The UK Supreme Court said that their ruling on biological sex as a distinct category in equality provision should not be interpreted as a defeat for trans people. Trans people have the right to live in dignity, free from harassment and discrimination, they ruled. Most of those who welcomed the judgement also made a point of saying that they support the rights of trans people to … [Read more...] about Trans in fiction – and in court
Books & Poetry
Poems for the dawn
I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head. WB YeatsAnd what a fire it is in Ben Okri’s head. Luckily for us he’s set it down in this volume of poetry which takes you through the day from the unknown hour to invocation hour and ranges the continents to the very tip of the highest peak. Here is truth that we need to hear and confront in this viral age. First … [Read more...] about Poems for the dawn
Germany’s miles better…
Thirty years ago, on October 3 1990, I was standing among a million people in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin observing and reporting on the ceremonies celebrating the rebirth of a united Germany. A streaker briefly interrupted the profoundly good-natured, often low-key event in the run-up to midnight when President Richard von Weizsäcker, accompanied by Kohl, … [Read more...] about Germany’s miles better…
But what form of independence?
Six years on from the unsuccessful first referendum on Scottish independence the ides have turned for the SNP and other Yes movement supporters. Yet the ideological, transformative case for independence is increasingly missing. This paradox is just one of many raised by reading Ben Jackson's excellent, well-researched and insightful account of several decades of making the Case … [Read more...] about But what form of independence?
A very Scottish spy
John Cairncross, the alleged Fifth Man among the wartime Cambridge spies in popular mythology, has been painted as a Communist sympathiser and cadre motivated by his experience of the General Strike and Great Depression in the Clyde Valley of the late 1920s and early 30s. He was nothing of the kind. It's one of the merits of Geoff Andrews's well-researched, diligent new … [Read more...] about A very Scottish spy