The world feels dark this week. Israel has prevented any humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza for almost 2 months. People are starving, as well as being under constant threat of bombing. Since January, 10,000 cases of acute malnutrition among children have been identified, including 1,600 cases of severe acute malnutrition. We can never say we did know. Pictures of skeletal children flood social media. “The blockade of aid is a breach of International Humanitarian Law, including Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which mandates free passage of essential humanitarian supplies. It also violates international human rights law, including Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which guarantees the right to food.” Who will hold Israel accountable for these atrocities? Many countries are complicit in the genocide, including the UK, but the US is bankrolling the killing. In 2024 alone, the U.S. government sent Israel at least $17.9 billion. They could stop the horror by stopping the flow of money.
I went to a protest at the US Embassy organised by Community Camp for Palestine. You could still see the red die pouring out of the fountain, added by Greenpeace activists in April. Everyone in the US government has blood on their hands. We held a funeral march around the embassy, with coffins, drums, flags, flowers, and pictures of the dead. There were representatives of groups such as IJAN (International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network), Women of Colour Global Women’s Strike and anti-apartheid South Africans. It was moving. The grief was real, and palpable. A woman read out the names of some of the dead. It seemed to last forever, yet was only a small fraction of the under 1s killed. The scale of the horror is unimaginable.
Life got worse for an already oppressed minority this week, as several organisations and people took the opportunity to wildly over-interpret the Supreme Court decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers, which actually pointed out the limited scope of the judgment:
It is not the role of the court to adjudicate on the arguments in the public domain on the meaning of gender or sex, nor is it to define the meaning of the word “woman” other than when it is used in the provisions of the EA 2010. It has a more limited role which does not involve making policy.
This was ignored by the Keir Starmer, Bridget Phillipson and the British Transport Police, who all lost no time weighing in and making the UK one of the most hostile places in the world for Trans people. It was not always so. Teresa May announced self-ID back in 2017 with no reaction, no fuss. Trans rights have become part of a hateful campaign, bank rolled by people who call themselves feminists but are anything but. This is part of a wider mission of control. It takes less than a minute to think through how widespread gender policing will also affect cis-women negatively. There is no feminism here, just hate.
I watched Judith Butler (hero) speak to Owen Jones about the issue, and put into context how regressive the UK is, in a global context. It was a welcome injection of intelligence into the discourse.
I found some ways to be a Trans ally by sending money to help fund the Good Law Project’s challenge to the Supreme Court judgement. I also signed up to be a steward at Trans Pride. P__ wrote an incredible letter to our MP. I do wonder what the Labour MPs with a conscience think, watching Labour continue to swing further to the right than previous Tory cabinets. How do Angela Raynor and Andy Burnham bear it?
The pope died on Easter Monday. I find it hard to feel positive towards the Catholic Church, given it’s ongoing refusal to reckon with it’s problematic history. But given the Pope has an influential position, Pope Francis made some important interventions on issues such as the Climate Crisis, inequality and LGBTQIA rights. He made some comments that were outright anti-capitalist. My worry is that words are one thing, but he didn’t do anything to change the church. The next guy is likely to be more regressive, so I fear that Francis’ legacy will be less impactful than we might hope. Along with many others suddenly interested in the inner workings of the Vatican, we watched the film Conclave. It was excellent. I was sceptical that the process of Papal selection could fill 120minutes but it’s really gripping, and has a great twist.
No Meat May is almost here, a month when we encourage people to ditch meat, for the sake of their own health, the health of the planet, and of animals. At work our Plant Powered King’s group are running a free lunch, a ‘guess the protein’ competition, and sharing studies, recipe ideas and other information to support people to make a positive change. I have been vegan 8 years now, and I sometimes forget people regularly eat the flesh of animals. Animals who are capable of love and joy, and who feel fear, and pain, and longing for their stolen children. I am then confronted with slabs of flesh in a supermarket, at work or in a cafe. Information on the impact of meat production on the planet, the negative health outcomes of regular meat consumption, and the horrific cruelty of factory farm meat production is not hard to find, in fact it’s hard to avoid. The degree of cognitive dissonance required to regularly consume meat in 2025 astounds me. Trying to walk the line of providing accurate information without being labelled an ‘extremist’ is tricky. It’s also thankless work. But it’s important, so I continue. You can find my facts of the day throughout May on Insta or Bluesky.
I worked the weekend. It felt like it came round very quickly after the last one, and it seemed to last forever. But I now have two weeks of holiday, so I can temporarily leave it all behind! During a particularly frustrating exchange I was reminded of the classic Orthopedics vs Anaesthesia animation. It made my laugh.
drlj 