I wrote this last May

So much has happened in this fight that you can forget what a scandal it all is

The following piece was originally written around the date of this news story. I think recent events surrounding Mermaids have given it a burst of topicality, don’t you?

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This story just broke and I wanted to quickly put a few things down about it.

Here’s what’s going on. The UK police are being used as tools of harassment by internet trolls and we’re going to try and put a stop to it.

In fact, I would go further and say that, in one particular case, UK police are helping a con artist cover up his criminal past.

This is not because police officers are stupid, but because institutionally, they have become so politically jittery that they can fall for the most outrageous nonsense as long as it_looks_progressive.

The result is pinkwashing with lead poisoning. You can now literally get a visit from the police for saying Alex Drummond or Jess Bradley are males. And the reason the police are enforcing this nonsense is that they have been receiving training from highly ideological groups like Mermaids and, sadly, at least under its current and recent leadership, Stonewall.

Merseyside police had a three-day training session from Mermaids. What on earth have Mermaids got to say to the police for three days? Have you seen their ‘Gender Spectrum’ slide?

“So Officer, do you think you’re more of a barbie or a GI Joe?” This is real! This is actually one of Mermaids’ slides!

There’s not one sound professional in Mermaids, not one safeguarding expert. What the hell do the police have to learn from them? The insidious nature of their relationship was exposed, along with its ideological underpinnings, when West Yorkshire police made fools of themselves by unsuccessfully charging a transwoman with transphobia . And who was it that brought the charges? Why, none other than Helen Islan of Mermaids!

It would be awfully nice if more journalists started putting these pieces together because at the moment there has never been a worse time for women online. Jess Philips knows what misogyny looks like when it comes from The Right , but too few are aware of the misogyny that currently comes from the Left .

Maintain consistency. That’s all you have to do to be on the right side of history. By always standing against misogyny, from whichever direction it comes, and by standing up for reality and standing up for truth, we can change the culture. But we have to stop waiting for others to do it. Everyone has their part to play.

Please support A Fair Cop and Harry’s action against The College of Policing . Help bring to a stop the weaponisation of the police by ideological extremists.