UPDATED: Government defeats by MPs for each Prime Minister
Thatcher - 4 in 11 years
Major - 6 in 7 years
Blair - 4 in 10 years
Brown - 3 in 3 years
Cameron - 10 in 6 years
May - 33 in 3 years
Johnson - 3 in 24 hours
Does Christmas on your own have to be austere and miserable? No. Do you need to follow all the traditions? No. Can you cook your favourite foods and eat, drink and be merry? Yes!
That article about having books in the house being smug and middle class attracted a lot of comment and derision. But it comes from a long line of "Love something? This is why it is bad" school of journalism. Thread:
Really unpleasant incident at Euston today while I was waiting to change trains. A random guy decided he was going to sit on the exact same single seat as a woman already sat there. In spite of her repeatedly asking him to move and there being other seats available, he refused.
Of all the battles when I was young: miners strike, privatisation, Section 28, IRA, Poll Tax never in my wildest dreams could I have predicted in 35 years time a battle would be raging between those in favour of chemically castrating kids and those against
As someone who spent eight years in Boris Johnson's orbit, including two periods chairing the London Assembly this was the least confident performance I've seen from him. The chanting crowds clearly rattled him and undermined the "Boris" persona which relies on audience response.
I'm not going to support giving harmful drugs to kids just because I'm worried about people calling me right-wing. Don't care what the Green Party does to me, don't care how right-wing people think I am, what friends I lose, I'm not going to support giving harmful drugs to kids.
The lady became very distressed as he was basically sitting on her. Someone else ran off to get help but I decided to stick around so I could give a full statemement to the police as a potential witness, which I did. He was arrested not long before I went off to catch my train.
I'm not claiming to be brave or heroic. Other men would have handled things very differently I know. I've always been about as much use in a fight as a chocolate teapot but I did want to stick around to give police a witness statement which is what I did.
I felt bad about not intervening directly but I had a nasty feeling it could turn very violent if I did and thought it would be better to report exactly what I saw to the police.
Obviously, it feels very sad that it's come to this after all these years. But if someone had told me back in 1987 that one day I'd be expected to support pumping children full of harmful drugs that left them sterile I'd never have joined the Green Party in the first place.
When I was Chair of the Assembly I once had an insane lunch with Boris Johnson and Prince Andrew. After we escorted him out the building BJ turned to me and said. "I'm the last person to be a republican but fuck. If I ever have to spend another lunch like that I soon will be."
Restaurants don't serve alphabetti spaghetti.
Normal spaghetti doesn't spell out words, whether in English, Arabic or any other language.
Lee Hurst is a really, really shit comedian whose jokes don't even work on their own terms.
Who in gay world decided that I should be absolutely outraged by the word faggot in a thirty-year old song but that I should be completely relaxed about people using the word queer?
Use whatever pronouns you like but to pretend you're not male because you like doing some things that are seen as stereotypically feminine plays into the hands of every homophobic playground bully that ever lived.
"I just want to sell drugs to kids and that damned Cass Review has been making it really awkward for me. Guardian, will you give me some free advertising space?"
"Yeah sure."
This post is what they are not happy about. I knew at the time it would put my 37-year membership of the party in jeopardy but I was not going to sit back and stay silent while leading members of the Green Party went out of their way to trash the findings of the Cass Review.
This is my younger brother's assessment on my suspension from the Green Party:
"Fuck ‘em. You’re right, they’re wrong. A party that once had policies you believed in has gone off track to the point of child abuse. You don’t want to be associated with that shit."
Just had a message from a Green "devastated" at how much I'd changed. At what point did they think I supported untested drugs for minors struggling with gender? Not in 1987 when I joined. Not in 2000 when I was first elected. Not in 2016 when I stepped down. Not now. Not ever.
I've reported this post for endangering child safety by promoting a dangerous drug to minors. This post is wicked and evil, Peter. I've known you over 30 years but I am utterly disgusted by this behaviour.
Over a quarter of a million people have now read my thread on X about being kicked out of the Green Party. If they thought their poxy "no-fault suspension" would bully me into silence they made a big mistake.
