Paul Elam was scheduled to give the keynote speech at the conference. However, as he is unable to attend on health grounds, we decided – with his agreement – to have someone else give it. I’m delighted to report that Karen Straughan has accepted our invitation. Her talk title will be, “Why women must consign feminism to the dustbin of history”.

Hidden in this gem of an article, in which The Who’s Daltrey also attacks Jeremy Corbyn’s radical politics and discusses the idiosyncratic success of a marriage on unusual terms, are the following (utterly correct) comments on #MeToo:

“Why would any rock star need to push themselves on women?” he said. “Usually, it’s the other way around. I’d like to have £1 for every woman that screws my ass. Mick Jagger would be a billionaire out of it.

“If it was going to be in the rock business, it would’ve been out by now. It would’ve been out a long time ago,” he added. “I find this whole thing so obnoxious. It’s always allegations and it’s just salacious crap.”

Cheers, sir!

Our thanks to Sean for this (video, 7:56), on the official channel of The Wright Stuff (Channel 5). 175,000+ views in 24 hours. Might it eventually surpass the Cathy Newman interview on Channel 4 (10+ million views) in popularity?

For the same material with commentary, we thank Sean for this (video, 10:35). The section from 9:02 is gut-wretchingly moving, with Peterson unsuccessfully trying to fight back tears. A remarkable man. I look forward to him giving a talk at an ICMI one day.

I shall be out of the UK from this coming Saturday for a few days, meeting with the key people behind a new European men’s rights party. I consider it one of the most exciting developments in the MRM in recent years, for reasons I’m not currently at liberty to divulge. As soon as I can blog a piece on the matter, I shall. Then I’ll be taking a few days’ break with one of my adult children’s families, and seeing again my delightful grandchild, now 18 months old. I hope to start blogging in earnest again from 1 June onwards. Hopefully Elizabeth Hobson, our Director of Communications, will be able to post a few pieces over those two weeks.

On the Sunday before last I was in a discussion on the BBC’s The Big Question, their flagship TV programme in which a panel of people debate topical affairs. The topic being debated was, “Is masculinity in crisis?” The nine men on the panel started with a young mangina with nail varnish on the extreme left. He lives as a man for half the week, as a woman the other half. He makes a living from performing as a drag queen. A fine example of modern British masculinity, then.

At the opposite end of the panel was myself, on the extreme right. The BBC do like their little jokes. Three other men on the panel hold non-feminist / anti-feminist / gender equalist positions – Professor Eric Anderson, who’ll be speaking at the July conference, Martin Daubney, who spoke at the 2016 conference, and Simon Evans, one of my favourite British comedians. Evans has appeared on Question Time once or twice recently.

I’ve asked the BBC for copyright clearance to post the video on our YouTube channel, to avoid a copyright strike, and the silence is deafening. So I thought I’d link to the video on YouTube, here (58:55). It’s had 84,000+ views so far.

Nicky Campbell’s feminist bias has never been more evident. For most of the entire discussion, he addressed the left hand side of the panel, and outrageously indulged the two young men on the extreme left who wittered ignorant BS about feminism, the patriarchy etc. He feigned some puzzlement at being called a feminist by me, although he clearly is one, and the programme’s producer – a woman, what are the chances? – proudly told me before the show that she’s a feminist. I’ve yet to meet anyone at the BBC who could be described as being even remotely anti-feminist. We can be sure that self-identifying as such would be committing career suicide.

National Biographers Day commemorates the anniversary of the first meeting of Samuel Johnson and his biographer James Boswell in London, England on May 16, 1763, and honors all biographers.

This National Biographers Day, I will be reading Boris Johnson’s excellent The Churchill Factor, which paints a vibrant picture of the idiosyncratic and far larger than life personality and argues that the world could look very different today, where it not for his having lived.

Let us know about your favourite biographies, and/or take some inspiration from this list of ‘Biographies Every Man Should Read’.

