On today’s #NCFNewspeak, NCF Director Peter Whittle, Senior Fellows Dr. Philip Kiszely and Rafe Heydel-Mankoo and Amy Gallagher of Stand Up To Woke discuss the UK riots and the media and political response.
Month: August 2024
Bangladeshi community in Athens celebrate the forced resignation of Hasina following Islamist uprising
Members of the Bangladeshi community took to the streets of Athens to celebrate the fall of the country’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, who left the country after a period of persistent and bloody protests spearheaded by Islamist groups.
The Bangladeshi community, along with KEERFA (Movement United Against Racism and the Fascist Threat) and the Socialist Workers’ Party in Greece (SEK), mobilised in Omonia and the surrounding streets on Tuesday afternoon to show support for the toppling of Hasina.
Ever since Hasina was forced to flee, images and videos have emerged of atrocities against the Hindu minority in Bangladesh, whose numbers have dangerously depleted over decades to the point of near extinction.
One viral video clip shows radical Islamists inspecting the genitals of a murdered man, possibly lynched to death, and expressing satisfaction on the confirmation he was Hindu due to being uncircumcised.
A particularly poignant graphic has been shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Radharamn Das, the vice-president and spokesperson of Iskcon Kolkata, depicting a human figure hanged till death superimposed on the national flag of Bangladesh, with a hashtag #SaveBangladeshiHindus.
News agency AFP quoted Rana Dasgupta, who leads an organisation representing minorities in Bangladesh, as saying that houses and shops of minority people were attacked, vandalised and looted in “at least 97 places on Monday and Tuesday” and “at least 10 Hindu temples” were assaulted by Monday.
Among the temples targeted, desecrated and burnt to cinders is the Iskcon temple in Meherpur, Khulna.
Spokesperson Yudhistir Govinda Das was quoted as saying in Indian media outlets that the deities of Lord Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra Devi were burnt, and three devotees somehow managed to escape.
The BBC reported, quoting Avirup Sarkar, a Bangladeshi Hindu, that mobs were making lists of Hindu properties to be attacked. Sarkar’s cousin lives in Netrokona, where a “mob of about 100 people, armed with sticks, stormed the house, smashing furniture, TV, bathroom fittings and doors. Before leaving, they took all the cash and jewellery…” They left with a warning that “You people are descendants of the Awami League! This country is in a bad shape because of you. You should leave the country.”
New York Times quoted Prionthi Chatterjee, a Hindu student in Dhaka, as saying that “Muslims had attacked her family at their home in the southern Bagerhat region, killing her father and leaving her mother with head injuries. ‘My father was an innocent teacher,’ she said in a phone interview, adding that her parents tried to call the army and the police for help but that no one responded.”
Reuters reported that 200-300 mainly Hindu homes and businesses had been vandalised since Monday, and 15-20 Hindu temples damaged. The nationwide vandalism and that caused destruction to numerous moments, statues, including that of founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, artefacts, and cultural institutions didn’t spare even noted personalities.
The UK’s Metropolitan Police threaten Elon Musk for online posts inciting “hate”
By Andrea Widburg
George Orwell accurately predicted in 1984 what would happen when technology was combined with leftism. The only mistake he made was that he assumed it would happen forty years sooner than it finally did. I say that because Britain’s Labour government is embarking on a huge “hate” speech crackdown (2024’s version of “misinformation”), and Elon Musk, an American citizen in America, had better watch out. Indeed, according to the police commissioner, all Americans are in his crosshairs.
I support laws making it illegal to use speech to threaten people or incite specific violence. Thus, statements such as “I’m going to kill you” or “Let’s burn down this grocery store” have always been criminalized in America, even under the First Amendment. However, in America (at least for now), statements such as “I wish he were dead,” “He is an evil man,” or even “The people need to fight this madness” are free speech that the government cannot criminalize.
What we haven’t done in America (yet) is to criminalize what one might call “thoughtcrimes.” We’re on the way there, however, because we have “hate crimes.” Hate crime charges enhance criminal penalties if the wrongdoer had anti-minority or anti-LGBTQ+ thoughts when committing the underlying crime. Thus, in America, it’s worse to kill a person because he’s black or gay than it is merely to kill the person.
