The Spy Who Loved Me: sexism, transphobia and the woke bandwagon

In a court case in the UK which reads like the script of a B-grade TV series, an environmental activist hoodwinked by an undercover British police officer has won a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police.

Kate Wilson had a two-year relationship with a police officer, Mark Kennedy, between 2003 and 2005. For her, it was a “whirlwind romance”; for him, it was spying on extremists and activists for the National Public Order Intelligence Unit.

It appears that police higher-ups tolerated or even encouraged undercover cops to have sexual relationships with activists. Mr Kennedy, though married, took his job seriously, posed as a green campaigner, and had relationships with as many as ten women.

The two split amicably when Ms Wilson moved to Spain. However, in 2010, she learned about the deception. For him, perhaps, it was a case of “nice work if you can get it”. For her, it was an appalling betrayal and a breach of her to rights to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment, to privacy and to freedom of expression.

The court agreed. It ruled that “the undercover operation could not be justified as 'necessary in a democratic society' ... [and] reveals disturbing and lamentable failings at the most fundamental levels.”

Ms Wilson was delighted that the police had been hauled over the coals. She told the media: “We need to tackle the misogyny and institutional sexism of the police, and there needs to be a fundamental rethink of the powers they are given for the policing of demonstrations and the surveillance of those who take part.”

Lamentably, two recent murders in London bolster the impression that the police are irredeemably misogynist. Sabina Nessa, a 28-year-old primary school teacher, was raped and murdered last month, her body left under a pile of leaves in a public park. And in March Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, was arrested by Wayne Couzens, a serving police officer, for violating Covid restrictions. He raped and murdered her and burned her body.

These crimes are stomach-churning, but they do not prove that all police are misogynists nor that sexism should be a hate crime.

The vast majority of British police show selfless devotion to duty. Just this week, two off-duty officers tackled a man who had stabbed a father of three to death and injured two others.  

Their bravery recalls the brutal murder of a 28-year-old policeman, Andrew Harper, in 2019. Three teenagers dragged him for more than a mile along country lanes after he and a colleague responded to reports of a quad bike theft.

The murders of defenceless women are being exploited by activists. The Lord Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, recently said: “It is time for every Londoner to call out sexist and misogynistic attitudes wherever they encounter them – in the workplace, at school, on the streets or on public transport. I am proud to support calls to recognise misogyny as a hate crime and for all hate crimes based on protected characteristics to be treated equally.”

The Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, very sensibly opposes this. “Criminalising insulting language, even if it’s misogynistic, does not deal with the intimidation, violence and the much higher level of offence and damage and harm.”

Mr Raab is to be congratulated for refusing to jump onto the “all police bad” bandwagon, but this does not get him off the hook. His trans-friendly government is continuing to put women and girls at risk. The examples are endless.

According to whistleblower Dr Sinead Helyar, the government health system is “gaslighting” women patients. “Women patients who ask for wards to be single-sex are described variously as transphobic service users, offenders, perpetrators or those who should be given trans education sessions to improve their attitudes.”

A female mature law student found her degree at risk after stating that “women were born with female genitals” and that it “was a fact” that men were stronger than women.

Only last week Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer failed to defend one of his own MPs, Rosie Duffield, after she received threats for insisting that “only women have a cervix”. He even told the BBC that: “It is something that shouldn’t be said. It is not right.”

A ticket on the feminist bandwagon requires politicians to treat all women as poor victims. Many of them have also jumped onto the trans bandwagon which requires them to treat all trans women as poor victims -- of women. They are now in the uncomfortable position of straddling two bandwagons, one of which is racing ahead of the other. At best, this will lead to a bad case of split personality.

The official practice of allowing undercover agents to literally get under the covers certainly needs investigation, but perhaps the ever-popular James Bond deserves some of the blame.

No doubt it would spoil the lucrative 007 franchise if Bond settled into domestic bliss with one woman till death did them part.  But the infinitely more valuable lives of many men and women and their children are being spoiled by the idea that marriage is just a piece of paper; that people can be treated more carelessly than rubbish; that children – who cannot consent to anything -- are an afterthought.

Both sides of politics have rejected the idea that the best protection for women is marriage. This sows the seed for other crimes. Until politicians accept that their highest responsibility is to help men and women and their children to succeed in loving and lasting marriages, the weeds of misogyny, sexism and violence will continue to flourish.

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