Humanists

"When the feminist movement started in the 60s and 70s, lesbians were often excluded, because we were told that we would make the movement less palatable. I have been excluded myself, so how could I do that to someone else?"

"[Homophobic hostility is being caused by the] intemperate language on social media around the trans discussion. That's opened the door to people thinking it's now fair to have a general go at diversity, that the world is too woke. I don't know how you can be too woke — woke means being awake to the dangers that are around you. Mental health within the LGBTQ community is not good and that's not because you're not comfortable with who you are. It's the way society treats you."

"I don't want anybody to say to me, 'I'm fine with it, I accept you.' You think, wow, thanks so much, because if you hadn't I would have killed myself."

"[On working in television in the early 1980s.] I can't remember the number of times I was told, 'Don't you worry about that, you pretty little thing.' Wow. I've got a first-class degree from Cambridge, but OK."

"There are only two countries in the world where representatives of the state religion automatically get a seat in the legislature: the UK and Iran. Obviously, there are fundamental differences between the two countries and in the religious representatives’ views, but it is symbolic all the same. How can it be that our democratic system draws parallels with an Islamic theocracy?"

"[Objecting to "radical feminists" opposition to trans people] How could you be so white and privileged and heterosexual and never marginalised in your life yet you decide to punch down on people?"

"[On men who take off their shirts in public.] There's an awful lot of lard out there. No woman would do that."

"[On teaching her children to have good manners.] It's mainly because I wanted to send them out in the world and have everybody like them."

"[The issue of safe spaces for biological women] I don't get this. I'm in my 45th year in showbusiness, travelling the country touring. I've been to every service-station toilet in the country. Every one has a sign up saying male cleaners in attendance. I don't recall anybody saying, "We need to group up against these male cleaners." Why would someone dress as a woman when they could just pick up a cleaning cloth? If it really bothers you there's a toilet some place else. Go there. Shut up. Let's join together and fight stuff that actually needs fighting. Why are they talking about this when women in Afghanistan are not allowed to sing or to look a man in the face? Who is benefiting from all this? The patriarchy. It makes me so sad."

"Some relatives chose not to share footage, as the screening was told. But if Jones had seen even one such withheld clip — of a girl being gang-raped and murdered, then Hamas pissing on her corpse — maybe he'd still dispute details that chip away at the whole, parse dead women’s ripped knickers to propagate doubt. Such a simpleton cheerleader cannot compute believing Jewish women since it would cast moral shadows on "his" side."

"Even a screening of October 7 footage collated by the Israeli government, much of it filmed by Hamas, didn't convince the Guardian columnist Owen Jones. In his little YouTube video ... [h]e notes a charred female corpse "has no underwear on and this has been offered as evidence of rape. But that is not what you would consider conclusive evidence ... If there was rape and sexual violence committed we don't see this on the footage.""

"Progressive head scratching as to what word might project the same corrective menace as terf (originally a small group’s chosen acronym, now applied at random), seems to have ended officially with this offering from my Guardian colleague, Owen Jones. "If," he mused last week, "TERF" [Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist] is unacceptable, let’s just use 'transphobe' and 'transphobic', problem solved." Given that this guidance comes from the man who admirably closed down "chav" because it "demonised" the working classes, there seems every chance that "transphobe" will become the approved term for people who think, for instance, that there might be one or two arguments for preserving certain women-only spaces."

"Jones was its foremost advocate and proponent. He was thrilled by Corbyn’s against the odds victory. He predicted and then witnessed at first hand the cruel ferocity of the assault upon Corbyn from within and outside the Labour party and defended him to the hilt. Now he faces the political crisis of a lifetime. The leader whom he defends will lose the battle that matters. What if his staying silent about this means, if only by default, that Owen Jones helps the Tories turn the country into "a jingoistic, foreigner-hating free market colony"?"

"Self-appointed "feminist allies" such as the Leftist poster boy, Owen Jones seem to get a thrill out of screaming "transphobe" at those of us who make it clear we do not believe men can be women simply because they say they are."

"This week in Manchester, [Nigel] Farage strode around the conference like a hungry crocodile, sizing up his prey. The rock-star reception he attracted suggests the faithful would quite like to be eaten."

"A principled position Scottish Labour could long have adopted is to wholeheartedly back the right of Scotland to national self-determination, without requiring any embrace of independence. In the here and now, that means championing new devolved powers, but also handing Scotland the right to choose the timing of any potential independence referendum."

"Jones, Britain’s best-known left-wing commentator, was born in Sheffield in 1984. His parents, both members of the Militant Tendency, met while canvassing for Labour in the late sixties; his father was a trade-union shop steward, his mother a prominent computer-science academic. Other relatives were Labour councillors and radical preachers ... After reading history at Oxford and a stint as a trade-union lobbyist he worked for two British left grandees: archiving the papers of Eric Hobsbawm, and serving as a parliamentary researcher to John McDonnell."

