Mick Hartley

The endless gravy train

Oliver Brown in the Telegraph on how Seb Coe was beaten by the old Olympic guard, determined to keep their gravy train rolling:

In 72 hours here at Costa Navarino, the IOC’s sumptuous retreat on Greece’s Ionian coast, he came face-to-face with the true Machiavellian character of this most fiercely protective of private clubs. Until the last moment, his bid team expressed confidence that he was making progress, only for half a year’s work to unravel in two minutes. Thomas Bach’s stunning announcement that his successor had been found on the first ballot of an election expected to last multiple rounds meant just one thing: that Kirsty Coventry, the outgoing president’s preferred successor, had prevailed.

The publication of the vote breakdown 30 minutes later brought home the full horror, showing a mere eight votes for Coe against Coventry’s 49. All those promises of support he had chased? Too many, ultimately, turned out to be empty. Coe, for the first time in his career, had found himself outmanoeuvred, humiliated by the cold, hard, ruthless politics of Bach, his long-time nemesis.

Bach’s style is that of a benevolent dictator, his iron fist concealed in a velvet glove. While he insisted he had no favourite, everybody knew this was a masquerade, with the 41-year-old Coventry nurtured so assiduously for the role of president-elect that she had been sent to address the United Nations. As the clock ticked down, there was a twin imperative at the highest level: to make sure that she succeeded, and that Coe was thwarted....

One of the IOC’s final decisions here was to host its session in 2027 in Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, a palm-fringed resort every bit as luxurious as Costa Navarino. It was one more small signal that the membership, stuffed with superannuated bureaucrats and European nobility, preferred the status quo: the lavish per diems, the exotic travel, the endless gravy train. Why would they want somebody promising profound change? Viewing Coe as the disruptor, they plumped instead for the candidate who would keep their sinecures intact.

 

It's that simple

Before rushing to condemn Israel for every strike, remember: Hamas could end the war instantly by releasing all the hostages.

It’s that simple.

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) March 22, 2025

Some Sullivan history

Sarah Ditum in the Times reminds us of some of the history behind the Sullivan Review:

Alice Sullivan — author of the government-commissioned review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender that was published this week — is a sociologist with a neat pixie haircut and a gently sensible tone of voice. Her academic work is careful, analytical and concerned with questions of survey design. With all respect to Sullivan (a professor at UCL), it is hard to imagine anyone finding her terrifying.

That is, until you remember the feverish atmosphere of the gender wars at their peak. In 2019, the Office for National Statistics announced plans for a new, “inclusive” version of the sex question on the national census, which would allow respondents to answer according to their self-identified gender rather than their physical sex.

Sullivan criticised this in an open letter she organised, signed by 80 academics, pointing out that it would “undermine data reliability on a key demographic variable and damage our ability to capture and remedy sex-based discrimination and inequality”.

For such a dry statement of fact, she was no-platformed by NatCen (the National Centre for Social Research), who cancelled a seminar she was due to speak at. Better to pull the whole event, apparently, than be compromised by association with a woman like Sullivan with so-called terf tendencies.

But she was right that the census was badly worded. After a legal challenge, the guidance was rewritten to clarify that the question was about physical sex. Unfortunately, the follow-up included by the ONS — “Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?” — was so confusing that the resulting data on the trans population of England and Wales was a load of hot nonsense.

According to the 2021 census, transgender adults are more religious than the general population, more likely to be Muslim and less likely to be native speakers. Adults with no formal qualifications were three times as likely to fall into the “unspecified gender” category as those with degrees.

Plainly, this was not a reflection of reality. All it showed was that the ONS had embraced a version of gender politics that was deeply confusing to anyone outside the gilded circle of graduates who spend their lives online. In attempting to write an “inclusive” question, the ONS had excluded a huge chunk of the population from understanding it.

It was only when Michael Biggs, Oxford professor of sociology, pointed out that the question asked in the ONS survey - “is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?” - only made sense to gender enthusiasts and was totally baffling to people with English as a second language, and Muslims in particular, that people began to realise how ridiculous it all was. For a while there were actually those lost in awe at the fact that our marvellous immigrant communities were so advanced in their thinking, and so ahead of the curve in embracing trans ideology.

And here we are. Ostracised five years ago for speaking out on the reality of sex, and now lauded for her sensible views. Perhaps a corner has been turned, at last...

An “unblinking desire” to support the pro-trans lobby

Has there been one single institution in the UK that didn't embrace gender ideology? Even the supposedly hard-headed scientists at Porton Down rolled over before the trans juggernaut:

As a scientist at Porton Down developing technology to secure Britain’s defences, Peter Wilkins never imagined he would be considered a threat because of a belief in biology.

But when he stated his gender-critical views and support for the concept of immutable sex, Wilkins was reported for his “ideology” and labelled by colleagues as transphobic, “sad and pathetic” and “a rubbish employee”.

