Scent Of A Woman
Update 547. The Larping Policeman. #BeMore Porcupine.
Happy St Patrick’s Day, everyone!
As we move into 2025 I am featuring, to start with, and in alphabetical order, those Readers’ Choices for best film ever that did not make the top seven ( see Update 500 for the top seven). Next up is a nomination from reader Siobhan, Scent Of A Woman (1992).
Charlie Simms is a student at Baird, an exclusive New England Preparatory School. Karen hires him to watch her uncle, retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, during Thanksgiving weekend. Charlie accepts so he can buy a plane ticket home to Oregon, for Christmas. He meets Frank, a highly decorated, blind Vietnam War veteran who has become a cantankerous and cynical alcoholic.
Charlie and student George Willis Jr. witness three classmates set up a prank to humiliate the headmaster, Mr. Trask. Afterward, Trask learns of the witnesses and unsuccessfully presses them to name the perpetrators. He privately offers Charlie virtually guaranteed acceptance to Harvard University if Charlie will inform on the other students. Trask schedules a meeting of the school disciplinary committee to take place on the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend.
Spoiler alert: The scene below is towards the end of the film.
Al Pacino is Frank Slade.
Chris O’Donnell is Charlie Simms.
James Rebhorn is Mr Trask.
June Squibb is Mrs Hunsaker.
Thanks to two wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.
UK - Melanie Newman
I reported on this tribunal case in the last update here:
Barrister Sarah Phillimore on her substack provides a very useful analysis of the first week of the tribunal.
What is beyond the lie becomes unreachable
The evidence from Melanie Newman's Tribunal hearing against the Met is alarming; a lie that is common currency in the criminal justice system is especially harmful
Mar 14, 2025
On Monday 10th March 2025 the tribunal hearing began to investigate Melanie Newman’s accusations against the Metropolitan Police Service. You can follow the live tweeting of Tribunal Tweets for more detailed background.
Broadly, Newman as a serving police officer, argues that the MPS had not merely allowed but encouraged discrimination against women who believe that sex is real and it matters, by routinely inviting misogynistic activists to ‘train’ the police that any belief in sex as a salient organising category in society was gross ‘transphobia’ and hate.
It seems like Newman did all she could to get the MPS to take her complaints seriously. It would not, and with by now bleak predictability, we fire up yet another Employment Tribunal. The only people happy about this are likely to be the lawyers, whose earnings are secured. The rest of us see simply another bleak carousel ride of discrimination and victimisation, dressed up as moral righteousness.
Ms Newman’s statement is grim reading
47. ‘I felt like an incognito Daniel in the lion’s den. I struggled to square the MPS’ demands that officers challenge comments in private WhatsApp conversations with the unchallenged public endorsement of hostility towards GC people I had witnessed. Given the applause and positive comments in the chat it seemed likely that the audience did not recognise what was said as discriminatory, perhaps because they were not aware of an alternative view or perhaps the speech accorded with their existing views. Either that, or they were acting with impunity. This was especially disconcerting as there were personnel from hate crime policy, HR, legal and CPIE present. I thought these staff would likely be aware of the Forstater ruling and of the societal divide over these issues. I also assumed intelligence staff present - such as Kit Moore - would likely be aware of the risk of public disorder and the need to calm rather than inflame community tensions. I felt that the event, and in particular painting GC women as a threat to trans safety, increased the risk to anyone openly GC. It was extraordinary to me that no-one else seemed to see that.’
Of particular note is an online session she attended where mention of Kellie Jay Keen aka Posie Parker, caused an outbreak of ‘hissing’ from the audience. One of the MPS advisers opined on social media that it was ‘hilarious’ to witness Ms Keen, being surrounded by an inflamed mob in New Zealand. The MPS witness in the tribunal after prodding was able to admit that it was ‘plausible’ that Ms Keen was afraid for her life at that moment.
Keen was afraid she would be crushed to death. One woman at the event had her skull fractured in an unprovoked assault by a man. The main instigators of the violence were trans identifying men.
The full piece is here:
EDI Jester deals with the case here:
UK - The Data Bill
This Labour Government are getting good at smuggling into bills very alarming proposals.
EDI Jester looked at the Employment Rights Bill here:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-154806286
I mentioned the Children’s Wellbeing Bill here:
We are, of course, awaiting a Conversion Practices Bill!!
