minister, she would force all local authorities to do so.
The Government has yet to publish guidance on protecting women’s spaces, 12 months after the historic ruling that trans women are not women for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010.
Writing for The Telegraph (below), Mrs Badenoch said women were “paying the price” for Sir Keir Starmer’s “dithering” on women’s rights and accused him of “sticking his fingers in his ears” over the Supreme Court judgment.
The full piece is here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/ddbc81b4d5b0db5d
If Ms Phillipson keeps to her word and puts the guidance before Parliament after the 07 May elections, all those organisations who have been saying they are waiting for the guidance ( not that they needed to, of course) will have run out of excuses and we will have to assess what happens then!!!! I note that the Equality and Human Rights Commission has power to take legal action against an organisation. Just saying!! 😊
Ireland - Freedom Of The Press
Many readers may be aware of massive protests in Ireland over Government fuel taxes. Niamh Uí Bhriain in Gript News reports:
Credit: Gript
No Minister will dictate how Gript reports protests
April 14, 2026
For the record and speaking plainly: it will never, ever be the case that a Cabinet Minister, or a regulatory body funded by the state, will dictate how Gript Media reports on fuel protests or on any other matter.
We can see Minister Patrick O’Donovan’s particular assertion that he would be asking Coimisiún na Meán [ Ireland’s media regulator] to review the media coverage of the fuel protests to see if it was “balanced or was it skewed” for what it is: a threat to media which doesn’t toe the government line. To which we say, bring it on.
George Orwell famously said that “freedom of the press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose”, but this latest threat would go even further. We need to defend our freedom to report on the news, not merely to offer comment and analysis. The threat to that freedom is, of course, especially writ large for independent media and for all journalists who reject bias by omission or think that they need to be mindful to the point of self-censorship for fear of rebuke from a formidable political establishment, one of whom has now threatened to deploy an already-controversial state regulator as an attack dog.
Bias by omission is a particularly invidious form of manipulation which seeks not just to distort information but to deny that a particular perspective or certain actions even exist at all. Ensuring the kind of censorious consensus which has caused such huge disconnect between the people and the establishment is challenged is why Gript was founded. It’s why we exist. It’s why we reject the idea that Coimisiún na Meán would be given powers to adjudicate at the behest of a Cabinet Minister whether we were in breach of an entirely subjective measure of balance because we interviewed protesters, for example.
That’s an especially pertinent example, because there are many topics – ranging from immigration to energy to fuel protests to parental rights – where Gript, in addition to some local outlets, were the first media platforms to give voice to people who held perfectly reasonable opinions or raised entirely valid objections but were being ignored by the mainstream media. It will never, ever be the case that we ask Minister O’Donovan or any State body for permission to do so.
Journalists not only have a right to cover news, they have an obligation and a duty to do so. Protecting that right protects a free society.
Not only did the Minister say that he thought a review of coverage of fuel protests would be a role for the media regulator, he wanted an examination of the coverage on social media too. Of course he did. Nothing bothers the political establishment more than the ability of ordinary people to make their voices heard on a platform that isn’t controlled or censored by the elites. Apart, perhaps, from the additional ability said social media platforms gives to protesters to organise.
“One of the things that I will be doing is examining it as well from a media and coverage point of view. Particularly social media, and particularly from a balance point of view,” O’Donovan said.
That any high-ranking politician felt confident to make such a thinly-veiled threat is indicative not just of how arrogant and out-of-touch our TDs [ Irish MPs] are, but how deeply ingrained the instinct to shut down free speech is, particularly when protesters are successfully calling calamitous government policies to account.
But the Minister responsible for Communications and Media, has – most likely inadvertently – given a very significant insight into how the political elites view media freedom, and the importance they place on state control of the narrative.
He fretted that not enough airtime was being given to people who agreed with the fuel protests but objected to the protesters’ methods. “I didn’t see too many of those people get air time. A lot of hospital appointments were missed. I didn’t hear too many doctors being asked how things were in particular hospitals,” he said.
But that’s not true. Government TDs used claims that hospital appointments were being missed to criticise the protests and demand blockades were lifted – even though the protesters, and sometimes those attending medical appointments, said efforts was made to accommodate their passage and that lanes were left clear for ambulances. Stories that were seen as attacks on the character of blockade leaders were widely published. Comments made by Simon Harris that the protests were “a sinister and despicable attack on our economy and our society” or threats from the Minister for Justice regarding vehicles being seized and the Army being deployed were covered everywhere.
The Government, pedestals at the ready, already have permanent access to the national media, including the publicly-funded airwaves, at the drop of a hat, and have every opportunity to argue their case, defend their position, attack the actions of others, and make their spin heard. They have the biggest mic in the country. Yet one of their Ministers wants a review of how the media covers a fuel protest which has galvanised the nation.
