September 29, 2024 - 8:00am
The late Labour statesman Tony Benn divided politicians into Signposts and Weathercocks. He noted that the former “show the way” no matter how unpopular their stance, whereas the latter “hasn’t got an opinion until they’ve looked at the polls, talked to the focus groups, discussed it with the spin doctors.”
Yesterday, the Labour Party lost a Signpost. After years of being slighted, sidelined and slurred, Rosie Duffield MP ended her decades-long membership of the party and is now an independent. In a scorching resignation letter, the Canterbury MP blasted Keir Starmer for “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice”. “How dare you take our longed-for victory, the electorate’s sacred and precious trust, and throw it back in their faces,” she railed.
Duffield no doubt feels a tremendous sense of relief in having put clear green carpet between herself and the freebie-seeking fashionistas on the front benches. By daring to be a Signpost, by standing-up for women’s rights in the face of fanatical trans activists, she has been monstered by those who should’ve been on her side. Not only has the Prime Minister cold-shouldered Duffield, despite her winning what was once a Tory safe seat, but she has faced such grotesque threats that she has had to pay for her own security.
Some former colleagues are crowing over Duffield’s departure. Within hours of her resignation, Nadia Whittome MP posted on X that Duffield had “made a political career out of dehumanising one of the most marginalised groups in society.”
What Duffield has suffered has, of course, happened to countless others who have had the courage to publicly say that people can’t change their sex. To question “trans inclusion” policies in the workplace or simply to request a medical professional of the same sex, is to risk one’s career and friendship circle. So, what might Duffield’s departure from the party of government mean for them? What, under the premiership of weathercock Starmer, will happen to the ordinary people who know that sex matters?
Starmer is still squeamish about the definition of “woman”. Pre-election pratfalls, such as when he conceded “99.9% of women don’t have a penis”, show a man who is apparently more terrified of trans activists than of ridicule from the wider electorate.
Within a month of Starmer taking office, the new government signalled that the previous administration’s pledge to clarify that “sex” in the Equality Act means “biological sex” would be dropped. This has left service providers in limbo, unsure as to whether they are able to protect women in refuges and on hospital wards from men who demand to be treated as women.
Meanwhile, our new Prime Minister has not shied away from the easy topics; he has called for a “duty of candour” law to prevent future cover-ups like the infected blood and Post Office scandals. Yet he has remained oddly mute on the horrors which unfolded within Gender Identity Development Services for children. That confused teens who were too young to buy a party popper were given experimental drugs to halt their puberty is apparently not worthy of public condemnation.
That Duffield was one of very few “out” gender critical politicians within the Labour Party reveals a culture of fear at the heart of government. That politicians who used the pioneering women-only shortlists to get elected, not to mention self-declared”‘gobby feminist” Jess Phillips, have found themselves unwilling to stand by Duffield, sends a stronger message than words.
Ultimately, perhaps the Prime Minister is not so much a weathercock as he is meteorologically challenged. As Duffield notes, he has not bothered to canvass the opinion of experienced backbenchers, and he has misread the temperature when it comes to women’s rights. I shall leave readers to infer what this might see him labelled as in Bennite terms.
Josephine Bartosch is assistant editor at The Critic and co-author of the forthcoming book Pornocracy.
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SubscribeMoral courage in action.
Best wishes to Rosie Duffield as an Independent.
Worth emphasising that she has demonstrated moral courage over many years. If there was a sensible side to Labour, she represented it.
This seems to be the problem across the world. These people who have integrity and stand by their beliefs don’t have a chance in the poisonous world of politics, in fact in the work place as well. They try then realise it’s going to be a slow death so they get out. No one comes to their support within the parties either. What a disgusting bunch of reptiles we have in parliament and the partues.
Both parties are more afraid of the vested interests than they are of their constituents in a system that doesn’t provide voters with any clear choice.
I fear this may happen to the fearless Kemi Badenoch. She is the conservatives’ only hope for women’s rights, having stood up for them in no uncertain terms.. the craven Labour Party has bowed down to the gods of diversity & inclusion, and it’s terrifying to think what and/or who they will want us all to ‘include’ next.
