……Veteran Left winger Linda Bellos was facing expulsion from the Labour Party for cracking a joke. In this case she cracked a joke about the increasingly lunatic and increasingly intimidatory and violent transgender movement. But sadly, this is the point that we have come to.

Ms Bellos is the quintinessential ‘Lefties Leftwinger’. She’s been a fixture on radical left wing and feminist politics for decades and first came to prominence in the mid 1980’s when she became leader of Lambeth council in South London. Unfortunately rather than clean up the political environment there she followed in the ‘loony left’ footsteps of one of Lambeth’s previous leaders ‘Red’ Ted Knight. A radfem lesbian for a long time Ms Bellos was the go to person if you wanted to take the temperature of the British far Left. Even when I was on the Left I found her to be on the extreme verging on moonbat end of left wing politics. Her record and that of the Labour Party in Lambeth was not good and the council became a byword for waste, political posturing and chaos.

Although I hold political views that are the opposite of those held by Ms Bellos, I find myself feeling a lot of sympathy for her in her current battle with the science and logic deniers of the transgender movement. According to a report in the UK’s Daily Mail, Ms Bellos is facing expulsion from the Labour Party for cracking a joke about thumping any man in a dress who threatens her in a woman only space such as a ladies toilet for example.

Here’s part of the Daily Mail article. As is usual policy for this blog the original source text is in italics whereas my comments are in plain text.

The Daily Mail said:

A veteran Labour politician and feminist firebrand could face expulsion from the party over a speech in which she joked about ‘thumping’ pro-transgender activists.

Linda Bellos, a friend of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, is being investigated after complaints over the remarks she made at a meeting this month.

This is appalling she was making a joke about self defence yet Ms Bellos is facing expulsion from the party she has been a member of for decades. This is also worrying as it shows just how much unjustified power the gender ideologues have in the Labour Party. It’s notable also the speed with which this investigation is going when compared to how sluggishly Labour have dealt with their anti-Semitism problems.

She was speaking amid growing concern among feminist activists that a proposed new amendment to the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) will endanger women’s safety in cloakrooms and changing rooms by making them easily open to people born male.

On this occasion I’m going to break the habit of a lifetime and agree with Ms Bellos. She’s right, allowing men in particular to just wake up one day and decide that they are female, with no gatekeeping or monitoring of that decision by the medical profession, is going to put many women in danger. In addition I will also say that this amendment to the GRA may also put men at risk of false allegations of sexual assault if the situation is reversed and a Female to Male transman or someone claiming to be a transman is allowed to use men’s facilities. A woman using a female toilet could be faced with a person who is 100% male being allowed to just walk in without challenge or sanction. Despite having had a large number of MTF trans friends in the past and being somewhat aware of these people’s plight I fear that this GRA amendment goes too far and will end up as a perverts charter. As I said earlier it also opens up the possiblity that men who object to biological women claiming to be men entering male space such as toilets or changing rooms could find themselves brought to court on spurious ‘hate crime’ charges or more seriously fake claims by the female of sexual or physical assault. The whole idea that gender is all in the mind and that people can pick and choose their gender without having to do anything about going down the transition path, is absolute nonsense on stilts. Transition from one gender to the other needs both gatekeepers and dividing lines as to what is and what is not socially acceptable as well as an agreed process and informed consent, it should not be based on an individuals whim. The GRA amendment is going to be a loony and perve magnet and both women and men will suffer from it.

Addressing a group of feminists in York on transgenderism and the GRA, the 66-year-old said: ‘I play football and I box, and if any one of those b******s comes near me I will take off my glasses and thump them.’

The former leader of Lambeth Council added: ‘I am quite prepared to threaten violence because it seems to me politically what they are seeking to do is p*** on women.’

I think a lot of women may feel the same way as Ms Bellos, especially if or rather when, we get sex offences being committed by some male perve who suddenly decided to wear a dress whilst committing their crime. The GRA amendment does indeed piss on women and women’s rights to be safe.

Ms Bellos, 66 – long renowned as an outspoken black and lesbian activist – said later that she was referring to pro-transgender campaigners who had beaten up a woman at a rally in Hyde Park, London, in September, as reported by The Mail on Sunday, and insisted she would only ever use violence in self-defence.

The comments by Ms Bellos are plainly rhetoric and a joke and were obviously referring to the notorious incident in September when a group of transgender activists violently attacked a group of radfems at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. The Trans thugs punched a 60 year old woman in the face whilst she was filming the speeches that were being made there. It is plain to see that Ms Bellos was referring to the Hyde Park incident but she was also referring to the increasing violence and intolerance of opposing views that are coming from all too any trans activists. Women have a right to be safe in women only environments and the GRA amendment will undermine that safety and in some cases I can see how physical self defence against a rapist in a dress might be justified.

The world has gone truly mad it really has. I’m now on the same side on one issue to a woman who holds views that are opposite to mine. Despite disagreeing with Ms Bellos on a number of political issues, she should still have the right to speak about and against the ever encroaching gender ideology and it’s negative effects on biological women.