StretchOxford

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

In light of recent open letters from academia and the arts criticising the UK's Supreme Court ruling on sex-based rights, it's possibly worth remembering that nobody sane believes, or has ever believed, that humans can change sex, or that binary sex isn't a material fact. These letters do nothing but remind us of what we know only too well: that pretending to believe these things has become an elitist badge of virtue.

I often wonder whether the signatories of such letters have to quieten their consciences before publicly boosting a movement intent on removing women's and girls' rights, which bullies gay people who admit openly they don't want opposite sex partners, and campaigns for the continued sterilisation of vulnerable and troubled kids. Do they feel any qualms at all while chanting the foundational lie of their religion: Trans Women are Women, Trans Men are Men?

I have no idea. All I know for sure is that it's a complete waste of time telling a gender activist that their favourite slogan is self-contradictory nonsense, because the lie is the whole point. They're not repeating it because it's true - they know full well it's not true - but because they believe they can make it true, sort of, if they force everyone else to agree. The foundational lie functions as both catechism and crucifix: the set form of words that obviates the tedious necessity of coming up with your own explanation of why you're one of the Godly, and an exorcist's weapon which will defeat demonic facts and reason, and promote the advance of righteous pseudoscience and sophistry.

Some argue that signatories of these sorts of letters are motivated by fear: fear for their careers, of course, but also fear of their co-religionists, who include angry, narcissistic men who threaten and sometimes enact violence on non-believers; back-stabbing colleagues ever ready to report wrongthink; the online shamers and doxxers and rape threateners, and, of course, the influential zealots in the upper echelons of liberal professions (though we can quibble whether they're actually liberal at all, given the draconian authoritarianism that seems to have engulfed so many). Gender ideology could give medieval Catholicism a run for its money when it comes to punishing heretics, so isn't it common sense to keep your head down and recite your Hail Mulvaneys?

But before we start feeling too sorry for any cowed and fearful TWAWites who're TERFy on the sly, let's not forget what a high proportion of them have willingly snatched up pitchforks and torches to join the inquisitional purges. Call me lacking in proper womanly sympathy, but I find the harm they've enabled and in some cases directly championed or funded - the hounding and shaming of vulnerable women, the forced loss of livelihoods, the unregulated medical experiment on minors - tends to dry up my tears at source.

History is littered with the debris of irrational and harmful belief systems that once seemed unassailable. As Orwell said, 'Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.' Gender ideology may have embedded itself deeply into our institutions, where it's been imposed, top-down, on the supposedly unenlightened, but it is not invulnerable.

Court losses are starting to stack up. The condescension, overreach, entitlement and aggression of gender activists is eroding public support daily. Women are fighting back and winning significant victories. Sporting bodies have miraculously awoken from their slumber and remembered that males tend to be larger, stronger and faster than females. Parts of the medical establishment are questioning cutting healthy breasts off teenaged girls is really the best way to fix their mental health problems.

One seemingly harmless little white lie - Trans Women are Women, Trans Men are Men - uttered in most cases without any real thought at all, and a few short years later, people who think of themselves as supremely virtuous are typing 'yes, rapists' pronouns are absolutely the hill I'll die on,' rubbing shoulders with those who call for women to be hanged and decapitated for wanting all-female rape crisis centres, and furiously denying clear and mounting evidence of the greatest medical scandal in a century.

I wonder if they ever ask themselves how they got here, and I wonder whether any of them will ever feel shame.

[StretchOxford @StretchOxford]

@rail_guns Oh lord, surely there is some enforcement for *that*?! I mean there is no way it can get back onto the road safely and without causing damage…

[StretchOxford @StretchOxford]

@GirlsontheBall But ‘Football for all’ doesn’t mean “all together” otherwise adults could trample kids in a ‘for all’ game. The men play separately from the women’s teams. ‘For all’ in this case could mean setting up Trans leagues for trans men and trans women.

[Nicole Jones @satiricole]

Recent events have inspired a parody...

[StretchOxford @StretchOxford]

@AldiUK seems only way to report abandoned trolley is here on twitter - please collect from alleyway btwn old road and masons road, wood farm, oxford, ox3 - has been there since before xmas and is obstruction on blind bend

[StretchOxford @StretchOxford]

@OxfordBusCo Hello - your 6.30 ST2 service from the JR to Wytham Woods did not run but no service update was given. A less than hourly bus service cancelled is pretty poor. Please explain (and what customers should do) thanks

[BBC Politics @BBCPolitics]

"Inheritance tax relief" introduced in 1984 turned "owning agricultural land into having a licence to avoid inheritance tax," Professor Paul Cheshire tells #PoliticsLive

It led to a "four-fold increase in the price of agricultural land", he adds

https://t.co/CkUBNhKXdI

[Steve Reed @SteveReedMP]

Half of farmland sold last year went to non-farmers including wealthy individuals trying to avoid inheritance tax.

It's right that tax changes will ensure everyone pays their fair share - and young farmers can realise their dream of buying their own farm.
https://t.co/5nLp0ojHEA

[Tim Farron @timfarron]

Top Tip for Conservative MPs: donning a Barbour and smiling for the camera at the rally tomorrow, will not absolve you of guilt for betraying British farmers over the last 5 years, chucking them under the bus in trade deals and slashing farm payments. Apologise or don’t turn up.

[SophieSpring97 @SophieP25397]

You might ask where was Clarkson during the years of Austerity and cuts? I will tell you where HE was. He was saying we could not afford the NHS and public sector workers should be shot dead for going on strike. That is where.

[Playingitagain @AmeliaRocket1]

Next week I’m going to lead a march on nurses having to pay tax because they keep people alive and without them we all die.

See how it works?

[Jamie Reed @JamieFonzarelli]

So if anyone wants to build a political career on a culture war based upon ‘some people are more valuable than others and should only pay half the taxes that ordinary people have to’ well, good luck with that and all the best in your career after politics.

[Torsten Bell @TorstenBell]

Tax due if parents hand on £3m house: £940k
Tax due if parents hand on a £3m farm: £0
A reminder of significant tax advantage to farmers vs everyone else AFTER these changes

[Jimmy @jdtlgr]

The man who made things a whole lot more difficult for farmers, now has the cheek to cosplay as a farmer, while claiming to be on their side.

Absolute charlatan.

[Keith Burge @carryonkeith]

You're a farmer in your 60s and have assets worth millions. You're worried that your kids might have to pay tax on their inheritance. But you don't trust them enough to sign those assets over to them, avoiding any tax at all if you live another 7 years. Is that not a bit weird?

[Torsten Bell @TorstenBell]

So much misinformation around today on who will be affected by changes to inheritance tax - and lobbyists pretending the data isn't clear to obfuscate. We have detailed data on estates so the truth is in fact very clear if you care to look 🧵

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

Please spare a thought for James Dyson, the Brexit-voting billionaire who bought up 33,000 acres of farmland to avoid tax. Without people like him, farmland would be more affordable for actual farmers.

[. @jdpoc]

Investors (non-farmers) were responsible for 56% of UK farmland purchases last year. (Strutt & Parker)

Farmers are being squeezed out.

Not by IHT, but by tax-dodgers.

Those same tax-dodgers who are now supported by, er, farmers.

[The Labour Party @UKLabour]

This is the truth about Labour's Budget and farmers.

[Jonathan Mills @Muinchille]

Years ago, in the 1990s, me and my boss were looking at a client's rental accounts. He asked was I sure about the mortgage repayments. I said I had checked them with the bank. "They can't be less than the rent," he said, "That never happens. Not on a 90% mortgage." Seems like...