This thought crime standard doesn’t work in the other direction, of course. There’s no penalty enhancement for killing a person because he’s white or heterosexual. It’s the thoughtcrime of “racism” or “homophobia” that makes the murder not just bad but really bad.
The very idea of hate crimes is unconstitutional, to my way of thinking. I’m only grateful that, so far, the government has yet made serious inroads criminalizing opinions about different types of people. (Note, though, that the feds are censoring people through their tech proxies.) I’m a free speech absolutist in this regard, I say that despite the frightening rise of antisemitism in America. What frightens me even more than antisemitism on the streets is a government that uses its police power to control what we may or may not think. Maybe it’ll oppose antisemitism now but, maybe, one day, it’ll do a U-turn and go full Nazi.
As I explained at greater length in my post about Tim Walz’s war on the First Amendment, we inherited from England our ideas about free speech. That’s why it’s somehow truly tragic that, as George Orwell predicted, England abandoned free speech when she abandoned liberty and embraced totalitarianism. And as Orwell also predicted, once the speech police had the technology to do so, they would track down anyone who committed a thoughtcrime.
Here’s the Metropolitan Police Commissioner warning that no one who incites “hate” is safe from the long arm of the law:
Police Commissioner: We will throw the full force of the law at people. And whether you’re in this country committing crimes on the streets or committing crimes from further afield online, we will come after you.
Reporter: I want to talk to you about that because we have seen some high-profile figures whipping up the hatred you talked about it in there with the officers, in fact, about this [the civil unrest] being added to by online commentary. I mean, I’m even thinking of the likes of Elon Musk getting involved. What are you considering when it comes to dealing with people who are whipping up this kind of behavior from behind a keyboard and maybe in a different country?
Police Commissioner: Being a keyboard warrior does not make you safe from the law. You can be guilty of offenses of, of incitement, of stirring up racial hatred. There are numerous terrorist offenses regarding the sort of publishing of material. All of those offenses are in play if people are provoking hatred and violence on the streets, and we will come after those individuals, just as we will physically confront on the streets, the thugs and the yobs who are taking, who are causing the problems for Community.
So, it’s bad in England. But what’s really crazy about what the Police Commissioner said is that he intends to expand his reach beyond Britain’s borders and to attack overseas thoughtcrimes that people who aren’t British citizens commit. That is, after all, the import of his threat against Elon Musk and others who are “committing crimes from further afield online.”
Thankfully, Elon Musk is not a shrinking violent. In the face of this threat, he has suspended the entire British government for violating the X terms of service:
I’ve long been worried about the handful of conservative friends I have who live in England. Now, I’m worried about my friends in America, too. If Kamala wins, it’s all too easy to imagine her administration happily extraditing to the UK people in America who have dared to notice that the UK is rapidly turning into a hard-left, technocratic state that pays obeisance to the rising number of Muslims it’s imported.
Regarding the UK’s new citizens, I’ll leave you with two things. First, a quote from Chris Rufo from an essay he wrote about how London has changed in almost 20 years:
Since my last visit nearly two decades ago, the white British population of London has declined from 60 percent to 37 percent. Meantime, the Muslim population of London has nearly doubled, and migrants from South Asia and Africa have entrenched themselves throughout the city.
Anglos have been a minority for more than a decade. What I’ve observed in the city this week has amazed me. Women’s eyes peering through the slit of black niqabs. A procession of sub-Saharan Africans traversing Westminster Bridge, waving the flags of their homelands and demanding reparations. Street corners that could be confused for Peshawar or Islamabad. Districts in which one could pass an entire day with barely a glimpse of an Englishman. (Emphasis mine.)
UK gov’t official says people will be arrested for sharing posts that could incite ‘racial hatred’
A U.K. government official has announced that police will arrest people for sharing content that could incite “racial hatred,” regardless of their intent.
Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions in England and Wales, said in an interview with Sky News that “publishing or distributing material which is insulting or abusive which is intended to or likely to start racial hatred” online will be prosecuted.