An employment tribunal has found there was a “clear hostile animus” towards gender-critical beliefs at the top-secret Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL). It found that an intimidating atmosphere resulted in the harassment and discrimination of Wilkins, 43, who was forced to leave as a result.

Senior officials failed to address the behaviour because of an “unblinking desire” to support the pro-trans lobby.

Magnolias at Kew

Blossoming earlier than usual, I think.

Maintaining revolutionary vigilance

The impurity threats grow, so the ideological pressure increases. It's the North Korean purity spiral. 

From the Daily NK:

North Korea has increased ideological lectures for young people in Chongjin, North Hamgyong province. These sessions, previously held once or twice monthly, are now mandatory weekly events.

A source told Daily NK recently that authorities now require weekly ideological lectures for students at high schools, vocational colleges, and universities throughout Chongjin.

“Despite creating new laws and even executing people to stop youth from watching ‘impure videos,’ the government hasn’t curbed young people’s interests. So since the beginning of the month, authorities have mandated weekly criticism sessions and ideological lectures,” the source explained.

The regime has intensified these lectures to keep young people vigilant against foreign ideology and culture. On March 8, one Chongjin high school hosted a lecture titled “Let’s strengthen the fight against the frightening toxins that erode young people’s class consciousness and revolutionary consciousness.”

The speaker began: “Impure videos and publications continue to propagate because of our enemies’ plotting. This significantly weakens our young people’s class and revolutionary consciousness. The puppet regime (of South Korea) and hostile forces use these impure materials to undermine youth consciousness.”

The lecturer described outside ideology as part of “our enemies’ strategy of destroying our socialist system” and emphasized that young people must guard against such influences.

“Our enemies ultimately want to tear down our socialist ideology and system. Their behavior isn’t new, but they’re more desperate now that our country is a nuclear power. Young people, as this country’s heirs, must lead in defending our socialist system,” the speaker declared.

“Lasting victory only comes through absolute trust and obedience to the Workers’ Party and Supreme Leader. We must reinforce our ideological struggle to defeat our enemies’ schemes by maintaining revolutionary vigilance,” the lecturer added.

While these sessions aim to prevent ideological wavering among youth, their effectiveness remains questionable. Young North Koreans admit they’re tired of repetitive lectures that cover the same points with little new material.

“Young people already hate the weekly criticism sessions, so adding lectures will only irritate them further. They’ll attend for appearance’s sake, but the effectiveness will diminish over time,” the source concluded.

Korean women in power

There seems to be something about Korean women and power. Kim Jong-un's sister Kim Yo Jong is notoriously offensive - her brother's "verbal attack dog". South Korea's first and only female president Park Geun-Hye was impeached for corruption and abuse of power, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. And now:

The first lady of South Korea told her bodyguards that they should have shot police arresting her husband, President Yoon, media have reported in Seoul as tensions rise before a court ruling that could force him from office.

The country’s constitutional court is expected to deliver a judgment next week on the parliamentary impeachment of Yoon over his sudden and abortive attempt to impose martial law in December. Now his wife, Kim Keon-hee, faces potential criminal proceedings of her own for her reported words following Yoon’s arrest at his presidential residence in January.

According to court documents, quoted by the Hankook Ilbo newspaper, Kim angrily reproached members of the Presidential Security Service (PSS), who had blocked a previous effort to arrest the president for insurrection.

“I am disappointed in the PSS,” she said, according to documents related to the prosecution of two former bodyguards. “Guns are meant to be used in situations like this — what were you doing if you weren’t going to shoot?”

She is said to have spoken of her own desire to murder the leader of the opposition Democratic Party, her husband’s chief antagonist. “Honestly, I just want to shoot Lee Jae-myung and then take my own life,” she is alleged to have said....

Ever since his emergence on the political stage five years ago, Kim, 52, has lent much-needed glamour to Yoon, a solemn and austere former prosecutor. But from the beginning, she has been a figure whose strong opinions have sometimes eclipsed the conservative political agenda pursued by her husband.

During the presidential election campaign in 2021, she apologised publicly for “exaggerating” her academic achievements. In conversations covertly recorded by a journalist, she implied that she was the power behind the throne and would remain so if Yoon was elected president.

“Have you heard of ‘the second VIP’?” she asked, referring to the role of first lady. “I don’t think Yoon Suk Yeol is really the president. That fool is just a puppet.”

With personal assets of close to 50 billion won (£28 million) in 2018, her wealth as a businesswoman far exceeds that of Yoon.

She spoke of her interest in “dosas” or spiritual gurus. Her doctoral dissertation was about fortune-tellers and all of this played into claims, always denied, that Yoon was employing supernatural techniques on the campaign trail, such as writing a mystically charged Chinese character on his hand.

Strange. Very strange.

The Teeside sex offender

She took hundreds of photos of men in public loos:https://t.co/dUxrdBm1Pl

— Teesside Live Court (@GazetteCourt) March 19, 2025

She??

