Kathy Stodart

Watching cricket. Herding cats. Eating apple turnovers. Scraping barrels.

[Gareth @GarethNotGarth]

Played golf with a guy today, got talking about EVs. He has one, said he'd like a Tesla but couldn't get one because Elon is a Nazi.

He has a Volkswagen.

[Benedict Spence @BenedictSpence]

Get ready, everybody. Burnham wants us closer to the EU, and, like magic, the “Russian interference” stories are doing the rounds again.

[Kathy Stodart @kassto61]

@RestIsPolitics @campbellclaret @RoryStewartUK @andyburnham Utter bullshit. Notice how people only claim this when they don't like the result. All the elections that went their way, are of course pure as the driven snow.

[Collingwood 🇬🇧 @admcollingwood]

Has anybody ever noticed that Russia only interferes in the elections that go the 'wrong' way?

[NyanChuu🔮🇯🇵🍭 @tanpukunokami]

Dear Muslim friends,

Japanese people do not hate you simply because of your faith. But respect is a two way street.

If you don’t eat pork, don’t eat it. If you avoid mirin, choose something else. Nobody is forcing you to consume anything that goes against your beliefs.

But calling Japanese food discriminatory because it doesn’t follow your religious rules? Seriously?

Japanese cuisine was not created to satisfy every religion in the world. Our traditions do not need your approval to exist, and Japanese people should not have to change their culture to accommodate demands from abroad.

Your faith is your choice. Our traditions are not yours to rewrite.

You have every right to practice your religion. But you do not have the right to demand that an entire nation change its way of life to suit you.

Respect Japan as it is, or accept that not everything here is made for you. And if you cannot do that, then go back to your own country.

[Sarah Adv @Sarahsa09309757]

Michael Rapaport, acteur et humoriste américain :

« J’ai vu les 47 minutes d’images. Plusieurs femmes saignaient au niveau de l’entrejambe. J’ai vu des gens se faire abattre, des corps de civils innocents piétinés.

J’ai vu des terroristes et des "civils innocents de Gaza" célébrer. Je les ai vus filmer. J’ai entendu un homme appeler sa mère et lui dire : “Maman, j’ai tué dix Juifs.”

Je n’ai entendu personne parler d’“occupation”, d’“apartheid” ou de “1948”. Je n’ai même pas entendu le mot “Palestine”.

Le 7-Octobre était l’expression d’un projet islamiste sanguinaire, nourri par une lecture djihadiste du Coran et érigé en idéologie politique par le Hamas.

[Dan Crenshaw @DanCrenshawTX]

Here’s the real question: Why don’t you turn on Starlink over Russia so the Ukrainians can take out Russian ballistic missile launchers? One small action and you immediately save children from dying every day. Refusing to do so is like watching your friend die while you hold his EpiPen over him. It’s that simple.

[Janet Murray @jan_murray]

I didn’t really get the problem with gender ideology at first.

I’m liberal-minded about most things. ‘Live and let live’ has generally been my motto. I believed in inclusion, kindness and not causing unnecessary offence.

I knew some adults chose medical treatments or surgery to resemble the opposite sex. That seemed to me a matter of personal autonomy. Adults can do what they wish with their own bodies.

What I hadn’t realised — and I feel slightly embarrassed admitting this — was that I’d misunderstood what was being claimed.

I thought “transgender” meant a form of self-expression. A man who liked wearing women’s clothes. Someone changing their name. Gender non-conformity.

What I hadn’t grasped was that some activists weren’t just asking for tolerance. They were asserting that declaring yourself the opposite sex made you the opposite sex. Not metaphorically. Literally.

And that this wasn’t just cultural. It had legal consequences.

It meant men who said they were women were demanding access to women’s sports, prisons, domestic violence shelters and hospital wards.

It meant the rewriting of healthcare language — “pregnant people”, “bodies with cervixes” — to avoid saying “women”.
It meant children struggling with identity being affirmed onto medical pathways with lifelong implications.

And also redefining same-sex attraction. Lesbians called ‘bigoted’ for not wanting relationships with men who identify as women. Gay men accused of prejudice for saying they’re not attracted to female bodies.

I’d also overlooked how deeply this had spread into public institutions, schools and workplaces.