“So, if you retweet that, then you’re republishing that and then potentially you’re committing that offense [incitement to racial hatred],” Parkinson stated.
“We do have dedicated police officers who are scouring social media,” he added. “Their job is to look for this material, and then follow up with identification, arrests, and so forth.”
“So it’s very, very serious. People might think they’re not doing anything harmful. They are. And the consequences will be visited upon them.”
England has witnessed violent protests and clashes between anti-immigration protestors, counter-protestors, and groups from certain minority communities ever since the murder of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed event in late July. The alleged murderer was an 17-year-old whose parents immigrated to the U.K. from Rwanda. As a child model, the suspect once took part in a children’s charity advertisement in which he portrayed one of contemporary England’s most iconic figures, Doctor Who.
According to Fox News, Sky News journalist Matthew Thompson, who conducted the interview with Parkinson, clarified that British citizens could face criminal charges for reposting content that is deemed illegal regardless of their intent.
“People might be sharing [content] simply to warn their friends, but it could be considered an offense because they’re amplifying this,” Parkinson said, agreeing with Thompson’s statement.
“They are actually already bringing charges in relation to this sort of thing. So it’s a very, very clear message based in the harsh reality, if you like, that if you do this kind of thing, you are potentially committing a criminal offense,” Thompson said, reiterating Parkinson’s explanation.
“They’ve got teams of people scouring the Internet looking for this sort of thing. And if you are in the business of sharing or re-tweeting, whatever platform it might be, potentially criminal material, well, then you could find yourself prosecuted,” he added.
Arresting citizens for social media posts has been a frequent occurrence in Great Britain for several years. In 2018, a young woman was arrested and sentenced to community service and a fine for racism for posting the lyrics of a rap song that contained the n-word. In 2022, a Catholic journalist and mother was arrested for sending “offensive” tweets critical of gender ideology.
‘Two athletes sick after swimming in the Seine,’ Portuguese Olympic Committee says
The Portuguese Olympic Committee (COP) has announced that two of its triathletes, Vasco Vilaça and Melanie Santos, fell ill after swimming in the Seine River.
In a statement on August 7, the COP’s Sports Medicine Department reported that Vilaça had developed symptoms consistent with a gastrointestinal infection.
“The Portuguese Olympic Committee (COP) informs, through its Sports Medicine Department, that athlete Vasco Vilaça has developed symptoms compatible with gastrointestinal infection in the last few hours during his stay at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” the body said.
The committee also noted that Vilaça was in stable condition and that the other athlete Melanie Santos had experienced similar symptoms, although less severe.
The COP raised concerns about the water quality of the Seine, stating: “Although the required safety limits were met, some of the parameters assessed pose a risk of infection in this environmental context.”
Santo and Vilaça competed in events held in the Seine on July 31 and August 5.
While the triathlon events held on July 30 and 31 had appeared to meet safety standards, doubts have lingered about the conditions during the event on August 5, as reported by French publication Mediapart.
On August 9, French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra stated: “Out of 5 events held in the Seine, 100 per cent of water-quality indicators were compliant on the day of the event on the course. Promise kept.”
Mediapart journalist Anton Rouget responded, claiming official samples gathered on August 5 showed the threshold for intestinal enterococci was exceeded: “False Monday, August 5, the day of the mixed triathlon relay event, the limit threshold for intestinal enterococci was exceeded, as proven by the results of the official samples,” he said.
Oudéa-Castéra denied these allegations on X and refuted the investigative journalist’s claim that the Seine was not safely swimmable on August 5.
“Mr Rouget, it was downstream from the event site, not on the swimmers’ route,” Oudéa-Castéra said.
On August 8, the Surfrider Foundation France accused the Paris Olympics committee of concealing poor water-quality results for the river.
Swimming in the Seine was banned in Paris a century ago: in 1923 by a prefectoral decree because the water was deemed too toxic.
For the current Olympics, Paris put in place a €1.4 billion plan to enable swimming events to be held in the river.