Anne Cryer MP (now retired) was another one who had sense and courage. She was hounded for years for bringing up the issue of grooming gangs and certain patterns in sexual abuse, years before the media/establishment finally had to capitulate and admit that there was a problem.
I fear that her departure will be greeted by a shrug by Labour HQ, maybe even relief.
The question for me is how can so much have gone wrong with Starmer so quickly and is there a way back from him? Even asking the question, less than three months from the election, is quite something. I remember a time eons ago when people were complaining about Johnson, but at the start of his short tenure, and for some time in fact, he could pretty much walk on water.
Starmer was always a wrong ‘un. The signs have been there for everyone to see since his time as DPP, at the very least.
Yes – he had an uncanny knack for being absent when the difficult decisions were being made re Rotherham, Fayed etc etc.
Savile
how can so much have gone wrong with Starmer so quickly
Starmer’s refusal for years even to meet with Rosie Duffield was, in hindsight, a clear pointer to the abject cowardice of the man. People can sense that now. He’s toast.
Didn’t Starmer claim that he had met with her? I must confess, I’m starting to fail to keep track of the claims, counter claims and lies.
It’s an odd thing about him – he often looks quite terrified, and certainly unhappy. You wonder if he hasn’t got personal issues he needs to work on before he tries to run a country.
Reason why most likely they are happy to see the back of her.
The Labour Party became a really nasty place with the purging of the left using anti-semitism as a cover and collateral damage done to many completely innocent members. But the victims of this McCarthyism, inspired by Starmer and his party apparatchiks, will come for him and one of them has just courageously done so.
I’m surprised it took her this long. I wonder how many cowardly fence sitters are emboldened to make a move with all those WFA letters and Starmer’s ambivalent Gaza stance incensing the Left? Along with 7 losing the whip and the Corbyn Abbott rumblings, Starmer’s losing seat support at a faster rate than the Tories lost by elections. Safe for now but how many with a view to retirement or resignation are getting fed up? Those with ill health or sudden demise? Such by elections will be revealing as will the May locals.
I doubt Starmer will last until the May locals.
Lammy for PM !
I think Ange would be more entertaining. Lammy is just embarrassing.
Ange doing a brilliant job at Spurs. Winning 3-0 at Old Trafford over Manchester United a great result
The PM and most of the Cabinet make me cringe and switch off my tv. Larry the No. 10 cat would be better.
Duffield herself has said that this was not her reason for leaving. And if it was, it would be odd timing – in the U.K. at least things are moving in her direction on this issue.
In addition Labour has shown a clear commitment either to the idea that only women and girls are victims of violence, or that they are the only victims that matter. They’ve hardly been moving away from feminism.
I genuinely believe her when she expresses shock over the pensioners fuel allowance. And I’m not surprised if the leaderships taste for expensive freebies has left a bad taste. She’s gone up in my estimation. Good for her for sticking to her principles.
I wouldn’t worry about women and girls being prioritised by anyone. I suggest that you have to ask yourself what Labour means when referring to ‘women’ and ‘girls’. Bearing in mind Starmer’s ‘99% of women don’t have a p***s’ comment, I suspect they mean anyone who refers to themselves as such.
Not forgetting his peerless response to Rosie’s comment that only women have a cervix:
“That is something that shouldn’t be said.”
About eighteen months ago when there was a debate in the House of Commons on the whole business of ‘transgender rights’ the then M P for Brighton Kemptown Lloyd Russell Moyle crossed the floor staring menacingly at the then M P for Penistone and Stocksbridge Miriam Cates. It was an attempt at harassment and it was at that stage in my view that Keir Starmer should have withdrawn the whip from him. It was a shocking incident and it was then I lost all respect for Keir Starmer whose cowardice on this issue has been quite unbelievable.
Thank you Rosie Duffield for your advocacy, enormous strength and support for all of us who know that nature doesn’t lie, that the trans evil is a threat to decent people everywhere. Leave the lying, venal, morally corrupt behind you, they’re over and done for, go forward in the light of truth.
But she is ok with support for genocidaires and terrorists!
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-21/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/zionist-military-org-efforts-to-recruit-nazis-in-fight-against-the-british-are-revealed/00000188-d93a-d5fc-ab9d-db7ae0ea0000
When we have moral courage demonstrated by the likes of Rosie Duffield, we must then follow through with our full support of her.
