With the Telegraph losing many of its more hardline Brexiteer writers in a purge of staff by new owner Axel Springer, readers have been melting down in fear that the right wing paper is heading in a more liberal direction.
As Rats in a Sack reported earlier this week, Talk presenter and Reform adviser Alex Philips declared the departure of columnist Allison Pearson to be indicative of “the long slow Communist takeover of Europe”. But even less insane readers have been vocal in their concerns that the title’s new German overlords are planning a switch leftwards.
So at least editor Chris Evans was able to assuage worries that the paper might be turning away from fact-averse right wing hot takes in his newsletter on Thursday morning, telling readers how “bosses risk jail if their staff use the wrong pronouns to address trans people under the Government’s new conversion therapy law”. He added: “The Telegraph is campaigning for the bill to be scrapped”.
All good stuff, with just one minor, niggling error: bosses do not risk jail if their staff use the wrong pronouns to address trans people under the government’s new conversion therapy law. In fact, the Draft Conversion Practices Bill to which it refers – which will outlaw abusive conversion practices targeting sexual orientation and transgender identity – does not at any point mention the use of pronouns.
More than that, the government has explicitly stated that misgendering someone or using the wrong pronouns does not meet the threshold of an abusive conversion practice and is not touched by the draft bill – something which is stated in the Telegraph’s own news article about it. That piece, by deputy political editor Daniel Martin, did at least begin “Bosses risk jail if their staff use the wrong pronouns to address trans people under the Government’s new conversion therapy law, campaigners have warned”.
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That “campaigners have warned” line was dropped from the editor’s newsletter, meaning the incendiary claim was reported as fact rather than being what is actually was – a highly partial interpretation of the bill by Dennis Kavanagh, director of the Gay Men’s Network, which opposes gender identity ideology.
The bill is designed to criminalise physical or severe psychological abuse meant to force someone to change or suppress their identity, not general workplace friction or disagreements. Furthermore, the government has said the law is only intended to apply to organisations or companies that actively provide conversion therapies, rather than standard workplaces – something the Telegraph reported in the first place.
Not that many at the Telegraph will be bothered. What’s left of its newsroom is being encouraged in its turning a blind eye to any factual reading of the proposed legislation by the vast amount of clicks this nonsense is generating – perhaps a sign of things to come under the new owner’s stated ambition to transform it into a “global, AI-powered” business.
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