- Tophop is for some bizarre reason introducing gender neutral changing rooms

FREE now and never miss the top politics stories again. SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow and never miss the top politics stories again. We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Why should national shopping chains and the great majority of customers have to lose the security of gender specific changing rooms to suit the complaints of a handful of protestors? Government research estimates there are some 650,000 people in the UK who are "gender incongruent to some degree", that is, a mere one per cent of the population. Why should 99 per cent of us be altering our habits to suit a very small proportion of the UK? And to be honest, it is only a small number of these transgender people who are very quick to tweet their disapproval that puts pressure on companies to change their policies. Why are so many people running scared of this tiny, self-important group? As always, it is the liberal media and politicians desperate for some acclaim that jump on these minority bandwagons. Earlier this year, the Commons Women and Equalities Committee gave credence to the transgender agenda by making some very controversial recommendations.

Don Arnold/WireImage Germaine Greer was pilloried when she suggested that men cannot become women

They suggested lowering the age of consent from 18 to 16 for young people to officially be recognised as transgender. Teenage years are challenging enough sexually without the state sanctioning this confusion at a time when's one sense of self can change on a monthly basis. The Government said there should be an option to put your gender as “X” in your passport, rather than registering as male or female. Most importantly, they said that official recognition of gender should be based on self-declaration not medical assessment. This is possibly the most ridiculous option ever conceived by a government and flies in the face of 500 years of Western science and facts-based culture. Coming back to the Topshop decision, it means some big hairy bloke can stumble into a cubicle while a female is changing and excuse himself by saying, "It's all right darling, I'm a woman!" Let's make this very clear, just because you say you are something doesn't mean you are. I could self-identify as a Chinese teenager, but it doesn't mean I am – or perhaps now it does?

Just because a man undergoes surgery to make himself look like a woman doesn't mean that he has magically been transformed into a female

Many feminists have been quite rightly critical of the transgender lobby and have been viciously criticised – sometimes physically attacked – for voicing the common sense that just because a man undergoes surgery to make himself look more like a woman doesn't mean that he has magically been transformed into a female. Biologically he is still a man but with a feminine appearance. That is a scientific fact and no amount of wishful thinking and media-savvy lobbying can or should change that. If so, I might as well declare that magic exists and pixies are dancing around at the bottom of my garden simply because I say they are. Transgender issues are a fashion now and if anyone doubts that it should be noted that in 2009 the Gender Identity Research and Education Society reported just 56,000 people might be transsexual. A more than 10-fold increase in eight years is more to do with Caitlyn Jenner's TV transformation and the liberal media desperate for the next minority cause to espouse. The number of people seeking transgender treatment has soared over the past year as a result of greater publicity and that adds an enormous additional burden to an already over-stretched NHS. At Charing Cross in London, the oldest transsexual clinic in the country, referrals have quadrupled over 10 years from 498 to 1,892. All that has to be paid for by you, the taxpayer.

Alisa Molotova/Getty An over 10-fold increase in eight years is more to do with Caitlyn Jenner's TV transformation