And how easily disagreement was framed as cruelty. Speaking up felt risky — because others were being publicly humiliated for doing so.

None of this is abstract.

Because sex is the basis on which safeguarding works. On which data is collected. On which cancer screening programmes run. On which fair sport and single-sex spaces depend. It’s written into law — including the Equality Act — because material differences matter.

If sex becomes a ‘feeling’ rather than a biological category, those protections become unstable.

And once reality becomes negotiable, everything does.

Once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it.

But I needed to be sure.

So I read. Books, research papers, policy documents. When I finally spoke publicly, there was backlash from all directions.

Many women thanked me, while some feminists criticised me for speaking too late.

Others were angry about a past interview I’d done with the parent of a transgender person, accusing me of promoting harm.

It takes courage to speak when you know your reputation, friendships or livelihood may be on the line — when you know raising your voice could strain, or even end, relationships you value.

Once I understood what was at stake, staying silent was no longer an option.

I lost my livelihood simply for saying I didn’t like the phrase “pregnant people”. That alone tells you something is deeply wrong.

It shouldn’t be this way.

I don’t expect praise for admitting it took me far too long to understand what was happening. Or to say so publicly.

I can only be honest about what I believed then and what I understand now.

But it does take courage to admit publicly that you got something wrong. All I hope is that by acknowledging I wasn’t paying enough attention, another woman (or man) might feel emboldened to do the same.

Because, as many of us know first-hand, there can be professional, social and financial consequences to speaking out.

And I won’t pretend I understood something before I did, simply to make myself more acceptable to those who got there sooner.

Which is why I will never judge another woman for how long it takes her to find her voice.

Because every voice matters. Whenever it is raised.

[Kathy Stodart @kassto61]

@nytimes No! Surely not!

[Kathy Stodart @kassto61]

@VPointon Terrific series. I remember watching it as a teenager when it first came out and having my mind and knowledge seriously expanded. One interesting thing: it had nothing about Bletchley Park because the secret files were still secret at that point.

[Charles @CheckCharlieB]

Britain and America should remember Churchill’s warning:

Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last.

Appeasing a tyrant does not buy lasting peace. It gives him the confidence to demand more. Stand with Ukraine. Remember what history taught us.

[Ron Nehring @RonNehring]

I think it's time Russia get a new president.

[wokeandwoofing @wokeandwoofing]

I've tried to watch old comedy shows but I find it a struggle because they seem to be completely lacking an agresive political agenda and are basically just full of jokes. It's very disconcerting.

[David Collier @mishtal]

In 1920 people from Ilford were telling Jews to go back to Palestine.

In 2026 people from Ilford gather in London to tell Jews to get out of Palestine.

Different century - same message: "You do not belong."

Antisemitism is what it is.

[Kathy Stodart @kassto61]

@kookieguk7 Yes, I've seen the people in "occupied" Palestine (I seem to recall Israel pulling out of Gaza), cheering and spitting on the bodies of murdered and raped Israeli women on October 7.

[Kathy Stodart @kassto61]

@kookieguk7 You are showing your ignorance of what actually goes on in the Middle East.

[ДТЕК @DTEK_Ukraine]

НЕ ПУБЛІКУЙТЕ ФОТО ТА ВІДЕО ВЛУЧАНЬ ПО ЕНЕРГООБʼЄКТАХ

І НЕ ЗНІМАЙТЕ НІЧОГО, НАВІТЬ ДИМ‼️‼️‼️

Навіть дуже короткі відео та «незрозумілі» фото скеровують наступні атаки росіян. Все це дає їм доступ до обʼєктивного контролю: де саме стався удар, які пошкодження і що ремонтують

Зрештою, ви наражаєте на небезпеку людей, які повертають світло!

[Kathy Stodart @kassto61]

@BTS_algeria @BTS_twt I am sickened he should do this on the date of a brutal massacre carried out by Palestinians.

[Kathy Stodart @kassto61]

@Art_HasNo_Alien If it is indeed a keffiyeh, and worn deliberately on Oct 7, that is massively disappointing that he would do so, given it's the anniversary of a brutal massacre, cheered on by most Palestinians.

[Kathy Stodart @kassto61]

@kerodopachemi Yes, and I found that profoundly disturbing and disappointing, given that it is the anniversary of a brutal massacre.