His remarks should also bring fresh attention to the purpose of Coimisiún na Méan, a media regulator that is seen as being in receipt of unprecedented amounts of taxpayer funds because it is primed to act as an attack dog for the EU and its Digital Services Act against the social media platforms which have done so much to restore balance to the public narrative across a whole range of issues. They spent an eye-watering €30 million last year funding media – including directly funding ‘diverse and inclusive’ reporting.
The National Union of Journalists described Minister O’Donovan’s comments as “sinister and deeply disturbing”, adding that “the media minister is not a bystander but is in a position to influence the allocation of funds, the approval of commercial radio licenses and overall policy on broadcasting.”
They are entirely correct in that regard, but the NUJ has all-too-often been sadly lacking in defending press freedom, usually when the platform under attack is outside the groupthink which is a scourge on modern journalism and provides no threat to either Government or Opposition usually happily singing from the same hymn sheet – while the journalists who are meant to be holding them to account jostle for lucrative media advisory positions.
The NUJ seemed strangely muted, for example, when it was revealed last year that An Garda Síochána sought to force Twitter (now X) to hand over Gript Media’s private messages – because ‘Gript published footage, on X, of altercations between Gardaí and members of the public over the opening of an asylum centre in Newtownmountkennedy’.
Media freedom will be defended by journalists who continue to report fearlessly. Thank you for making Gript a platform committed to challenging the consensus.
https://gript.ie/ui-bhriain-no-minister-will-dictate-how-gript-reports-protests/?ct=t(EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_5_17_2022_13_19_COPY_04)
Stop Press:
I understand that Mr O’Donovan has now backed off but the piece above serves as an excellent explanation of the position of Gript News. Thank you, Gript News!!
Europe - A Round Up
Róisín Michaux will be doing a weekly round up of mainly Terfy news across Europe, especially looking at the European Union. In due course, these will be going behind a paywall.
The Weekly Peak
Your first regular roundup of the best and worst of Euro-woke-gender wang
Apr 14, 2026
Hi. This is a new newsletter product from me.
For a subscription, you’ll get one of these newsletters every week, in which I’ll pick the highlights of all the weird and woeful — and largely downlow — gender shenanigans from the EU machine and from around Europe.
I’ll keep it free for a while so that you can decide if it’s useful to you.
I will be focussing particular attention on the democracy-destroying NGO-quango-bureaucracy triad that keeps the money flowing to some of the worst causes, and the most faked-consensuses, on the continent. I’ll also cover anything relevant coming out of international fora such as the UN, the CoE, the ECHR, the CJEU… and all the rest of the acronymphs.
All of it will come with my perspective as someone who cares deeply about the safety and dignity of women and kids, lesbians and gays, good men, the EU single market, countering the hivemind, and the separation of mosque and state. And above all, the ability to talk about these things without getting socially sanctioned or fired.
In fact, the reason I decided to launch this weekly news service is because I got fired from my job as a freelance contractor (for the European Commission) because of my opinions on gender identity orthodoxy. So I have a lot of free time on my hands. I also have a lot of ….energy… as your typical scorned ex-employee tends to have. My TERF opinion on the number of human sexes that exist (2) was considered so despicable that I had to be fired with zero notice.
So while I await advice from my fancy (ruthless, dead-eyed, take-no-prisoners) lawyer on what I can and cannot say about the profound institutional capture that led to me getting booted — watch this space — I decided to get this project up and running because what this place needs is a full-time European TERF correspondent.
You might be like me: absolutely bewildered by the mainstream media’s unwillingness to report on certain subjects for fear of upsetting the suffocatingly conformist administrative and civil society elite. You might be fed up of the state-subsidised mob who act as their foot soldiers. In which case, hit subscribe. If you’re feeling curious and wealthy, you can even commission me to investigate something, and I’ll do it if it fits my thematic convictions. How’s that for innovation? Journalism is dead, long live journalism etc..
The full piece is here:
https://peaked.substack.com/p/the-weekly-peak?publication_id=1053023&r=1v403b
Australia - Lesbian Action Group
We recently covered the excellent initial victory by LAG. The judgment is here. I intend to read it and will report back:
https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2026/2026fca0432
The States - California - Conversion Therapy Bill
As most readers will know the idea of people trying to convert gays and lesbians is vanishingly rare if not non-existent and probably, if it does occur, already illegal. These kind of bills are, in reality, an attempt to stop therapists and others discussing things with confused children and young people. LGB Alliance USA report on opposition to a conversion therapy bill in California and an attempt to meet the notorious Senator Wiener:
PRESS RELEASE: LGB, Democrats, and Educator Coalitions Ask Senator Wiener: Will You Meet with Us?
SB 934 doesn’t protect us from “Conversion Therapy.”
Apr 14, 2026
LGB Alliance USA joins DIAGdemocrats, the LGB Courage Coalition, and California Teachers Supporting Gender Non-Conforming Youth is requesting a meeting to talk to California State Senator Scott Wiener about SB 934! While Sen. Wiener claims that SB 934 protects youth from “conversion therapy,” we believe the bill will punish therapists that offer honest, helpful, and lgb-friendly psychotherapy for gender-distressed patients.
