AS was demonstrated by their attempts to block Brexit, and more recently by their advocacy of authoritarian lockdowns, LibDem MPs frequently forget they are, by definition, supposed to be liberals and democrats.
There are, therefore, many more grounds on which to criticise Layla Moran than for misspellings and solecisms in her tweets. However, some recent bloopers by her led to an inadvertent reminder of one such reason.
In a message posted last weekend, Layla lightheartedly corrected some earlier linguistic lapses and cheerily conceded that this was why, in her former life, she had taught science and not English.
More embarrassingly for a physics graduate who doubled as a maths teacher, when correcting the arithmetic of The Oxford Mail Moran also gave the wrong answer (it is 12.7 per cent).
Levity aside, readers previously unaware of her background might be surprised to learn that she purports to be a scientist.
After all, one would imagine that someone who studied STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and was trained to deal in objective facts would have had no difficulty answering the straightforward question put to her last July by the BBC’s Nick Robinson: ‘What is a woman?’
In today’s LibDems, however, ‘adult female’ is no longer the short and uncomplicated answer. Instead, Layla lapsed into convoluted codswallop: ‘Well … a woman is a gender. It’s a way to self-identify. And there are lots of genders.
‘There is male and that is biological. There is female, which is also biological. A woman is a gender identity which is more akin to being a man. Those are the opposites. And then there is also non-binary, which is people who don’t identify with either.’
Got that? Being a woman is simply a way to self-identify, just one possible choice amongst an array of gender options available to everyone.
For the LibDems, self-identification has become an article of faith. Indeed, anyone who objects to self-definition and opposes intrusion into women-only spaces is now told: ‘Your values are not aligned with ours, so we are probably not the right the party for you.’
Layla Moran is on record: ‘I dare say that some women have beards … I do not really care whether they have a male body.’ And naturally, she constantly recites the modish mantra: ‘Trans women are women. Trans men are men. End of.’
Despite losing to Mister Ed in last year’s leadership contest, Moran has remained her potty party’s unmistakable mouthpiece. But by recently recalling her background as a teacher, loopy Layla unwisely reminded us that she is a ‘scientist’ who spouts biological bilge.