The investment included the construction of a giant basin to capture excess rainwater and prevent wastewater from flowing into the Seine, the renovation of sewerage infrastructure and improvements to wastewater treatment plants.
Germany: Moroccan justifies rape and abuse of ex with Sharia law
The trial of the 33-year-old Moroccan, who is alleged to have raped his then partner several times in Soest, started on Thursday morning at Arnsberg District Court.
In his statement, Mokhtar B. denied that he raped his then partner several times in her flat in Soest and in a wooded area near the Soest city park, sometimes with the threat of violence. However, the accused had previously admitted to expert witness Dr Josef Leßmann that he had threatened to smash a beer bottle on the pregnant woman’s head. When Petja Pagel, presiding judge of the 4th Grand Criminal Chamber, asked Mokhtar B. if this was the case, B. unconvincingly accused the experienced and respected psychiatric expert from Warstein of lying.
On Thursday, Mokhtar B. described the fact that violence was apparently a matter of course in the broken relationship without a slightest remorse: his ex allegedly cheated on him. He confronted her about it and she denied the allegations. “Then I threatened her, pulled her hair and hit her.She confessed after I hit and threatened her.”
When asked why, he said: “My honour was wounded. It was hurtful to my honour that someone slept with my wife. I was really angry.” He invoked the rules of Sharia law. Petja Pagel asked him: “Should I interpret that to mean that you think it’s OK to beat your wife?” B. replied: “Of course. Would you accept that if you were in my place? I couldn’t bear it, it’s not allowed among our people.”
Because the Soest woman – probably as a result of one of the alleged rapes on New Year’s Day – is said to have developed abdominal pain and Mokhtar B. was apparently afraid for the unborn child, she went to hospital. There, too, he beat her and only stopped when a doctor intervened. “I was angry, I wanted to keep hitting her,” said the accused. At the same time, Mokhtar B. apparently did not take the rules of Islam too seriously himself: during the offences on New Year’s Day, he was apparently high on drugs.
“I consumed alcohol, cocaine, hashish and pills at a New Year’s Eve party – but the offences of beating her have nothing to do with that.” Nicole Kuni, the public prosecutor, said of the torment that the Soest woman is said to have suffered: “She feared for her life.” The trial will continue on Thursday, August 15.
Soester Vergewaltigungs-Prozess: Mokhtar B. will sich mit Scharia schützen (soester-anzeiger.de)
Opposition Accuses Austrian Government of Migration “Number Trickery”
The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) has accused the centre-right-green coalition government of deceiving Austria’s citizens with its latest report on the deportation of illegal migrants.
According to Interior Minister Gerhard Karner—of the centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP)—Austria deported 6,553 people in the first half of this year: 3,080 were voluntary departures and 3,473 forced deportations. This is a 6% higher figure than in the same period last year, and the highest number since the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum was founded in 2014.
According to the ministry, 44% of all forcibly deported persons were convicted of criminal offences at least once.
Syrian and Afghan citizens were also deported, but to third countries. Without specifying how many of them were affected, Karner said: “We have to start negotiations on how we can directly deport them back to their home countries.”
National-conservative FPÖ’s MP Hannes Amesbauer was more than unsatisfied with Karner’s report, telling reporters that the government is deceiving Austrians with “number trickery of the worst kind.” He said that only 15 Syrians and nine Afghans have been deported this year, and 36 Syrians but no Afghans last year. At the same time, citizens from these two countries handed in around 30,000 asylum applications in 2023.
Afghanistan and Syria are deemed unsafe countries of origin, and returning their citizens “would be against EU law,” according to Gerhard Karner, who has advocated that a European Union-wide ban on repatriations to these countries be reconsidered.
A recent German court ruling said that there is no longer a general danger to all civilians in Syria, and a court verdict in Austria said the same about Afghanistan, emphasising that the security situation had improved since the radical Islamist Taliban regime took back power in 2021.
There have been intense political discussions in both Austria and Germany about the need for deportations to resume after a spate of brutal knife attacks in Germany, committed mostly by Afghan and Syrian migrants.