Paramedic Paul Judd has undergone three operations and still can’t work after two women violently attacked him in response to being asked to stand back as he worked.

Originally sentenced to eight and four months, both women appealed their sentences and we’re let off with slapped wrists after a judge applied mitigating factors to their cases (“appalling” childhoods, problems with substances and poor mental health). A teenage boy who was also charged with 8 months in a youth detention centre for the incident made no appeal.

Article here.

In the U.K. where women receive significantly more lenient sentences than men, mitigating factors are far more likely to be taken into account.

Times caption: Richard Ned Lebow, an expert in political theory at King’s College London, argued that free speech is being suppressed

Following Elizabeth’s piece, just published, a piece in today’s Times by Nicola Woolcock, Education Editor:

A London university academic who was told to apologise after light-heartedly asking someone to press the button for “ladies lingerie” in a lift at a conference is refusing to apologise after a female delegate complained.

Richard Ned Lebow has criticised restrictions on free speech after he was told to apologise to Simona Sharoni, a professor of women’s and gender studies, who was also in the lift.

Professor Lebow, an expert in political theory, and his wife Carol Bohmer, who has taught gender and law, hold positions at King’s College London.

The International Studies Association (ISA), which organised the conference, told him to apologise by tomorrow but he has refused because of the implications for freedom of speech.

Professor Lebow, 76, who was the ISA’s distinguished scholar of 2014, said: “My biggest concern is for younger colleagues who are not as established in their profession as I am, who may find that if they say something that offends it could be the end of their careers.”

He likened his case to book burning by the Nazis in the 1930s and added: “From my perspective there is no way I am apologising because I haven’t done anything wrong. If I did apologise it would show that crazy people like this one can intimidate associations and it will have a chilling effect on everyone. This is also about an issue of humour and the idea that humour is now becoming off limits.”

He has spent much of his career in Britain and seen “an unhealthy trend to suppress free speech” here too. He said: “This is another example of where, alas, the UK imports the worst of America as opposed to the best. There is a chill in universities. Universities should teach tolerance and be places for anybody to express almost any opinion provided it is done in a respectful way and within the law.”

Of the #MeToo movement, he said: “One of the downsides of any positive movement is that it attracts people like this [Professor Sharoni] who want to exploit it for their own ends. Also in the shadow of #MeToo, I suspect some bodies don’t want to give any impression they’re not responsive to complaints of harassment by women, no matter how silly. So had this happened before #MeToo, the result might be wildly different.” He told The Mail on Sunday that his comment in the lift had been a common quip in his youth when attendants would call out the floors in department stores. He said it had also been used in a Harry Potter film.

You can subscribe to The Times here.

I wrote a message of support to Lebow, when his transgression, the ISA’s subsequent decision to take a hardline against his harmless joke – and then his refusal to grovel, hit the news.

Today, in The Spectator he writes: “increasingly on campuses where feminists and leftists have come to wield influence, they are abusing their power and behaving exactly like those they have long condemned.”

How refreshing to see a man take a stand against authoritarian feminist aggression, I hope to see many more!

Full article here.

If you would like to contact him, his email address is:

richard.lebow@kcl.ac.uk

Times caption: Pupils at North London Collegiate received postcards to celebrate small achievements

A piece by Nicola Woolcock, Education Correspondent, in today’s Times:

Teachers are writing positive comments in the maths books of all pupils at a top girls’ school [J4MB emphasis] to improve their confidence in the subject.

Outstanding results are already achieved by pupils at North London Collegiate but positive comments must now be included on all pieces of work to increase self-confidence and promote a “can-do” attitude. [J4MB emphasis]

The decision was inspired by research from Harvard, which showed that confidence was critical to success. The school also sends postcards to pupils to celebrate small achievements and teachers are asked to email students, and copy in form tutors, when small milestones are reached.

One pupil said: “During class, teachers constantly provide positive reinforcement which really helps to keep us motivated and push through the tough and seemingly impossible parts.