220 Responses to Midweek 20th May 2026

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  1. MarkyMark says:
    May 22, 2026 at 9:48 am

    UK – the hill upon which it will die…..

    “Women’s rights group Sex Matters flags one legal error in the guidance which is a claim that information about sex is likely “special category data” under UK GDPR, but Article 9(1) doesn’t list sex as a special category. It covers sex life and sexual orientation, which are distinct. The death of the culture wars continues…”
    https://order-order.com/2026/05/22/business-secretary-finally-published-trans-guidance-is-sensitive/#comments

    ……………….

    Labour conference: Not right to say only women have a cervix, says Starmer
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58698406
    Asked about the row, Sir Keir said claiming only women have cervixes was “something that shouldn’t be said”.

    In August, Ms Duffield liked a tweet by broadcaster Piers Morgan, who criticised a news story from CNN about cancer screening for “individuals with a cervix”, responding: “Do you mean women?”

    When the MP was called transphobic for appearing to endorse the tweet, she replied: “I’m a ‘transphobe’ for knowing that only women have a cervix… ?!”.

    She later acknowledged that some trans men have a cervix.

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  2. digg says:
    May 22, 2026 at 10:05 am

    Not mentioned by the BBC for some reason as far as I can tell, a green lefty described as a nurse and child welfare officer drops out of Makerfield election and reveals a rather questionable social media interest….

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/22/green-party-candidate-makerfield-byelection-chris-kennedy-quits

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  3. tomo says:
    May 22, 2026 at 10:06 am

    Dearlove Is Shocked. He Should Be. But He Is Looking At The Wrong People.

    Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, said yesterday he was shocked to learn that a senior Foreign Office civil servant had discussed Britain’s nuclear deterrent in closed-door meetings with an organisation he describes as a front for China’s main foreign spy agency. He called for parliamentary scrutiny of Stephen Lillie’s meetings with the Grandview Institution during a four-day trip to Beijing last October.
    Dearlove is right to be shocked. He is looking at the wrong level.

    Lillie’s meeting did not happen in isolation. It happened during what the Telegraph describes as a flurry of trips to Beijing by top British officials amid Starmer’s deliberate thawing of relations with China. Sir Olly Robbins, subsequently sacked, lunched with Grandview experts the week before Lillie’s visit. Jonathan Powell, now the Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser, met Grandview before his appointment. Since becoming National Security Adviser in December 2024, Powell has met Wang Yi, the Politburo member directing Chinese foreign affairs, four times. His vetting arrangements have never been publicly confirmed. Every parliamentary question about those arrangements has been blocked.

    A civil servant discussing nuclear deterrent protocols with a Chinese spy agency front is alarming. The Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser maintaining undisclosed relationships with PLA-connected officials through his private consultancy, while his vetting status remains secret, demands scrutiny of an entirely different order.

    The government’s defence of Lillie’s meetings is that no sensitive information was discussed. That formulation covers every difficult question this government has faced on China. The spy trial that collapsed because the government refused to name China as a national security threat in court. The super embassy approved despite a concealed underground chamber positioned within a metre of the cables carrying the City of London’s financial data. The Mandelson appointment despite a due diligence report flagging China and Russia concerns. The same language. The same outcome.

    Dearlove warned yesterday that Chinese intelligence operates on an industrial scale, approaches every engagement with aggressive intentions, and exploits any relationship it can access. He said British officials should have been briefed in detail about the threat before attending these meetings. He said he has serious concerns about the national security adviser’s previous contacts with China.

    Those concerns are warranted. The question Dearlove has raised about Lillie is a question about process and judgment. The question Powell’s undisclosed vetting raises, alongside the spy trial collapse, the super embassy, the Indo-Pacific withdrawal, and Chinese components being embedded throughout Britain’s energy grid against explicit American intelligence warnings, goes considerably further.

    A pattern of decisions this consistent, each retreating from Britain’s interests and advancing Beijing’s, each defended with the language of pragmatism and engagement, does not emerge from poor judgment alone. Poor judgment produces occasional errors. Sequential decisions, each pointing in the same direction, over two years, by a Prime Minister warned repeatedly who proceeded regardless, produces a different and more troubling question.

    Dearlove wants the ISC to scrutinise Lillie’s paperwork. The ISC is already reviewing thousands of pages on Mandelson. Parliament has been blocked from scrutinising Powell.

    Scrutinise the civil servant by all means. Then ask who sent him, who knew, and why the pattern of engagement with an organisation accused of fronting for Chinese intelligence runs from the bottom of the Foreign Office all the way to the office of the Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser.

    Sir Richard “has serious concerns about the national security adviser’s previous contacts with China.”

    https://x.com/JChimirie66677/status/2057537815811105118

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    • MarkyMark says:
      May 22, 2026 at 10:16 am

      “Dearlove warned yesterday that Chinese intelligence operates on an industrial scale, approaches every engagement with aggressive intentions, and exploits any relationship it can access. ”

      Buy UK for one hole dorrah!

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  4. tomo says:
    May 22, 2026 at 10:14 am

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  5. MarkyMark says:
    May 22, 2026 at 10:26 am

    “Andy Burnham @AndyBurnhamGM
    Today we think of everyone affected by the attack in Manchester on the night of the 22nd May 2017, and particularly the families who lost loved-ones, knowing that every single day of the nine years since has been hard for them.

    We are still at their side and always will be. 🐝”
    https://x.com/AndyBurnhamGM/status/2057688465236505000

    …………… ARE THEY STILL LOST? …………………….

    “Today my thoughts are with those in Manchester who were lost on that terrible night and their loved ones who have so bravely battled to rebuild their lives. All of you – and many more in this great city – are the very best of what this country stands for. ” Theresa May

    ….
    22 Lost in Manchester …. why is this a terrible statement?

    Lost … so they will be found?

    Lost …. weasel words rather than killed or murdered so as not to upset anyone or cause HATE.

    Lost ….. a child given a Western education and opportunity decided Islam was better, but we cannot look into this problem because all cultures are EQUAL.

    Lost …… children killed for an ideology, but that ideology cannot be criticised.

    Lost …….. 1400+ kids were “transformed” over 16 years in 1 town, why not use the word groomed rather than raped.

    Lost ……… the UK has lost the ability to state the actual events, so it is the UK that HAS LOST.

       1 likes

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