She is Lana Turner!

Update 487. Free Speech Special. #BeMorePorcupine

Dec 08, 2024

My Monday has now become taken up with other things, so I am going off the blocks early with this next update. A relatively short one for a change!!

A hooker cut to look like Lana Turner is still a hooker.

She is Lana Turner.

Before we get on to some wonderful Christmas films suggested by reader, Tenaciously Terfin for our Christmas Season, I’m just weighing in with one more slightly off piste one from me. One of my favourite detective films, LA Confidential ( and great book by Elmore Leonard) just happens to be set at Christmas. Did the gang of black youths really carry out the Nite Owl Massacre? What is going on? Who is taking over the LA drug trade?

In the scene below:

Guy Pearce is Lieutenant Edmund Exley

Kevin Spacey is Sergeant Jack Vincennes

Paolo Seganti is Johnny Stompanato

Brenda Bakke is Lana Turner.

Don’t forget, please get me your three favourite films of all time and Update 500 will just involve film clips from the top 5 films according to your votes. Please rank them 1,2 and 3. Plus endpieces from Liz and me ( get thinking, Liz!!). And absolutely no gender madness - just for this update - you can briefly imagine that it was all a terrible dream!! 😎 Thanks to those who have already voted.

Free Speech

Lord Justice Sedley in Redmond-Bate v Director of Public Prosecutions [1999] EWHC Admin 733:

'Free speech includes not only the inoffensive but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the provocative provided it does not tend to provoke violence. Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having. What Speakers' Corner (where the law applies as fully as anywhere else) demonstrates is the tolerance which is both extended by the law to opinion of every kind and expected by the law in the conduct of those who disagree, even strongly, with what they hear.

From the condemnation of Socrates to the persecution of modern writers and journalists, our world has seen too many examples of state control of unofficial ideas.'

A very, very interesting development on the Free Speech front! All thoughts on how this has happened gratefully received! Is this the result of the challenge by the Free Speech Union? Looks like it to me!

Susanna Siddell in GB News ( Victory over woke as new laws protecting free speech at universities set to be introduced 08 December) reports:

Labour has started to set plans in motion to protect free speech at universities across the nation in January.

However, the policy is expected to be “watered down” from its original state when it was first introduced under the Conservatives, The Times reports.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson endured substantial criticism in August after she announced that the Act would be put on hold while variations of the policy would be considered.

The policy was first put together in an attempt to strengthen current laws by placing a duty on Britain’s universities and student unions so that they would promote and protect free speech on campus.

Bridget Phillipson© GB News

If they failed to abide by the law, the public institutions could be sued by affected individuals or groups.

Additionally, the Act established a new role: the director of free speech within the Office for Students (OfS), which serves as the independent regulator of higher education in England.

So far, the director’s role has included handling complaints, as well as penalising guilty universities or students unions for infringing the Act.

The “watering down” aspect might suggest that cancelled speakers to universities cannot seek compensation.

Officials reportedly said that they were shocked at the level of backlash the Government received.

It was announced that the policy would be paused for a period of time after it was passed in Parliament.

Academics and high-profile campaigners - such as Stephen Fry - spoke out against the law being culled.

It is understood that the process will continue now, although discussions about future amendments will be ongoing.

Oxford University© GB News

The Government is contemplating whether to remove the “statutory tort” part of the law, which is in place to support those who had felt that their free speech had been impacted to launch civil claims.

The Free Speech Union has decided to bring a judicial review in the New Year to challenge the Government’s decision to pause the Act.

They have claimed that Phillipson acted “unlawfully” by removing protections for “people of certain protected groups”, such as “gender-critical persons or those who espouse minority political views”.

They have added that the Education Secretary was not permitted to pause the Act through a written ministerial statement alone, and that “any repeal of the legislation is a matter for Parliament not the executive”.

The judge permitted the appeal, declaring that it was in the “public interest” to resolve the matter.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/victory-over-woke-as-new-laws-protecting-free-speech-at-universities-set-to-be-introduced/ar-AA1vtI46?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=6c49dede896c4257998115cccce54e53&ei=31

Helen Webberley

I reported here on the case of Re J, which involved Gender GP, and where the expert was concerned that the level of testosterone prescribed might have led to the “risk of ‘sudden death’ due to thromboembolic disease, a thickening of the blood.”

https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/the-french-lieutenants-woman-part?utm_source=publication-search

Great news from EDI Jester via Straits Times that Helen Webberley of Gender GP infamy has been banned by the Singapore Ministry of Health from providing puberty blockers and any other outpatient services in Singapore. Let’s hope this finally stops this evil woman from providing such ‘services’.

Who Are The Women of the Year?

I reported on the BBC Women’s List in the last update.

Michael Deacon in The Telegraph provides an alternative list which includes JK Rowling, Rosie Duffield and The Darlington Five ( sorry, the piece is behind a paywall so I can’t quote it at this stage - if anyone has an archived version, please let us have it). Good choices, Mr Deacon. I would have added Kellie-Jay Keen and I could have added many more. Please let us have your Women of the Year choices in the comments 😀

Thanks to Barbara for now supplying an archived copy which you will find in the comments. 😄

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/07/ignore-bbc-woke-drivel-the-real-women-of-the-year-list/

A Different Advent Calendar

One piece from the Women’s Rights Network’s latest newsletter (08 December).

Advent Flash Fiction

Flash Fiction here.

Each day of Advent (1-24 December) a new door will be opened to reveal a short story, poem or song. These have been kindly donated by talented writers from the Women’s Rights Network, the EDI Jester’s Warrior Teacher programme, and Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT).

Access to the stories is free but we hope that, in the spirit of giving, readers might consider making a small contribution to the Women’s Rights Network or a charity/cause of your choice. Please feel free to share the calendar widely with friends and family.