LAST Friday (Nocember 22) you published a full-page advert from Anent Transphobia. It was headed “Anti LGBT bigotry haes nae place in wur Scots Pairlament”.

This is a sentiment that both Joan McAlpine MSP and Jenny Marra MSP would support. I remember Ms McAlpine’s support for gay rights campaigns in the early 1980s when such campaigns had little support outside the ranks of the LGB community. MsMarra was known for her human rights activism well before she became an MSP.

So – why are these two women subject to such an attack? These two MSPs sought to organise a meeting to discuss women’s sex-based rights and the need to ensure that women continue to have access to safe spaces, women-only services, fair competition in sports and to be allowed to speak out on matters which concern them.

The advert refers to a meeting was billed to take place on the “International Day of Transgender Remembrance” – a date known only to a small group of trans activists. Probably because, thankfully, murder of transgender people in Scotland is unknown (there are no recorded cases of this ever happening here) – and in the UK extremely rare (there has been one recorded murder case in the last two years). One woman is murdered every 2.5 days by a man in the UK.

The meeting was postponed. Despite this, Ms Marra and Ms McAlpine stand accused of “emotionally abusive gaslichtin” and drumming up “antipathy towards trans people”. There is no evidence of this from either party. It is a feature of the trans activist lobby that anyone, particularly women who disagree with it are labelled “transphobic”. Universities have caved under pressure from this well-organised and state-funded lobby to no-platform women. Instead of engaging in the debate and contributing to an exchange of ideas, the transactivist lobby is using ifinancial and institutional muscle to silence their feminist opponents.

We look to the free press to defend freedom of speech, not to be the tools used to hammer those wishing to exercise their right to free speech into submission.

Margaret Lynch, Coatbridge.

Lights out

YOU Report today (Issue of the Day: November 23) that the Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year is “climate emergency”. A few pages earlier, you also report that the Royal Botanic Gardens is to be decorated with a million Christmas lights ("Lights, candles, lamps ... it’s beginning to look like Christmas", The Herald, November 23). It is but one of many examples. Should we be doing this during a climate emergency?

Kenneth Fraser, St Andrews.

Any new proverbs?

WHEN did we last have an original proverb and who can claim the credit? We seem to be so absorbed with drawing lines, learning lessons and moving on that we completely ignore the empty vessels making most noise. Your article headed “£3bn Scots windfall as Johnson launches manifesto” (The Herald, November 25) prompted an internal warning: "Never believe a fat jogger."

Duncan Graham, Stirling.

Boxing clever?

I NOTE that Deontay Wilder is looking forward to fighting Tyson Fury (Back Line, Boxing, Herald Sport, November 25). Thankfully they will not be heading a ball but only trying to give each other concussion.

B McKenna, Dumbarton.

Oh yes it is …

SURELY a glaring omission from your selection of Scotland’s 15 daftest pantos as listed in The Herald Magazine (November 23) is the daftest pantomime of all which runs for much of the year at Holyrood?

Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.