Sliding Doors Part 1
Update 377 General Election Special
I am splitting this update into two parts, dear readers, to make it more digestible.
No 38 in the Leading Female Season is Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors.
Helen Quilley ( Gwyneth Paltrow) gets fired from her job. As she leaves the office building, she drops an earring in the lift, and a man picks it up for her. She rushes for her train on the London Underground but misses it as the train doors are closed, but the film then rewinds, and the scene is replayed except that now she manages to board the train. The film continues, alternating between the two storylines in which different events ensue.
In the storyline in which she boards the train, Helen sits alongside James (John Hannah), who had picked up her earring in the lift, on the Underground, and they strike up a conversation that cheers her up. She gets home to catch her boyfriend, Gerry (John Lynch), in bed with his American ex-girlfriend, Lydia (Jeanne Tripplehorn).
In the storyline in which Helen misses the train, she is further delayed by an attempted mugging, which leads to a hospital visit. She arrives home after Lydia has left, and she remains oblivious ( for the time being) to Gerry's infidelity.
Thanks as ever to two wonderful readers for suggesting pieces.
Terf Month
June is not Pride Month on this substack but Terf Month. Please get your nominations in for great gender critical speeches to feature during Terf Month. To further whet your appetite, here is the wonderful and much missed Magdalen Berns - this includes the famous quote: “I’d rather be rude than a f******g liar.” 😎:
Be More Porcupine
With the General Election coming upon us suddenly ( see below), and following on from the Endpiece in the last update, perhaps a slogan for us Terfs ( facing the Gender Leopard) could be BE MORE PORCUPINE 😎
In case you missed it:
General Election
The general election has been called for 04 July. Seems far too early to me!!
Anyway, in due course, I will be analysing the manifestos. Personally, I am fighting for the Party of Women but all thoughts gratefully received ( of course).
Sex Matters have gone off the blocks. This is really useful though I have e-mailed them to suggest they include the repeal of non-crime hate crimes and making it clear that ‘misgendering’ should not be an offence ( as previously proposed by Labour). After sending my e-mail I also noted that the list does not call for stopping the teaching of gender identity in schools and sorting out Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) in general. All thoughts on this also gratefully received.
Sex Matters writes:
We are calling for the next government to STAND UP FOR SINGLE-SEX SERVICES.
Politicians must be brave enough to say that they know women are adult females. Otherwise how can they be trusted to defend women’s rights or child safeguarding?
Calling on politicians to stand up for single-sex services is not a political “gotcha”. This is a serious, real-life issue, especially for women and girls, and we want to make sure that every candidate hears about it on the doorstep.
Any party that aspires to be in government must be clear that it won’t undermine women’s rights by bringing in gender self-ID, whether explicitly or by stealth, and that it won’t destroy single-sex services by saying trans-identifying people can use the opposite sex’s facilities or compete in the opposite sex’s sports.
These are our 10 asks:
Ensure clear language, rules and data wherever sex matters
Implement the Cass Report and stop transitioning children in schools
Drop dangerous plans to criminalise so-called “conversion therapy”
Make the Equality Act clear
Guarantee women’s right to female-only spaces
Say no to legal gender self-ID
Record sex accurately in healthcare and the criminal justice system
Fix the sex data muddle with modern data systems
Protect women’s sports
Make regulators do their job and protect everyone’s rights.
You can read more about our asks for the next government here.
Please share our campaign messages with #StandUpForSingle SexServices #GE2024. You can also put our banner on your social media.
We will be sending out more resources, including window posters and questions to ask candidates.
Party of Women
Oh boy, this will be fun 😊
Rosie Duffield
This is bloody outrageous!! W***ers!
Daniel Martin in The Telegraph ( Rosie Duffield snubbed from Labour’s election launch in her own county 23 May) reports:
It is believed Ms Duffield only found out about the event after people messaged her to ask why she was not there - Jeff Gilbert for The Telegraph© Provided by The Telegraph
Rosie Duffield was snubbed from Sir Keir Starmer’s election launch event in Kent on Thursday - even though she is the only elected Labour MP in the county.