However there is just one problem with accomplishing that – media. Media is the problem when it comes to the cowardice of politicians and not standing up to power. Politicians are at heart narcissists, they crave good publicity. If we had a media with integrity holding power to account, not pandering to the depraved minority in society, the world would look quite different today.
It’s a pity the media refuse to serve their purpose. Because I’m certain there are many genuine trans people who just want to live their lives peaceably who would applaud If they did.
What on earth is a ‘genuine trans person’? There has yet to be a coherent definition of what ‘trans’ even is, let alone a ‘genuine’ one.
A man may wear a dress if he likes, but it won’t make him a woman, just an exhibitionist. Men back in the 60s & 70s knew this. Bowie, Bolan & the entire glittering parade of 70s glam rock were gender chameleons – fabulous strutting peacocks – but they didn’t try to pretend they actually were women. They were performers & it was a way of smashing stereotypes. The current lot of cross-dressers are just reinforcing them, but in a much more dangerous way, especially via their activism in schools.
Men who try to force us to pretend that they are women, and the women to pander to them, are creeps & frauds. And when it all becomes clear that they are nothing more than fetishist bullies – which it must – those Labour women who abandoned Rosie Duffield will have to eat a whole lot of crow.
‘Not only has the Prime Minister cold-shouldered Duffield, despite her winning what was once a Tory safe seat, but she has faced such grotesque threats that she has had to pay for her own security.’
This makes me sick. An elected MP should not have to pay for security. Any person, regardless of their opinion, who is ELECTED into government should be protected by the state while they are working. If it is not safe in Britain to freely express an opinion without fear of violence then our democracy has failed.
‘Nadia Whittome MP posted on X that Duffield had “made a political career out of dehumanising one of the most marginalised groups in society.”’
Funny enough you can only make a career out of politics if you are elected. Seems her voters don’t agree. I think this is a disgusting attack against an MP whos main concern the whole time has been the safety of women in this country.
‘ First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me’
The below list includes people that have been walked out on, cancelled or jailed for exercising their right to speak:
People walk out of un on Mr Netanyahu:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13899295/Benjamin-Netanyahu-anti-Semitic-swamp-fiery-speech.html
Jk rowling and Graham lineham:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/272781/jk-rowling-cancel-culture-is-the-language-of-a-dictator/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-66516252.amp
Anti war activist in Germany jailed for opposing Ukraine war:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/02/01/qqln-f01.html
Diane Abbot suspended:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65365978.amp
Andrew Bridgen, alongside many others, for questioning covid. Turns out he wasn’t exactly wrong either:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/09/andrew-bridgen-suspended-from-house-of-commons-over-lobbying
UN walking out on lavrov, a war that now, after all that, will probably end with a diplomatic solution anyway:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/un-walkout-ukraine-russia-minister-sergei-lavrov-b2025921.html
Where is our freedom of speech?
Not forgetting two podcasters in Germany whose transgression by ‘misgendering’ was severely punished in court:
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/german-podcasters-might-face-prison-or-e250000-fine-for-misgendering-trans-activist/
Rosie Duffield has been a beacon of light emerging from the moral darkness of the modern Labour Party. Her constituents will stay with her at the next election because she has displayed the kind of morality that the silent majority believe in, from all political persuasions.
Would that the silent majority would speak up a bit…
Keir Starmer is not a weathercock. He is operated via a remote control. He receives his instructions from the American hegemon who projects his power in military, economic, financial and cultural matters on the vasal states. Isn’t it ironic that progressive people who deny the American empire defend this transmovement, climate change and Russia hate? It is all imperial politics disguised as a moral paradigm. Deep State couldn’t care less who has a p***s or not and most revolutionaries end up shot against the wall they erected for others. Ms Duffield took a courageous step. What’s next. Joining an American think thank?
And our media are a propaganda front for the US Empire; which in turn is run by the neocons of AIPAC.
Progressives are only 8 percent of the Democratic Party. They are loud and obnoxious, but they don’t have that much power. They do, however, have more influence on cultural issues like transgenderism.
I would be interested to have J Watson’s (Unherd’s loyal Labour party contributor) take on Rosie Duffield’s morally courageous decision.