I read the papers, so you don’t have to…
Sunday 10th May 2026
Scottish Daily Mail 7 May 2026Previous editions
As I started the Trans Agenda on Substack, not all editions are here on Patreon just yet. I am in the process of moving them over, but the first year can still be viewed on Substack.
Another week, another outrage from the cult at Marks & Spencer over nothing. The retailer, in line with others in the industry, has stopped offering a bra measuring service that uses tape measures and, instead, will eyeball the job. HOW DARE THEY!
This has nothing to do with the most recent, confected M&S anti-trans nonsense, nor any of the other countless outrages targeted at a retailer that refuses to bend to their demands. But we have to read about it all again, anyway. On the last occasion, a trans woman who dared work for M&S asked a young customer, who was with her mum, if she needed any help. That was all it took for multiple articles to be vomited up attacking both trans people in employment and those who employ us. By my count, the cult is on at least their fifth boycott of M&S.
In other news, it was mostly all about the local elections. Parties that campaigned on transphobic platforms in Scotland and Wales lost votes while progressive parties that stood up for trans rights did well. The papers below are mostly from before the election, so it was a chance for the journalists to point out how much the Greens love trans people as an attack line.
In England, Labour collapsed as the Greens took a massive chunk out of their support. Reform did better than anyone wants to see, but not as well as expected. Reassuringly, people are pointing to this election being more evidence that Reform have reached – and bounced off – their ceiling. Two of their newly-elected councillors were gone less than 48 hours after the polls closed. One quit because he couldn’t be bothered with the actual work while another was removed for being a Holocaust denier. How many will they finish the term with is the question.
The Green Party saw a massive increase in their vote share, picking up a couple of Mayors and four councils (at the time of writing) in the process but those successes have mostly been ignored by the media I’ve seen so far. Perhaps that will change over the weekend.
The undeniable headline, that I’ve buried down here for some reason, is that two trans people were elected as MSPs in Scotland, with one them apparently representing JKR’s constituency. I’ll have more on that from the weekend papers on in Tuesday’s edition.
Monday 4 May – Friday 8 May (number of articles mentioning or about trans people)
Search terms used on Pressreader.com – trans OR gender OR transgender OR biological
Search terms used on The Times epaper – transgender, gender, biological
Total count: 24
Average per day: 4.8
Last week average: 5.8 (29)
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Times 2
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Guardian 1
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Mail 9 (Scottish 4, English 3, Irish 2)
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Telegraph 6
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The National 5
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The Herald 1
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Belfast Telegraph 0
The Times (2)
Now is no time to have a voluminous bosom (and M&S won’t measure you), by Carol Midgley 6 May
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Marks & Spencer have said that they will no longer be using tape measures to measure women’s breasts instead, they “will carry out all consultations “by eye””. This, of course, makes Midgley think of trans women. She writes, “The move is to bring M&S in line with other bra-sellers such as Bravissimo, apparently. The company insists it has nothing to do with a “row” last year in which a customer reportedly complained that a transgender member of staff had asked her teenage daughter if she needed any help in the bra department. A spokesman said: “The feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive.””
BMA abandons its opposition to Cass review of puberty blockers, by Eleanor Hayward 7 May
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As you might expect, it’s all a bit more complicated than the Times is making out. You can read more about what really happened here.
Litigation set to rise on campus, by Catherine Baksi, 7 May
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After the High Court ruled against the Office for Students that had slapped a £545k fine on the University of Sussex for not allowing Kathleen Stock to run it (or something), the ‘free speech’ warriors are threatening more legal action. This article is about that, dressed up as serious legal comment. The chief legal counsel of the right-wing Free Speech Union is quoted.
The Guardian (1)
BMA stops contesting Cass report on gender services, by Tobi Thomas 8 May
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Same story as above.
Daily Mail [inc Scottish & Irish editions] (9) (Scottish 4, English 3, Irish 2)
Some of Brigitte’s darkness appears to be self-inflicted, by Mary Carr 4 May (Irish)
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Passing mention: “Macron has had to put up with painful conspiracy theories about being a transwoman [sic] and disgusting online abuse about her sexuality.”
