I once had a colleague who taught French; he seemed to me more of a Frenchman than any Frenchman I ever met. He characterised his relationship with his students as detestation reciproque.
After the legislation legalising Abortion went through our legislature, promoted by someone called David Steele, Bernard invariably referred to Steele as "the Abortionist Steele". I was reminded of this by a recent evolution in our domestic politics.
Our government, led a Mr Sunak, decided that it would cut the benefit payable to parents so that it only became payable for the first two babies. Our opposition, led by a Sir Keir Starmer, vowed to reverse this policy. It is a policy which, of course, must inevitably lead to the termination of yet more unborn babies.
Now, it transpires, Starmer is likely to retain the Sunak policy.
So it appears that, in our next General Election, we shall have a choice between the Abortionist Sunak and the Abortionist Starmer.
The Abortionist Starmer is currently riding quite high. In a by-election, his candidate won with a massive majority. The young man concerned, Keir Mather, was, as an undergraduate, active in Union politics. He criticised the Union for inviting the Russian ambassador to give a lecture, because he disagreed with Russian policies with regard to homosexuality.
And his Goebbels-like antipathy to free speech and open debate led him also to call Germaine Greer "an abhorrent transphobe". In his view, she, also, should have been given no platform.
I don't know how well Greer (born 1939) is known outside Australia and Britain. She has been one of the founding writers of radical Feminism since her The Female Eunuch (1970). But she is a thinker and not a ranter. I found much material for thought in her The Whole Woman (1999). She is not exactly a member of the Catholic Evidence Guild, but she is a rational and intelligent performer in the intellectual forum.
For Mather, however, her belief that women are, er, women, and men are men, is or was sufficient ground to try to hound her out of audibility.
5 comments:
Father, I am not convinced that the availability or otherwise of Child Benefit is a factor that enters into a mother's mind when she is considering whether or not to abort her baby.
First time I've heard this about the fresh young totalitarian. The Tories did not get the word out about him very well, did they.
Nevertheless, Mr Critchley, this policy will add to the pressure on women to abort. I agree with Fr Hunwicke.
In addition to Germaine Greer, I gather that poor old Dickie Dawkins is now headed for cancellation. His first sin was to be as rude about Muslims as he is about Christians. Always a bit awkward, he didn't realise that bigoted, adolescent religiophobia is reserved for Christians and Jews. Second, he put intellectual integrity above political correctness - his day job all these years was as a biologist, after all - and pronounced that 'there are two sexes, male and female, and that's all their is to it.' For once, I agree with him entirely. But that counts as a Class A Thoughtcrime these days.
I recall an interview years ago with one of the nuns who had taught Germaine Greer in Australia. She had very fond memories of the future activist and referred to her as "that dear girl".
I recall an interview years ago with one of the nuns who had taught Germaine Greer in Australia. She had very fond memories of the future activist and referred to her as "that dear girl".
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