We need to investigate the causes of this sudden transgender explosion

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  [*=left]NORMAN TEBBIT
  

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[FONT=&quot]hank The Lord (or our Editor) for the article by Allison Pearson in last Wednesday' s Telegraph: "When will the madness end in this brave new transgender world?"


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[FONT=&quot]When indeed. Not, I suspect, until we move on from blaming just the baleful influence of the social media or the equality industry.


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[FONT=&quot]Allison Pearson wrote: "All this fuss, even though such people make up only the teeniest sliver of our population. There are more Britons who keep guinea pigs than who identify as transgender."

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[FONT=&quot] I am not so sure as she is about that. I do not think there are too many guinea pig keepers at Westminster, but I am aware of a growing number of those claiming to be transgender, and I am concerned at the pressures being put on young school children to doubt whether they are girls, boys or of some indeterminate sex. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]In our human species there have long been born a few individuals neither fully male nor female, but it was until recently a very few indeed. I cannot recollect any such individuals among my fellow pupils at school, nor in my intake for National Service in 1949, nor so far as I know among my children's generation at school.



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[FONT=&quot]Evolutionary change seldom comes so suddenly or across such a wide front, so I think it is time we had some research into the extent of the phenomenon both in time and geographical reach. I do not know if the populations of third world or of urban or of rural societies are more or less affected.


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[FONT=&quot]Nor is it known if it is only our species or others living alongside us which have been affected, but that knowledge might point to a trigger such as pollution, which is the belief of some scientists.[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]I suspect that even to voice such thoughts may bring down coals of fire upon my head, but surely it is knowledge that is more likely than politically correct superstition to lead towards rational policies.


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[FONT=&quot]Away from such matters, we have been concerned in Parliament this week not only with progress towards Brexit but with progress towards full implementation of Universal Credit. Clearly there are still some wrinkles in that scheme to be ironed out. Still, its prime purpose is not to cut the welfare bill but to help more people into work as the route out of poverty.


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[FONT=&quot]What a pity that the Prime Minister and others did not make more of the employment figures. The unemployment rate, at 4.3 per cent, is at its lowest since 1975, and the number unemployed has fallen by 52,000 over the past quarter, so we now have 317,000 more people at work than a year ago. Not only is that good news in its own right, but it might suggest that Universal Credit is doing what it says on the tin.


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[FONT=&quot]As for Brexit, I find the demands by our "partners" in Brussels for ever more ransom money ever more deplorable. They keep talking about a "divorce settlement" and alimony, but surely in a divorce there is also the matter of the matrimonial home. So just what is the value of all those office, conference centre and Parliament buildings in Brussels and elsewhere to which we have contributed over the past forty years, and what is our share of that?


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[FONT=&quot]It is always nice to end this column on a cheerful note. In it's leader column of October 6, the New Statesman proclaimed: "Our view is that if there is a democratic majority for independence in Catalonia, its people should have their independence."


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[FONT=&quot]Well, amen to that! And I hope that the New Statesmen will now agree that what is good for the Catalonians is good for the British too. Welcome to the ranks of Brexit.[/FONT]

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