-
The UK government’s new equality minister, Liz Truss, has set out her priorities for the coming months. It isn’t good news for trans people. This isn’t a surprise. In 2019 Andrew Gilligan, the journalist who spearheaded The Sunday Times’ scaremongering about trans people, was appointed as a key advisor for No. 10. The conservatives have… [more]
-
Something we’re seeing a lot of during the coronavirus crisis is the rise of the armchair epidemiologist: the men (it’s mainly men) presenting themselves as authoritative voices about things they have no expertise in. Sarah Weinman, for InsideHook.com: They are lawyers, former reporters and thriller writers, Silicon Valley technologists, newspaper columnists, economists and doctors who… [more]
-
There’s a nice piece in Huffington Post by Kat Rossi. When my son was 3, I made a mistake. We were at a shoe store in New York City, picking out new sneakers for his rapidly growing tiny feet. He was insistent: The next pair of shoes he was going to wear had to be… [more]
-
A thought-provoking piece by Dr Fiona Jenkins: Although many employers are certainly being supportive, let’s not forget that those who until recently took their homes for private space are not gaining a privilege right now, but losing a set of prerogatives …so “working from home” at present means something like this: employers have requisitioned the… [more]
-
To add insult to fatal injury, the headline that dominates the front page isn’t even true. [more]
-
You don’t have to feed your mind during lockdown, of course. But if you’re looking for something to interest, enrage and enthuse you Strathclyde University has a free course on gender representation in the media. I’m on week 3 and I’m finding it fascinating and thought-provoking. The course is here. It’s hosted by Futurelearn, which… [more]
-
If you’re worried about losing your mind during lockdown, here’s some advice from an expert: don’t be an optimist. Admiral Jim Stockdale was held in the “Hanoi Hilton” prison camp for seven years, where he was tortured more than twenty times. He says he came out of the camp stronger than when he went in.… [more]
-
It’s interesting to see The Sunday Times turn its guns on the UK government and on Boris Johnson in particular. This piece by the Insight team, which hits print tomorrow, is utterly damning. Last week, a senior adviser to Downing Street broke ranks and blamed the weeks of complacency on a failure of leadership in… [more]
-
There’s a cartoon I love by Stephen Collins about Michael Gove. It riffs on the film Independence Day, and features the MP volunteering to fly a plane to defeat an alien invasion. When quizzed about his unsuitability – “you’ve never flown a fighter plane in your life!” – Gove is adamant that he’s the right… [more]
-
This is the kind of article that you read from behind your fingers. From the NYT: UK Paid $20 Million for New Coronavirus Tests. They Didn’t Work. The two Chinese companies were offering a risky proposition: two million home test kits said to detect antibodies for the coronavirus for at least $20 million, take it… [more]
Read me in books
My debut memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was a Scotsman book of the year and Damian Barr’s Literary Salon book of the week, and it was shortlisted for the 2023 British Book Awards book of the year in the Discover category.
My latest book, Small Town Joy, is a celebration of queer influences on and queer artists in Scots music and is out now.
I’m also a contributor to the excellent anthology Fierce Salvage, which is also out now.