The MP for Canterbury - who has angered many in her party for her stance on women’s rights - only found out about the event on social media.
No Labour leader had visited Kent for years after Ms Duffield was elected in a shock 2017 victory.
However, Sir Keir has travelled to the county on numerous occasions recently, although she says he has never thought to tell her.
This is despite her being the only elected Labour MP in Kent, compared with 12 Conservatives.
Natalie Elphicke, MP for Dover, defected from the Tories to Labour earlier this month. However, she will not be standing in the next election.
Angela Rayner and Sir Keir Starmer launched Labour's election campaign at Gillingham Football Club on Thursday morning - Labour Party© Provided by The Telegraph
Sir Keir launched his election campaign at Gillingham Football Club in the constituency of Gillingham and Rainham. The seat is currently held by Rehman Chishti, a Conservative, with a majority of more than 15,000.
The Labour leader was joined by Angela Rayner, his deputy, Naushabah Khan, the party’s local candidate, and several councillors from the area.
The full article is here:
JK Rowling enters the fray
A great intervention here by the Queen of Scots!
Christian Calgie in The Daily Express ( JK Rowling enters election fray with damning swipe at Keir Starmer's trans record 24 May) reports:
Acclaimed author J.K. Rowling has entered into the political fray with a brutal attack on Sir Keir's Starmer's record of supporting trans rights over women.
Ms Rowling took to Twitter last night to tear into the Labour leader, after he snubbed women's right's activist and Labour MP Rosie Duffield by not inviting her to the party's election launch in Kent - despite her being a Kent MP.
Highlighting the snub, Ms Rowling tweeted: "It's hard not to conclude that in spite of recent attempts at back-pedalling, Keir Starmer's view on what Rosie Duffield and women in general are allowed to say about their own bodies hasn't changed since 2021."
She also shared a graphic highlighting Sir Keir's previous claim that it's wrong to say only women have a cervix.
He described the sentence as "something that shouldn't be said. It is not right".
Sir Keir has since backpedaled and u-turned on his views on the trans debate, initially saying that 99.9 percent of women "haven't got a penis". He eventually came out in favour of a ban on trans women in female-only spaces.
However just this week, Minister for Women Maria Caulfield warned that Labour has "learned nothing" on the trans debate and still backs "dangerous policies on sex and gender".
Writing for the Daily Express, Ms Caulfield warned that Labour "want you to think that they no longer let the extreme ideologues at the likes of Stonewall and Mermaids decide their thinking".
She added: "But their plans to fiddle with the rules to make it easier for people to change their legal sex show that they are still in thrall to those groups who put ideology over the safety of women and children."
The full article is here:
Banning Puberty Blockers
This is very important if it is carried through ( for a change). Watch this space!
Alex Ward in The Mail Online ( Health Secretary Victoria Atkins commits to banning private gender clinics from prescribing puberty blockers to children 24 May ) reports:
Private gender clinics are to be banned from prescribing puberty blockers to children, the Health Secretary announced last night.
Victoria Atkins told MPs she would bring in a banning order on puberty blockers under rarely-used provisions from the 1968 Medicines Act.
She admitted the 'extraordinary use of that power' was unusual, but added she had taken bold steps to protect the welfare of vulnerable children.
With her statement coming just a day after Rishi Sunak called a general election, a government source confirmed that Ms Atkins intended implementing the ban 'before dissolution' of the current parliament.
The source also confirmed the ban would apply to controversial private clinics including Gender GP, who vowed to defy NHS guidance on puberty blockers.
Victoria Atkins
The full article is here:
Thanks Dusty, I think labour need to ask themselves…. if we sack off the trans lobby vote/ ‘woke’. vote, where exactly will they go? They aren’t going to the tories, are they really that scared of the lib dems? the tories will lose loads of right wing voters and brexit supporters in the north to reform. I can’t see the political advantage in selling women and children out to secure the ‘woke’ vote for labour. It doesn’t make sense, unless they actually believe in gender ideology. oh well
I've been fully porcupined for a few years now. #BeMorePorcupine