SUNDAY'S Andrew Marr interview with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was a masterclass in yet another abject betrayal of women and a further capitulation to the trans militants whose influence, it would seem, knows no bounds ("Starmer claims it is ‘not right’ to say only women have a cervix in trans row", The Herald, September 27).

The week before on the Andrew Marr Show, LibDem leader Ed Davey was similarly unable to formulate any words of support for women’s rights, their biology and function. And, of course, we have Nicola Sturgeon breathtakingly stating that women’s concerns about the boundless advance of trans rights are “not valid”. A shocking sell-out.

Adding fuel to the bonfire of the sanities we have the world’s leading medical journal, The Lancet, describing women as “bodies with vaginas” on the cover of its latest issue. It is it really any wonder that in the year between one international women’s day and the next, 118 women died at the hands of men when the world’s leading medical journal debases women in this manner?

This reducing of women to their body parts is fuelling the cancellation of women by the militant trans lobby and is also fuelling the misogynistic predators in society whose hatred of women leads them to rape and kill.

• The number of women killed by a partner or ex has risen by almost a third in just one year, according to the ONS; between 2018 and March 2019 there was a 27% increase. Eighty women were killed by their partners between March 2018 and March 2019.

• Almost one in three women experience domestic abuse in their lifetimes.

• In the year ending March 2019, 1.6 million women experienced domestic abuse.

• In the year ending March 2018, nine times more women than men were killed by their partner or ex-partner.

Where are the headlines debasing male biology? Why is it always women who are being rebranded to placate a supremely well-organised and well-funded minority who represent less than one per cent?

The death of Sabina Nessa is the latest shocking event in what the London Mayor has described as an “epidemic” of violence against women. The report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary this month argues that violence against women should be taken as seriously by police as counter-terrorism.

Women are the ones who are dying as a result of violence both random and domestic in Britain. We are the 51 per cent and we are the ones disproportionately being killed, beaten and maimed by men. Not a single trans person has been murdered this year, yet they lay claim to the greater victimhood.

I hope that the 51 per cent of the population with a cervix remember the betrayal of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats and indeed our very own Scottish National Party at any and all elections in the not too distant future.

Eileen McAuley, Glasgow.

RUSH TO TRANS ACTIVISM MISGUIDED

BRIAN Dempsey (Letters, September 28) comments on the resistance to teacher involvement in trans issues.

It is usually the case that your "true sex" (sexual attraction and feelings) is revealed when you go through the full experience of puberty and maturity, particularly after the late teen period of confusion and impulsivity and into the full development of adulthood.

Given that apart from remaining areas of prejudice, different forms of sexuality are now fully accepted and legalised, and where relationships are fully achievable and can be confirmed in marriage and civil partnerships, each person can accept and fulfil what they have naturally become. There are also several social and personal ways of them achieving a full family life with children.

Any issues of genuine childhood gender identity disorder (somewhat rare in males, and even rarer in females) have known causes and resolutions. Issues of gender choice or trans options should certainly not be introduced or raised with young children in a school environment, let alone without reference to their parents. Teachers, totally uninformed and untrained in this area, should never, for their own protection and that of the children, be involved in any way, shape or form.

There are known and recognised factors of the true nature of the exponentially increasing issue of problems and social pressures on pre-pubescent, pubescent and adolescent children, particularly girls. There are effective approaches and actions for resolving these. The heavy emphasis on, and rush to, trans activism is totally misguided and inappropriate.

Norman Dryden, Edinburgh.

WE HAVE A LOT TO BE THANKFUL FOR

MARK Smith’s touching account of coming across an 1864 gravestone ("The life and death of little Matthew and why all of us should care", The Herald, September 23), reminds me of a walk round an old west coast cemetery when on holiday many years ago and a late 19th century stone headed with a couple’s names and “their seven children all of whom died in infancy”.

Also poignant was the number of gravestones of young women, most of whom would have died in childbirth.

Pause for thought. The NHS has its problems but we’ve a lot to be thankful for.

R Russell Smith, Largs.

TESTAMENT TO CLYDESIDE SKILLS

I ADMIRED the photograph of HMS Lancaster and the aurora borealis which featured in your Picture of the Day slot (The Herald, September 28). It is a pity that we were not reminded that the Portsmouth-based frigate was built in Scotstoun on the Clyde by Yarrow Shipbuilders. She was launched in 1990 by the Queen.

Many of those who worked on the ship when under construction in the yard will be proud to read of her 3,000-mile round trip into the Arctic Circle. This is a fine testimony of the skills and expertise of the Clydeside shipbuilding workforce.

Ernie Horan, Alexandria.