Tories defied expectations, we can do it again – Ross, by Michael Blackley 5 May (Scottish)
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Passing mention: “Mr Ross also highlighted that before she quit as First Minister, Ms Sturgeon faced months of hard questioning from the Tories on issues such as transgender prisoner Isla Bryson entering a women’s jail, while her successor Humza Yousaf was facing a Tory no confidence motion when he stood down.”
Let’s stop Swinney’s Caledonia schemin’, by NO BYLINE 6 May (Scottish)
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Passing mention: “TOMORROW may well be a day of reckoning for Keir Starmer at elections in England and likewise for John Swinney at Holyrood. Both leaders have failed to implement the Supreme Court ruling on gender and wantonly continue to break the law.”
As I noted above in my intro, in Scotland, the transphobes got wiped out and two trans MSPs were elected.
Union ‘taken over by trans thinking’ sent man to women’s event, by Dan Barker 7 May (Scottish)
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New grifter (Fiona MacDonald) is suing the Public and Commercial Services Union with the help of GC lawyer, Naomi Cunningham, who represented Sandie Peggie. The piece refers to the trans woman in question as ‘a man who says he’s a woman’. Basically, a trans person existed and MacDonald doesn’t like it. Note how we aren’t even given ‘identifies as’ in this piece.
Failure after failure … 10 brutal reasons why Swinney & Co have to go NOW!, by NO BYLINE 7 May (Scottish)
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This piece [image at top of this edition] places Isla Bryson front and centre as they list the Gender Recognition Act as number 5 on the list. They call the law ‘hugely controversial’ except it wasn’t until the right wing press got involved. It was supported by all of the major parties, including the Tories. The image of Bryson is included to remind you that all trans people are rapists in their eyes.
I saw Zack’s compelling video on TikTok, by Elsa Brayshaw 7 May (English)
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Passing mention: “For all the young women I spoke to, immigration was not a concern, nor were they fearful of trans rights: the political gender divide is not a culture war, it’s an economic one.”
GCSE textbook ‘tells pupils they have a right not to be offended’, by Eleanor Harding 8 May (English)
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“The revision guide for citizenship studies says that Britons have a responsibility ‘to use freedom of speech but not offend’.”
“The book also appears to promote a partisan view of the debate over transgender people using single-sex facilities. It said it is ‘discrimination’ to provide toilets only for men and women – which appears to contradict the Supreme Court ruling that said the word ‘woman’ refers to a biological woman, and single-sex spaces can legally be preserved.” I haven’t seen the book but given they are lying about the Supreme Court ruling, I wouldn’t be surprised they are lying about what is in the book.
She always feared her ‘sex change’ would define her, book review by NO BYLINE 8 May (English)
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An article on a new biography of Welsh historian and author Jan Morris by Sara Wheeler. Morris transitioned in the 60s, nearly 60 years before we were invented.
PARENTS’ SHOCK AT SCHOOL’S UNISEX TOILETS, by Jamie McCarron 8 May (Irish)
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The horror of this is described in the opening paragraph. McCarron, no doubt shaking with fear and rage, writes “The 1,000-student Educate Together school in Harold’s Cross, Dublin, moved into a new four-storey building this week in which male and female students must share a common sink area next to the toilets.” One parent, Estelle Birdy, was ‘shocked’ and that was enough for a national newspaper article. Peadar Tóibín, from Aontú, a party that makes Reform look sensible, is quoted blathering on about ‘crackpot ideologies’. Another mother, whose name is withheld, compared it to George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’, likely the only book she has heard of that isn’t by Rowling.
The Telegraph (6)
Polanski will do nothing for the Tiktok generation who love him, by Poppy Coburn 4 May
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Passing mention: “We are told that the unashamed radicalism of policy under Polanski’s direction is what attracts so many of this group to his cause. This might be true for perennial Leftist concerns like transgender rights and Gaza. But Polanski is also at pains to show that his economic message is the really revolutionary side to his party, with a strident class-war rhetoric galvanising downwardly mobile, still-renting millennials and Gen Zers.”
Hands off the merchandise: M&S cuts out touchy-feely bra fittings, by Telegraph Reporter 5 May
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Same story as above. JK Rowling and Supreme Court ruling namechecked.
