20 months in prison for a social media post. 6 months for killing a teen with a machete. The UK has gone mad.

I'm seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points. I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I should hold these days. Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn't want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them. However, Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right - nay, obligation - to critique me and my views in public. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created. When you've known people since they were ten years old it's hard to shake a certain protectiveness. Until quite recently, I hadn't managed to throw off the memory of children who needed to be gently coaxed through their dialogue in a big scary film studio. For the past few years, I've repeatedly declined invitations from journalists to comment on Emma specifically, most notably on the Witch Trials of JK Rowling. Ironically, I told the producers that I didn't want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said. The television presenter in the attached clip highlights Emma's 'all witches' speech, and in truth, that was a turning point for me, but it had a postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself. Emma asked someone to pass on a handwritten note from her to me, which contained the single sentence 'I'm so sorry for what you're going through' (she has my phone number). This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family's safety. Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness. Like other people who've never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she's ignorant of how ignorant she is. She'll never need a homeless shelter. She's never going to be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward. I'd be astounded if she's been in a high street changing room since childhood. Her 'public bathroom' is single occupancy and comes with a security man standing guard outside the door. Has she had to strip off in a newly mixed-sex changing room at a council-run swimming pool? Is she ever likely to need a state-run rape crisis centre that refuses to guarantee an all-female service? To find herself sharing a prison cell with a male rapist who's identified into the women's prison? I wasn't a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women's rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges. The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me - a change of tack I suspect she's adopted because she's noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was - I might never have been this honest. Adults can't expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend's assassination, then assert their right to the former friend's love, as though the friend was in fact their mother. Emma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public - but I have the same right, and I've finally decided to exercise it.

Looks like Netanyahu is likely to lose in Israel's election on Tuesday. I'm sure many progressives will celebrate this idea, they oppose his war. They haven't looked at who is likely to replace him. I spoke to Eylon Levy about that last week. Here's part of the discussion.

Spaniards shopping at the Corte Inglés shopping mall at Barcelona's have been locked in the store. The shopping mall was forced to close its doors with customers inside to prevent looters from storming the building. Europe 2026…

Prof Andrew Gosler - ornithologist and biologist from Oxford University - shares his story about how @RichardDawkins' The Selfish Gene, plus Dawkins' own anti-Christian commentary, forced him out of religious apathy into eventually becoming a Christian and priest! For more stories like this, check out the book 'Coming To Faith Through Dawkins' 👉 kregel.com/apologetics-and-e…

Be a small town politician. A child puts bunny ears on your photo and comments on how you dress. So mad you report it to the police. Cops show up at the child's house. Causes international outrage. Now the bunny pic is in the New York Post. And your Google results are just rabbit ears forever.

9 years of the BC NDP 😱 We have suffered and sacrificed under their tyranny. They took our Hospice from us ($8 million of our assets) because we refused to kill our patients with MAiD. We stood to defend authentic Palliative Care and we have survived 😢 Tonight we have HOPE! Hope that the new BC Conservative government will allow us to build a Sanctuary Hospice - to honour and affirm our patients lives and care for them until their natural end. ♥️

Trapdoor spiders build homes with an actual ‘hinged’ door

BREAKING: Riots and looting in Barcelona tonight. Mass-looting has now been reported from France, Belgium, Italy and Spain within the past week.

🚨🚨 FRANCE: Paris rioters fire fireworks at police as violent clashes erupt. Tear gas fills the air amid the chaos.

Just in: France's Prime Minister asked telecom companies to prepare to block social media platforms. "I wish to have the ability to temporarily suspend access to these services in case of a repeat of urban violence," he wrote. @blast news broke the story.

Alberta once again showing the rest of Canada how it's done. As of January 4th, only the Alberta flag and the Canadian flag will be permitted outside schools. It's incredible that the flag representing the most atrocious medical crime in history was ever flown outside Canadian schools. Far from signalling that the school is a "safe space" for vulnerable youth, what flying this flag actually says is that students are at risk of having their heads filled with a dangerous, incoherent political ideology that could confuse them into thinking they need healthy body parts amputated. How long before the rest of Canada wakes up to the danger this ideology poses to children?