How was the puberty blocking scandal ever allowed to happen?

Remember when Irish singer Róisín Murphy was set upon by the mob last year? Her crime: she criticised puberty blockers and said we should stop dishing them out like candy to vulnerable kids. The blowback was furious. Armies of activists damned her as a transphobe, a bigot, a bitch. 

They pronounced her ‘over’, which is PC-speak for ‘unpersoned’. They threatened to boycott her gigs. Virtually every review of her new album, Hit Parade, contained a swipe about her sinful utterance. The most shameful was the Guardian’s. It’s a great record, the reviewer said, but it comes with the ‘ugly stain’ of its creator’s evil views. 

Well, now, six months on, NHS England has banned puberty blockers for gender-confused children on the basis that there is ‘not enough evidence’ they are safe. Róisín was right. Remember this next time you witness a witch-hunt – often the witch is just a woman telling the truth.