Best Of

Margaret Thatcher had two extramarital affairs, claims new book

Tina Gaudoin claims in The Incidental Feminist that the former prime minister had two affairs: one early in her career as an MP and one with another politician

Discussing her latest work at Cheltenham Literature Festival, which is sponsored by The Times and The Sunday Times, the author also claims that Denis Thatcher struck up a surprisingly close friendship with the former model Mandy Rice-Davies, one of the main figures in the Profumo affair, after the Thatchers left Downing Street.

Gaudoin said multiple sources, including the novelist and former Conservative minister Jonathan Aitken, told her that Margaret Thatcher was involved with somebody else “very early on in her parliamentary career”, and then “quite possibly” later with Sir Humphrey Atkins, the MP for Spelthorne....

...Sources told the author that Lord Bell, Thatcher’s head of PR, had an “extracurricular friendship” with the leader, and that “one of her favourite things” was Bell putting his hand on her knee “and other stuff” during dinners.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/margaret-thatcher-affair-news-wvb0wlc39

The Times should really not lower itself to such tittle tattle and smut when the late great Baroness is no longer around anyway to complain about this intrusion into her private life. It is supposed to be a serious paper not a tabloid

Whodathunk it

1/ NEW: trans identification is in free fall among the young
 
(h/t @FIRE data in particular)

2/ Non-conforming sexual identity (queer, questioning, etc) is also in sharp decline.

Gay and lesbian are stable while heterosexuality has rebounded by around 10 points since 2023.


https://x.com/epkaufm/status/1978074195767480659?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

Now weep for the young people mutilated - because a bunch of creeps hijacked teenage angst, and a lot of lefties and politicians who should know better supported this madness

Which means that the panic was massively overblown? And the centrist dads were right?

What an utterly ridiculous take. The centrist dads went along with all this. It’s what they do. Now - as I predict - when it all turns out to be madness they will claim “oh we never believed it anyway”

Thatcher said exactly this: whenever you advocate for a change you will get lots of active resistance, fighting you every step of the way, and then when it's finally achieved they will all say it would have happened anyway.

OK who is THE most famous person PBers have spoken with? ie exchanged words with?

I guess anyone who spoke to the late Queen (I didn't) wins this, so royalty is disallowed, because a series of answers saying The Queen will be boring

Mine is probably Mick Jagger, then Arnold Schwarzeneggar

Then Keanu Reeves, maybe. Cameron Diaz once passed me a beer at a party

David Cameron, Alan Ball, Lester Piggott, Frankie Dettori (before he was famous)

And I did meet Arnie, in the same lift I met Cameron at 30 Millbank, but didn't speak to Arnie. The lift was quite full

He said "I'll be back" when he got in, to the people seeing him off, then "I'll be back" to me and the others in the lift when he got out

He didn't seem to be tired of it

I met Arnold Schwarznegger in HMV once, I was struggling to find The Terminator bluray boxset and he helpfully told it was located in 'Aisle B, back.'

Whodathunk it

1/ NEW: trans identification is in free fall among the young
 
(h/t @FIRE data in particular)

2/ Non-conforming sexual identity (queer, questioning, etc) is also in sharp decline.

Gay and lesbian are stable while heterosexuality has rebounded by around 10 points since 2023.


https://x.com/epkaufm/status/1978074195767480659?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

Now weep for the young people mutilated - because a bunch of creeps hijacked teenage angst, and a lot of lefties and politicians who should know better supported this madness

Which means that the panic was massively overblown? And the centrist dads were right?

What an utterly ridiculous take. The centrist dads went along with all this. It’s what they do. Now - as I predict - when it all turns out to be madness they will claim “oh we never believed it anyway”

No, the centrist dads - like me - said this was all going to blow over.

Basically, our take on most things is "there's a lot of ruin in a nation", and you do more damage by reflexive behaviours than by just ignoring it, and waiting until it goes away.

My view has always been - and I've repeated it 100x on here - use whatever pronouns you like (i.e. be polite to people and treat them as they would like to be treated), but no sport and no access to single sex spaces. I would, however, make accomodartions in terms of creation of gender neutral bathrooms.

That is literally the most centrist dad take you can have.

And guess what? It was the right take, and didn't involve being a total cock to people.

But it didn't just "blow over" it took court cases and a Trump victory to end the nonsense. The idea that it just went away by itself is for the birds. Without the effort of the women and women's rights activists, the American right and the LGB alliance the situation would be far worse than before because the trans activists were getting zero pushback from "centrist dads" telling us all it costs nothing to be polite when in reality they were telling us to appease the nonsense and knuckle under because they were afraid of being cancelled.

Sorry

You think young people have stopped identifying as trans since January, as a result of a Trump victory?

It's very easy to see whether this is just typical fads that come from teenagers not feeling like they belong. Just look at self reported rates of trans by State and by country.

Yes, it was the Trump victory that allowed parents to start pushing back against the insanity.

The Cass Report (April 2024) was the key moment the weather changed.

Whodathunk it

1/ NEW: trans identification is in free fall among the young
 
(h/t @FIRE data in particular)

2/ Non-conforming sexual identity (queer, questioning, etc) is also in sharp decline.

Gay and lesbian are stable while heterosexuality has rebounded by around 10 points since 2023.


https://x.com/epkaufm/status/1978074195767480659?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

Now weep for the young people mutilated - because a bunch of creeps hijacked teenage angst, and a lot of lefties and politicians who should know better supported this madness

Which means that the panic was massively overblown? And the centrist dads were right?

What an utterly ridiculous take. The centrist dads went along with all this. It’s what they do. Now - as I predict - when it all turns out to be madness they will claim “oh we never believed it anyway”

No, the centrist dads - like me - said this was all going to blow over.

Basically, our take on most things is "there's a lot of ruin in a nation", and you do more damage by reflexive behaviours than by just ignoring it, and waiting until it goes away.

My view has always been - and I've repeated it 100x on here - use whatever pronouns you like (i.e. be polite to people and treat them as they would like to be treated), but no sport and no access to single sex spaces. I would, however, make accomodartions in terms of creation of gender neutral bathrooms.

That is literally the most centrist dad take you can have.

And guess what? It was the right take, and didn't involve being a total cock to people.

No. Less damage would have been done if children hadn’t received hideous treatment at the tax payers expense. It’s the “be kind” attitude which enabled that.

I don’t know if you are a parent, but “kind but firm” is a pretty standard MO.

When my sister was about 10 she liked to dress as a guy and insisted on being called Kevin (we negotiated her down to “Jason”).

After a couple of years she grew out of it and is now a happy & fulfilled mother of 3.

You can be kind and respectful without facilitating life changing surgery or medication

Today her teachers would have pushed her into gender affirming "care" and ended up at the Tavistock without your parent's knowledge where who knows what would have happened.

Parents were (and still are) being forced to accept this nonsense and kids are still being brainwashed by NHS trans activists and unionised teachers.

I'm glad to see the trend is reversing but there is a long way to go and God help those kids who were mutilated during this craze who, unlike your sister, didn't get a chance to grow out of it.