The case against the Tavistock, seeking (in effect) to deny trans kids in the UK treatment that is available throughout the rest of the developed world, will hear no submissions from trans kids. They, and charities representing them, asked to be heard but were denied all voice.
Several organisations who seek to deny them treatment will be heard. And professionals who treat them will be too. But it is profoundly shocking - redolent of men in The Handmaid's Tale deciding on women's futures - that those most affected should be shut out.
This perpetuates the increasing pattern in the UK and its transphobic media (including the Guardian and BBC) of talking about, over and at trans children, of highlighting the views of those who deny their reality, but never listening to them.
History tells us that denying safe, properly regulated access to abortion causes women to seek out dangerous unregulated access. In the UK we effectively deny safe, properly regulated access to reversible puberty blockers. So children seek out other access which is less safe.
And it's not only that trans children's access to reversible puberty blockers carries unnecessary risk. It's also that their difficulties in accessing blockers drive some to move more quickly to Stage III (after therapy and blockers) of partially irreversible cross-sex hormones.
If you don't have reversible 'blockers' during puberty the shape and form of your body changes in ways that are both highly distressing to you and physically irreversible. So the families of trans children I speak to don't feel they have a choice about taking reversible blockers.
Weird how an obviously ridiculous notion takes hold. No one encourages children into a cycle of psychological treatment then drugs and then surgery. Who chooses that for a child? I guess the myth is just easier to grapple with than the reality.
It's true there is a real increase in transgender children, which we should try to understand. And that the evidence is clear that telling those kids their feelings are wrong harms their mental health. But no parent or teacher spontaneously pushes children to change gender.
In the UK - an international outlier because we've given over health policy in the sphere to the equivalent of anti-vaxers - trans kids wait years to access even the psychological evaluation which is itself a precondition to accessing (reversible) puberty blockers.
Stacking key broadcasting posts - posts running organisations with a clear and important statutory/Charter mandate to secure independence - with your ideological allies to further tilt the playing field in your favour is a very Britain Trump sort of a move.
(Yes, @GoodLawProject has approached leading Counsel to see if those embedded legal obligations to ensure independence might yet disrupt Johnson's plans.)
(We're able to perform that function of trying to act as a legal watchdog, where no one else can or will, thanks to your ongoing financial support for which we are hugely grateful.)
A firm specialising in vitamin boosts that hired Boris Johnson's half-brother hoping he can "open doors" is holding talks with Government about Covid testing, which we know (only because of leaks) Govt plans to spend over £100bn on. mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…
We at @GoodLawProject have four judicial reviews afoot against inexplicable procurement decisions Government has made and is about to launch a further three, including one against the £100bn+ Moonshot programme. Those judicial reviews share some alarming features.
Government has failed to put any of the contracts out to open tender so we can check on how it is spending public money. It has, contrary to its own guidance, refused to publish the contracts and, contrary to the law, details of the contracts.
Who gets the cash generated by this £100bn+ of public money? Is central Government now investing in commercial healthcare opportunities? When did we vote for a two-tier NHS? And are the staff being recruited - as I hear - from the free-to-use NHS? inews.co.uk/news/politics/…
The cost of this project - which has never been put before MPs or approved by Parliament - is approaching £2,000 for every man woman and child in the country. Who made the decision to spend that vast sum of money on this speculation?
The Government is nakedly ignoring the law requiring transparency around public contracts. And the Mail yesterday prepped us for Boris Johnson's half-brother joining the feeding frenzy. dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/arti…
Extraordinary story about Johnson's half brother looking to get in on the £100bn 'Moonshot' bonanza. Exactly why we *must* have transparency around who Government proposes to give that money to and why.
First, a friendly newspaper - here the Mail on Sunday - floats the idea of public funds flowing into the pockets of Johnson's family member in a jokey piece that doesn't suggest there's anything wrong with that. ✅
Second, Government fails to publish any of the contracts, or anything at all, about the staggering sum of public money involved. ✅