EVEN by the woeful standards of the People’s Republic of Brighton, it’s a
lesson in political lunacy.
The city that tried to ban bin crews from eating bacon sandwiches on Mondays
and proposed roaming sheep as a traffic-calming measure has turned its hand
to gender identity.
For four-year-olds.
Yet for residents in the resort known as London-by-the-Sea, the move was
offensive but not shocking.
Jeweller Alex Edwards, 44, who was out with his five-year-old son yesterday,
said: “To try to put the gender issue to a four-year-old is outrageous.
“Am I surprised? No, this is barmy Brighton, after all.”
Personal trainer Anne Lewis, 56, from nearby Hove, added: “Living here we have
got used to the politically correct brigade coming up with bonkers ideas
like this. It is an absurd idea — but we’ve had a few of those from Brighton
Council.”
Tourist Deborah Mawby, 53, visiting from Barnsley, South Yorks, laughed and
said: “This would not go down at all well up north.”
But Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, warned such
PC madness “could be coming to a council near you if it is not already
there”.
While celebrities including comedian David Walliams and rocker Noel
Gallagher call Brighton home, over the decades it has attracted its fair
share of refugees from the capital’s liberal enclaves.
Caroline Lucas was elected as Britain’s first Green MP, for the Brighton
Pavilion seat, in 2010.
In 2011 her party was the biggest on the council. They still have 11
councillors to Labour’s 23 today, with 20 representing the Conservatives.
The Green powerbase on the council allowed it to embark on one of the craziest
administrations in British civic history.
The party’s manifesto pledged meat-free Mondays, which would have banned bacon
rolls and beef pies from being served in council-run canteens.
The plan was only ditched after manual workers complained.
Locals were also left baffled at a move to introduce livestock to one of the
main routes into the city as part of a “speed-reduction package”. Again, the
scheme was quietly canned. And Brighton was proudly declared a “no fracking
zone”, despite there being no prospect of shale gas drilling ever taking
place in the city.
In 2013 the council replaced traditional male and female lavatories on
Rottingdean seafront with “gender neutral” toilets in an attempt to aid the
transgender community. The facilities avoid using the words “men” and
“ladies”, instead using symbols that indicate they can be used by people of
either sex. Tory councillor Lynda Hyde said at the time: “This does seem to
be a case of unnecessary bureaucracy and political correctness.”
The following year a Green member accused a former Tory councillor of wearing
a swastika symbol at a council meeting — it was in fact a traditional Irish
emblem on her necklace. And Christian councillor Christina Summers was
thrown out of the party for opposing gay marriage.
Accused of rank incompetence and ridiculed by press and voters, the party also
managed to insult many of its electorate. Ben Duncan, at the time councillor
for Queen’s Park, tweeted about a memorial to the Armed Forces, calling
British soldiers “hired killers”.
Last year, Labour became the biggest party on the council, but the selfish,
misguided policies continue.
Last November council park rangers learned by TEXT that two thirds of
their team faced redundancy, forcing a grovelling apology from bosses.
Then there is the British Airways i360, a dominant 162m steel observation
tower being built next to the West Pier. It is contemporary, artistic and at
£36.2million, incredibly expensive — and so loathed by locals they have
dubbed it “the iSore”.
The council insists it will bring in 700,000 extra tourists a year, while the
profit on the interest from loans used to build it will help earn them more
than £1million a year, which will be reinvested in the city.
Part of the problem with the city is the vast gulf between many of its
residents and the rapidly emerging cultural and political elite, keen to
experiment with progressive ideas.
So why has Brighton become such an incubator for bizarre politics?
It is still seen by many as a liberal “anything goes” city.
The chips and slot machines jockey for attention with a thriving arts scene
and, owing to its large gay population, some people have dubbed it Britain’s
hippest city.
Julian Caddy, boss of the arty Brighton Fringe, prompted vitriol in the
letters section of local paper The Argus last week after writing: “Today
there are very much two Brightons. The inland one of vibrant creative
industries, modern restaurants and a dynamic population — and the seafront
of tacky sideshows, fish and chips, rock and assorted paraphernalia.
“Unfortunately for Brighton, a large proportion of outsiders see it primarily
as a destination for the latter.”
One poster on the paper’s website called him a “total and utter snob”.
Yet as the school gender row shows, the town hall burghers remain loftily
unmoved. Council leader Warren Morgan tweeted: “I’m proud my council is
leading on #Trans work.
“If it helps even one kid be themselves or tackle bullying, then headlines
don’t matter.”
And the council’s member for equalities, councillor Emma Daniel, insisted the
change had been requested by pupils’ own parents, and that only one
complaint had been received.
But former head teacher Chris McGovern told The Sun: “What the council is
doing is quite cruel.
“Children at that age don’t understand gender identity and when you ask them
questions, it can cause them to be upset or even traumatised.
“They should be concentrating on Thomas the Tank Engine and Teletubbies rather
than gender identity.”
He added: “Political correctness has paralysed the council. It’s the council
that needs help, not the children.
“Sadly, I don’t think Brighton and Hove is out of step with the prevailing ideology
of councils up and down the country, regardless of if they are Labour or
Tory or whatever.”
READ MORE:
Rod
Liddle: Gender-neutral loos? It’s time to flush out such silly ideas
Which
town is so full of eastern Europeans it needs the country’s first Immigrant
Cop?
Indeed, this controversy comes just three months after pupils at Blatchington
Mill School in Hove were given a gender survey as homework and asked to
choose from a list of 25 terms to describe their sex.
As well as girl and boy, the list featured obscure labels including
“non-binary” and “demi-boy”.
Again, the council was unrepentant.
Despite an outcry from the Christian Institute damning it as “profoundly
confusing”, council officers are said to be proud of their trendy thinking,
aware that other authorities will be watching their progress with interest.
Clarence Mitchell, 55, Tory candidate for Brighton Pavilion at the General
Election, said it was typical behaviour from the council that shovels aside
the concerns of its taxpayers.
He added: “Yet again the city is a laughing stock.”
Hove is where the heart is
NOEL GALLAGHER – has a house in Hove. Turned down late journalist Derek
Jameson’s former pad as every room had a portrait of Margaret Thatcher.
DAVID WALLIAMS – the comic, children’s author and BGT judge bought a
huge seafront property on the Western Esplanade in Hove in 2009.
PETER ANDRE – the singer has lived in the area since 2010. Opened his
New York Coffee Club coffee shop in 2012 but shut it last year over high
rents.
NICK CAVE – singer has lived in Brighton for over a decade. His
15-year-old son, Arthur, died after falling from a cliff in nearby Ovingdean
last year.
NORMAN COOK AND ZOE BALL – Fatboy Slim and his TV presenter wife have a
home in Hove on the same street as Walliams, facing out to the sea.