Sex Matters in their latest newsletter (14 March) examine the Data (Use and Access) Bill.
Government removes safeguards from data bill
Last week and this week, the government pushed through an amendment to remove safeguards from the Data (Use and Access) Bill which would have required it to ensure that government-supplied personal data (including on sex) is kept accurate and clear for the purpose of digital identity verification services.
The government is arguing that “digital verification services can be used to prove sex or gender, in the same way that individuals can already prove their sex using their passport”. But we know that “passport sex” is not reliable or accurate.
Science Minister Chris Bryant, who was representing the government in the commons bill committee, appears not to know this. He said there’s no problem with feeding this unreliable data into the new digital identity services and allowing people to use it to prove their sex. He said “common sense” could be used to protect women’s services.
The bill will soon go back to the House of Lords for consideration and we are working to encourage peers – and government – to take the issue seriously.
If the government won’t fix it and Parliament won’t fix it, then as in the For Women Scotland case, the matter of whether it is lawful to create a national digital identity framework that cannot accurately verify sex will have to be determined by the courts.
Read the latest updates on digital identity
England - Waitrose Thought Police
For those not in the UK, Waitrose is a supermarket chain and part of the John Lewis Group. A long serving Waitrose employee is having disciplinary action taken against him for expressing perfectly lawful opinions on social media in his spare time!! Don’t these organisations ever talk to lawyers!? See Maya Forstater’s case and many subsequent cases. https://www.doyleclayton.co.uk/resources/news/forstater-v-cgd-europe-ors-maya-forstater-succeeds-employment-tribunal/
Chris Matthews in The Mail Online ( EXCLUSIVE Man accuses Waitrose of treating him 'like a criminal' as he faces the SACK from supermarket over 30 tweets including cartoon mocking trans ideology 15 March ) reports:
A Waitrose wine specialist is facing the sack for sharing a series of tweets including a cartoon joking about children naming 100 different genders, MailOnline can reveal.
Ben Woods, 41, has worked at the Henley branch of Waitrose in Oxfordshire for 25 years - since he was just 15 years old.
But now 'woke' bosses at the upmarket store have accused Ben of misconduct.
His tweets include a repost of a cartoon joking a child had failed a sexual education class for failing to name 100 different genders and comments about banning the Burqa and marriage between cousins.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Ben said Waitrose had 'destroyed' his life and made him suicidal by suspending him from the job he loved.
He said: 'I've given them my life. They are supposed to be a family-run company and the bastion of the high street who had a reputation for looking after their staff and being a good employer, which is what I used to think.
'Waitrose has been treating me like a criminal. I'm a Conservative. That's not illegal.'
MailOnline understands Waitrose believes it has fair and detailed people policies to safeguard its employees' welfare.
Wine specialist Ben Woods, 41, (pictured) is facing the sack from Waitrose's branch in Henley
Ben added: 'My employer is attacking me because of my personal opinions. It's a witch hunt. I've been thrown to the wolves to protect their image and their woke ideology.
'It's really upsetting. It looks like they are going to sack me. They just want to get me out of the way.
'I've been an exemplary employee. Twenty-five years of service. My customers loved me and I loved my job.'
The 41-year-old first joined Waitrose as a supermarket assistant in the wine department when he was 15.
Over the next 25 years, he worked his way up through the ranks and took multiple courses to become a wine specialist.
Yet his dream career has been stopped in its tracks after strangers complained about him to Waitrose.
Ben gained widespread recognition when X owner Elon Musk retweeted one of his tweets, which said: 'Raise your hand if you want a national inquiry into the grooming rape gang scandal.'
Musk's retweet was seen by 63 million people and propelled Ben's account into the limelight.
The full article is here:
Scotland - Dangerous Women?
One piece from the latest Women’s Rights Network newsletter ( 15 March). There was an International Women’s Day event at the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood and, apparently, the security personnel felt that women from WRN were dangerous women!!
Holy-Rude to Women!
Security at Holyrood singled out female women’s rights advocates for searches and confiscations
Following the Holyrood launch of WRN Scotland’s report into the abuses women had experienced in public hospitals, some of the group returned to the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday to hear a debate on Protecting Single Sex Spaces in the Public Sector and others attended an International Women’s Day event (IWD2025).
Security for women was tighter than usual, and included an intrusive search inside a WRN member’s trousers’ waistband. The women’s bags were searched thoroughly, which meant everything was taken out and examined, and their clothes were closely inspected.
