ClaphamFox

Very ugly sentiments indeed, but ultimately just words expressed. I’m still not convinced that there is a moral equivalence between someone expressing abhorrent views and somebody else killing them for it.

That aphorism might be an appropriate if Charlie Kirk had been a gang leader or professional hit man and went around shooting people in public, but as far as I’m aware he wasn’t. I’m as anti-gun as they come, but the implication that someone who was brutally assassinated had it coming because they were in favour of gun ownership strikes even me as a pretty wild take.

Oxford made eight changes from their previous league game, so I don’t think we can read anything into the Brighton game.

It seems like momentum is building to toss 'non-crime hate incidents' into the dustbin of history. And not before time. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/sep/10/dont-log-non-crime-hate-incidents-says-head-of-police-watchdog

Missed Andorra but watching tonight. I’m considering texting my ex who always accused me of making ‘bad choices’ to let her know how much progress I’ve made…

We’ve just had consecutive clean sheets and seem to be building an identity focused, initially at least, on making ourselves very hard to beat. It will be very surprising if Cifuentes drops either Vestergaard or Okoli.

This - surely James is the LEAST likely to start?

Indeed...

I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would drop Okoli, and I don’t think Cifuentes will.

Boats?

I don’t deny that some people are bigots who object to others who are different simply because of who they are. What I’m saying is that these people are in the minority, and that the large majority of gender critical figures do not belong in this category. To repeat what I said above, most people have no problem whatsoever with gender nonconformity. A person choosing to present themselves in a way traditionally associated with the opposite sex is a complete non-issue for the majority of their fellow citizens. You may not believe that, but I assure it’s true. The reason something that should be merely a matter of personal preference has become a public debate is because many of the demands that trans activists have made are highly contentious to say the least, and therefore cannot be resolved without being debated. The attempt by many of these activists to prevent this discussion from taking place at all by labelling their opponents as bigots and transphobes actually worked for a while because people initially feared these labels, but it isn’t working any more because people are becoming weary of being bullied into accepting things they don’t agree with. To cite just one example, I noted the other day that the academic Malcolm Gladwell is now saying that trans-identified males should definitely not be allowed in female sports, having previously said they should be allowed. He admitted that he never really believed that males should be in women’s sports but was ‘cowed’ into saying that he did. I think many people are sick of being cowed into supporting certain things they don’t really believe in, and are becoming more confident in expressing what they actually believe. The tactic of silencing them with accusations of bigotry had its day, but that day has passed. It’s not going to work any more. The actual bigots you mention will never be won over because they’re, well, bigots. But the vast majority of people do not belong in this category - it’s just that many of them happen to believe in women’s sex-based rights and the protection of vulnerable people from potentially irreversible medical interventions they may later regret.

It doesn’t stack up at all. In fact, it’s absurd. Anybody who has bothered to pay attention to this issue in the UK will be aware that the leading gender critical voices are left-wing feminists. The tendency of trans rights activists to dismiss any and all opposition as ‘extreme right’ merely betrays their total refusal to even attempt to understand why people may disagree with them. In the same way that religious zealots seek to crush opposition because they are terrified of their faith being subject to any kind of scrutiny, activists on this issue try to silence their opponents with dismissive labels and threats. The fact is that most people have no problem whatsoever with gender nonconformity. They really don’t. It’s the idea that a man who ‘identifies’ as a woman magically becomes a woman in that moment, and should be granted access to women’s spaces and sports, that so many people find completely ridiculous. There is nothing ‘far right’ about the idea that biological sex is real and cannot be changed, and that it matters in certain contexts. Neither is there anything far right about the idea that we should be extremely cautious about drugging and/or mutilating gender non-conforming young people who are neurodivergent, suffer from mental health issues or are the victims of abuse. And neither too is there anything far right about objecting when the BBC and other media outlets gaslights a rape victim by describing her male attacker as a woman at his behest. Most of what activists describe as far right is merely an attempt to establish some sensible, fact-based rules around this issue. The tragedy is that I’ve no doubt that the vast majority of transgender people just want to lead their lives and probably have no objection to these rules. Unfortunately the activists who claim to represent them have resorted to extreme bullying tactics in an attempt to browbeat everybody else into accepting things they do not find acceptable, which has provoked a backlash. The plot to get Linehan (who I personally don’t care for) arrested at Heathrow is the latest example - it is being widely celebrated on social media by the activists who planned it, but most of the public regard it as insane. And on it goes.

Do you want extremist trans activists who threaten, abuse and harass other people to answer for it in equal fashion?