"BDS is an entirely peaceful strategy and yet it is still dismissed as beyond the pale, raising the question: what exactly is a legitimate form of Palestinian resistance?"

"That more Labour voters than not desire his resignation, that more than six in 10 people do not see him as a prime minister in waiting, and that he lost the Hartlepool byelection – a seat Labour retained even in the landslide defeat of 2019 – shows he is unelectable. Starmer is Labour's version of Theresa May – who was originally lauded as a serious, public-spirited politician before being undone by her own cynicism and woodenness."

"The past and the present offer an obvious truth: the fate of women – of all sexualities – and LGBTQ people are bound together. While women are the principal targets of patriarchy (that is, a society rigged in favour of men), this system also punishes those seen to deviate from rigid gender norms. Improving the position of women will probably be accompanied by progress for LGBTQ people; likewise, rolling back women's rights will also mean those of LGBTQ people deteriorate in tandem. This underlines why it is wrongheaded to claim that trans rights and women's rights are on a collision course."

"It remains the case that the most interesting ideas are bubbling away on the left: banishing them from Labour's future is an act of self-harm. If a meek Starmer administration disappoints, a now cowed left may find an audience willing to listen. Starmer's team is buoyant now, and understandably so: but history tell us where hubris leads."

"There is nothing to recommend [[Keir Starmer|[Keir] Starmer]]'s leadership. He is, as we have seen, unprincipled. He is not honest. Where Blair and Neil Kinnock were talented orators, Starmer lacks any charisma or warmth."

"Owen Jones was passionately committed to the cause, living and breathing every moment of Corbyn’s leadership."

"And here’s where moral clarity is needed. Antisemitism exists, it is a menace, and frightens Jews traumatised by the all too recent Holocaust. Labour must show far greater leadership in tackling antisemitism in the party and rooting out every and any antisemite. But that should not detract from the just cause of showing solidarity with the Palestinian people."

"Let's be clear. Saudi Arabia is a terrorist state. It slaughters innocent people for political ends. It exports extremism. It is armed and backed by the British government. No one has [been] killed by a wreath. Countless civilians have been killed by British supplied bombs."

"Some within Labour want to establish a year zero, which simply consigns the last five years to a dustbin labelled "Never to be repeated", but while that might suit factional ends, it advances no debate about the party's future in an era of unprecedented social turmoil. The need for a transformative political agenda is far greater now than when Corbyn first stood: but without a balanced understanding of the last five years it will prove impossible."

"We have a moral duty to offer support and safety to LGBT people fleeing repression for which Britain shares responsibility. ... It is now Pride season in Britain. Members of the government will wrap themselves in the and issue self-congratulatory statements about how far LGBT rights have come. Don’t let them get away with it. Gay and lesbian refugees are being detained and deported to countries where their safety is at risk, even their lives. The should lead to a much wider conversation about the persecution of migrants and refugees. ... The architects of the helped construct anti-gay laws across the globe that still endure today. The victims of such persecution need our support. Instead, they are being terrorised. It is a national scandal – and the silence over it must end."

"If 'TERF' [Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist] is unacceptable, let's just use 'transphobe' and 'transphobic', problem solved."

"The British government arms Netanyahu's administration as it slaughters innocent civilians, just as it arms the Saudis as it massacres little kids in Yemen. Does a wreath have to be laid for this to be a national scandal."

"I certainly learned in great detail what we were up against. The parliamentary Labour party meetings were just brutal and gruesome. A lot of those people in the parliamentary Labour party – I'm just going to say it – are jumped-up thugs. Vicious, horrible people. They would sanctimoniously stand up and talk about the authoritarianism of Corbynism as they screeched like disturbed teenagers, spraying spittle at anyone with the temerity to support the elected leadership of the party of which they were members. I really don't know what they are driven by."

"When Jones was later asked why he is so sceptical about the multiple reports of Hamas terrorists raping Israeli women – indeed, reports that they were specifically instructed to rape Jewish girls and women - he replied with a quote from a Washington Post article: "It's unclear whether authorities have accounts directly from rape survivors." That quote does indeed exist in that article, but it also makes clear that this is because Hamas almost certainly killed all the women they raped yet accidentally left many witnesses, including one who said a Hamas terrorist killed a woman while still raping her and a morgue worker who described female bodies so brutally assaulted they had shattered pelvises. But I guess he missed those details."