While I am 100% in favour of challenging and subverting gender stereotypes I do not believe males can become female and I do not believe females can become male. If this gets me expelled from
@TheGreenParty
after 31 years then so be it.
@MhairiBlack
A gay MP coming to talk to school-kids. Absolutely fantastic idea. It would have definitely helped me at school, too. But drag queen story time? It makes no more sense than pole-dancing maths classes or strip-o-gram violin lessons.
It goes without saying that the person who made the official complaint about me was a member of the Green Party's LGBTIQA+ group. Of course (oh the irony) this was the group I helped found in Sept 1989 when it was plain old LGB. Here's me being interviewed about it in Gay Times.
This is my younger brother's take on my suspension:
"Fuck ‘em. You’re right, they’re wrong. A party that once had policies you believed in has gone off track to the point of child abuse. You don’t want to be associated with that shit."
@queenozymandias
I was 26 when I started seeing my partner but he was a few weeks past his 24th birthday so hopefully that age-gap will be acceptable to you otherwise the last 28 years will have been a dreadful mistake.
"I will not stop speaking out on this grotesque medical scandal which has harmed many vulnerable young people and damaged the credibility of the political movement I’ve spent most of my life fighting for."
Me in
@Telegraph
I've known Caroline for over 30 years and worked very closely with her for a good number of those but I do find it odd that she seems utterly obsessed with people getting kicked out of Labour but never bats an eyelid about people getting kicked out of the Green Party.
Let me get this straight.
@UKLabour
kick out real assets like
@faizashaheen
but they've got absolutely no problem reselecting MP Graham Stringer who is literally peddling climate denial from Tufton Street? What has happened to Labour?
'Greens are putting trans ideology ahead of children's health'
"I've been suspended from the party after criticising its arrogant dismissal of the landmark Cass report"
Me in today's
@Telegraph
Busy day on social media. I've had robust challenges to my views on gender. But no-one has told me to die in a fire, vowed to beat me up, called me a TERF or threatened to rape me. It's almost like I'm a 6'2" bloke rather than a 60 year-old feminist lesbian.
@jamesjamesbrown
The key with these type of clickbait columns that get churned out is to find the most innocuous bit of popular culture and link it to the most heinous wrongs in human history, the more tenuous and contrived the link, the better. "Enjoy playing scrabble? So did Myra Hindley."
Anyway, thanks people for your supportive comments. I'm genuinely touched. Stepped off the train after getting my disciplinary email and decided to go for a curry and a Cobra while I contemplate this latest news.
Been notified by the Green Party that the suspension of my membership has been extended until further notice. My behaviour has not improved apparently.
Imagine if those of us who campaigned against Section 28 in the 80s had gone around arguing that children needed special medicine for being gay. People would have thought we were absolute lunatics.
If Alan Turing turned up today, he'd maybe not be surprised that people were still arguing for young people who defied gender norms to be chemically castrated. But I think he'd be very surprised indeed that the outfits claiming to represent gay rights were the loudest advocates.
The Greens have certainly chosen an 'interesting' candidate for Lewisham North. This was the constituency I contested for Greens in 2001, 2005 and 2010 and was also councillor there for 12 years. The current Green candidate takes a rather different approach from me I must say 1/6
I stepped down from front-line politics in 2016. I've no mortgage and if every source of income was cut off through being cancelled I could just about live off my pension. I decided I could and must speak out on gender identity extremism and hopefully help normalise dissent.
@adelepatti
@GameSetVlach
I've seen that before when people are in 'holiday mode' utterly detached from what they are seeing because it's other people's lives and other people's problems and they are tourists and safe. Saw it with people gathered around an exploding car in south of France once.
I'm afraid I couldn't vote Green if I lived in Brighton Pavilion. Sian Berry says she is concerned that the Cass Review is being used to restrict hormone treatment for young people.
I want climate action without child castration.
A formal complaint has been lodged against
@beatrixcampbell
demanding her expulsion/suspension from
@TheGreenParty
simply for writing this article. She has every right to publish it (just as I have to tweet it). Don't be bullied into silence.