One attendee reported, “My purple Women Won’t Wheesht t-shirt, which I was wearing under a jersey, was confiscated yesterday. The hem was the only thing visible but they still told me to take it off and get it back when I left.”
Despite the same items being worn by several members in Holyrood the week before without incident, Mary Howden was told she couldn't wear a second badge, and Jane McLenachan was asked to remove her WRN Scotland t-shirt.
Jane said, “Oh, the irony of attending @ScotParl to listen to a debate on women's rights to single-sex spaces and attend an event to celebrate the power of women's voices and have to remove my WRNScotland t-shirt, that was completely covered by a zipped-up cardigan, because it said women's rights.”
Robbie Travers said, “The disparity between men and women is a disgrace. The lovely ladies at @ForWomenScot yesterday were subjected to rather stringent pat-downs, yet I breezed through with the male officer saying, “I won’t take long pal.” and smiling. I also took a scarf in colours in without any issue.”
MSP Ash Regan covered the issue and asked, “Why are women attending a single-sex spaces debate and IWD2025 event at the Scottish Parliament still being treated like this? I think an apology would be appropriate.” Jane commented, “Yes, I would also like an apology ... and an explanation for the 'change in protocols' in a week.”
Dr Pam Gosal MSP posted, “This is absolutely disgraceful and not the first time this has happened.
“I have written to the Presiding Officer to ask for clarity. These women were in Parliament to watch a debate on single-sex spaces, held by my party, and a roundtable I sponsored on International Women's Day.
“It’s shocking that these women were treated like this.”
Footage of the proceedings seems to show more women in the public gallery than SNP, Green and LibDem members attending. We will cover any response published.
The States - Jamie Reed
I previously covered Jamie Reed’s powerful submissions to a Missouri Committee in the last update here:
Graham Linehan ( aka Glinner) writing on the Glinner Update feels that this may be a turning point in the fight against so called ‘gender affirming care.’ I am not so hopeful but here’s hoping - it was certainly very powerful. All thoughts gratefully received.
"The protocol itself is homophobic"
A Joseph Welch Moment for gender medicine
Mar 15, 2025
Every now and then, someone shatters an ideological consensus with a single act of moral courage. The example I always reach for came in the summer of 1954, when attorney Joseph Welch reacted in revulsion to Joe McCarthy essentially doxxing one of his colleagues with the words “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”.
The moment broke not just McCarthy but the spell he had cast over his countrymen. He went from the most feared politician in America to a powerless, disgraced figure in less than six months and his final years were spent in obscurity.
Now, in 2024, we may have just witnessed a similar moment in the fight over gender medicine.
At a hearing for Assembly Bill 104, Jamie Reed—formerly a trainer of Missouri judges and hospital divisions in gender medicine—delivered testimony that could mark a turning point. She wasn’t some outsider. She wasn’t a longtime critic. She was part of the system, a believer, someone who had actively trained others in the practices she was now exposing. And what she revealed was devastating.
The full piece is here:
Woman: Adult Human Female
Excellent round up from Georgia’ O’Keefe mainly of news from the States but a handful of pieces from elsewhere.
Couple of typos:
Michelle Dewberry is a GB news ‘presenter’ as opposed to ‘prisoner’ 😁
I presume it was an error that ‘preferred pronouns’ started to be used for ‘Jessica’ Roberts in the middle of that particular piece.
Endpieces
I’m joining in again 😃
From Liz
From Tenaciously
From Dusty
The Larping….sorry….Laughing Policeman
#BeMorePorcupine
#EndGenderAffirmingCare
#AdultHumanFemale
#LetWomenSpeak
#GrassrootsArmy
#FightForFreeSpeech
#ByeByeStonewall
#XYYouAreAGuy
#LarpersKeepOut
Dear readers
Heads up that there is a Mr Menno premiere today at 21.00 GMT about Let Women Speak in Aberdeen.
See some of you there I hope!
Dusty
The unscrupulous sods tried to sneak sex self-ID through here in NZ, too, but it was paused after an eagle-eyed politician spotted it buried amongst something no one was supposed to look closely at. It got resurrected a couple of years later, and passed into law then, but not before some public awareness had been raised. Still, I would say most Kiwis don't know we sex self-ID in law, and don't understand what it is, or the ramifications of it, even when they're told we have it.