"Yes. I think there was a lack of very basic emotional intelligence in some sections of the left in terms of engaging with the collective trauma of the Jewish people. And the same with Israel. There is an emotional connection that many Jewish people have with Israel and you just cannot ignore that."

"And Galloway – a toxic demagogue who campaigned alongside Nigel Farage and voted Tory earlier this year – succeeded both in eating into the party's Muslim vote, and driving other residents into Labour's camp in opposition."

"[T]he conventional media have to be engaged with, however horrible and nasty they are."

"He [Corbyn] enjoys the support of a mass grass-roots movement of the kind that almost no politician ever has but no professionalised apparatus – and he will now meet one of the most aggressive media on earth."

"[O]utward-looking, willing to engage with the unpersuaded, hopeful, positive: that is the only way the left can thrive. We can't just want retweets and packed halls, after all, but to change the world."

"But if the Corbyn-led Labour party is to be successful, its supporters have to communicate. It is difficult, with relentless hostility raining down on your head, but that means adopting an inclusive, cheerful, positive approach: love-bombing opponents, even."

"All opponents of trans rights are on the wrong side of history, just as history has imposed harsh and unforgiving judgments on those who opposed gay rights in the past. The rights of gay men, lesbians and bisexuals were won by building coalitions, ranging from trans people to 'cis' straight people. Solidarity – based on the principle of "an injury to one is an injury to all" – is a precondition of social change. Trans people must be the key voices in the struggle of emancipation. To be an ally is to listen and learn."

"I wasn't a bit wrong, or slightly wrong, or mostly wrong, but totally wrong. Having one foot in the Labour movement and one in the mainstream media undoubtedly left me more susceptible to their groupthink. Never again. Corbyn stays and – if indeed the Tories are thrown into crisis as Brexit approaches – he has an undoubted chance of becoming prime minister, and a fine prime minister he would make too."

"An incredible political moment arrived over the summer. It would be a travesty if it was buried because of an all-out media offensive that wasn't checked."

"He [Jeremy Corbyn] is the very antithesis of the negative caricature of an MP: he's defined by his principles and beliefs, uninterested in personal self-advancement, and determined to use his platform to further the interests of people and causes that are otherwise ignored."

"That doesn't mean [[Russell Brand|[Russell] Brand]] shouldn't be criticised. He has acknowledged his own problematic attitude towards women; and, like all men, he surely needs to work on it. Sexism is often prevalent among progressive circles, all too frequently marginalised as a secondary issue; or leftish men convince themselves they can't be sexist because of their right-on politics."

"Corbyn would inject the substance so disastrously missing from the current contest."

"Men are so accustomed to various privileges – such as automatically being taken more seriously – that they are not even aware they exist. That’s why it is so crucial that men listen to women and their experiences, and learn."

"What a farce it would be if men began to dominate the debate about men's oppression of women."

"Three judges were recently sacked for watching porn on the job. None of it was illegal, but they were still publicly embarrassed and dismissed. Yes, there’s clearly a sound argument that judges should be doing their jobs, not getting off on porn. Fair enough, but there's all sorts of procrastination that goes on in the workplace. Who knows, maybe an otherwise tense judge seeking a quick bit of relief will concentrate better. Surely someone should at least commission some research into it."

"Unless 35 Labour MPs nominate Corbyn, this farce of a leadership contest will continue and the Labour party – and the country as a whole – will learn nothing from it."

"[Jones' "favourite outed bigot"] That accolade goes to ­disgraced evangelical Ted Haggard, once a familiar fixture in America’s fundamentalist ranters' circuit: a highly well-paid gig, incidentally (it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the gates of Heaven, but the Lord will always make the odd exception). Haggard was a leading backer of a Colorado amendment to ban same-sex marriage in 2006. You can see why that might have wound up Mike Jones, the male sex worker he'd been having sex with on a monthly basis for three years, who retaliated by outing one of Time magazine’s top 25 US evangelical preachers. If you’re going to get a bit sloppy with your interpretation of the scriptures, you might as well go the whole hog, which probably explains why Haggard added taking crystal meth to getting jiggy with a member of the same sex."

"Gorgeous George is one of the most charismatic politicians of our time, but also one of the most divisive, and still manages to win over the audience. You don’t have to like him; but, if you want to change the world, you do have to learn from him."

"A few months ago, the BBC asked me to debate with Labour's Simon Danczuk, who supported George Osborne's proposal to make people thrown out of work wait an extra week for benefits. I say "debate", because Mr Danczuk turned up with a few prepared personal attacks, finding me guilty of having lived in "the posh part of Stockport". If it really matters, I grew up in the town's second-most deprived ward: a more accurate ad hominem attack would have been that I grew up in a middle-class family, because my dad was a white-collar local authority worker and my mother was an IT lecturer at Salford University."