All posts tagged: Blockers

Politics Home | Labour MPs Opposed To Puberty Blockers Trial Push To Stop It Altogether

Politics Home | Labour MPs Opposed To Puberty Blockers Trial Push To Stop It Altogether

Published by Sam Flores

Demonstrators, campaigners and parliamentarians gather outside the Department of Health and Social Care to protest against the planned clinical trial to assess the risks and benefits of puberty blockers in gender questioning children (Alamy) 4 min read43 min Labour MPs who oppose the puberty blockers trial are becoming increasingly confident that they can persuade the government to halt it altogether after it was temporarily paused due to concerns raised by the healthcare regulator. Last week, the Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) wrote to King’s College London, the trial’s sponsor, urging the university to suspend the trial due to concerns over the participants’ well-being. The government agreed to pause the Pathways trial while clinicians scrutinise further evidence. The study looks at the possible prescription of puberty blockers among young people with gender incongruence. It was set to enrol 226 children aged between 11 and 15. However, the MHRA said it wanted to introduce a minimum age of 14 for participants, and expressed concern about potential long-term harms. “This trial will only be allowed to go ahead if the expert scientific and clinical evidence …

Trial into puberty blockers for children paused over ‘wellbeing concerns’ | UK News

Trial into puberty blockers for children paused over ‘wellbeing concerns’ | UK News

Published by skeptic

A clinical trial into puberty blockers has been paused after the medicines regulator raised “new concerns directly related to the wellbeing of children”, the government said. It comes after campaigners, including Harry Potter author JK Rowling, launched legal action against the government over the trial, which Ms Rowling described as “an unethical experiment on children who can’t give meaningful consent”. Announcing the pause, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has raised “new concerns – directly related to the wellbeing of children and young people – and scientific dialogue will now follow with the trial sponsor”. “As the evidence is now being interrogated by clinicians, preparations for the trial have been paused while the MHRA and clinical leaders work through these concerns,” the spokesperson said. Researchers at King’s College London, who were set to lead the Pathways trial, previously said they were aiming to recruit around 226 young people aged between 10 and almost 16. Recruitment to the study will be postponed until …

Battle of the wind farms: Can the ‘blockers’ beat the government? | Science, Climate & Tech News

Battle of the wind farms: Can the ‘blockers’ beat the government? | Science, Climate & Tech News

Published by skeptic

“An ineffective form of renewable energy… carpet-bombing the countryside… irreversible damage.” These are the noisy, angry and organised campaigners against onshore wind in Wales. Dozens of new projects are set to sweep across the rolling hills of Cymru as the government races to hit its clean power targets. It says it is willing to take on the “blockers” to build hundreds of these soaring steel giants, aiming to make energy cheaper, cleaner and more secure. But in Wales, these “blockers” see themselves as environmentalists too: nature lovers who fear the plans will mar their countryside and culture forever. They are convinced there are better ways for Wales to go green. Image: The Pen y Cymoedd wind farm in South Wales, which has 76 turbines So who is really saving Wales? “No more pylons” chant a few hundred protesters outside the Welsh parliament on a cold – not to mention windy – February lunchtime. Many at the protest distance themselves from Reform UK politicians, who have vocally opposed onshore wind because they question the extent to …

The House Article | Labour MPs Are Competing For Wes Streeting’s Ear On Puberty Blockers

The House Article | Labour MPs Are Competing For Wes Streeting’s Ear On Puberty Blockers

Published by Sam Flores

Demonstrators outside the Department of Health and Social Care protest against the planned clinical trial to assess the risks and benefits of puberty blockers in gender questioning children, London, December 2025 (Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Live News) 13 min read25 min Amid the persistent will-he-won’t-he speculation over Wes Streeting’s leadership ambitions, Tom Scotson and Sienna Rodgers talk to the Labour MPs applying pressure on the Health Secretary over the divisive puberty blockers trial When Wes Streeting banned the sale and supply of puberty blockers for gender-questioning under-18s indefinitely in the first months of the Labour government, a significant cohort of his colleagues were not happy. Furious messages were exchanged in the LGBT+ Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) WhatsApp group, as MPs who consider themselves trans allies hoped their new Health Secretary – who is gay and a former Stonewall campaigner – would be on their side. To justify his position, Streeting simply pointed to the landmark Cass review into gender identity services: Hilary, now Baroness, Cass had raised safety concerns around the lack of …