by Judith Woods, Telegraph
Trans ideology is now so deep-rooted in the health service that friends of mine are terrified of going to hospital
Appeasement. Could there be a more ignoble policy? Just ask Chamberlain. Better still, Churchill himself observed that “an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.”
There is something uniquely craven about a political leader who seeks to make peace with bullies at the expense of honest citizens. So has it come to pass in Britain?
On the world stage, Starmer has, rightly, positioned himself as a vocal and honourable ally of Ukraine. Yet here on his home TERF (sic), he has shown himself to be a man of straw unwilling, unable to stand up to militant transgender activists. They constitute a tiny minority yet they now increasingly control the narrative.
A friend in her early 70s is due to have a serious operation next month in Glasgow. Her greatest worry? The consequences if she uses the wrong pronouns. A silly old woman? No, she’s educated to PhD level; a successful businesswoman.
It’s no wonder she’s agitated, given that NHS Scotland now has a legal duty to treat biologically male colleagues with facial hair as women – if they identify as female.
“I’m not a narrow-minded person,” she tells me apologetically. “But I’m afraid I’ll panic and say the wrong thing and be made an example of when I’m at my most vulnerable.”
It’s not just patients who are at risk of a witch hunt. Sandie Peggie, a nurse of 30 years, is locked in a battle royale with NHS Fife after complaining she felt uncomfortable sharing a female changing room with trans woman Dr Beth Upton – and was suspended.
Peggie’s claim that she was subject to unlawful harassment under the Equality Act is disputed by the health board, which has described her complaint as “unnecessary and vexatious”.