PLATELL’S PEOPLE: I wish we had JK Rowling’s courage to stand up against the trans bullies

Never have I read any of JK Rowling’s books, nor seen any of her Harry Potter movies. I also quite disagree with her political views.

Still, I have complete admiration for the author who has once again raised her head above the parapet in support of women’s rights against the onslaught of the militant trans lobby.

This week, Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, pushed through with plans to allow Scots to self-identify their legal gender without medical proof from a doctor. It means that a 16-year-old can apply for a gender recognition certificate without a formal diagnosis of gender dysphoria, and they can do so after only six months of living in their ‘acquired gender’ – a drop of two years.

Hundreds of women protested the change outside the Scottish Parliament and JK supported her by posting a photo of herself in a black T-shirt that read: ‘Nicola Sturgeon — noun — destroyer of human rights’.

Sturgeon hit back on the Radio 4 Today program yesterday, suggesting that Rowling was not a “true feminist” by not standing up for trans rights. The author, in turn, accuses her of acting like Regina George, the Mean Girls bully.

Rowling v Sturgeon, I know who would win that match in the court of public opinion. For JK represents the silent majority whose honest views are shamefully — and willfully — ignored by Sturgeon and the liberal elite in alliance with a brutally aggressive social media minority.

Of course, people worry that someone – perhaps a male sexual predator – might identify himself as a woman after only a few weeks of dressing as a woman, and then walk into a female locker room without being challenged. Why wouldn’t they be?

JK didn’t have to take a stand – she has millions in the bank and a fine place in literary history.

Still, she throws herself into the fray and takes on the monstrous activists and bullies. She has been pilloried, received death threats, canceled by ungrateful Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe – even though they would be nothing without her. And still she fights.

It takes real guts in this awakened world to stand up to the crowd for what you believe. If only the rest of us had half her courage — courage enough to say to the transmilitants, “Expelliarmus!”

Why would you give Mermaids lotto money?

Following allegations that the Mermaids charity, which helps young people identify as transgender, has been distributing potentially harmful ‘breast binders’ to girls as young as 13, the National Lottery has withdrawn a half-million-pound grant to the charity.

Well done, but for those of us who play the lottery and believe in charitable causes, isn’t it more worrying that they even considered funding Mermaids?

• American chess grandmaster Hans Moke Niemann, 19, is accused of cheating more than 100 times. Elon Musk even claims he used a vibrating device hidden in “an intimate part of his body” to get help from his coach. Gives new meaning to the term foul play.

You must be crazy, Frasier

Frasier, one of the most successful comedies of all time, returns with Kelsey Grammer now 70 in the lead role. Restarts are rare and Frasier has lost his two most beloved characters – Frasier’s father Martin, played by John Mahoney, and Eddie the Jack Russell terrier – who are both dead. This sequel has a foot in the grave before it’s even started.

• Women are tired of hearing expert advice on how to save our relationships: ditch the leggings and T-shirts, be more attractive around the house while cleaning, shopping and the kids’ homework – presumably in a black Agent Provocateur- Basque. Okay, but guys need to stop hanging out in saggy boxers, surrounded by beer cans and pizza boxes, until the match is over. After all, marriage is a game of two halves.

A womb with a view

Our beloved voice of an angel Charlotte Church has turned her talents into creating an eco-friendly vegan wellness retreat. There we can sing at sunrise, chew tofu, build a den, enjoy silent discos and bathe in the forest at night. To connect with our femininity we can cuddle in a ‘womb room’ and unwind in a ‘vagina shower'(!). Too bad there is no alcohol – a big vodka would be the only way to survive.

Brad Pitt was cleared by the FBI of assault and child abuse charges after his ex-wife Angelina Jolie alleged that he behaved horribly towards their children during that flight from hell on a private jet in 2016.

Didn’t stop her from coming back with more lurid accusations. She now claims that Pitt poured beer and wine on the children, choked one of them and tried to strangle her. He vehemently denies all this.

We all knew it was a mistake when he dumped wife Jennifer Aniston for Jolie. He remarried in haste (and lust), only to repent in purgatory.

Trouble the Mexican way

Mexicans have given a chili reception to the “insensitive and stereotypical” portrayal of their culture after Great British Bake Off presenters Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas donned sombreros for Mexican Week. When Fielding warned him not to make Mexican jokes, Lucas’s response was witty: “Not even Juan?” Light up amigos it’s just kinda fun and nothing to get your tortillas in a twist.

Westminster Wars

After the 45p tax debacle, Liz Truss still managed to deliver a rousing speech advocating for her economy with low taxes and growth. But what hope does she have when faced with backstabbing jackals (led by Michael Gove) determined to destroy her and hand over power to Keir Starmer – jackals who are safely in their seats by a huge majority?

The railway strike that prevented many from reaching the Tory conference was the workers’ own goal.

I’ve been to Brum many times and those who really win from the conference work with the minimum wage in hotels, bars and restaurants. They usually make a fortune that week – a waitress told me she doubled her pay with tips. The unions simply robbed the low-paid they claim to defend.

Time to help these heroes

Former staff sergeant Paul Minter has survived tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, completing a 5,000-mile coastal run around the UK and raising £400,000 for the veterans’ charity Head Up. He has lost 14 military friends by suicide, including three who took their lives while fleeing. It is not enough to salute our brave soldiers, we must help them when they come home. You can do that by donating at head-up.org.uk.

How horrifying of Sarah, Duchess of York, to thrash her new Mills & Boon novel by claiming that “the Queen was my mother and my wonderful best friend”, adding that Her Majesty personally approved the book before she died and that it’s a fictionalized version of her own friendship with Princess Diana.

When will this talentless parasite stop feeding the royal family?

Thanks to readers who have asked why my moggie Ted hasn’t appeared in the column recently. I was away in Ibiza and then had a severe flu attack – during that time Ted meowed non-stop and chewed off all the fur on his front paws, leaving horrible bald spots. Cat lovers, is it possible for a moggie to injure itself?