Hate movement misguided

Germaine Greer refuses to accept transgender women as women.
She has an opinion - to which she is fully entitled - but it seems those who disagree with her are giving her opinions more weight than even she would give them.
By saying she does not think men made into women surgically look, talk or act like women, she is giving her opinion. She herself says she is not prohibiting people from undergoing the operations, just saying what she thinks.
But some people are taking her very seriously and getting all hot and bothered about it.
Germaine Greer first stormed into our collective consciousness in 1970 via her book The Female Eunuch, by which vehicle she made herself the world's number one feminist, or at least certainly the most recognised. She is also one of the world's leading intellectuals, female or otherwise.
Her opinion on transgender people was formed long ago, and give her full marks for consistency, she said something similar in 1989 when she became a fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. The college is female only, and she (unsuccessfully) opposed the election to a fellowship of her colleague Rachael Padman, a transsexual. She argued that Padman had been born male, and therefore should not be admitted.
Now, still voicing the same opinion but nonetheless still extremely intelligent with huge doses of wit and humour added, the 76-year-old is the target of online abuse.
A cyberspace petition has been launched in an effort to prevent Ms Greer from giving a lecture at Cardiff University, claiming her views are "problematic" for transgender people.
The petition was started by Rachael Melhuish, women's officer at the university's students' union, and alleges that Ms Greer has "demonstrated misogynistic views towards trans women, including continually misgendering trans women and denying the existence of transphobia altogether".
Strangely enough, Germaine Greer's subject for her Cardiff lecture has nothing to do with men becoming women - Caitlin Jenner doesn't get a mention - but that hasn't stopped those who think she is not entitled to an opinion, especially if it clashes with theirs. If you disagree with her, then disagree with her, but why make it a global hate movement? How many people are frothing at the mouth with outrage just because it's Germaine Greer? And most of these contrary opinions, voiced with venom and loathing, are coming from the sewer of social media, that pit she calls a "vomitorium". It seems she's right; the name suits. Now, it seems, transphobia (now there's a new expression) is also illegal, although Germaine Greer's transphobia (if you can call it that) is limited to an opinion. As far as we know, she's not forming an army, a lobby group or a political party to forward her views.
???
Thirty-eight years ago I was one of a quartet of travellers driving around Europe in one of Volkswagen's finest creations - the Kombi. How many antipodean memory seekers slept, ate and crossed countries in that most useful of vehicles? Kitted with a rear-mounted, air-cooled and reliable engine, the Kombi could cross mountains with ease while expensive water-cooled cars laboured under a cloud of steam and red-lining temperature gauges. The Kombi, with its VW logo leading the way, was the travellers' dream, and maintained a good resale value after the trip; just park it near New Zealand House and take the best offer.
But now, the hallowed Teutonic name, the "people's car", has been sullied by scandal. A little piece of software, apparently undetected for some time, was implanted in diesel Volkswagen models to fool emissions tests done by regulators. Whoever did this, and whoever authorised it or knew about it, was breaking the law. Not some petty regulation of no consequence, but something that would have a huge effect on sales and the reputation of the company's vehicles. Now that reputation is in tatters and it calls into question the ethics of the board and puts a question mark over every vehicle currently being produced by the German marque. In an effort to boost sales, they have done irreparable damage to the old firm. The question now is, of course, can it survive?
Volkswagen has been around since 1937, building a solid reputation for low cost and reliability over the decades, until recently when it started masquerading as a more expensive way to get around. Not quite what Hitler had in mind when he made the company a subsidised popularity machine, but then, he stopped getting his way some 70 years ago anyway.
This scandal will set VW back a long way and they're going to have to do a lot of grovelling to their customers. How they can make amends after such a foolish and greedy act will be the work of highly paid spin doctors and expendable scapegoats. Good luck with that.