DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Halt woke march of the male menopause
Barely a day passes without some story appearing which makes you scream silently and think the world has gone stark raving bonkers.
Now, though, the lunatics really have taken over the asylum. Health trusts, councils, police forces, fire brigades and corporations are implementing policies to help men navigate the so-called ‘male menopause’.
Managers must assist staff experiencing symptoms – ranging from mood swings to fatigue and lack of libido – by letting them start shifts later or work from home. They can even take a year’s paid sick leave. Portable fans will be provided to ease the discomfort of those with hot flushes.
But here’s the rub. Even the NHS – the nation’s premiere bastion of political correctness – says the male menopause does not exist. There is no equivalent for men of the dramatic collapse in hormones when a woman hits the menopause.
Yes, men can have similar symptoms, but they are invariably linked to unhealthy lifestyles, psychological problems such as money worries, and the midlife crisis.
Universities including Glasgow, Surrey and Kent each have men mentioned in their menopause policies. Pictured: Glasgow University
And they pale into insignificance compared with the frequently debilitating effects of what used to be called ‘The Change’.
So why are we expected to swallow the madness about the ‘manopause’?
The truth is, public bodies and company boardrooms have been captured by the ‘woke’ agenda, where identity politics is as important as their core purpose.
By adopting absurd policies on the male menopause, these organisations are denying biological fact in order to virtue-signal.
It is deeply insulting to women, who have fought to get the menopause recognised in the workplace. Finally taken seriously, their rights are again being eroded by activism.
Then there is the cost. When the public sector bleats about money being tight, surely it’s better spent solving real issues, not invented ones? And there is a danger that as more bodies acknowledge the ‘manopause’, staff will be tempted to take more time off sick. It would create a shirker’s charter.
It is a fact of life that men’s joie de vivre diminishes in middle-age. Instead of packaging this into a fashionable new syndrome, isn’t it better to show a bit of resolve and just deal with it?
Come clean, Sir Keir
Sir Keir Starmer was understandably cock-a-hoop after Labour’s seismic success in the Rutherglen by-election.
A key test of his party’s appeal in Scotland, it was emphatically passed. The SNP was swept away, humiliated on a whopping swing – another nail in the coffin of independence.
And it will put a knot of anxiety in Rishi Sunak’s stomach. If this result was replicated at the general election, Sir Keir’s path to power would be much smoother.
He’ll undoubtedly be walking on air on the eve of Labour’s conference, but he must still seal the deal with the electorate.
While talking tough, his party is vulnerable on defence. Not so long ago, Sir Keir fought to put Jeremy Corbyn, a Nato-hating backer of nuclear disarmament, into No 10.
Sir Keir Starmer was understandably cock-a-hoop after Labour’s seismic success in the Rutherglen by-election
So it’s profoundly concerning that the shadow defence secretary tells us that Labour would reverse the Government’s tilt towards the Indo-Pacific to focus on beefing up defences closer to home.
True, Russian aggression has not yet been defeated. But there are ominous signs China is preparing more than sabre-rattling towards Taiwan. Britain has growing military and economic partnerships in this dynamic region. Withdrawing would be at best naive – and at worst suicidally stupid.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir is blocking Labour from holding a Brexit debate at conference. Desperate to avoid alienating Leave voters in the party’s heartlands or metropolitan Remain supporters, he is trying, Janus-like, to face both ways.
He insists he is a man of integrity. But by being secretive about his Brexit plans, he is treating voters with disdain.
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