The latest twist in patriarchal privilege

How strange that Matilda Simon, once Matthew Simon, who inherited the title Baron Simon of wythenshawe on the death of her, then his, father, should be planning to enter the next by-election for hereditary peers in the Lords. despite her transition, the Lord Chancellor has approved her claim to the peerage. This is crazy. Peers only inherit a title if they are a man. It’s called male primogeniture (and yes it’s incredibly sexist and unfair). But why, if Matilda, pictured, truly believes herself to be a woman, does she think it’s OK to assume the privilege of a man, while, no doubt, expecting the right to enter female spaces as a woman? Time, surely, for male primogeniture to be abolished. And if that were the case, the peerage would go to Matilda’s sister, Margaret, who is older.