Posted on Sat 09 May 2026 in Green • Tagged with Green, politics, feminism, Glasgow, trans
It is getting on for 9pm on Friday night, and we are struggling in from the count at the Emirates to the Scottish Greens' victory party in the Corona pub in Shawlands. Two young women stop us and say, ‘Congratulations!’ I'm slightly startled, I'm knackered and I don't quite know …
Continue readingPosted on Thu 02 April 2026 in Education • Tagged with education, family, trans
Weaponising rhetoric around women and children is nothing new. As I've noted on this blog before, the populist democracy of ancient Athens was perfectly capable of using it to have public intellectuals executed and making smears the basis of a lawfare case to drive a political rival out of the …
Continue readingPosted on Thu 23 October 2025 in True Love
[Note: although most of this was written at the time, I did not finish it and publish it until some months later. I have kept the original date.]
It has been almost a fortnight since Chloe and I married. In the meantime, we've been on a honeymoon to Amsterdam and …
Continue readingPosted on Sun 10 August 2025 in trans
At last, it is official: trans healthcare in Scotland is fundamentally broken. Research commissioned by the Scottish Government to evaluate the impact of its short-term injection of funds to try to stabilise the system was recently published (full version). It is a thorough piece of work, and essential reading for …
Continue readingPosted on Wed 18 June 2025 in Green • Tagged with Green, Politics, Democracy, human rights
I am standing for selection for the Scottish Green Party list for the Glasgow Region. Here is my candidate statement:
Continue readingEighty years ago, my grandad was among the troops that confronted the horror of Belsen. ‘Never again’ was once the mantra. Now, crimes against humanity are facilitated abroad, and human …
Posted on Sat 24 May 2025 in trans • Tagged with trans healthcare politics
I was told yesterday, for the second time, that I was being referred for gender-affirming surgery and that the next thing that would happen is that I would receive confirmation of the referral and information on next steps. I should be delighted, or at least marginally happy. These are not …
Continue readingPosted on Thu 01 May 2025 in disability • Tagged with disability accessibility sight-impairment tech
We increasingly live in flatland: sleek, shiny and smooth, probably featuring gorilla glass. It is a world in which disabled people, especially those with sight impairment, are second-class citizens, even where they are considered at all. For those of us struggling to manage in yet another hostile environment, this is …
Continue readingPosted on Wed 30 April 2025 in trans • Tagged with trans politics Labour cowardice
In common with many others, I am spending my time writing to MPs and MSPs, which is not doing wonders for my day job. Still, since I am writing a book on the long culture war against trans people, I can claim it as research, I guess.
The relevant local …
Continue readingPosted on Mon 21 April 2025 in Trans • Tagged with women, gender, Oxford, Classics
I am just getting ready for tomorrow's round-table event at Oxford, discussing women's experience of Classics and of Oxford specifically, as part of their Athena/Swan process. Thanks to the organiser, Emma Greensmith, for inviting me, especially in this atmosphere of whipped-up hostility to trans women, now of course further …
Continue readingPosted on Fri 18 April 2025 in Trans • Tagged with trans, history, classics, religion
Since the UK Supreme Court have seen fit to rewrite the Equality Act in this Easter week (at least in the Western Christian calendar), it seems fitting to think about the crucifixion of trans people. Before the far-right who have never entered a church, still less opened a Bible, yell …
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