Reflections on the Glinner trial

The mechanics of media, activism and justice

Graham Linehan outside court on Thu 4 September 2025

Hi everyone

FIrst of all - thanks to everyone who has kindly subscribed or, more accurately, donated and then found themselves subscribed to this genderblog newsletter. Despite having taken an active interest in the gender wang/wars/debate for a couple of years now, I have been limited in the amount of work I can do on it.

I have, instead, spent my time getting to know some fine and/or interesting people on both sides of the fence, whilst also nailing my colours to the sex realist mast on the basis that this story seems very difficult to "both sides" when it comes to biology, sex-based rights and safeguarding (though there are plenty of people who would seek to persuade me otherwise).

I'm also not a fan of pointless and dangerous taboos and people being hounded out of their livelihoods and friendship circles for expressing what should be perfectly reasonable perspectives on the world. I know, bigot, right?

Two days at Westminster Mags

I wasn't even going to go on Thursday last week. I am way behind with my second Post Office book (out in Spring 2026) and have lately been refusing all sorts of kind requests to Do Things in That London. Showing up at Rex v Linehan struck me as one of Those Things that would get in the way of me trying to finish my book. I also thought I wouldn't be able to add much value to being there.

Much as I enjoyed and got a lot from being a spectator at the Supreme Court FWS v Scottish Ministers hearings last year, I felt like a spare part. To that end, I am deeply grateful to the person who badgered me to go along to the first day of Glinner. I won't name names, but they know who they are. They are expert badgerers.

When I realised no one else was going to be live-tweeting, I got on with it and was gratified by the response. I did have some commitments on Day 2 of Glinner, but I admit I was enjoying feeling useful, fascinated by what was going on in and around court and I hate leaving a job unfinished. That was when I realised that if I could repurpose my tip jar I might actually be able to at least potentially financially justify postponing my Friday commitments and spending two days live-tweeting from court.

So that's what I did, and I cannot thank all those of you who donated enough. You made my attendance at and any subsequent coverage of this trial possible.

Transcripts and Underlying Universal Themes

Westminster Magistrates Court on Friday 5 Sep 2025

As for the experience itself - well, it's a live trial so I can't comment too much on the actual proceedings. The (day one and day two) tweets hopefully speak for themselves. One thing I have discovered is that there are no recordings and therefore no transcripts of what took place. My tweets, which were just characterisations of what was being said, are it. That, in my view, is completely unacceptable. This is the 21st Century. Recording a courtroom is relatively cheap and simple. A hearing as consequential as Glinner needs verbatim transcripts and had a court recording existed I would have considered paying to have it transcribed (if I could get the court's and the relevant parties permission).

In a hundred years' time, people will be wanting to study how a trial for criminal damage and harassment was conducted through a lens of competing belief systems encapsulating fundamental disagreements on the meaning of words. Thursday and Friday (Friday especially) represented this at the absolute sharp-end, being arguments between people with fundamentally different belief systems going toe-to-toe in the highly regulated but adversarial context of a courtroom cross-examination. It was fascinating.

It was a rare privilege to be in court to witness the hearing and try to record what was happening. I hope to produce some more work related to the trial in the near future. The main point of this missive is simply to thank you for allowing me to do it.

SEEN in Journalism podcast - No Fear. No Favour.

I am proud to be close to the SEEN in Journalism crowd (SEEN stands for Sex, Equality and Equity Network - there are a few in various industries) who have just started a superb podcast. One of my particular interests when it comes to the gender wars is the abject failure of journalism to report it properly. The first episode of "No Fear. No Favour" features three journalists with around a hundred years' service to the BBC between them. They discuss how the corporation has failed miserably when it comes to reporting the gender story. It is a telling insight into what was and is going on behind the scenes in the UK's biggest broadcast organisation. The link above takes you to the SEENinJournalism podcast webpage, but you can pick up the podcast on your usual platform. I found it pretty easily on Spotify by typing No Fear. No Favour. Seen in journalism into the search box. Highly recommended.

How my journalism works

A few years ago I stumbled upon a semi-sustainable model of journalism which is about keeping what I do free at the point of consumption whilst also somehow getting paid. This worked for both the Post Office Scandal and Trial websites and the Depp v Heard stuff. and I am hoping I can do the same with the GenderBlog. Essentially I am reliant on one-off donations and people spreading the word.

Those who donate are subscribed to irregular newsletters. The donations are used to power my journalism on the subject in hand, which I make available to everyone. Newsletters tend to be more gossipy and will have links, pointers and info about other things within the subject area I think people might be interested in. Blog posts are normally more formal and contain (hopefully) newsworthy or useful information. My costs are largely time, travel, food and IT.

The newsletters go out to a select number of people, but I understand they are essentially being published to the world. That said, in order to maintain the value for the people who have subscribed, I would be deeply grateful if you don't re-publish it in its entirety anywhere. I'm very happy to be quoted or credited if you think I've said anything or quoted anyone vaguely interesting, but please don't just repost the whole thing.

If you want to contact me about anything in this newsletter or have any relevant information you want to share, or just want to say hello, all you have to do is hit reply to this email - it will go swiftly and securely straight to my inbox. Not even Andrew (IT guru and Wizard of the Dark Arts) can see it. Everything you send me will be treated in absolute confidence and I will not do anything with any document or piece of information without your express permission. I can't promise to respond, but unless things are insanely busy I do try to read everything I get sent - especially from people who have been kind enough to sign up to read the material I produce.

I think gender is the biggest story of this generation, given how it is affecting education, the law, policing, free speech, the arts, politics, medicine and journalism (among much else), so I think I'm going to have plenty to write about going forward. Thank you for your interest so far.

Have a great week.

Nick

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