A registered sex offender put her phone under public toilet cubicles to secretly record men using the loo.

Chleo Sunter, 37, was caught with 790 pictures and 15 videos of men inside toilet cubicles and standing at urinals. She took the photos in the men's loos at an Aldi supermarket and a shopping centre in Middlesbrough, and at Darlington Train Station.

Chleo? Can't the idiot even spell Chloe?

Sunter, previously known as John Leslie Graham, admitted her latest offences at Teesside Crown Court on Wednesday.

Still a man. Always a man.

She pleaded guilty to two counts of voyeurism; "recording a person doing a private act with the intention that she herself, for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification, would look at the image of this person knowing they did not consent to her recording the act" between January and November 2023. She also admitted six breaches of a sexual harm prevention order.

Why can't they just report honestly? Does pandering to his ridiculous "Chleo" identity override the requirement to report accurately? - especially when it comes to sex offences. 

Chatham Square and 'El' tracks

Manhattan ca. 1900. "Chatham Square and 'El' tracks, New York City, N.Y."

[Photo: Shorpy/Detroit Photographic Company]

The new IOC president

So Seb Coe didn't make it.

Zimbabwe's sports minister Kirsty Coventry has been elected as the new president of the International Olympic Committee. The 41-year-old former swimmer, who won two Olympic gold medals, replaces German Thomas Bach - who had held the role since 2013 - and becomes the first woman, the first African and the youngest person to hold the role.

World Athletics boss Lord Coe was among the favourites to win Thursday's election in Greece, but Coventry secured an absolute majority of 49 of the 97 votes available in the first round of voting.

Runner-up Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr won 28 votes while Coe secured eight.

Coventry, who already sits on the IOC executive board and was said to be Bach's preferred candidate, is the 10th person to hold the highest office in sport and be in post for at least the next eight years.

"Bach's preferred candidate" does not augur well - especially after the farce of the male boxers winning women's gold at the last Olympics with Bach's approval. Coe has been outspoken about his support for fairness in women's sport - which doesn't seem to have won him many friends in the right places.

On the one hand there's this, from last month:

The IOC presidential candidate has ignited discussion with her viewpoint on transgender athletes. She advocates a total ban on competitors in categories that match their gender identity, arguing for restrictions based on biological sex.

As reported by The Telegraph, Kirsty Coventry is calling for strict rules on transgender participation in the Olympics. "Ensuring fairness in women's sport and maintaining the integrity of women's categories is essential," Coventry said. "It is vital that all stakeholders work together on this issue."

She also pointed to scientific evidence, adding, "This debate is not focused on men's competitions, which underlines the need to protect women's sport. Her comments place her at the centre of the ongoing debate about the participation of transgender people in elite sport. Although she does not agree with the most intransigent views, her support for the ban underlines her commitment to ensuring competitive equality in women's categories.

Coventry went on to claim that "transgender women have an inherent physical advantage in women's categories, potentially reducing fair opportunities for biological women".

Which is all very encouraging.

On the other hand there's this, from Mohamed Keita of the Human Rights Foundation, in today's Times:

Coventry’s positive international image contrasts with the highly controversial figure and poor-performing minister she has become since crossing into politics in her native Zimbabwe in 2018. It also obscures her role as the soft-power ambassador of one of the world’s longest-ruling and most brutal dictatorships, which has been under UK sanctions for years.

Coventry belongs to Zimbabwe’s first post-independence generation and no Zimbabwean athlete has come close to her achievements as she swam in five Olympics from 2000 to 2016. She became a national sensation, a symbol of hope for Zimbabweans amid repression and economic collapse. Robert Mugabe exploited her popularity and amid his strident rhetoric against western imperialism and the violent expropriation of farms, he called her Zimbabwe’s “golden girl” and fêted her. Coventry trod carefully, expressing support for positive change, donating some of Mugabe’s prize money to charity, or calling for peace and unity.

But the 2017 coup that ousted Mugabe and brought to power his deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa marked a significant turn for Coventry. She joined his already repressive government as minister of youth, sport, arts, and recreation. She rejected calls on her to resign in protest at gross human rights violations; she attended ruling Zanu-PF party functions. She was embroiled in a scandal and lawsuit involving farmland seized by Mugabe during the height of his catastrophic land grab.

The public viewed her as incompetent. Football and boxing were in a dismal state, as were the national stadiums. Fifa banned Zimbabwe for 18 months after the government tried to take control of the country’s football association. Zimbabwean Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) athlete Themba Gorimbo described Coventry as “the worst sports minister ever”.

Coventry is running for the IOC presidency insisting that “stakeholders must adhere to the highest ethical standards to safeguard the spirit of the Games”. Yet her embrace of one of the world’s most repulsive dictators, her silence at gross human rights abuses and her abysmal performance as sports minister should disqualify her from leading the Olympic movement. Her appointment would be a win for Zimbabwe’s dictator, not for the future of global sport.

Hmm.