Green Co-Leader
@AdrianRamsay
on Five Live says he disagrees with Patrick Harvie on the Cass Report, accepts Cass recommendations and supports the provision of single-sex services in certain circumstances.
That will throw the cat among the pigeons with gender identity extremists
I am afraid I couldn't vote Green if I lived in Bristol Central. Carla Denyer has refused to endorse the Cass Review recommendations saying she has "some concerns about some of it.”
I want climate action without child castration.
Banning puberty blockers for gender-confused children is no more an attack on trans people than banning Thalidomide for pregnant women was an attack on disabled people.
Keir Starmer. Wes Streeting.
What's the point of a Labour Government who continue the right wing attacks on trans people?
You don't get to march in Pride & pose for selfies - and then sell out our LGBTIQA+ communities just days later.
@TheGreenParty
will hold you to account.
Mermaids is one of the most evil children's charities that ever existed. Its charity status needs to be stripped, its records need to handed over to the police, its building needs to be demolished, its remains need to be ground into dust and the dust catapulted into outer space.
No surprise that this quiz shows I agree mostly with Green Party policies. Unfortunately, I don't support pumping kids full of puberty blockers or housing male rapists in female prisons. And I'm not frightened of saying so - so the party has suspended me.
I've had to add a helpful little clarification to my CV. Just so we're all totally clear I've got nothing to do with the bullshit coming from leading figures in my party these days.
This neatly sums up current controversies in the Green Party.
I think it's wicked that people want children to be pumped full of puberty blockers and hormones.
Others think it's wicked that people like me don't want children to be pumped full of puberty blockers and hormones.
One of the things that has puzzled me is why the Green Party chose to suspend me now in the middle of an election. If they'd waited until after July 4th hardly anyone would have noticed, but by doing it now they've guaranteed it would be part of the election coverage.
Amateurs.
@amerix
I agree completely. It is a very good idea for the woman to leave and never come back in this situation. Coercive control is a terrible thing and good luck to anyone who escapes an abusive relationship.
Moved by the support I've had for the stance I've taken from across the political spectrum, MPs and members of the House Lords from all political parties apart from my own.
'Greens are putting trans ideology ahead of children's health'
"I've been suspended from the party after criticising its arrogant dismissal of the landmark Cass report"
Me in today's
@Telegraph
Note that only two of the four Green MPs have signed this letter to Wes Streeting. Obviously, there's been a calculation that chemically castrating childen will be less of a vote-winner in rural East Anglia and Herefordshire than in Brighton and Bristol.
"Vote Green if you want to completely ignore medical evidence and see more children pumped full of harmful drugs"
Absolutely effing outrageous. Darren Johnson - Green Party candidate for London Mayor, 2000 and 2004
"There's no middle ground between respecting trans people's humanity and rejecting it."
Following the Cass Review, Londoners can be confident that a vote for me is a vote for someone who has LGBTIQA+ people's backs.
@ZacGoldsmith
Thanks Zac. I don't know who's been more critical of our parties this week, you or I. But I will not stand by and say nothing when leading Green figures are so wickedly irresponsible in rubbishing the Cass report, a serious investigation into a medical scandal involving children.
Just ordered this. Although I've spoken out, I've not had to endure a fraction of what some of these brave women have had to put up with at the hands of those who tried everything to try and silence them.
#WomenWhoWouldntWheesht
And for people who say "Oh it's just like Section 28 was back then."
Section 28 and puberty blockers have fuck all to do with each other. Back then we didn't campaign for gay kids to be given injections. We didn't say if 12yos don't have access to poppers they'll commit suicide.
@SoniaPoulton
The people running these so-called "clinics" were as wicked as the people running the Post Office. There needs to be a huge reckoning, and a full public enquiry.
When I was at infant school in the early 1970s we weren't allowed to use the normal alphabet but had to learn a mad 43-character alphabet called ITA. It was a crazy fad that rapidly went out of fashion but at least we weren't given puberty blockers if we liked the "wrong" toys.
