The debate over gender and sex has consumed politics for years. But the signs of change are out there, says Mark Smith.

Let’s start back a bit, in 2022. The SNP is promoting its bill on gender self-ID and I’m speaking to people on opposite sides of the debate: Ellie Gomersall, a trans woman and Scottish Green, and Lucy Hunter Blackburn, a former civil servant and campaigner. To be honest, I thought at the time that Gomersall’s arguments had already won the day, not least because the mighty Sturgeon was on the same side. But look at us now. Bill: defunct. Sturgeon: busted. Future: uncertain.

The most significant development since 2022 of course has been the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of woman even though all of us can hear the discordant sound of government and public bodies dragging their feet on accepting the implications of it. Having said that, I think, if you look around, there are more and more signs that change is happening and attitudes and behaviour are shifting. It’s not consistent – the graph isn’t a regular positive slope, there are jagged ups and downs – but even in the last few days, the signs have been there. Here’s a few worth looking at.

1: Jimmy loves Graham: Graham is Graham Linehan, the comedy writer who’s been in the thick of it from the start. I spoke to him in 2023 and he said he first went into the debate convinced people would understand his argument that you cannot change sex and self-ID puts women’s rights at risk. But no-one spoke out in his support, jobs fell away, and his plans for a musical version of Father Ted were scrapped. The suspicion must be that the silence from his peers was because they were afraid the same thing would happen to them (which it would have).

But look at Jimmy. Jimmy is Jimmy Carr, the comedian who’s been on a tour of America where the subject of Linehan came up. Here’s what Carr said, with apologies........

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