The complainant who got Linehan arrested at Heathrow is a disgraced ex-police officer who was sacked for gross misconduct and who routinely uses the police to harass people he disagrees with. Meanwhile, the alleged victim in Linehan’s court case today admitted in court to publicly stating that he wished a woman who disagreed with him to have acid thrown in her face. Both of the above individuals are men who abuse and harass women. I’m as certain as I can be that the Heathrow arrest will not result in a charge, and I think there’s a strong chance that the court case will not result in a conviction. Then hopefully at some point the penny will drop that allowing a small and deeply disturbed cohort of individuals, who falsely believe themselves to represent their ‘community’, to weaponise the police force in this way is not a good idea.

It turns out that the arrest of Linehan at Heathrow was at the behest of Lynsay Watson (aka Alex Harwood), a disgraced former Leicestershire police officer who was himself sacked in 2023 for harassment. This charming individual has a long history of using police forces to pursue vendettas against anybody who doesn't share his personal beliefs. Is this what we're coming to—allowing creeps like this to use the police as their personal militia? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/04/graham-linehan-accuser-is-disgraced-police-officer/?msockid=3727cb36c6a160961dcbde2cc76b615b

I think this is at the crux of the issue. Personally, I find the modern concept of ‘incitement’ ludicrous. At its heart is an assumption that human beings are essentially devoid of agency – that we’re so passive and suggestible that all it takes is a few angry words from somebody else on social media to compel us to act in ways we wouldn’t otherwise do. It’s a ridiculous idea, rooted in totalitarian thinking and deep hatred of free speech. And if Linehan’s tweet is worthy of arrest, how about the dozens of activists who regularly march holding placards saying “Decapitate TERFS!” and “The only good TERF is a dead TERF” (the latter complete with a picture of a hangman’s noose and a dangling corpse)? Surely if Linehan’s ‘punch in the balls’ tweet is incitement, then threats to kill must be too? So I assume you agree that given that such placards are commonly seen at such marches, the police should routinely dispatch armed officers to these events and cart off anybody holding one of the offending signs? Come to think of it, Bob Vylan should be arrested for his “Death to the IDF” chant at Glastonbury. And Jo Brand definitely needs to be banged up for her joke about threatening to throw acid in Nigel Farage’s face (as tempting a prospect as that may be). And what about Wes Streeting’s threat to push a Daily Mail journalist under a train? Surely he gets a visit from a bunch of armed coppers too? Actually, this is already happening. Data from the Office for National Statistics has shown that an average of 30 people a day are arrested for online offences. We’re arresting more people for stuff they’ve written or said than the US did during the Red Scare. Do you really regard that as a positive social development? If you believe that the arrest of Linehan was correct, then the only logical thing to do is to recruit thousands more officers to deal with the gargantuan task of policing the internet. Alternatively, we could accept that words expressed online are just words, and that the bar for ‘incitement’ should be set very high, enabling police officers to concentrate on solving actual crimes and protecting the public.

I would advise waiting for the full facts of this case to emerge before rushing to judgment. The alleged victim is notorious for his harassment and abuse of women, some details of which I expect will emerge when Linehan's defence makes its case.

He's played in three of our four league games, so he's not exactly been frozen out.

Well I did expect there to be repercussions from the decision to arrest a comedian over a joke, but I didn't expect it to be this quick. It seems that both the government and the police want the law changed so that the police are never compelled again to take such action. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1mx09l5297o https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2922w73e1o

We don’t need to debate what he wrote when it has been widely reported. This was the tweet in question: “If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and, if all else fails, punch him in the balls.” Whether or not you agree with the sentiment Linehan he expresses here, it’s clear that he’s referring to men in female spaces, not trans-identified men in general. And the ‘punch in the balls’ comment is a joke about the difference in size between some of those males and the females in those spaces. Clearly this a highly contentious issue, with strong feelings on both sides. But I would contend that arresting someone for the tweet above is insane, sinister and a complete waste of police time. I suspect that the large majority of people feel the same way (even Kier Starmer’s official spokesman has basically said the police got it badly wrong). So while I’m sure being arrested by five armed police officers was distressing for Linehan, it was probably a good thing that happened because the public backlash to the police’s actions may finally restore some sanity to how they handle frivolous complaints about about social media posts in the future.

He was specifically referring to trans-identified men who enter women’s spaces. And given that it is customary among many trans rights activists to threaten rape and murder against anyone who disagrees with them, I’d say his language was fairly tame in comparison.

Why is the 'Enzo we miss U' sign always pinned on Winks? There were lots of other players in that nightclub.

But if you'd taken on a job where you'd been told it was fine to commute from your current home, then your employer broke that promise and insisted you had to stay over one night a week just after your wife had given birth (ie, at the precise moment in your life when you really needed to be at home more), you might be a little annoyed about it. I suspect most of us would be.

The club almost certainly hasn’t turned down any bids.

A double pivot of him and James would transform our ability to create from deep.