And no, I'm not going to spend all day arguing the toss with idiots who want to abolish all the police and abolish all prisons just as I wouldn't want to waste time arguing with idiots who want to abolish all the schools and abolish all the hospitals.
Your position is very anti-NHS . The NHS took a clinical decision to ban puberty blockers. The Health Secretary then introduced a further ban to prevent private providers exploiting a loophole by prescribing them. Green MPs now arguing in favour of unregulated private healthcare.
Ahead of
@TPrideBrighton
, I'm pleased to have joined with fellow Green MP
@CarlaDenyer
to write to the Health Secretary about his recent comments on puberty blockers.
During the election I heard from young trans people, parents and doctors, and we hoped Labour would fix this.
This is quite a colourful map (courtesy of the Vote UK Forum election site) - a map of all the councils that now have Green Party representation!
@TheGreenParty
@scotgp
Just about to start reading this. Not sure if it will get me into even more trouble with party bosses to go alongside all the other charges: walking on the cracks in a gender-critical way, loitering with intent to read feminist literature, walking around with an offensive wheesht
So the political party I've been a member of for 34 years is now campaigning against railways and in favour of cars. Jesus Christ. Have you thought about how unhinged this looks?
The Green Party have invited me to submit additional relevant information when my suspension is reviewed later this month.
I've emailed them back with a copy of my Telegraph article last week, which sets out my position and which they may find helpful.
Queer is a word that was constantly used against me by bullies at school. Queer is the word that two men used against me as they smashed me head first through a shop window and beat me unconcious. Forgive me if I can't get enthusiastic about 'reclaiming' it.
While I still retain hope that the Green Party of England & Wales can be reformed, I have no such hope for the Scottish Green Party. It is unreformable. I want to see it ground into the dust electorally and utterly annihilated as a serious political force.
This is so far away from policies I used to campaign for representing the Greens in Lewisham, it's hard to describe my bafflement. Certainly if I still lived in the constituency, I wouldn't be looking to Adam Pugh if I wanted to vote for a greener, safer, more peaceful world. 6/6
When I was growing up we had one really famous celebrity living down our road. Just a very ordinary working class street with a row of shops. But one of these was a car showroom and behind the showroom were some stables and in the stables lived Red Rum. (Photo Gerry Cranham)
Terrible haircut I know, but here's me in the Hull Daily Mail running for the Green Party in 1990. I stood on a platform of male rapists in female prisons, hormone drugs for 10yos and rebranding women as uterus-owners. No, don't be silly, it was housing, environment & poll tax.
Thread - Why I spoke out on gender: I felt compelled to speak out when
@Womans_Place_UK
were dismissed as a far-right hate group after
@CarolineLucas
agreed to a perfectly reasonable request to meet them and discuss their concerns.
If Green Party Deputy Leader, Zack Polanski, really believes puberty should be blocked surely he should be arguing for it to be done via hypnosis, as he does for breast enlargement, rather than pumping kids full of drugs.
People are not going to return en masse to outdated, expensive and time-consuming commuter patterns just to save sandwich shops. Central London is going to have to re-invent itself.
When I joined the Green Party in 1987 I never imagined in my wildest dreams that its senior figures would one day be promoting such depraved wickedness. I am genuinely ashamed of the organisation.
Better late than never, Labour has recognised this medical scandal. But some politicians – notably the deputy leader, co-leader and ex-leader of the Green Party – continue to promote the sterilisation of children for political advantage. They are monsters.
When I joined in 1987 as a young enthusiastic 20yo gay man, if someone had told me that the Green Party would one day be dithering over where it stood on the chemical castration of children I'd have run a million miles away and probably done something very different with my life.
Which political party took six days to confect a bland, compromise public statement on an influential, damning report into medical scandal of century, only to have to take it down after an hour because of lunatics running asylum?
#Cass
Vigil held in Hastings last week for the refugees who tragically lost their lives in the Channel. The ghouls who try to stop lifeboats entering the sea to save lives do not speak for Hastings.