1./ Who regulates our broadcasters, @Ofcom or @stonewalluk? It's an obvious question after the car-crash yesterday at the @CommonsDCMS hearing when Ofcom's head said she agreed with this tendentious nonsense from @MrJohnNicolson 👇
2./ Pink News who are to free speech what Bennie Hill was to subtle humour celebrated, arguing @Ofcom had set out rules preventing anyone being interviewed whom Pink News decides is an "anti-trans activist"; ie anyone who's not a wide-eyed enthusiast for the latest trans demand.
3./ What is "extremely inappropriate" is a regulator deciding who should speak on issues such as women's sport, puberty blockers or single sex spaces and being guided by the opinion of a lobby group called @stonewalluk who take positions counter to the public on all these issues.
4./ @Broadcastnow tried to make sense of something many TV colleagues have told me they consider an outrage. They suggested @Ofcom was going to "enter talks with Stonewall". But that's not what Ofcom said. They said they were ALREADY talking to them. Of course they were.👇
6./ They know if they keep on the right side of Stonewall they can slowly climb up a ladder towards a gold medal as a Diversity Champion. None have seemed to clock this means they've delegated policy to a lobby group with a narrow niche agenda. https://www.stonewall.org.uk/diversity-champions-programme
8./ But all is not lost. Not long after Nicolson's slanderous tirade about @ALLIANCELGB the Tory MP @DamianGreen begged to differ.. pointing out that if Ofcom enforced Nicolson's approach a feminist like @jk_rowling would be banned from TV debates.👇
9./ It's painful for old lefties like me to admit it's Conservatives who now talk the most sense on issues of free speech but it's not our fault (or Mr Green's) that much of the Left has gone mad. Suffice to say @dawes_melanie rushed to assure him JK was not persona non grata. 👇
10./ But can that position hold? @dawes_melanie claimed she just wanted to stop offence being caused. Err...but even the redoubtable and wonderful JK is accused of causing offence by, for example @Mermaids_Gender. Here they are saying she was "condescending and inaccurate".
11./ Rich coming from them. They also wrote an open letter saying JK's blog was "difficult for many trans people and their families to read". @MunroeBergdorf opined "She is not a supporter of our community. This is not her fight". Will Ofcom be consulting Munroe on who can speak?
12./ What does this prove? Nicolson (with his tin ear) has unwittingly shone a light on the influence of a lobby group on regulators. And @dawes_melanie has had a crash course on the inadvisability of dictating to journalists who they can speak to. Over to you Dame Melanie.
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