Tuesday 25 July 2017

"Doing a lot of good work in that area, isn't she, Justine Greening?"



For a powerfully-argued counterblast against the government's plans to allow people to pick their own gender without a doctor's diagnosis - and specifically to allow them to change their own birth certificates (from male to female, female to male, or either male female to 'X') - please read Brendan O'Neill's piece about it at Spiked

And once you've done so please go on to read the BBC News website's report about those plans. 

The thing you'll immediately notice about that BBC report is that it gives the government's side of the argument (quoting extensively from Justine Greening) and then gives the views of people who agree with the government's plans. 

Everything, from the chose of parties quoted, to the direct quotes used, to the article's sub-headlines, to the Getty image chosen, presents these plans in a positive light. Everyone seems to agree that 'it's a very good thing, and about time too!'

And yet, as Brendan O'Neill proves, not everyone does agree that it's a very good thing. A lot of people will think that it's a very bad thing. Brendan himself calls it "Orwellian":
Britain is going full Orwell. The Tory government is proposing to include in the Gender Recognition Bill the ‘right’ to alter the sex on one’s birth certificate. So if a 32-year-old man decides that he is in fact a woman, he could be able to go to the General Register Office and insist that the word ‘Boy’ be erased from his birth certificate and replaced with the word ‘Girl’, or ‘Female’. Even though he was not a girl when that certificate was drawn up. Even though the midwife who declared ‘It’s a boy!’ when he was born, and the birth registrar who later wrote the word ‘Boy’ or ‘Male’ on his birth certificate, were telling the truth. That truth, that publicly recorded truth, that national truth, would be replaced with a lie. We’ve entered Ministry of Truth territory. The memory hole is real
The wholly one-sided BBC report gave no sense whatsoever that anyone might think that the government's plans are wrong-headed and dangerous. 

And that tells you a good deal about the BBC's bias towards social liberalism. 

It probably never even occurred to the reporter behind that piece to even think of seeking out a counter-balancing view. 

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Incidentally, in trying to check out whether this BBC report was typical of the BBC's coverage (it was), I came across the following example from Sunday morning's Breakfast. Guest Margaret Doyle was doing the paper review and discussing this very issue with BBC presenter Christian Fraser. Here's how that part of their discussion ended:
Margaret Doyle: There's a bit of controversy over it but I think that the broad thrust of this government is to push forward that agenda of liberalisation and equality and say, well, maybe we need to change how we look at transgender, just as how we have changed also the way we look at homosexual relationships.
Christian Fraser: Doing a lot of good work in that area, isn't she, Justine Greening?
Margaret Doyle: Yeah. 
It probably never even occurred to Christian Fraser that his expression of a personal view there was even remotely controversial or in any way lacking in impartiality. It could hardly be less impartial (however much you may agree with it). 

12 comments:

  1. Good catch on Fraser. That's pure opinion and advocacy. On top of that, it cannot be denied that by "good work", he's referring in part to Greening's recent statement that the CofE needs to abandon more of its scriptural doctrine to get with the times.

    You're right, Craig. It won't have occurred to any of them that what they're advocating might be controversial. After all, 'controversial' means something Beeboids don't like, not that other people might disagree with them.

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    1. How many MPs (out of 650) oppose this policy? If the answer's none, then you've got to wonder how widespread that view actually is.

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  2. Full Orwell? Too right! We now have the Idiot May's Extremism Commission to contend with ...does anyone think that it will really be used against imported ideology that threaten our well being? As Rod Liddle has pointed out, it won't - they will soon get stuck into so-called Islamophobia, Evangelical beliefs, and conservative social values.

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    1. Idiot indeed! May, like Cameron, lives in the pathetic hope of being 'loved' by the BBC. The alternative strategy of reforming the Corporation is, of course, what is needed - as is a PM with a spinal column made of bone, instead of marshmallow.
      So, a big hairy male walks into a ladies' lavatory and makes a nuisance of himself - or worse; "I'm entitled to be here," he says, "I'm a woman - says so on my birth certificate (that I changed yesterday)"...They really haven't thought this through, have they?

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    2. I've concluded that May (and Cameron) do get the support they want from the BBC.

      Gay marriage, gender pay gaps, transgenderism, stamping out Islamophobia, soft/no brexit - these are their important issues on which they can count on the full support of the BBC.

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    3. They really haven't thought this through. If you can change gender in the first place, then surely you can change back just as easily. Claudia might become Claud when the next BBC pay-round negotiation is due, and then back to Claudia afterwards.

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  3. Almost, if not more telling is what lies behind Beeboids grudgingly approving policies from traditional ideological foes.

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  4. Am I being too literal? I can see how a term like liberalisation could be applied to this policy, but what on earth has this to do with equality.

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  5. Change of topic: Liam Fox's complaint that the BBC is systematically ignoring good news about the UK economy clearly fell upon deaf ears: yesterday's announcement that the electric version of the BMW Mini will be built here was, apparently, not good news because it would not create any new jobs &, anyway, the successor to the mini may well be built elsewhere. All delivered in a tone of sneering contempt by the Beeboid on the spot.

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    1. The BBC can never report economic good news while there is 1) a Conservative government, and, 2) a chance Brexit can be avoided.

      On Monday there was a Govt. release on promoting batteries. The BBC reported this and then added "critics will say that" it's too little too late. Who were these critics? How does the BBC know what someone will say?

      Ah, but May and Greening can count on unlimited BBC support with no critics for transgenderism!

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    2. St. Macron of Boeufmerde26 July 2017 at 17:28

      Gove was about two weeks behind St. Macron's similar announcement which the BBC no doubt fanfared as far sighted, noble and highly ethical. But that two weeks makes all the difference!

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  6. With praise from the BBC filling her sails, Justine Greening has now announced that the Tories want to legalize making up your own gender on your passport. Because we all know the way forward for the Tories is to appeal to Progressives.

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