Kemi Badenoch has said that she will not “shut up” over the rights of women after the former Doctor Who actor David Tennant said he wished she did not exist.
Tennant’s comments came as he collected an accolade for being a ‘celebrity ally at the British LGBT Awards. On the British LGBT Awards website, the announcement of the winners described Tennant as “one of the LGBTQ+ community’s most fierce allies and supporters”.
In the speech that sparked the row, Tennant said: “If I’m honest, I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else should merit any kind of special award or special mention, because it’s common sense, isn’t it?
“However, until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist any more whilst we do live in this world, I am honoured to receive this,” he said, before adding gallantly: “I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up.”
For Tom Harris, writing in the Telegraph, Tennant’s attack on Badenoch exposes the left’s hypocrisy – the actor simply couldn’t conceive legions of women have a legitimate reason for fearing the erosion of women’s rights
Tennant is a typical representative of the kind of privileged metropolitan Leftist who preach virtue, tolerance and kindness, Harris continues. His awards ceremony speech contained the line “everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else” – while displaying none of those values towards anyone who dares to challenge their opinions.
Telling any woman, let alone a government minister, let alone a black woman, to “shut up” because she holds a different opinion would normally be considered the worst kind of misogynist bigotry by exactly the same kind of people who applauded Tennant’s speech. But in parts of the Left, tolerance and kindness have their limits, and they extend only to those who share the erroneous belief that gender-critical women are bigots and transphobes (a word so frequently and inaccurately used that it has become genuinely meaningless as an insult).
Tennant seems so committed to the trans cause that he can’t even consider the alternative view that perhaps – just perhaps – legions of women, including former Labour supporter J.K. Rowling and Labour MP Rosie Duffield, have a legitimate reason for fearing the erosion of women’s rights.
Does Tennant look at the four NHS nurses who are taking legal action against their employer at Darlington Memorial Hospital in defence of their right to use changing facilities free from male-bodied colleagues and judge them to be bigots and transphobes? Perhaps he would prefer them to “shut up” too and strip off in the presence of a man rather than risk making him feel bad?
And where are the Labour women who would scream in outrage if any man on the Right told one of them to shut up just because he disagreed with her? Isn’t Labour supposed to be the party of respectful debate on this issue? Or does that only apply when shouty women are banging on about their rights again?
Worth reading in full.
