RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: We live in a parallel universe the place a devoted nurse may be harshly punished for ‘misgendering’ a violent, racist paedophile

Whatever happened to the ‘England of Fair Play’? That was the line which leapt out at me from The Mail on Sunday’s report about a nurse disciplined for ‘misgendering’ a convicted paedophile.

Mother-of-three Jennifer Melle has been hauled over the coals by the NHS because she referred to the burly 6ft criminal – who was brought into her hospital from a men’s prison shackled to two guards – by the wrong pronouns.

Patient X, as we must call this individual ‘for legal reasons’, tried to attack her physically and in a fit of rage racially abused her. Three times the N-word was screamed at Ms Melle, who came to Britain from Uganda as a schoolgirl.

Yet she’s the one in deep trouble after referring to Patient X – who was born male but now identifies as a woman – as ‘mister’ and ‘he’ during a phone call with a doctor. As a result, she was disciplined and labelled a potential risk to the public by the NHS Trust which runs St Helier Hospital in Carshalton, Surrey.

Ms Melle subsequently received a letter from the Nursing and Midwifery Council saying it was investigating concerns about her fitness to practise because she ‘referred to a patient in a manner inconsistent with their gender identity’. She now fears losing her job.

I defy anyone to read Ian Gallagher’s brilliant report in the MoS without being overwhelmed by a growing sense of anger and despair. Patient X is a violent, abusive, convicted paedophile, who posed as a teenage girl online to incite under-age boys to perform sex acts. 

At the hospital, while complaining about a urinary infection, this aggressive individual behaved abominably towards Ms Malle, a popular, dedicated nurse with an unblemished 12-year record of service.

Judge for yourself who is the greater ‘risk to the public’ here. Given the current obsession with race, you might have expected the NHS to be outraged over Patient X’s disgusting N-word slur against a loyal employee of African heritage. But no. Quite the opposite. Misgendering clearly trumps racial abuse in the hierarchy of ‘hate speech’. And while Patient X’s identity is protected for inexplicable legal reasons, there’s no such sanction on the NHS naming and shaming Ms Melle.

Jennifer Melle, a senior nurse at Epsom St Helier University Hospital Trust, who faces disciplinary proceedings for referring to a transgender patient (a convicted paedophile) as ‘Mr’

 She said: ‘I was put at risk, but I am being treated like a criminal. Sadly, if you put your head above the parapet and speak truthfully on these issues in the NHS, the risk is that you will be knocked down, punished severely and demoted.

‘The message to me was that I should put up with extreme racism and deny biological reality and my deeply held Christian beliefs for the sake of inclusivity.’

Ms Melle said her father taught her about the ‘England of Fair Play’. We used to pride ourselves on our noble tradition of free speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion. How many times over the years did you hear the expression: ‘It’s a free country, innit?’

Not any more, it isn’t. Ms Melle is simply the latest victim of the totalitarian woke witch-hunt from which there is apparently no escape. Her Christian beliefs no longer count for anything. In fact, they count against her. While every other religion, particularly Islam, is treated with great reverence, devout Christianity is disdained.

The Norwich diocese of the Church of England recently advised against traditional hymns and prayers, which could be considered ‘Eurocentric’. A primary school in Hampshire has just scrapped Easter celebrations in order to ‘respect diverse religious beliefs’. But not Christianity.

This kind of Far-Left lunacy used to be confined to the more insane inner London boroughs. Now it’s everywhere in our Through The Looking Glass World, where words mean whatever the arbiters of what is acceptable choose them to mean.

Lives and careers are being ruined, as both public and private-sector organisations clamber on board the DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) bandwagon. Daily we read of people losing their jobs for falling foul of the latest fashionable ideology. I could fill this column week in, week out with examples.

In one of the latest cases, a scientist was forced out of his job at the Porton Down defence establishment because of his ‘gender critical’ beliefs. His bosses claimed that his belief in biological sex made him a security risk.

Peter Wilkins – another devout Christian – said: ‘It’s a scientific organisation, so it shouldn’t be unacceptable to use the phrase biological sex.’ How do you design effective body armour if you don’t acknowledge the physical differences between men and women? But right-think takes precedence over reality.

Here’s how deep the woke mind virus has burrowed into every sector. The British Antarctic Survey, which oversees research stations at the South Pole, claimed that believing ‘the most qualified person should get the job’ can be a form of ‘racial harassment’. Meritocracy is a ‘microaggression’.

Nurse!

What has any of this got to do with an organisation which exists to count penguins and measure ice floes? They’ll be telling us next that polar bears are hideously white.

Only yesterday, we learned that a sewage worker had reportedly been sacked by Severn Trent Water for calling Hamas ‘disgusting terrorists’ on an internal staff site. Managers considered his words ‘derogatory’.

Yet again the feelings of terrorists and their supporters are elevated above sincerely held opinions – and indeed the truth. So much for free speech.

I could go on, but there’s not space here to list every victim of the woke witch-hunt. Suffice to say, it’s all in keeping with the relentless assault on British liberties, designed to control what we say, what we believe, where we go and what we do.

As I wrote in another context last week, the social contract has been turned on its head. The far-Left have seized control of the institutions, including the law. Courts frequently put the ‘rights’ of criminals, terrorists and illegal immigrants above those of decent, law-abiding British citizens.

From two-tier justice, pro-Hamas marches and the ludicrous Motability scheme, to the billions spent billeting migrants in Lenny Henry hotels, nine million benefit claimants (many with bogus Mental Elf ishoos), police withdrawing from and taking the knee to BLM protesters, you name it, the country is going to hell in a handcart.

We are now living in what, a few years ago, would have been considered a parallel universe. One in which a dedicated nurse can be punished for ‘misgendering’ a violent, racist, convicted paedophile.

Whatever happened to the England of Fair Play? Gone with the wind. Or, rather, away with the fairies.

As The Kinks lamented 40 years ago: There’s no England now.

Rachel Reeves should order all WFH employees back to the office and make them play musical chairs to the tune of Things Can Only Get Better.

Rachel From Complaints says she wants to see a 15 per cent reduction in the size of the civil service, which has swelled from 456,000 to 540,000 in the past five years.

I’ll believe that when it actually happens. It has also been revealed that a return to pre-Covid working is being hampered by a lack of desks. Ten Whitehall departments only have room for 53 per cent of staff.

If Rachel is sincere about cutting headcount, she should order all WFH employees back to the office and make them take part in a game of musical chairs – to the tune of Things Can Only Get Better.

When the music stops, all those without a desk get sacked. Problem solved.