Mick Hartley

Blog

  • North Korea’s Dog Days

    ders ahead of the summer peak in anticipation of a sales surge.

    Households commonly buy and cook dog meat in kilogram units, and as the hottest period approaches, prices surge and supply tightens. As a result, restaurants are reportedly rushing to secure stock from traders.

    According to the source, dog meat traders in Hamhung are now traveling directly to rural villages to secure dogs, as few urban residents raise them. Rural households, however, still tend to keep dogs.

    In Hyesan, Ryanggang province, dog traders are also actively moving through rural areas, reportedly offering above-market prices to secure supply.

    Best keep Fido indoors for the next few weeks.

  • The brutal reality of child gender surgeries

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  • Compelled Conformity

    A report from the LGB Alliance on the "compelled conformity" imposed by the "LGBTQ+ community"  – the dominant TQ+ part, that is – on same-sex attracted people:

    Surveys of the ‘LGBTQ+ community’ produce findings that misrepresent the experiences and the views of same-sex attracted people.

    This groundbreaking Report on the impact of EDI in the workplace exclusively surveyed LGB people. It shows why a disaggregation of the data is vital to report accurately and meaningfully for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals.

    Respondents spoke of a ‘compelled conformity’ at work.

    They said, “I was told what the LGBTQ+ community was and what I think, even though I disagreed with nearly all of it. Nobody asked my opinion, even as a gay man. I was just told what I thought.”

    It’s clear the consequences of disagreement are frightening.

    “I am expected to accept the male lesbian to keep my job, It makes me very unwell…”

    Key findings:

    • 91% feel uncomfortable being grouped under the broader LGBTQ+ umbrella commonly used in workplace EDI policy and initiatives
    • Over a third (36%) have been advised by HR to stay silent about views that conflict with staff LGBTQ+ groups and DEI initiatives — while 86% avoid expressing their views altogether, fearing consequences such as job loss or disciplinary action
    • 79% of LGB employees say workplace “LGBT” training does not address LGB-specific issues.

    Report here.

  • The Workers Party of Britain

    From MEMRI TV:

    British Islamic scholar Asrar Rashid spoke at a March for Palestine organized by the Workers Party of Britain in Birmingham on July 12, 2025. He said that Palestinian armed struggle is justified because they are resisting oppression and the “banker state” of Israel. Rashid stated that Muslims take up armed struggle and are not ashamed of it, as the concept of Jihad exists in the Quran.

    He said there have been attempts to “malign” Jihad by equating “real Jihad” groups with terrorists, explaining that this has existed since 9/11 through Al-Qaeda, “which was formulated by the West” for this purpose. Rashid called on the British government to arrest those in the Israeli embassy in the UK, but he said they will not do so because “they control your capital, they control your finance, they write down the policies for you.”

    Other speakers at the march included former British MP George Galloway, musician Lowkey, and sociologist David Miller.

    He certainly knows which buttons to push before he sets off on his jihad rant: the “banker state” of Israel….“they control your capital, they control your finance".

    Did none of the young Workers Party members wonder, just for a moment, what they were doing cheering on this relentless antisemitic bile, coming from such a reactionary, misogynist, would-be theocrat? Well no – that's what they were there for. George Galloway, Lowkey, David Miller.

    The absolute state of the British left…

  • Our cissexist society

    A conversation stopper.

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    I hope someone's collecting these fabulous gender pronouncements for a future anthology…

  • When the so-called experts are ideologues

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  • Targeted with deception

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  • Cousin marriages

    3-6-million-treating-cousin-marriage-birth-defects/”>NHS trust spends £3.6 million treating cousin marriage birth defects:

    Over the last five years, a single NHS trust has spent £3.6 million treating the genetic defects of children born from related parents. Responding to FOI requests from journalist Lewis Brackpool, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust said it treated 1,559 patients between 1 January 2020 and 1 June 2025 who were diagnosed with a “family history of consanguinity”.

    Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it was unable to provide figures, claiming its data could not distinguish between genetic conditions caused by consanguinity and those that were not. In contrast to Birmingham, which relied on a single diagnostic code, Bradford said its coding system lacked the specificity to attribute cases to parental relatedness.

    It went on: “Identifying relevant cases would require a manual review of individual patient records, which would exceed the appropriate cost and time limits under the Freedom of Information Act.”

    Data from Born in Bradford (BiB) from 2023 showed that in three inner-city wards, 46% of mothers from the Pakistani community were married to a first or second cousin. Cousin marriage has been cited as the cause of 53% of all South Asian infant deaths from genetic disorders in the city. There is not yet data for how many cousin marriages there are in Birmingham but studies suggest that 20% of infant deaths in the city are the result of genetic complications from birth, the risk of which is doubled by having parents who are related.

    These new figures come as the Marriage (Prohibited Degrees of Relationship) Bill works its way through Parliament, with its second reading due this week. Conservative MP Richard Holden introduced the bill in December, arguing that cousin marriage poses “risks to health, freedom [and] the cohesion of our society”. In February this year, the BBC reported on new data from Born in Bradford showing that children of first cousins were more likely to have speech and language difficulties, more likely to need more hospital appointments, and less likely to “reach a good stage of development”. A 2011 study showed that the likelihood of infant mortality increases substantially if the parents are first or second cousins.

    Back to Matthew Syed:

    The good news is that Kemi Badenoch has adopted this as Tory policy after campaigning by her colleague Richard Holden, and a poll for YouGov last month showed that 77 per cent of the British people are in favour of a ban (only 9 per cent oppose it). But here’s what astounds me: Labour remains against prohibition, despite (I am told) having read the evidence. Why? How? Permit me to suggest that I glimpse through the façade of prevarication a party still terrified of criticising any cultural practice out of fear of appearing racist. Isn’t that why it was mute for so long on female genital mutilation and honour beatings and still can’t bring itself to describe the burqa as a pernicious symbol of institutional misogyny?

    And is busy preparing for a new definition of "Islamophobia" to be introduced.

  • Judiciary putting the interests of self-centred men over the rights of women

    Joan Smith at UnHerd on that man who expected his estranged wife to pay half the cost of his transition – and the judge agreed. 

    Divorce is often difficult and acrimonious. But this case surely enters new territory, appearing to accept the claims of an ideology that’s had its central argument rejected by the country’s highest court. It also extends the definition of what is medically necessary, raising questions about other elective procedures. Should an ex-husband have to pay towards his wife’s breast enhancement, on the grounds that she’s depressed by their divorce and it will help her find a new partner?

    Wives whose husbands claim to be transgender have not received sufficient sympathy or attention, even though they — and their children — are a living rebuttal of the “what harm does it do?” argument made by trans activists. The ruling raises new questions about impartiality, suggesting that the judiciary is still too inclined to accept the tenets of an ideology which promotes the interests of self-centred men over the rights of women.

    No doubt because the judge in this case was a man.

  • Reporting Gaza

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