Despite the Austrian government’s insistence that it is successfully tackling illegal immigration, Amesbauer of the FPÖ believes that Gerhard Karner “has not secured our borders, but has degraded our police force to a kind of ‘welcoming committee’ for illegal immigrants.” He added that 240,000 illegal immigrants have come to Austria since the current government took power in 2020.
Amesbauer said that if his party is elected to government following late September’s parliamentary elections, it would immediately suspend asylum applications, put in place a real border protection system, enable pushbacks, consistently deport failed asylum seekers, give benefits in kind to accepted asylum seekers instead of cash handouts, and generally make Austria a less attractive destination country for illegal and economic migrants.
Recent revelations that a Syrian family with seven children is receiving €4,600 in social benefits per month have caused outrage in Austria.
The FPÖ’s strong stance on curbing migration has catapulted it to first place in opinion polls, which predict that the party will get 28% of the votes at the elections on September 29th. The People’s Party is currently in second place on 22%.
In a recent parliamentary debate, Amesbauer complained that 35% of primary school children in Austria are Muslims. “One does not have to be a prophet to recognise that mass immigration leads to Islamisation and subsequently to an increased threat of terrorism,” he said.
Authorities on Wednesday cancelled three scheduled concerts in Vienna by the U.S. pop singer Taylor Swift, after the police arrested two radical Islamists who were planning a massive terror attack at the venue.
UN brass laments the ‘backlash’ to progressive climate agenda, blames it on a ‘disinformation campaign’
By Olivia Murray
Supremely out of touch, or bloated with shameless dishonesty? It’s hard to know, but in all likelihood, probably both.
The progressive globalist bureaucrats at the United Nations—yes the same ones who relentlessly tread on people’s inalienable rights and only serve as a detriment to all of mankind with the exception of themselves—are now informing us that the cost of their progressive climate agenda isn’t actually excessive, and any claims to the contrary are but a propaganda sound bite from the oil companies. Here’s the story, from Fiona Harvey’s new article published at The Guardian yesterday:
Fossil fuel companies are running ‘a massive mis- and disinformation campaign’ so that countries will slow down the adoption of renewable energy and the speed with which they ‘transition away’ from a carbon-intensive economy, the UN has said.
Selwin Hart, the assistant secretary general of the UN, said that talk of a global ‘backlash’ against climate action was being stoked by the fossil fuel industry…
‘There is this prevailing narrative – and a lot of it is being pushed by the fossil fuel industry and their enablers – that climate action is too difficult, it’s too expensive,’ he said.
Now, I don’t use the term “fossil fuel” because that’s not what oil is; oil is itself a renewable resource, as it continuously seeps from the Earth, but nonetheless, is the “backlash” against the progressive climate agenda really just a mendacious marketing campaign at the behest of Big Oil? Seriously?
This isn’t to say that Big Oil tycoons are incredibly moral and honest business executives (hardly), but that’s not the crux of the argument; Hart is claiming that the “backlash” to “climate action” is because of mis- and disinformation.
So, let’s take a look at the “climate action” agenda of the progressive globalists, like bona fide socialist Guterres and special adviser Hart, and the subsequent “backlash” from people around the world.
Can electric vehicles be remotely controlled or not? Indeed they can.
Do electric vehicles, by virtue of their design, require dependence on an electrical grid?
Are social credit scores, including the environmental metric of a person’s “carbon footprint,” ever used to control movement and deny access to personal finances? Yes, absolutely; this program is up and running in China at this very moment:
The consequences of a poor social credit score could be serious. It may affect travel prospects, employment, access to finance, and the ability to enter into contracts. On the other hand, a positive credit score could make a range of business transactions much easier.
Is it conceivable that the idea of a “carbon footprint” would be used to justify a host of atrocities? Again, absolutely. Population control, of which the U.N. is a big proponent, is all about “conserving” resources and limiting human impact; the U.N. intensely pushes abortion, and if you know anything about history you now that when you open the door and allow the murder of some, the state will inevitably comes for you. (The One-Child Policy of China was touted as delivering for the “green” agenda.)
Can enough copper even be mined to facilitate the proposed total transition? Not even close.