Here is our press release:
Talking of DIAG Democrats, Kara Dansky has joined their board of directors`;
The States - Massachusetts - Women Shouting At Women!
Kara also provides her regular mini round up and here is one extract:
A group of Massachusetts women recently addressed the Massachusetts Women’s Commission about the importance of protecting the sex-based rights of women and girls. TERFs are used to being ignored by official bodies, but we’re less accustomed to being yelled at by women’s groups. That’s exactly what happened. According to the group MA4Women:
Chairwomen, Mary-dith Tuitt, said that she had heard testimonies that were ‘phobic,’ an “attack” on women and girls, and unworthy of MCSW support. She implied that the five women who testified were not “humane,” “civil,” or “respectful,” and that their remarks were threatening. Tuitt acknowledged that the speakers had a right to their “opinions” and “beliefs,” but that perhaps their arguments shouldn’t be publicly expressed because they projected “negativity onto others.” Concluding her remarks, Tuitt said: “Shame on us, shame on humanity, for turning our backs on each other and not being humane…. Stop knocking us [the MCSW] down.”
The Commission’s mandate is “promoting equal rights and opportunities for women and girls in the Commonwealth.” So much for that.
The full piece is here:
The States - Florida - Under The Radar
Florida State Governor, Ron DeSantis has attempted to drive woke ideology out of universities but New College in Florida is still promoting it, as it were, under the radar as reported by Dr Colin Wright on Reality’s Last Stand:
At New College of Florida, Gender Studies Quietly Continues
Activist ideology masquerading as scholarship persists, giving the school’s board the opportunity to act.
Apr 15, 2026
When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pledged to rein in “woke indoctrination” in public education, he wasn’t bluffing. Over the last several years, he and the legislature have pursued an aggressive legal and governance strategy to push far-left ideology out of taxpayer-funded institutions. The justification is straightforward: the people have the right to demand that public universities not become subsidized activist factories.
Laws can close academic departments and impose subject-area bans on paper, but campuses are still run day-to-day by faculty and administrators who may not be interested in what voters want. When progressive activists dominate a university, they will inevitably try to circumvent the law.
Such efforts appear to be happening at New College today. Though the Gender Studies department was shut down at the Sarasota school, and Florida law forbids the use of state and federal funds to “promote or engage in political or social activism,” faculty continue to oversee work promoting activist pseudoscience, treat opposition to explicit content in K-12 libraries as equivalent to Nazism, and celebrate “queer bibliographies” and “resistance” to elected officials.
Consider a 2025 undergraduate thesis covering the “Evolution of Gender” in drama and fashion. Nova Myhill, a professor of English and Theater, Dance & Performance Studies at New College, sponsored the thesis, which explicitly lists “Gender Studies” as its “Area of Concentration.”
At a glance, the thesis appears to be a broad, benign survey of gender-expression conventions through fashion in the context of theater. But it quickly advances to extreme activist views of sex and biology. The opening section, titled “Our Idea of Sex,” portrays sex in humans not as “concrete” or “permanent” but as something “closer to being reflections of societal preconceptions than anything based only on ‘biology.’” It claims that the idea that humans have two sexes became widespread only “around the mid-1700s” due to “changing values of what was important within identity, class and gender beginning to take the utmost importance when using clothing as a symbol or sign of identity.” It even asserts that “there was a time when we conceived of the human race as only ‘one-sex’,” and that our “re-envisioning of the sexes” during the Enlightenment into two categories—male and female—actually “led to the differentiation and specific designation of reproductive organs; the penis, testicles, ovaries, and uterus.”
If this were the only undergraduate thesis at New College promoting such radical activist views, it might be dismissed. It is not.
The full piece is here:
Endpiece
From Petal
#BeMorePorcupine
#KeepTerfing
#BoycottBootsTheChemist
#RepealTheGRA
#AdultHumanFemale
#LetWomenSpeak
#LGB✂️TQ
#BeMoreDissident
#HoldTheLine
#StopTheBlockersTrial
#NeverSurrender
#NeverForget
#TruthWillTriumph
#WeWillWin
I sometimes sit and imagine life pre internet which for all its faults has given us access to a wide range of news which we’d know nothing about otherwise. Where would we be without all the citizen journalists and the likes of Gript News? I think we’d have slept walked into 1984 and gender ideology would still be thriving and unquestioned.
So it’s time for a day of celebration for all the independent journalists. 👏 well done all and thanks Dusty.
Cheers dusty , I’d forgotten about that , pipes and kilts and a cracking voice 😍
I canny mind if I’ve said before that I’d done the kilt walk ( a marathon wearing kilts funnily enough)
I was flagging but managed to get myself behind a group of young men with their tartan swaying and I managed to finish , amazingly 😂