Inside The Lords: gender wars, grooming gangs and Gaza
Claire Fox reports from the battles for free speech inside the Lords.
There’s been a lot going on in Westminster this week, so it was busy inside the Lords. I managed to secure a question about the Darlington nurses who have been treated abysmally by their employers - all because they complained about a man, who identifies as a woman, using their single-sex changing rooms. Treating them as the problem, the Trust has treated these female front-line NHS staff with contempt, even saying they needed to be educated in inclusivity; all of this leading them to take legal action to fight their corner. My question related to Wes Streeting’s promise to do something about their situation – but, despite saying initially he was horrified by their treatment, they’re still waiting for concrete action and guidance to be put in place as requested. In Fife, another Trust told one of their nurses with a similar complaint to change in a cupboard. As you might expect, my question did not go down well - prompting heckling and contributions following me which pretty much told the nurses to put up and shut up. Sadly, the minister fudged!
Later on, I spoke when a ministerial statement in the Commons, repeated in the Lords, was followed by a 40-minute debate. This particular statement was on the scandals of grooming gangs - and so I expected the chamber to be packed with people who would want to speak on this serious issue. It was almost empty, and the minister took a calm tone attempting a ‘don’t make a fuss’ line, advising us to wait for the inquiry. I rather lost my rag, as the question is why state agencies and public servants looked the other way in terms of these specific, organised rape gangs, not just about child sexual abuse per se. Even now, the government and many in the media refuse to confront how a fear of being labelled racist is still concealing the truth.
In the Commons, the Schools Bill was being used by the Conservatives to attempt an amendment to include a specific inquiry on the grooming gangs. While many have been sceptical about the Labour Party’s claims that this will derail proceedings, they might be right - parliamentary rules are odd and this might not be the best vehicle for an inquiry that needs serious attention. But the Bill is worth watching for many reasons, not least because of what it would do to home schooling and parental authority over children’s education. The basis for all of these changes is the notion that parents can’t be trusted. But when you consider that so much of the abuse these poor girls who were caught up in the grooming gangs cases suffered was in state-run care homes, or down to failings in state institutions from social services to police or health workers, the idea that the government knows better than parents doesn’t wash.
Elsewhere, the government has brought forward a Bill that the Conservatives created called the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill. This argues that we urgently need to bring in a national regulator to have the powers to fine all sorts of venues - or anyone who can host large numbers of people - unless they go along with one-size-fits-all rules and regulations. As it happens, it was appropriate that we discussed it on on the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. I worry that the Bill is a technical, bureaucratic approach to public safety, likely to undermine community self-organising and small venues - ie, it will over-regulate the public square.
This matters for organisations like the Academy of Ideas - we host live public debates such as the Battle of Ideas, so we could be stung by this overbearing and costly regulation. And the consequences for village halls, community groups and all sorts of venues where the public socialise and organise could be stifling. What’s more, it all feels like a distraction from the deeper challenges - like the growth of radical Islamism. The Bill uses the Manchester Arena bombing as its key example, but fails to properly represent what were the issues in that case. It wasn’t mundane and general tick-boxing, but a specific failure of security.
We at the Academy of Ideas are committed to the re-invigorating the public square, both on and off-line; so the issue of free speech online is of special interest to us. I debated Owen Jones on Sky News this week on Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to scrap fact checkers on Meta. I was a fan of the announcement, Owen not so much. And it was also one of the more fiery exchange on BBC’s Politics Live. Check out both below:
Finally, I made another rather angry contribution on a debate about aid to Gaza, after no one mentioned either the hostages or the fact that it is not Israel alone causing problems - no mention of Hamas whatsoever. So I will continue in my mission to say Emily Damari’s name, and remind my fellow parliamentarians of her plight.
Here are some forthcoming events at the Academy of Ideas that you might be interested in joining:
Classical Philosophy Reading Group
Plato’s Apology and Crito
SUNDAY 12 JANUARY
6pm via Zoom
Second in series of discussions looking at Plato's Socratic dialogues.
Register here.
Living Freedom Forum (for 18-30 year olds)
Tyranny: A 21st century threat to freedom?
THURSDAY 16 JANUARY
7pm – central London
Speakers: Edmund Stewart and Alastair Donald.
Bookshop Barnie
David Spiegelhalter on The Art of Uncertainty
THURSDAY 23 JANUARY
7pm via Zoom
FREE - register for tickets via Eventbrite
Independent virtual events
Will the Brexit headache ever end?
THURSDAY 23 JANUARY
7pm ONLINE
Speakers include Claire Fox, Anand Menon and Mark Francois
Free tickets here
East Midlands Salon
Defending Christ and the Prophet: free speech versus blasphemy
7PM, THURSDAY 30 JANUARY
Venue: The Brunswick Inn, Station Road, Derby, DE1 2RU
Speaker: Don Milligan
Buy tickets via Eventbrite
The Academy 2025 – organised by Ideas Matter
Upheaval: Why politics needs a new language
FRIDAY 4 – SUNDAY 6 JULY 2025
Wyboston Lakes Conference Centre
Tickets and information here
Battle of Ideas festival 2025
SATURDAY 18 AND SUNDAY 19 OCTOBER
Church House, Great Smith St, Westminster, London, SW1P 3BN
Buy tickets via Eventbrite.
One assumes that the nurses are in their underwear when they change into uniforms, and are naked if/when they shower after work.
Perhaps you might ask these cringing ‘noble ladies’ if they themselves would be comfortable appearing in such states of undress (if the Lords had changing-rooms - infront of any ‘noble gentlemen’ who identify as ‘noble ladies’.
It’s a rhetorical question!
I am grateful that you are attempting to right the many societal wrongs that challenge us today. However, what has happened to this once fine country over the last twenty years or so is nothing short of a disaster. We are now effectively living in a failed state where government and organisations have been captured by the progressive agenda and are generally dysfunctional. For example, consider border security/immigration, energy, defence, health, education and policing - all of these are failing or unfit for purpose. Add to that national scandals such as child sexual exploitation, the Post Office and the suppression of free speech and the situation seems dire. Good luck.