Harry Potter returned to Hogwarts this weekend for a 20th anniversary special. He was joined in the Gryffindor common room by Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, but not – controversially – the woman who created it all.
Transcript of the discussion between Debbie Hayton and James Max on TalkRADIO, 30 December 2021
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We Need an Honest Debate
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Stonewall’s annus horribilis
Is there any way back for the LGBT charity?
The year 2021 has been an annus horribilis for Stonewall. For much of the last decade, the charity could do no wrong in the eyes of those who mattered. Stonewall’s influence cut straight into the heart of government. As Nikki da Costa, Boris Johnson’s former director of legislative affairs, pointed out:
‘There is no other organisation — no business, or charity, no matter how big — that can pick up the phone to a special adviser sitting outside Boris Johnson’s office and get that person to speak directly to the Prime Minister. But that is the kind of access that Stonewall has’
Nikki da Costa
The Women and Equalities Select Committee have just published another report into the Reform of the Gender Recognition Act. The inquiry was launched in October 2020, and written submissions were collected over a year ago. Oral evidence was heard in the early part of this year, but the committee waited until four days before Christmas – in the midst of another Covid storm – to share their findings.
To those of us who know Quidditch from the fantasy world of the Harry Potter books, the idea of grown-ups running around a field with a broomstick clasped between their legs is a bit ridiculous. But make no mistake: this is serious stuff. The sport has its own governing body, the International Quidditch Association, that manages its rule book. And there’s also a World Cup, currently held by the United States, which has won the tournament three times. But now, there’s trouble brewing in the world of Quidditch.
A welcome judgement from the UK’s highest court
How should police record a rape where the culprit has male genitalia? The answer might appear to be straightforward: a man is responsible. Yet in Scotland, where the SNP’s obsession with avoiding offence appears to trump reality, things could soon be more complicated.
There is a line to be drawn between violence, intimidation and harassment on one side, and the criticism of ideas on the other
The Law Commission report on hate crime, published on Monday, included a welcome relief for some of us involved in the battle of ideas over sex and gender. The Commission held that a blanket restriction on the expression of gender-critical views would likely be in breach of Articles 9 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Debbie Hayton 