Bravo Mr B! You stole the show...
AWOMAN I know with an 18-year-old daughter is, she told me, permanently sad these days. Her daughter is doing well at college and has decided what career she would like to pursue. All good.
The only problem is that a couple of years ago she decided that she no longer identified as a girl, changed her name and searched the Internet for advice on both hormone treatment and mutilating surgery.
Her mother loved her little girl and cherishes those memories of her before all this happened.
She can only stand at the sidelines and offer unconditional love.
Dr Hilary Cass’s report for the NHS – into the shameful care received by children who think they have gender identity problems – is shocking and also welcome. It may slow down the trans juggernaut which mows down dissent of any kind.
The practice of giving puberty blockers to children must end because there has, according to Cass, been no proper research into the long-term effects of drenching children in toxins.
How wicked this practice sounds if you give it a minute’s thought.
Would this 18-year-old have even considered her gender identity before the trans mania erupted?
She might just have been a tomboy... she could simply have been gay.
How unlucky to have become an adolescent at this point in history.
Here’s hoping Dr Cass’s report will lead to an outbreak of sanity.
IWAS going to write about the joys of spring – birds, buds, bluebells and stuff – as an antidote to the old doom’n’gloom. But it’s been very tense in the garden since the sparrows – such rough boys – destroyed the bird feeder.
I bought a new one which caused conniptions among the tits, who hate change. They looked at the shiny new bird feeder as though it was an unexploded bomb and sulked in the amelanchier for days.
Meanwhile, the giant pigeon who reminds me of Prince Andrew – pacing with his hands behind his back – has taken to roosting on the gnarly branches of the climbing rose and staring into the middle distance, wondering where it all went wrong.
His weight means that eventually he falls off and has to flap his wings to regain any shred of dignity. Unlike Air Miles Andy he’s not what you call a frequent flyer. I only hope he never tries to gain entry to the bird feeder.
More news as it breaks.
WHEN A WELL-KNOWN actor takes on the role of a real-life person, he or she sprinkles a little sparkly dust of celebrity, making the character better looking, better dressed, better everything. For instance, photographs suggest that J. Robert Oppenheimer, though he had terrific cheekbones, did not have actor Cillian Murphy’s fabulously clear complexion which was so apparent in the hit movie.
No time to moisturise at Los Alamos when you’re busy building the atom bomb.
So, no disrespect to actor Toby Jones, who is wonderful in every role and whose portrayal of the heroic Alan Bates in ITV’S Mr Bates vs The Post Office was a joy.
It is just that the real-life Mr Bates is proving to be even more marvellous than the TV drama suggested.
Last week saw his long-awaited appearance at the ongoing inquiry into the Post Office scandal.
He was clearly enjoying (as well he might) his moment in the sun, with the press corps treating him like a much-loved celebrity making a comeback.
He’s rather dishy too or am I getting swept away by that highvoltage star quality? Toby Jones plays him as dogged, kindly and dedicated. The real Mr Bates is more dashing, with his baseball cap and open smile. You can see why the beastly Post Office described him as “unmanageable”.
In his answers to the inquiry he was acerbic, funny, deadpan and straight-talking. In an age of weasel words Mr Bates called Post Office chiefs “thugs in suits”. It was unfortunate for Nick Read, CEO (for the time being) of the Post Office, that his interviews with the press were shown alongside segments featuring global superstar Bates. Read is a man for whom the phrase mealy-mouthed could have been invented.
His Linkedin profile offers phrases such as “organisational design strategies”, “service functions” and (always a favourite with university applicants anxious to big themselves up) “invaluable experience”.
Interviewed last week at the inquiry he said he wanted to “bring transparency to the process” in the hope that the Post Office could “move forward” and the “culture of today’s Post Office” would learn lessons from the past”. He sounds like an AI chatbot.
We have become bludgeoned by say-nothing corporate-speak. Any organisation called to account will bleat that it is “working hard to resolve the issue”, that it is going to “deliver”, that its polices are “robust”, that it takes something or other “very seriously”.
That is why the unmanageable Mr Bates is so wonderful. Once you start using the jargon you are half-way to admitting defeat. Mr Bates has never played that game.
Asked what he will do when his battle is over, he joked he would go and “buy a little post office”. There’s the job of Prime Minister up for grabs. How about that?