It is your civic duty not to offend, pupils taught, by Cameron Henderson 7 May
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Same story as in the Mail. Laura Trott and Toby Young of the Free Speech Union quoted.
The life of Zack: Druggy B-movies to ‘boob whisperer’, by Neil Johnston 7 May
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Hit piece on Zack Polanski using an image of him doing drugs from a movie he was in. Passing mention in photo caption: “Zack Polanski played a series of B-movie roles and danced on The X Factor, above. Protesting for black trans people, left. Working as a ‘breast-enlarging’ hypnotherapist”
Antizionism is a totalitarian conspiracy theory rotting the West from within, by Allister Heath 7 May
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More special from the brain of Allister Heath, passing mention: “Activists who claim they are immune from misinformation have embraced Tiktok psy-ops. A modern movement is renewing the most ancient of hatreds. Trans advocates who dismiss religion as the “opium of the people” collaborate with Islamists.”
Trans staff free to use female loos in the City, by Eleanor Harmsworth 8 May
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Trans people use the bathroom THE HORROR! Sex Matters feature, as does Kishwer Falkner and James Townsend, head of employment law at Payne Hicks Beach, calling on businesses to exclude trans people. In other Falkner news, after leaving her role as the head of the UK’s EHRC, she has teamed up with the Policy Exchange to get the UK to leave the ECHR as part of Project 2029. More here on the Policy Exchange website.
The National (5)
Question to Unionists about the EU was met with waffle, by Glenda Burns 5 May
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Letters: “All right, I am not a woman, trans or otherwise, and I have never been in prison: I do not presume to speak on behalf of female convicts. Nor do I dispute the statement that “trans rights are human rights”. But I consider that the ridiculously immoderate language to which some people resort whenever this topic is raised neither illuminates the issue to any degree nor reflects any credit on them or on the Scottish political scene.”
Vote shares are likely to raise difficult questions, by Paul Kavanagh 5 May
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Passing mention: “Scottish Labour’s leader has instead promised that his day one priority as first minister would be to roll back the rights of transgender people.” Anas Sarwar, Labour’s Scotland Leader, did indeed pledge to harass and discriminate against trans people immediately and made it a central plank of his re-election campaign. He lost his seat in the election, and, while he is likely to get a seat via the lists (if he doesn’t answer calls to resign), his transphobia was met with a unmistakable rejection from the Scottish pubic.
New theatre show to shed light on Fife’s dark past, by Steph Brawn 7 May
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A play that “will shed light on the story of seven women from a small Fife coastal village who were accused of witchcraft in 1666 and held in a tollbooth, often subjected to torture by the church.” Written and directed by Brandon Ferguson, who is quoted as saying, “People remember the incidents of history; people don’t remember there were real, fully formed individuals who were tortured on a daily basis, who lost their lives for no reason. There’s a woman in our play who is accused because her husband died.
“I think with migrants and trans people in particular, you can relate the way politicians and certain members of the public will talk about those two marginalised groups as very similar to how you would talk about the witches back in the day.”
It may feel like a truly boring election, but it might just usher in a new era for politics, by Lesley Riddoch 7 May
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Passing mention: “You don’t need to endorse the Greens’ position on trans rights to back them. These parties constitute our only joint ticket out of here. So, use your heids.”
Poll: Greens ‘not widely linked with antisemitism’, by NO BYLINE 8 May
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Passing mention: “Seven in 10 people aged 18-24 identified prejudice against Muslims as a major or significant problem in society, with about 60% saying the same of black people, women and transgender people. In total, 57% of the public said there is a problem with Islamophobia.”
The Herald (1)
Reform UK and Scottish Greens have nothing to offer Scotland, by Kevin McKenna 5 May
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More unhinged ramblings from Kevin McKenna who writes, “The Greens specialise in creating a hostile atmosphere for women by subordinating their rights to the whims of biological men who claim to be women. They march to a drum-beat of antisemitism and would sacrifice the working futures of entire communities to the middle-class caprice of Net Zero. It’s a Thatcherite approach reminiscent of the 1980s when working-class communities were tossed aside in the interests of the pitiless world which made the fortunes of Malcolm Offord and Nigel Farage.”
END
As I started the Trans Agenda on Substack, not all editions are here on Patreon just yet. I am in the process of moving them over.