Are wind turbines absolutely destroying our wildlife and biodiversity, killing birds, bats, and all kinds of marine life? Check, check, and check.
Since there’s no recycling program in place, where are the decommissioned wind turbines going? That’s right, they’re piling them up in modest towns across the American heartland.
What about solar panels? Do they have a disposal plan for those? No they don’t, and this too is fixing to be a serious issue down the road, with even far-left outlet Mother Jones asking this: “What Will We Do With the Megatons of Toxic Trash?” As of now, they’re winding up in landfills where all the heavy metals and chemical plastics are breaking down and leaching into our soil and water tables.
Do “greenie” policies do more harm than good? Literally always. Remember the dam removal project in California that drove the salmon to the verge of extinction?
Is the cost of “net zero” in the trillions or not? Try tens (maybe hundreds) of trillions. These are like Dr. Evil numbers here. Here’s this, from McKinsey Global Institute, which is itself a very progressive-minded firm:
The transformation of the global economy needed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 would be universal and significant, requiring $9.2 trillion in annual average spending on physical assets, $3.5 trillion more than today. To put it in comparable terms, that increase is equivalent to half of global corporate profits and one-quarter of total tax revenue in 2020.
(That’s a lot of money, and I don’t know about you, but I’m taxed out—the “too expensive” criticism is entirely legitimate.)
Now, are any of those points I listed above from the oil lobby? No, it’s all just data and fact—a currency entirely avoided by the progressive climate zealous left.
British multiculturalism is a riot victim – It has been killed by too much diversity
by Giulio Meotti
Before Southport there was the Annecy playground stabber in France, the Mannheim stabber in Germany and the Dublin riots triggered by the attempted murder of schoolchildren by an Algerian. In Sweden they welcomed 10 migrant Muslim men for every woman.
Result? There are explosive attacks, shootings and stabbings almost every day in Europe. One of the most peaceful countries in the world until 2015 is now at war. And remember Lola Daviet, the little girl from Paris raped, tortured, killed and mutilated by a gang of Algerians.
Now? From Newton Heath to Harehills (near Bradford) from Plymouth, Cornwall, to Merseyside, clashes are taking place between gangs of Islamic hooligans and the “Far Right”.
To date, Great Britain has been one of the model countries of immigration and integration, so much so that it had the first Muslim mayor of a European capital, Sadiq Khan; and also had a prime minister of Indian origin, Rishi Sunak.
The Great Britain of the summer of 2024 resembles the France of a year ago: there are no iron and fire banlieues, but the deep provinces, that same Red Wall which just a month ago rushed to vote en masse for Labour, giving them the largest majority in the country’s history. After 80 years, that model shows the cracks of an increasingly difficult coexistence between too many ethnic groups that harbor anti-Semitic and anti-Western sentiments.
The English SkyNews commentator surrounded by masked Islamic bandits, rather than good globalisation, brings to mind the “clash of civilisations” prophesied in 1996 by Samuel Huntington, a theory ostracized because it was too pessimistic and not in line with the marketism which it instead applauded to the Fukuyama model of the End of History.
Two years ago it was Leicester that burned and there were no whites, but Pakistanis against Hindus. Attacks with knives, throwing of stones and bottles, cars destroyed, religious symbols under siege and dozens injured, including many policemen. The outbreak of violence began after the cricket match between India and Pakistan. Some members of the Indian community in Leicester celebrate with the chant “Pakistan Murdabad”, “Death to Pakistan”, dating back to the time of partition.
A Sikh was attacked in the street. Social media spread the false news that he is a Muslim. The house of a Hindu family is attacked and social media goes wild with the false news of a “premeditated attack against a Muslim”. Then another fake: a Muslim girl was allegedly molested by three Hindus.
Take Crépol, France, 500 people, typical country houses, the bell tower, the town hall, the post office and a party room that welcomes the whole village on Saturday evening for the “winter dance” – and a group of young people coming from the “difficult neighborhoods” (i.e. immigrants) of a nearby city, attacked the parties, randomly hitting anyone who came within range, with knives and hatchets. Twenty stabbed and one dead: Thomas, 16, a high school student, hit in the chest and throat.
“We’re here to stab white people,” the attackers shouted. The press spent days following Crépol’s attack calling it a “brawl” between teenagers. But it was more than a brawl, it was the expedition of a gang of North Africans who came out of the nearby town with the specific purpose of “killing the whites”.
People in Europe are now tired of being silent. To be called “racist” for questioning immigration policy, “fascist” for voting right, “Islamophobic” for opposing radical Islam, “reactionary” for discussing knife crime in their cities.
In the words of the sociologist John Rex, whose advocacy for a multicultural Britain was highly influential during the 1990s, the fundamental task of governance is twofold, “to ensure that those who come are peacefully integrated and that their arrival does not lead to the collapse of ‘post-1945 political order’.
It doesn’t take a genius to understand that that order in the West has already collapsed. Britain is only one of many.
British multiculturalism is a riot victim | Israel National News – Arutz Sheva
UK’s NHS set to launch detransitioning services for ‘transgender’ patients
The National Health Service of England (NHS) is slated to launch its first “detransitioning” service aimed at returning “transgender” individuals to physical conformity with their biological sex.
The move was prompted by the recommendations of a review of Gender Identity Services by pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass, The Telegraph reported. Dr. Cass’ report found an “exponential” spike in the number of young people who were presented to the UK NHS Gender Identity Service (GIDS) beginning in 2014.
General Practitioners in England were found to be “pressurized to prescribe hormones” by patients who had not consulted with a private clinician, and Dr. Cass concluded that the current practice of so-called “gender medicine” in the U.K., involving the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, was built on “shaky foundations.”
Dr. Cass reportedly went so far as to recommend that GPs resist efforts by private practitioners to prescribe puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, “particularly if that private provider is acting outside NHS guidance.”
NHS England has decided to fully adopt Dr. Cass’ recommendations, and on Wednesday published its plans to reform its gender services accordingly. Sir Stephen Prowis, medical director of the NHS, praised Dr. Cass’ work as “invaluable” and said the NHS would now embrace a “fundamentally different and safer model of care for children.”
According to Health Service officials, the NHS’ next step is to “define” a “pathway” for those who decide to detransition, since there is currently no official guidance on how to care for such individuals. Their work will involve examining the proportion of patients who detransition, and their reasons for detransitioning, The Telegraph reported.
The plan involves the creation of six new clinics by 2026 specialized to care for minors struggling with their biological sex.
Despite this impending reform, the NHS is set to begin clinical trials of puberty blockers for minors, since Dr. Cass’ report cited lack of long-term studies as a reason that puberty blockers should not be prescribed to minors.
Critics have warned that these trials are “ethically unjustifiable,” with the warning that they “pose the very real risk of the NHS sacrificing the otherwise good health of vulnerable children and causing them grave physical harm in the name of research.”
Lucy Marsh of the Family Education Trust has called upon the NHS to address the roots of gender dysphoria and has decried its planned trials of administering puberty blockers to teenagers as “unethical” and “dangerous.”
‘We do not need more gender clinics, instead the NHS should be looking at the root causes of gender dysphoria including mental health issues, autism, sexual abuse and issues within the family,” said Marsh, according to The Daily Mail.
“It is not ‘kind’ to lead children down a pathway that leads to irreversible harm and destroys families,” she said, adding that it is a “a huge waste of taxpayer’s money to roll out gender clinics to every area of England.”
Transgender hormonal and surgical interventions are known to cause lifelong mental and physical damage and to exacerbate psychological issues in those subjected to them.
Studies find that more than 80 percent of children experiencing gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence, and that even full “reassignment” surgery often fails to resolve gender-confused individuals’ heightened tendency to engage in self-harm and suicide – and may even exacerbate it, including by reinforcing their confusion and neglecting the actual root causes of their mental strife.
Many oft-ignored detransitioners have attested to the physical and mental harm of reinforcing gender confusion as well as to the bias and negligence of the medical establishment on the subject, many of whom take an activist approach to their profession and begin cases with a predetermined conclusion that “transitioning” is the best solution.
